"Hurry up, move fast! Paul, you take two people to keep an eye on the woods, and fire the gun whenever there is a situation, don't be sloppy! Dima, Etienne, Flemish, follow me to find the weapon pack! ”

In a parched rice field, Second Lieutenant Leglis, who belonged to the 2nd French Light Parachute Battalion, hurriedly greeted the paratroopers who had landed. This rice paddy field is located between the woods and the river, about three to four hundred meters to the north is the Song River, which flows from west to east into the Beibu Gulf.

The paratroopers who landed quickly threw down their landing equipment and fortified the landing zone with rifles and submachine guns. Strictly speaking, this was not the first time that French paratroopers had fought in Vietnam, as in 1947 more than 300 officers and men attached to the 1st French Light Paratrooper Battalion had participated in the suppression of the Vietnamese resistance. At that time, the North Vietnamese rebels were not yet in the current climate, and these French paratroopers were only fighting on the ground as emergency forces, and did not really "fall from the sky" as they do today. For three years, the North Vietnamese rebels continued to grow in battle, and their soldiers were so brave and brutal in ambush that the French called them "locusts," meaning an adversary that would be difficult to get rid of. Second Lieutenant Legliss had heard a lot of murderous stories about the North Vietnamese guerrillas from friends and colleagues before coming here, and his greatest fear was that his troops would be attacked by a large number of North Vietnamese rebels before they had time to gain a foothold. The French troops, armed with artillery, armoured vehicles and even tanks, trembled in the face of the siege of the North Vietnamese army, not to mention the paratroopers with limited firepower and ammunition!

Successfully landed, successfully gathered his subordinates, successfully found the landing bag containing machine guns and ammunition, and smoothly deployed defensive positions. Successfully getting in touch with the battalion headquarters, as one plan step after another was completed completely unhindered, seeing the confident and relaxed expressions of his colleagues, the apprehension in the heart of Second Lieutenant Legliss gradually disappeared. Even though the North Vietnamese rebel soldiers were fierce by nature. They also got some weapons from the hateful Soviets that should have been eliminated, but after all, this is a group of "barbarian natives" far from modern civilization, most of whom are illiterate and have no understanding of military tactics. In the dense forest battlefield, where heavy weapons are difficult to use, they can take advantage of their bravery and move to the open area, and the defenders are fully prepared. Their offensive inevitably turned into a bloody massacre.

As the group of transports returned, the surroundings of the French paratroopers quickly fell silent, somewhat uncomfortably, but soon sparse gunfire was heard in the direction of the river downstream. According to the operational arrangement, the first echelon of the airborne troops was to occupy four bridges and seven crossings on the Song River to cut off the retreat of the Vietnamese rebels from the north. About two kilometers down the river is the largest bridge over the Song River, but it looks like an aerial photo. It was a cement bridge that barely accommodated two cars in parallel, and it was built by the French colonizers. Second Lieutenant Legliss patiently awaited orders, and the more than 300 paratroopers who landed there were at the mercy of Lieutenant Colonel Jérôme. A veteran officer who followed de Gaulle in the fight for the Free France, he had a lot of experience in the battlefield and was well respected by the soldiers.

Since it was impossible to accurately predict the situation of the ground battle before the airborne, the operational deployment was largely in the hands of the front-line commanders. After studying the map, the lieutenant colonel made a combat deployment: "Centered on the vertical point from here to the river bank, build defensive positions every five hundred meters, deploy two squads in each defensive position, and move!" ”…,

Second Lieutenant Leglis's paratrooper platoon consisted of three squads and one platoon, and after receiving the battle order, he and another officer each led half of the men to build a defensive point. Supplementary orders were quickly deployed to the fortified positions of the platoons. Second Lieutenant Leglis and his soldiers had to march 2.5 kilometers up the river, which was not a long distance, and the officers and men embarked on the journey with confidence. However, after some distance along the dirt road along the riverbank, Ensign Legliss found that the open area along the riverbank was getting narrower, and in some sections the edges of the bushes were less than a hundred meters from the riverbank, which was quite disadvantageous to the defenders who were not superior in numbers.

Although the apprehension in my heart has resurfaced. Second Lieutenant Legliss did not show this emotion, and when the soldiers found that more than a kilometre upstream from their intended defensive position was a stone bridge, which had been occupied by another French airborne assault force, their morale was greatly boosted. Second Lieutenant Leglis's mood changed again, especially when he sent a liaison officer to communicate with the friendly forces, and the situation became more optimistic: the paratrooper commando unit was part of the glorious French 1st Paratrooper Battalion, they had a company of officers and men, and they were additionally equipped with airborne jeeps equipped with recoilless guns, and the overall combat effectiveness was good, and according to them, the capture of the bridge was not disturbed in any way, and then sent sentries to reconnoitre, and not a single North Vietnamese soldier was seen within a radius of several kilometers.

The optimism made the French paratroopers feel more relaxed, and in the bright spring light, they took off their heavy steel helmets, took off their thick coats, lazily smoked cigarettes, slowly waved their sapper shovels, and dug an arc of defensive positions on the mound more than a meter above the river beach, with their backs to the river. On the other side of the stone bridge, the soldiers of the 1st Parachute Battalion were also building fortifications, presumably thinking that two machine guns would be enough to block the entire bridge, and their movements looked more lazy and slow, and the occasional French reconnaissance planes flying overhead indulged their laxity.

"I had a bad feeling." Second Lieutenant Legliss said privately to his friend Sergeant Laurent, "Everyone is too relaxed, once the North Vietnamese rebels find that the back road has been cut off, they are likely to launch a fierce attack beyond our imagination driven by survival." ”

Sergeant Laurent said with some disapproval: "Their main force should be dozens of kilometers away from here, there is no straight road along the way, even if it is a forced march, it will not arrive until the afternoon at the earliest, when we have all set up machine guns and are waiting for them." ”

Legliss turned his head to look at the two light machine guns lying on the mound, a Browning Bar1918 and an M1919A6, both of which are the front-line equipment of the US Army. Despite this, Legliss still felt a little regretful in his heart if his unit could be as German as the 4th Light Parachute Battalion. With the powerful suppressive firepower of the MG42, relying on the preset fortifications was enough to resist the attack of several hundred Vietnamese who lacked formal training. The M1919A6 has good performance, but the barrel is easy to heat up and it is more troublesome to replace, while the Bar with a 20-round magazine is acceptable to use against skirmishers. It is quite weak to contain the crowd charge of the opponent.

Three hours later, a basic arc-shaped trench was completed, and although Legliss hoped that the soldiers would further strengthen their positions, they were not very enthusiastic about repairing the fortifications, and swallowed back what had already come to their lips. At noon, the paratroopers of the second echelon parachuted down at the already consolidated landing site, and the superior commander sent additional troops to each defensive point. Legliss was reinforced with a Bren machine gun and a 60mm light mortar, and although the ammunition reserves were not as good as they were ideal, the French second lieutenant felt much more at ease watching the soldiers set up the machine guns and mortars - no matter how bad it was, he could still turn to friendly support to guard the bridge, and the bombers taking off from Hue could provide more timely fire support for the paratroopers paratrooping behind enemy lines. …,

After lunch, I took a nap in the warm sun, and before I knew it, it was almost dusk. In front of you, the vegetation all over the mountains is blowing in the breeze. Behind you, the crystal clear waters of the river shimmer with mesmerizing waves, and this place is a paradise forgotten by war and carnage. The French GIs who had come from afar were so enchanted that they did not notice the danger that was approaching.

Syllable...... Syllable......

The sound of drifting gunfire shattered the illusion, and Legliss screamed as if awakened from a nightmare for the soldiers to be on guard. The sound of gunfire in the distance was still lingering, and there was no precursor to the attack in the woods ahead. After more than ten minutes like this, Legliss gradually noticed that something was wrong, and suddenly looked back, and saw wolf smoke rising on the other side of the river!

In the blink of an eye, the scattered gunfire became dense. If you listen closely, you can make out the American-made machine guns roaring persistently amid the clamor of many rifles, and occasionally adding the roar of grenades and mortar shells. On the other side of the river, there was more and more wolf smoke. The gunfire was getting closer and closer, and in the sunset field, the French paratroopers who were responsible for the outpost were retreating from the villages on the north bank of the bridge, and the soldiers defending the bridgehead were already in full array.

"Vietnamese!"

The screams and the distinctive roar of Bar shook Leglis's heart, and he quickly turned his attention from the stone bridge back to his position, the smell of gunpowder making the last trace of freshness disappear. The woods ahead did not rush out in droves of Vietnamese. The shaking of the dwarf plants seemed to be caused by the wind, and the French paratroopers who opened fire did not stop until they had exhausted the 20 rounds in the magazine, while everyone around them looked surprised.

Seeing his companions stunned in place, the emotional paratrooper said loudly while reloading: "There are Vietnamese in the woods, I'm sure I saw the Vietnamese, I've seen that damn yellow rainforest helmet!" ”

No one said they wouldn't believe it, but seeing was believing, and just as Leglis was at a loss, a cold gun shot out of the woods, instantly knocking down a skirmish with his head poking his head in the trench, and that was just the beginning. Accurate bullets followed, and in the blink of an eye, three or four more people were shot on the side of the trench, one of whom was still a machine gunner. The paratroopers bowed their heads to no avail, and seeing the casualties rising, someone finally came to their senses: "Hell, the Vietnamese are in the treetops opposite!" Fire! Fire! ”

Legliss was so shocked that he subconsciously shouted twice and opened fire, estimating that the Vietnamese in the woods had taken advantage of the situation to rush forward, so he pulled out the ring with his grenade and threw it forward with all his strength - even if it could not directly kill the opponent, it could temporarily affect the "treetop shooter". At the moment of the grenade explosion, Legliss had already picked up his R5 submachine gun (the French version of the Stern submachine gun), kicked his legs reflexively, and as soon as he looked out of the edge of the trench, he fired at the treetops in front of him. Their shots were somewhat aimless, but the more bullets they fired widened, and the faint feeling of someone falling from the treetops was faintly the deadly cold guns that were finally contained, and the paratroopers who were holding this defensive point were able to come to the aid of their wounded comrades or scoop up their own weapons to join the fire.

After emptying the magazine, Leglis leaned forward and pointed his right knee to the ground, looking forward with the advantage of his long neck. It didn't matter, my heart almost jumped out of my throat, and the scene of the nightmare became a reality here: hundreds of thin, fierce North Vietnamese soldiers rushed out of the woods and swept in, some wearing yellow rainforest helmets, some wearing round hats with oriental characteristics, and most of the weapons in their hands were bolt rifles, but there were no legendary broadswords, spears, or harpoons. At the edge of the woods, the two guys who shoot in a crouch are actually MP40, their light and easy-to-handle characteristics are indeed suitable for Orientals with limited physical strength, and the distance of 150 meters is also suitable for this automatic weapon to exert its power.

"Mortar! Shoot 150 meters straight ahead! Legliss set the mortar firing parameters directly at the edge of the woods, and looking at the surging North Vietnamese soldiers, he was glad that there was such an open field between his defensive position and the woods.

If it is a sprint at full speed without scruples, it only takes half a minute for adults to cross the distance of 200 meters, and on the battlefield where guns and bullets are flying, the Vietnamese charge is still "unscrupulous". Leglis picked up the submachine gun, pulled the trigger with his fingers, and moved horizontally with his left hand that controlled the direction of the gun, and the bullet casings thrown by the bolt were pieced together in the air in an arc full of war beauty, and the bullets poured forward, and those agile and swift figures fell one by one, and the rest were still moving forward, and the Buddha never knew what pain and death were...... (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )