Operation Condor (also known as Operation D) was a secret operation of the French

Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés The Groupement de commandos mixtes aéroportés ( en, Mixed Airborne Commando Group) commonly referred as just GCMA, was the "Action Service" of the SDECE French counter-intelligence service active during the Cold War. The GCMA's origins lay in ...

against the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...

supply column. It happened during the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

's climactic

Battle of Dien Bien Phu The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (french: Bataille de Diên Biên Phu ; vi, Chiến dịch Điện Biên Phủ, ) was a climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War that took place between 13 March and 7 May 1954. It was fought between the Fr ...

from April, 28th to May, 10th 1954.

Mission objectives

Operation Condor was an attempt to weaken the

artillery's assaults against the besieged

French Union The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the " French Empire" (). It was the formal end of the "indigenous" () status of French subje ...

garrison of Dien Bien Phu. On April 22 1954, General Cogny insisted with his superior General Navarre to take a decision about Condor. General Navarre approved the mission on April 27 and it was launched on April 30.
Dien Bien Phu - Le Rapport Secret
', Patrick Jeudy, TF1 Video, 2005

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in su ...

veteran Captain

Jean Sassi Jean Sassi (11 June 1917 – 9 January 2009) was a French Army colonel and intelligence service officer, former " ''Jedburgh''" ( BCRA) of France and Far East. Commando chief of the SDECE's 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment (''11e régiment par ...

led the GCMA Malo - Servan commando unit consisting of Mèo partisans through the jungle, they dropped then walked all day to join Dien Bien Phu. Sassi's objective was "to allow a kind of breakthrough with the help of the French Union troops based at Éliane hill in order to surround the coolies supplying the Viet Minh combatants" and "to suddenly attack these weak enemies with the benefit of surprise". Achieved, this operation would have brought a great confusion among the enemy line. Like their fellow

North Vietnam Commando North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

s, GCMA French paratroopers were dressed with the

regular black outfit "Cu Nao" to confuse the enemy and lightly equipped with submachine guns and rifles which are suitable weapons to perform

hit-and-run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...

ambushes against out of guard logistical convoys. Hmong partisans were dressed with their traditional black costume with a red silk belt and most of them were barefoot.

Failure

The

Sam Neua Xam Neua (ຊຳເໜືອ , sometimes transcribed as ''Sam Neua'' or ''Samneua'', literally 'northern swamp'), is the capital of Houaphanh Province, Laos, in northeast Laos. Demographics Residents are mostly Lao, Vietnamese, and Hmong, with s ...

team, which was in advance, as it was closer to Dien Bien Phu, joined Sassi's GCMA and taped it into the outpost. According to Sassi, the heading commandos were only a few dozens of kilometers from Éliane. Éliane fell on May, 1st. Eventually, Dien Bien Phu surrendered on May 7, 1954, though Sassi's emergency column found rare Dien Bien Phu survivors who had escaped through the jungle, approximatively 150.Archive video from the Operation
After the war, the

military jury A United States military "jury" (or "members", in military parlance) serves a function similar to an American civilian jury, but with several notable differences. Only a general court-martial (which may impose any sentences, from dishonorable disch ...

charged General Cogny—who ordered the Dien Bien Phu garrison to surrender from his base in Hanoi—for the operation's failure as the "emergency column" GCMA was parachuted too late.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

*
Service Spéciaux - GCMA Indochine 1950/54
', Commandant Raymond Muelle & Eric Deroo, Crépin-Leblond editions, 1992,

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Condor, Operation (1954) 1954 in French Indochina 1954 in Laos 1954 in Vietnam Battles and operations of the First Indochina War French intelligence operations History of Điện Biên Province Military operations involving France Military operations involving Vietnam