The French Hit Back
French Union forces, reacting strongly to their recent reverses in the Thai territory, have seized the initiative to the north-west of Hanoi. Last Sunday, in a large-scale air-borne operation, 150 transport aircraft dropped parachute troops on Phudoan, a centre of communications on the Clear River. Armour and infantry advanTed briskly from Pho-Tho, Which is eighteen miles south of Phudoan, where the consolidation of the dropping-zone was covered by fire from naval craft on the Clear River. The ground forces effected a junction with the vanguard of parachutists, and patrols are now probing north-east and north-west from Phudoan. Little opposition has been met with in this sector. The purpose of these operations is clearly to threaten, and probably to cut, the communications of the Viet-minh forces in the basins of the Red and Black Rivers. The immediate French objectives must be Yen-Bay, on the railway to the west of Phudoan, and Tuyen-Quang, which is north of it. Occupation of these places would compromise the whole Viet-minh position in Tonking and, though it would not necessarily lead to their destruction, would oblige them to draw in their horns and think again Meanwhile, however, in the delta to the south of Hanoi, the rebels are exerting local pressure on the French garrisons covering the Delta; but it does not look as if a large-scale offensive is being mounted in this sector, and there is good reason to hope that the dash and flexibility of the French operations about Phudoan will restore, and perhaps more than restore, a situation which gave some cause for alarm three weeks. ago.
Previous page
