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Old February 12th, 2007, 04:11 PM
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Default Re: Dien Bien Phu, Hell in a very small place...

Quote:
Palle said:
And I must also admit to a certain weakness for the French Paras of that period (French decolonisation). Those last heroic defenders of a lost empire fighting to maintain a bygone age while their homeland turned its back on them...

You seem to be well informed but if you want to design some campain, don't forget the great difference between Algeria and Indochina.
In a french point of view Indochina was a colony and Algeria a France territory.
This had a militar impact because only professionals were allowed (by french law) to be send in Indochina (Para + Legion...); in Algeria the were also draftee units.
Just in case you forgot about it

Something more interresting: I remember in the US Army website a text from an US officier comparing Algeria and Ireland: he said that Algeria was a militar victory but a political defeat and that Ireland (for England) was a militar defeat but a political victory. Maybe it's still in some archive... It finished with some analysis of what was going on in Irak.

Cheers,
Loktarr
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"On 17 January, I started with 39 tanks. After 38 days of aerial attacks, I had 32, but in less than 20 minutes with the M1A1,1 had zero." an Iraqi
battalion commander, after being captured by the 2nd Armored Cav Regiment, speeking to Col Don Holder.
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