(VOVworld) – Colonel Hoang Dang Vinh was one of 5 soldiers who captured General De Castries on May 7th, 1954. This historic date witnessed the collapse of the French garrison in Dien Bien Phu and put an end to French colonization of Vietnam and Indochina. Vinh’s 4 comrades have passed away.
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Vinh responded to the call of the revolution when he was 17. In September, 1952, he joined Brigade 312 which took part in the Dien Bien Phu campaign 2 years later. Vinh says he will never forget how he and his comrades marched to Dien Bien. They had to pull artillery guns to and from the battlefield as commanded. Vinh says it was thanks to a wise decision by General Vo Nguyen Giap that the Dien Bien Phuc victory was achieved. He points out that artillery occupying higher positions had greater accuracy: “We fired some shots and withdrew the guns from the battlefield without leaving any trace. We also created fake gun emplacements at each of which 2 sappers detonated explosives to sound as if artillery was firing to deceive the enemy.”
On the afternoon of May 7th, Vinh and his comrades advanced to the center of the battlefield where they saw a high mound surrounded by 4 tanks. As they were trying to think of a way to get closer, they captured an enemy soldier who said the mound was the bunker of General De Castries. Vinh and his comrades destroyed two of the tanks and the other two withdrew. The soldiers set off explosives outside the bunker to terrify the enemies inside. Following the explosion, a French officer came out of the bunker with a piece of white cloth in his hand and said they were surrendering to the Viet Minh soldiers. Vinh recalls: “When we entered the bunker, we saw approximately 20 French officers in a corner, one of them hiding under a table. Captain Ta Quoc Luat told them they were under arrest in French. All of them surrendered except General De Castries who sat silently. I hit him in the stomach with my gun and told him to surrender. He trembled, raised his hands and said in French: Please, don’t shoot, we surrender.”
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On May 19, 1954, Vinh and a delegation of soldiers who took part in the Dien Bien Phu campaign had the honor of congratulating Ho Chi Minh on his birthday and reporting to him the results of the campaign. The following day, as suggested by Soviet film director Roman Karmen, Vinh had a second encounter with General De Castries in the woods of Thai Nguyen province. When they met, an official from the Department of Cinematography asked De Castries if he knew who the young Vietnamese man was. The General said if he was not mistaken he had met the young man before. The official said the General had a good memory and that it was that young man who had captured the general in the bunker. De Castries’s face turned pale and he did not say a word. Vinh says: “When the official said that I was the man who had captured De Castries, General De Castries looked straight at me and said: It would be my pleasure to command brave soldiers like you. I was very angry and replied: How could you be my commander, I captured you in your bunker. General De Castries could not say another word.”
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60 years have passed and there have been many praises for Vinh and his comrades who captured General De Castries. Vinh conveyed all these compliments to Captain Ta Quoc Luat and his other comrades: Nam, Nho, and Hieu who sacrificed their lives for national independence. Vinh says it was their sacrifices that gave him and other soldiers the courage to fight and create the resounding Dien Bien Phu victory.