Objective: Food

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

Viet Minh Communists, holed up in the bare limestone hills around the mouth of the Red River, looked down on the rice harvesters in the fertile, French-held delta, and decided they must fight for their food. The tactical plan: infiltrate guerrilla bands into the busy harvest land to extort grain from the peasants, carry it back into the hills at night. To cover their rice forays, they first launched a strong diversionary attack.

Some 40,000 Red soldiers launched their attack on a broad front along the Day River, a southern outlet of the big Red River. They stormed French blockhouses, surrounded French outposts. Fearing a major Communist offensive, the French rushed patrols and commando units from other parts of the delta to block the Communists. For 24 hours both sides fought bitterly; then the Communists were driven off. But their tactical plan went on working; next day the French found that, while they were concentrating on the battle, Communist rice-gathering bands had penetrated 20 miles into the delta. The French settled down to the job of cleaning them out.

Meanwhile, twelve miles southeast of the main battle theater, three Communist regiments attacked the small autonomous province of Phat Diem. The French threw in a parachute battalion to defend it against the Reds.

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