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Operation LeaThe military operation codenamed La was an attempt of the french colonial forces in Indochina to capture the communist leaders of the vietnamese movement for independence (Viet Minh), which started on October 7th, 1947 and was unsuccessfully finished at December 22,1947. Background After the full outbreak of the First Indochina War in December 1946 the french colonial forces had made fast achievements by capturing the major cities Haiphong, Hanoi, Lng Son, Cao Bang as well as nearly the complete western and southern region of Tonkin, which was the stronghold of the Viet Minh movement. The reasons for the fast advancements were the superior firefower, naval and air support of the french forces. The major forces of the Viet Minh were nearly surrounded by the french in the eastern part of Tonkin. There remained only a greater gap between the towns Cao Bang in the north and Yn Bi in the south. During April 1947 Ho Chi Minh has made a last try to achieve a ceasefire and to continue the negotiations with the french government about the vietnamese independence from 1946. But the french only demanded him to surrender, because the position of the vietnamese forces seemed to be desperate. But he refused on April 26 the french offering: "In the French Union is no place for cowards. I would be one, if I would accept." During the rest of the spring and the summer the french made assaults to the bases of the Viet-Minh-Troops in Tonkin but could not arrange a conventional battle. Instead the Viet Minh returned after the French had marched out. The french supreme command in Indochina under general Jean-Etienne Valluy realized, that the recent tactics of minor assaults to estimated headquarters of the Viet Minh would not lead to an end of the war. From their intelligence department they received some information that the location of the head quarter of the Viet Minh was in the city Bac Can. They planned to capture Ho Chi Minh and the staff of the Viet Minh and to get the complete victory over the vietnamese independence movement. Operation La The operation started on October 7th by the airborne landing of 1,100 paratroopers at the city of Bac Can. The paratroopers took over the control of the city swiftly, but could not capture Ho Chi Minh or any other of the vietnamese leaders. At the same time other french troops (strength est. 15,000 men) started a movement from the city Cao Bang in north of Tonkin in direction Yn Bi in the south. The primary target of this action was to cut off the vietnamese forces from any supplies which could probably reach them from China. The second objective was to surround the vietnamese forces completely and destroy them during a battle. Despite the french reached the designated town Yn Bi, they were not able to destroy the forces of the Viet Minh. The greatest part of the 40,000 vietnamese guerrilla troopers could slip through gaps in the french lines. Among them were the leader Ho Chi Minh and his staff with general Vo Nguyen Giap. At the end of the operation the vietnamese forces had suffered a loss of 9,000 men. After the failure of Operation La the french supreme command changed the tactic again. Because of financial and economic reasons France was not able to send more troops to Indochina. The foreign legion began to establish outposts on every important road (Route Coloniale 4, Route Coloniale 3) to hold up the surrounding of the Viet Minh in the eastern part of Tonkin. But the vietnamese forces could easily slip through these lines and reinforce themselves from supplies which came from the chinese border or from own manufacturing. This leaded to the turnaround of the war from the now established stalemate into the first vietnamese victories in 1949/1950. Lea
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