Battle of Dien Bien Phu 1954
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 13 March 1954 – 7 May 1954 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1954 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Vietnam | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | First Indochina War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 21.3869, 103.0156 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ was a defeat of the French Union forces by the Viet Minh forces in the First Indochina War. It took place between 13 March and 7 May 1954.
The French began an operation to insert, and support, their soldiers at Điện Biên Phủ, deep in the autonomous Tai Federation in northwest Tonkin. The operation's purpose was to cut off enemy supply lines into the neighboring Kingdom of Laos (a French protectorate) and draw the Viet Minh into a major confrontation in order to cripple them. The French based their forces in an isolated but well-fortified camp that would be resupplied by air, a strategy adopted based on the belief that the Viet Minh had no anti-aircraft capability.
The communist Viet Minh, however, under General Võ Nguyên Giáp, surrounded and besieged the French. They brought in vast amounts of heavy artillery (including anti-aircraft guns) and managed to move these bulky weapons through difficult terrain up the rear slopes of the mountains. They dug tunnels and arranged the guns to target the French positions. The tunnels featured a front terrace, onto which the Viet Minh would pull their cannons from out of the tunnels, fire a few shots, to then pull them back into protective cover.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Dien Bien Phu (revision 1380210802), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the First Indochina War
- Battle of Hanoi (1946) 1946
- Battle of Hòa Bình 1951
- Battle of Nghĩa Lộ (1951) 1951
- Battle of Nà Sản 1952
- Battle of Muong Khoua 1953
- Battle of Mang Yang Pass 1954
All 7 battles of the First Indochina War →
Browse more: battles in Vietnam · Asia · Post-1945 battles