Battle of Muong Khoua
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The Battle of Muong Khoua took place between April 13 and May 18, 1953, in northern
Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
during the First Upper Laos Campaign in the
French 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 ...
. A garrison of a dozen French and 300 Laotian troops occupied a fortified outpost in the hills above the village of Muong Khoua, across the border from
Điện Biên Phủ Điện Biên Phủ (, meaning: ''Established Frontier Prefecture''), is a city in the northwestern region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Điện Biên Province. The city is best known for the decisive Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, which occ ...
. Muong Khoua was among the last French outposts in northern Laos following the decision of the French High Command to string several isolated garrisons through the region in order to buy time to fortify the major Laotian cities against
Việt 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 Front ...
attack. Many of these garrisons were given orders by radio to dig in and fight the approaching Việt Minh forces. Following the fall of a satellite strong point at Sop-Nao, the troops at Muong Khoua under Captain Teullier resisted a Việt Minh siege force for thirty-six days while supported by air-dropped supplies and
air strikes An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...
. The small French force repelled several direct attacks and endured a series of artillery bombardments. Two of the three strong points of the outpost eventually fell in the early morning of May 18, and by midday the French force lay defeated. Four soldiers—two French and two Laotian—reached another French position away after six days of travel through the jungle, however, no one else escaped. The resistance of the French garrison became a popular rallying cry for French troops in
Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
as well serving as a precursor to French and Việt Minh strategies at the decisive
Battle of Điện Biên Phủ 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 ...
the following year.Fall 1994, pp. 116–130.


Prelude


Việt Minh in Laos

In early 1953, the Việt Minh under
Võ Nguyên Giáp Võ Nguyên Giáp (; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general and communist politician who is regarded as having been one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century. He served as interior minister in President H ...
commenced an invasion of
Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
to exert additional pressure on Paris and on the French forces stationed in Indochina. In the area of Muong Khoua were the Việt Minh 308th,
312th 31 may refer to: * 31 (number) Years * 31 BC * AD 31 * 1931 CE ('31) * 2031 CE ('31) Music * Thirty One (Jana Kramer album), ''Thirty One'' (Jana Kramer album), 2015 * Thirty One (Jarryd James album), ''Thirty One'' (Jarryd James album), 2015 ...
and 316th divisions, whose long supply lines were maintained by a veritable army of 200,000 porters. The French command—headed then by
Raoul Salan Raoul Albin Louis Salan (; 10 June 1899 – 3 July 1984) was a French Army general. He served as the fourth French commanding general during the First Indochina War. He was one of four retired generals who organized the 1961 Algiers Putsch op ...
—ordered the establishment of a series of French outposts in northern Laos to resist the Việt Minh invading forces for as long as possible to buy time for the fortification of
Luang Prabang Luang Phabang, ( Lao: ຫລວງພະບາງ/ ຫຼວງພະບາງ) or ''Louangphabang'' (pronounced ), commonly transliterated into Western languages from the pre-1975 Lao spelling ຫຼວງພຣະບາງ (ຣ = silent r) ...
and
Vientiane Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...
, the capital cities of Laos. The
King of Laos The Lao People's Democratic Republic is the modern state derived from the final Kingdom of Laos. The political source of Lao history and cultural identity is the Tai kingdom of Lan Xang, which during its apogee emerged as one of the largest kin ...
,
Sisavang Vong King Sisavangvong ( lo, ພຣະບາທສົມເດັຈພຣະເຈົ້າມະຫາຊີວິຕສີສວ່າງວົງສ໌, 14 July 1885 – 29 October 1959) Born Prince Khao , was one of the last kings of Luang Praban ...
, remained in Luang Prabang, which added greater impetus to French efforts. The terrain of northern Laos, and the local climate, isolated many of the outposts with a night-time
fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...
known as ''crachin'', thick jungle, a lack of roads, and steep terrain. Each outpost was given a certain number of days to withstand Việt Minh forces, including Muong Khoua which was issued orders on April 13 to hold for fourteen days—until April 27. Muong Khoua, together with its satellite outpost Sop-Nao, was under the command of Captain Teullier, with the satellite outpost being overseen by Lieutenant Grézy. Muong Khoua was situated at the confluence of the rivers Nam Pak and Nam Hou, from Điện Biên Phủ, and approximately to the south-west of the Black River in
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. The outpost itself consisted of three separate strongholds, referred to as the Mousetrap, Pi and Alpha, situated on three hills to the west, south-south-east, and south-south-west of the confluence of the Nam Hou and Nam Pak. Each was roughly from the other, forming a triangle. The village of Muong Khoua itself lay at the western foot of the Mousetrap, protected from the river by a large sandbank, and straddling the road to Phong Saly, another French outpost to the north.


Sop-Nao

Sop-Nao lay to the east of Muong Khoua, along the path of the Việt Minh advance, roughly south-west of Điện Biên Phủ and only a few miles from the Vietnam-Laos border, south of the
T'ai Tai peoples are the populations who speak (or formerly spoke) the Tai languages. There are a total of about 93 million people of Tai ancestry worldwide, with the largest ethnic groups being Dai people, Dai, Thai people, Thais, Isan people, Isan ...
Highlands. Grézy, in command of the Sop-Nao garrison, led a reinforced platoon. On the evening of April 3, a Việt Minh battalion entered Laos near Điện Biên Phủ and Nà Sản and reached Sap-Nao. Finding themselves surrounded by the Việt Minh, the French at Sop-Nao stood for six days while in radio contact with Teullier at the main strong point. The survivors, following authorisation from the French captain, retreated during the night of April 9/10 along a round-about route following the assumption by Grézy that the Việt Minh had laid ambushes along the most direct path. The French hacked a new path through the jungle until they reached Laotian tribesmen on April 11, who warned them of Việt Minh units following them. The French attempted to turn for Phong-Saly to the north and met an allied convoy travelling down the Nam Hou in
canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...
s. The two forces combined and sailed down the river towards Muong Khoua. On April 12, the convoy ran into a Việt Minh ambush from the Muong Khoua strong point. Using a barrier of floating tree trunks, the Việt Minh attacked the convoy with machine guns and mortars, destroying the first canoe. The remaining French and Laotian troops returned fire and, with the assistance of forces from Muong Khoua who had heard the firing, routed the Việt Minh troops, who left behind 13 dead and four wounded. The French themselves suffered seven missing, one dead, and one wounded. The remainder joined the French at Muong Khoua, with the canoes and the convoy's equipment incorporated into the defence. Meanwhile, the Việt Minh's 910th Battalion of the 148th Regional Regiment of the 312th DivisionDavidson 1991, pp. 150–156. and a heavy mortar company from the 316th Division drew near.


Battle


Siege

While the French troops from Sop-Nao were making their way via canoe to the mother strong point, Teullier and his forces were feeling what one chronicler referred to as ''l'asphyxie par le vide'' ("choking-off by creating a void"), the result of a Việt Minh presence in the area. The local villagers no longer spoke to the French, when they had previously been communicative, and the population began leaving; both the farms and the markets were deserted. The French viewed this as an indicator of an imminent enemy attack. Furthermore, the thick jungle and steep slopes isolated the French strong points from all but river and airborne supply. The Việt Minh, on the other hand, were adequately supplied by over 200,000 porters, or
coolie A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...
s. Referred to officially as a "relatively small" force, the 300 ''Chasseurs Laotiens'' and "handful" of French
NCOs A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...
and two officers were equipped with three 81-mm and two 60-mm mortars and two machine guns. They were ordered on April 13 to hold for fourteen days by Colonel Boucher de Crévecoeur, who promised air support. At 23:00 hours that evening, April 13, mortar shells began landing on the slopes of position Alpha. These bombardments would take place every night, and the Việt Minh launched their first direct assault, which failed and left Việt Minh 22 dead. This defeat prompted a reversion to previous tactics of slowly "gnawing away" at the French outpost, and Giap ordered the 312th to leave some forces behind to continue a siege while the remainder of the division moved on. Meanwhile, overhead, French B-26s bombed Việt Minh positions, and cargo planes dropped supplies, ''Luciole'' (firefly) flares, and ammunition on the French positions.Fall 1994, pp. 122–127. This "air bridge" enabled the garrison to survive, and fourteen days later on April 27 it was still intact; the French High Command dropped a
Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
for Teullier and several
Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...
s for his men. Teullier and a small group left the Mousetrap to deliver the relevant decorations to Pi and Alpha, although movement between the positions was extremely difficult. What was possible, however, was a small patrol through the village of Muong Khoua, which had been by now deserted. These French patrols served as an early warning system and an ambush for Việt Minh assaults during the ''crachin''-dominated night. This pattern continued into May. Meanwhile, other French forces had liberated Xieng Khouang and reached a position from Muong Khoua. On May 17, the French patrol deployed to the Muong Khoua village overheard barking dogs—one of which yelped—alerting the French to an impending Việt Minh attack. By 23:00, the Việt Minh were visible in the fog, and the patrol returned to the Mousetrap. Teullier issued an alert via radio. A bombardment from
Soviet Russian The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
120-mm mortars, 57-mm
recoilless rifle A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...
s, and
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
grenades began at 00:30 on May 18. Teullier instructed his radio operator, Sergeant René Novak, to request air-dropped flares and air support, while mortar fire landed on Alpha and the Mousetrap, but not Pi, where Grézy was in command. Pi continued to support the other two areas of the outpost with its own mortar fire. By 01:10 hours, the western flank of the Mousetrap had fallen to Việt Minh bombardment. By 01:30, the garrison was informed that weather conditions prevented air support, and by 02:30 the Việt Minh forces launched successive assault waves which overran Teullier and his men, including attacks which flanked the position using the nearby sandbanks. At the same time, Alpha was overrun by Việt Minh forces, and by 03:50 no more firing was heard from the Mousetrap. Alpha survived the remainder of the night and was seen fighting by French aircraft at 09:00 that morning.
C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
transport aircraft returned to resume supply drops, however by 12:00 the Tricolor and the
Laotian flag The flag of Laos ( Lao: ທຸງຊາດລາວ; ''thungsad Lāo'') consists of three horizontal stripes, with the middle stripe in blue being twice the height of the top and bottom red stripes. In the middle is a white disc, the diameter o ...
had been removed from Pi's command bunker.


Survivors

On May 22, four days after the fall of the Muong Khoua garrison, three of its soldiers—the garrison radio operator Novak and two Laotians—reached the only remaining French outpost in northern Laos, Phong Saly.
Bernard Fall Bernard B. Fall (November 19, 1926 – February 21, 1967) was a prominent war correspondent, historian, political scientist, and expert on Indochina during the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Austria, he moved with his family to France as a child after ...
recorded in ''Street Without Joy'': "he was only twenty-five years old, but he looked fifty; he kept on walking like an automaton to the centre of the post before he was stopped by some of the men staring at him as at a ghost."Fall 1994, p. 116. Novak and the two other soldiers had spent the four days moving through the jungle of Laos following the defeat of their unit. Two days later, Sergeant Pierre Blondeau also arrived at the outpost. His account detailed 57 hours spent hiding from the Việt Minh before a three-day march without food or navigational aids and then encountering native tribesmen who provided food and a pony, with which he reached the French forces.


Aftermath

The Vietnamese and French media had awarded considerable attention to the conflict, and newspapers worldwide had covered the battle.
Bernard Fall Bernard B. Fall (November 19, 1926 – February 21, 1967) was a prominent war correspondent, historian, political scientist, and expert on Indochina during the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Austria, he moved with his family to France as a child after ...
made note of the significance of the battle as "epic" in both his 1961 ''Street Without Joy'' and 1967 ''Hell in a Very Small Place''. The British newspaper ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' began covering the conflict on April 23, reporting the retreat from Sop Nao to Muong Khoua. However, despite correctly identifying half of the Việt Minh attacking force, it rated the garrison at the mother strong point as numbering 1,000. The battle received scant attention before the garrison fell, however after that garrison was defeated the coverage remained positive at the thought of French survivors and speculative on the future of the French military presence and new commander,
Henri Navarre Henri Eugène Navarre (31 July 189826 September 1983) was a French Army general. He fought during World War I, World War II and was the seventh and final commander of French Far East Expeditionary Corps during the First Indochina War. Navarre w ...
. The French High Command released an assessment of the defeat at Muong Khoua in ''Communique No. 14'', stating "During the night of May 17 to 18, the post of Muong Khoua, which had victoriously resisted since the beginning of the Việt Minh offensive, succumbed under the overwhelming mass of assailants." In January 1954, Muong Khoua was re-occupied by Laotian forces, which were subsequently overrun once more by the 316th Division of the Việt Minh. The Laotian commander, who lived in the village itself with his wife, was killed in his home before the attack. Battalions of the
French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...
and Laotian forces suffered losses covering the retreat of garrison survivors. The area of Muong Khoua later became a critical supply route across Dien Bien Phu for the Việt Minh and by 1963 was the site of a construction project for the proposed Route 19.Langland, pp. 638–640. The French would use the lessons learned at Muong Khoua and those of the 1952
Battle of Nà Sản The Battle of Nà Sản was fought between French Union forces and the Nationalist forces of the Việt Minh at Nà Sản, Sơn La Province, during the First Indochina War for control of the T’ai region (Northwest territory). Background Mil ...
in their defence plans at Điện Biên Phủ, while the Việt Minh in turn would employ similar tactics of encirclement and strangulation there. The importance of an air bridge to maintain supply lines, strong artillery support to stave off human-wave Việt Minh attacks, and the need for isolated emplacements to mutually support each other, were also important tactics taken on board by the French from both conflicts.Fall 1994, pp. 129–130. The disappearance of local civilian populations previously friendly towards the French, which served as a precursor to Việt Minh attack, was also remembered by the Điện Biên Phủ troops. For the Việt Minh, their abilities to isolated and smother individual strongpoints while maintaining hidden artillery and support weapon emplacements out of the reach of French airstrikes and artillery were honed at both battles, as were their practices of using human-wave attacks.Windrow 2004, p. 109.


References


Notes


Further reading

*Chaliand, Gérard. (1982). ''Guerrilla Strategies: An Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan'', Berkeley: University of California Press. * Chen Jian. (1993). "China and the First Indo-China War, 1950–54", ''The China Quarterly'', No. 133. (Mar., 1993), pp. 85–110. London: School of Oriental and African Studies. *Cogan, Charles G. (2000). "L'attitude des États-Unis à l'égard de la guerre d'Indochine" in Vaïsse, Maurice ''Armée française dans la guerre d'Indochine (1946–1954)'' Bruxelles: Complexe. pp. 51–88. . *Davidson, Phillip B. (1991). ''Vietnam At War'', New York: Oxford University Press. . *Dunstan, Simon. (2004). ''Vietnam Tracks: Armor in Battle 1945–75'', Osprey Publishing. * Fall, Bernard B. (1967). ''Hell in a Very Small Place''. Lippincott. . *Fall, Bernard B. (October 1956)
"Indochina. The Last Year of the War: The Navarre Plan"
''Military Review''. Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. *Fall, Bernard B. (1961). ''Street Without Joy''. The Stackpole Company. . * Giáp, Võ Nguyên. (1971). ''The Military Art of People's War'', New York: Modern Reader. *Humphries, James. F. (1999). ''Through the Valley: Vietnam, 1967–1968'', Lynne Rienner Publishers. *Langland, Stanley G. "The Laos Factor in the Vietnam Equation". ''International Affairs'' (Blackwell Publishing) Volume 45 (No. 4). *Paxton, Robert. O. (2001). ''Vichy France, Old Guard and New Order'', New York: Columbia University Press. * Thi, Lam Quang. (2002). ''The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon'', University of North Texas. *Vaïsse, Maurice (editor). (2000). ''L'Armée française dans la guerre d'Indochine (1946–1954)''. Editions Complexe, Paris. * Windrow, Martin. (1998). ''The French Indochina War, 1946–1954'', Osprey. *Windrow, Martin. (2004). ''The Last Valley''. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. {{DEFAULTSORT:Muong Khoua, Battle of Battles and operations of the First Indochina War Battles involving Vietnam Battles involving France Conflicts in 1953 1953 in Vietnam Vietnamese independence movement 1953 in French Indochina 1953 in Laos April 1953 events in Asia May 1953 events in Asia