Infantry Battalion The Infantry Battalion Rifles 624 500 Submachine guns 133 200 BARs 41 20 Mortars (81mm) 4 8 Mortars (60mm) 8 - Recoilless Rifles - 3 Bazookas - 3 Each battalion in both the French and VietMinh forces usually consisted of three infantry companies and one heavy weapons company. As can be noted in the above chart, the Viet-Minh actually enjoyed an advantage in firepower over the French at battalion-level. This was compensated for by the French with the "Groupe Mobile" units, which combined three or more battalions along with artillery and tanks, with the French air cover providing extra firepower during daylight hours. FRENCH UNION FORCES Headquarters & Reserves: 71st Headquarters Co. 9th Command & Service Co. 1st Co., 31st Engineer Bn. Headquarters, GAP 2 1st Foreign Legion Parachute Bn. 8th Colonial Parachute Bn. 1st & 2nd Platoons, Composite Sqn., 1st Regt. of Armored Cavalry Airfield: Fighter Group 1/22 21st Aerial Artillery Observation Group 23rd Aerial Artillery Observation Group Airbase Detachment 195 Air Force Signal Co. 21/374 Ann-Marie: 3rd T'ai Bn. 2nd Foreign Legion Composite Mortar Co. (120mm) Beatrice: 3rd Bn., 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade Claudine: 1st Bn., 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade 2nd Group, 4th Colonial Artillery Regt. (two batteries) 11th Battery, 4th Group, 4th Colonial Artillery Regt. [155mm, all other French artillery is 105mm.] 3rd Group, 10th Colonial Artillery Regt. (one battery) 1st Foreign Legion Heavy Airborne Mortar Co. (120mm) Dominique: 3rd Bn., 3rd Algerian Rifle Regt. 2nd Group, 4th Colonial Artillery Regt. (one battery) 1 Battery, North Viet Nam AAA Group (one section of 2 quad .50 mounts) Eliane: 1st Bn., 4th Moroccan Rifle Regt. 2nd T'ai Bn. 2nd Co., 31st Engineer Bn. Francoise: 1st T'ai Partisan Mobile Group Gabrielle: 5th Bn., 7th Algerian Rifle Regt. 1st Foreign Legion Composite Mortar Co. (120mm) 1st Bn., 2nd Foreign Legion Regt. I Battery, North Viet Nam AAA Group (one section of 2 quad .50 mounts) Isabelle: 3rd Bn., 3rd Foreign Legion Regt. 2nd Bn., 1st Algerian Rifle Regt. 3rd Group, 10th Colonial Artillery Regt. (two batteries) 3rd Platoon, Composite Sqn., 1st Regt. of Armored Cav. 6th Command & Service Co. Wieme: 431st T'ai Partisan Mobile Co. 432nd T'ai Partisan Mobile Co. Reinforcements: 1st Colonial Parachute Bn. (elements, May 1 to May 6) 2nd Bn., 1st Regt. of Parachute Light Infantry (April 1 to April 6) 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Bn. (April 9 to April 12) 5th Viet. Parachute Bn. (March 14) 6th Col. Parachute Bn. (March 16) 35th Airborne Light Artillery Regt. (elements, March 16 to April 16) And almost 800 individual soldiers, including 681 nonqualified jump Jumbo French Map and OOB (slow: 114K) More Dien Bien Phu Dien Bien Phu: Introduction Dien Bien Phu: French Arrival: 20 Nov. 1953 Dien Bien Phu: Vietnamese Attack: 13 Mar. 1954 Dien Bien Phu: French Counterattack: 10 Apr. 1954 Dien Bien Phu: Soldiers Dien Bien Phu: Weaponry Dien Bien Phu: French Order of Battle Dien Bien Phu: Viet-Minh Order of Battle Dien Bien Phu: Map: Last Days May 1-7 (slow: 126K) Back to Conflict Number 6 Table of Contents Back to Conflict List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1973 by Dana Lombardy This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com