Can't fault the French soldat, parachutiste, Legionnaire or Coloniale at Dien Bien Phu. The vast majority fought and died with extreme valor against unsurmountable odds! The had some really sorry officers (Col. de Castre???) and no support back in Hanoi. And the Viet Minh had Giap, who in my opinion was nothing short of a genius. There wasn't enough air support in all of SE asia (not counting US in Phillipines. Japan, etc.) to assist them at DBP. There were some exceptional French officer who rose above the ordeal. Col. Langlade comes to mind as well as one Marcel Bigeard. The US would take a good lesson from Major (later General) Bigeard. He basically wrote the book we should be using on counter-insurgency warfare. He was VERY sucessful fighting the Felagas in Algeria! And basically had the battle of Algers won.

MAT 49 was the SMG the French decided to go with. The used them in Indochine from about 1951 thru "La Guerre Algerie", up until way past Operation Leopard (Kolwezi ,Zaire) in 1978 where the 2eme Regiment Etrangere Parachuitiste kicked Katanganese butt. Even some of US SF had a few of them in Viet Nam.

Hopefully this pic will come thru of me with a MAT 49 on the left.....
[Linked Image]

Kaywoodie

Last edited by kaywoodie; 05/19/10.
Founder
Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester

"Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools,
Being native burghers of this desert city,
Should in their own confines with forked heads
Have their round haunches gored."

WS