Battle of Route Coloniale 4

Battle of Route Coloniale 4
Part of First Indochina War
Date30 September-18 October 1950
Location
Result Việt Minh victory
Belligerents
France French Union
South Vietnam State of Vietnam
North Vietnam Việt Minh
Commanders and leaders
Marcel Carpentier Võ Nguyên Giáp
Hoàng Văn Thái
Đặng Văn Việt
Strength
France 6,000 regulars
South Vietnam 2,000 regulars
30,000 regulars
Casualties and losses
FranceSouth Vietnam 4,800 killed and missing[1][2][3] Western estimated: 9,000 killed[4][5]
Việt Minh’s report: 1,000 killed and 1,550 wounded[6]

The Battle of Route Coloniale 4, also called the Autumn-Winter Border Campaign (Chiến Dịch Biên Giới Thu Đông) by the Viet Minh, was a battle of the First Indochina War. It took place along Route Coloniale 4 (RC4, also known as Highway 4), a road used to supply the French military base at Cao Bằng. French military traffic along the road had previously been subject to an ongoing series of ambushes during 1947–1949.

The aim of Việt Minh in the 1950 Border Campaign was clearing the way to the Vietnam-China border for the supply flow from the newly formed People's Republic of China. In this campaign the Việt Minh also tried to test new tactics and gain new experiences in a large scale battle which the Việt Minh had not previously used.

The battle lasted from 30 September to 18 October 1950 and resulted in a French defeat. Several units of the French army, including some battalions of the French Foreign Legion, were devastated by the Việt Minh and essentially ceased to exist as fighting units.

  1. ^ Windrow, Martin: The Last Valley, 2004 p. 110
  2. ^ Hastings, Max: Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975, 2018
  3. ^ DK:The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Ancient Egypt to Iraq, 2012 p. 483
  4. ^ Hastings, Max: Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975, 2018
  5. ^ Logevall, Fredrik (2012). Embers of War The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam. Random House Publishing Group. p. 251. ISBN 978-0679645191.
  6. ^ "Chiến dịch Biên giới 1950".