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. Division TO&E Shown below is an example of a typical Viet-Minh infantry division and the 351 Heavy Division. The 304th Division only contributed its 57th Infantry Regiment to the siege at Dien Bien Phu. The other divisions enployed by the Viet Minh there (the 308th, 312th and 316th) were triangular divisions, with three infantry regiments each. One independent regiment (the 148th) was also at Dien Bien Phu, bringing the total to eleven regiments. The 351st, which was the only unit to contain 105mm howitzers in the Viet-Minh army, also had 12-16 "Katyusha" rocket launchers attached to it for the siege. Order of Battle Jumbo Viet-Minh Map and OOB (very slow: 370K) 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