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Imperial Firmament Update Total:

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After the Temporary Defensive Point No. 11 on the right flank of the position was broken through and occupied by the North Vietnamese army, there was a brief lull on the battlefield adjacent to the Song River, and Second Lieutenant Leglis and his men ceded the main circular position to the Foreign Legion soldiers brought by Lieutenant Forley to guard it, and the wounded and frightened participants of the headquarters withdrew to a mortar position more than ten meters away and close to the river bank. When the position was excavated, it was expected that the number of mortars would not exceed two, so only a mortar position four meters long and two meters wide and about one meter five deep was excavated. Smelling the strong smell of his companions, Leglis didn't have the heart to expand the area, and the way the North Vietnamese rebels fought made him feel deeply afraid - if it wasn't for the timing of his own grenade defense, if it wasn't for the timely arrival of reinforcements from the headquarters, they would probably have suffered the same fate as the friendly neighbor defense point!

With a crisp "pop", the flares that appeared above the river burst into a very dazzling light, and in the blink of an eye, the "click" of gunfire came loudly and rhythmically, and those familiar with the weapons used by this French team could easily identify them as coming from the Browning heavy machine gun of the point 5 caliber, a powerful and extremely durable battlefield killer. Several of his companions looked curiously in the direction of the river, but Legliss did not do so, always feeling a pair of cold eyes catching the moment in the treetops across the position, and the accuracy of those North Vietnamese shooters at medium range reminded him of the German trench snipers described by his father.

After the previous battle, the paratroopers also knew the strength of their opponents, and they did not leave their heads in steel helmets exposed on the bunker for too long, and one of them retracted into the bunker with his full head and said: "Those Vietnamese tried to cross the river." Our gunboats were standing there, and it seemed that today was not a lucky day for these North Vietnamese resisters. ”

Another paratrooper, wounded in the shoulder, said: "It is a terrible thing to fight them on land - there is probably no army of our time that has such a disregard for life as theirs!" ”

"Why not." Sergeant Laurent offered a different point of view, "The German SS, the Japanese army, and the Soviet army. Their pace of attack is often suffocating, and their defense is as stubborn as a rock. ”

"The German SS was indeed more difficult to deal with than these Vietnamese, and they would not have suffered such heavy casualties for attacking a small stronghold!" Sergeant Etienne was the oldest in the area, having fought on the Western Front in 1940 as an Army soldier in the French Third Republic, and then followed himself from the French army to North Africa and mainland France. The experience of playing against the Germans is also the most abundant here.

Legliss was about to add to his knowledge of the Soviet army, when a dense burst of gunfire erupted from the front position, and the bullets whizzing overhead made the most curious paratroopers dare not look into the front at this time.

"Get ready for battle!" The second lieutenant gave instructions to his subordinates as he got up and moved forward, the mortar position was connected to the trench in front of him by a shallow communication trench, and in order to pass through it safely, he had to keep his head and body very low, preferably crawling over his hands and feet. Leglis had just moved halfway through. He came face to face with a black soldier from the Foreign Legion, who said in French with a strange accent: "Mortars are intercepting and firing at targets 100 meters ahead!" ”…,

Leglis hurriedly gave the order, and under his "transfer", the four mortar groups belonging to the paratroopers and the foreign regiment immediately opened fire, and the range and power of the light mortars were certainly limited. But it's very suitable for this kind of close-quarters combat. Listening to the clear sound of explosions coming from the front of the position, the second lieutenant continued to move forward, and the trench was filled with the smoke of propellants, the clanging of bullet casings throwing out of the bolts, and the habitual language of the soldiers when firing. Legliss struggled through the trench to find Lieutenant Forlie, who was firing with his rifle.

"Watch out for their shooters on the other side of the woods, and the guys who are dying in front of the position. They will suddenly attack us with grenades! Legliss reminded loudly that these were lessons that his paratroopers had paid for with their blood and lives.

The "farmer with a hat" grinned and sneered: "Their tactics of rushing and attacking will also abuse the opponent with weak firepower, and if they encounter us, they will be sent to death at all!" ”

Judging by the momentum. The firepower of this platoon of the Foreign Legion was indeed much stronger than that of the previous two dozen paratroopers, and Leglis stretched out his head to look ahead, and in the field shrouded in night, the dark red points of light that flew from his own position were densely packed, completely overpowering the fire from the opposite side, and Lieutenant Forley's troops did not use flares at all. The soldiers could discern the figures moving through the rice paddies by the faint light of the stars, and the ferocious bullets prevented them from even reaching the distance of the grenade. Such a scene once again shocked the thinking of the paratrooper ensign. Machine guns and mortars were used on both sides, and the North Vietnamese soldiers showed no signs of delaying their attacks, but Lieutenant Forley's French Foreign Regiment was unusually calm, and even if the shells of the other side fell close, the soldiers took cover and returned to the battle. About five minutes later, Lieutenant Forlie shouted "Ceasefire." Officers and non-commissioned officers of all ranks in the unit quickly conveyed the order, and the combat unit of nearly fifty men soon stopped firing, and the battlefield between the woods and the river bank was silent, but the sound of gunfire and explosions on the river was still heard, and the sound of battle of varying strength and weakness could be heard from other directions.

"Victory!" Lieutenant Forlie raised his fist and shouted, and his Foreign Legion soldiers of all colors followed closely with cries of victory and roars, but at this time, Leglis had no intention of sharing the joy of easily repelling the enemy's attack, and he watched left and right with concern, and the sound of battle between the headquarters and the direction of the stone bridge was fire, which meant that the North Vietnamese forces were simultaneously attacking the French positions, which were neither Maginot nor Truman, but only the lightly established positions along the river. Perhaps the staff officers of the command of the French Expeditionary Force underestimated the combat effectiveness of their opponents from the outset and made the wrong deployment in some key details, leaving 3,000 French paratroopers in a passive position; Perhaps the military's top brass should learn the lessons of the defeat in Eastern Europe in 1948 and re-examine the use and risks of large-scale airborne operations. Of course, these "maybes" were just thoughts on the mind of the junior officer Leglis, and the most important thing for him at the moment was to save himself while trying to help his neighbors and comrades from the annihilation of the army, but after suffering both human and psychological losses, becoming a game-changing hero was only a shallow part of Leglis's thinking, and he could not find the courage to inspire himself to get out of the trenches......

Even if a first-class army is equipped with first-class equipment, the fate of passive defense can be imagined. The frustrated North Vietnamese forces began to harass the fortified positions of Forley and Leglis with frequent cold fire and mortar bombardment, and the defenders were unable to prevent effective fire suppression due to limited visibility at night, and had to let the opposing side do it. Over time, the general situation on the battlefield gradually changed. On the river, the majestic French ships were suddenly attacked by mortars, heavy machine guns, and even machine guns of the North Vietnamese army, and the situation of the battle took a sharp turn for the worse, one of the French ships caught fire and sank, and the other three ships withdrew, and the effective firepower of the riverbank positions supported by the river was sharply reduced. At about the same time, the temporary defensive position No. 9 on the left side of Leglis was attacked by the North Vietnamese army, and he and Forlie disagreed on whether to send troops to help, but before a single outcome could be discussed, the battle for position No. 9 ended in the victory of the North Vietnamese army. The French paratroopers stationed there were not too far to survive, and the forces of Legris and Forlie were isolated, and they could only communicate with their superiors by radio. With his own defensive points constantly being breached by the North Vietnamese army, Lieutenant Colonel Jérôme, who had already exhausted his reserves, had no troops to send, so he had to encourage the paratrooper units to carry forward their fighting spirit, stubbornly hold their respective positions, and concentrate on the defensive points where the company headquarters were located only when the situation forced them to be. In the complex environment of night fighting, it is extremely dangerous to leave the defensive position and move along the riverbank, even if it is only a distance of 500 meters, in the eyes of most commanders, so most of the paratrooper units choose to hold on, but the reinforcements of the foreign regiment like Legliss are a special case after all, and the battle for the riverbank position is going on from the first half of the night until after midnight, and the cunning Vietnamese use the captured radio walkie-talkies and captured French soldiers to spread false news, which not only disrupts the deployment of the French army, It also caused panic among the paratrooper units. …,

The long night finally came to an end, and when the morning dawned, the noise of war had calmed down for a while. Looking out from the position, Leglis and his companions saw a world of difference from the same day. In addition to the hundreds of dead bodies that had not had time to be buried, the fierce North Vietnamese forces disappeared without a trace, and judging from some of the auxiliary equipment scattered along the riverbank, they had successfully crossed the river at night, and the French army's intention to encircle and annihilate the North Vietnamese army south of the Song River was ruined, and the elite paratrooper units paid a heavy price for the failed battle. In the two nearby defensive points, the French officers and men of the 2nd Light Parachute Battalion, both belonging to the 2nd Light Parachute Battalion, were killed as many as 35 people, and only a few survived, and what made Legliss even more disappointed was that the French 1st Parachute Battalion stationed at Stone Bridge was not fiercely attacked by the North Vietnamese army in the night battle, but the surprise attack launched by the North Vietnamese forces on the north bank a day earlier made them lose the courage to take the initiative to attack, and they were indifferent to the distress of friendly and neighboring forces, and the temporary airfield they had consolidated and occupied was ultimately only used to transfer the wounded and evacuate the paratroopers. (To be continued, if you like this work, welcome to "Novel" to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is the author's greatest motivation!) ）

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