Operation Castor

Operation Castor
Part of First Indochina War

French Union paratroops dropping from a C-119 over Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Date20–22 November 1953
Location
Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam
Result Successful French establishment of the Dien Bien Phu outpost
Belligerents

French Fourth Republic French Union

North Vietnam Việt Minh
Commanders and leaders
Jean Gilles
Jean Dechaux
Henri Navarre		 Võ Nguyên Giáp
Strength
4,195 (as of 22 November)[1] One infantry battalion and one artillery battery
Casualties and losses
By 20 November:
11 killed,[2]
52 wounded		 Unknown
Điện Biên Province (shown in green) was sufficiently far from Hanoi, the seat of French military power, that it could not easily be supplied by air.

Operation Castor[a] was a French airborne operation in the First Indochina War. The operation established a fortified airhead in Điện Biên Province, in the north-west corner of Vietnam and was commanded by Brigadier General Jean Gilles. The Operation began at 10:35 on 20 November 1953, with reinforcements dropped over the following two days. With all its objectives achieved, the operation ended on 22 November. Castor was the largest airborne operation since World War II.

  1. ^ "DienBienPhu.org". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  2. ^ Clodfelter 2008, p. 657.
  3. ^ B. J. C. McKercher (1996). The Operational Art: Developments in the Theories of War. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 109. ISBN 9780275953058.
  4. ^ Doctor At Dien-Bien-Phuauthor=Paul Grauwin. Pickle Partners Publishing. 2015. p. 16. ISBN 9781786256850.


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