The logistical strength of our army and people in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign
During the Dien Bien Phu campaign, bicycles were the main mobile vehicle that helped supply thousands of tons of necessities to the front.
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| According to the notice of the Central Party Secretariat (November 9, 1953): "Transportation needs to increase vehicles and boats to reduce the labor of the people. Wherever there are conditions to use bicycles, we must try to use them. Experience in the past has shown that using bicycles is the best." Therefore, to ensure our logistics in the Dien Bien Phu campaign, in 210 days (from November 1953 to May 1954), about 252,000 laborers and over 22,000 bicycles were mobilized to transport food and provisions for the campaign. |
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| The fragile bicycles made by the French were all reinforced. From the rims, inner tubes, tires, spokes... to the handlebars, handles... etc. With the aim of carrying loads 10 times heavier than those carried on foot, reducing the consumption of rice along the way for the transporters. There were bicycles that carried a record load of up to 370kg like that of Mr. Ma Van Thang, a worker in Thanh Lau commune, Thanh Ba district, Phu Tho province. |
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| Bicycles could operate on routes that cars could not travel. This caused a great surprise beyond the expectations of the French commanders. |
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| In addition to the main bicycle pack, the militia force also used many other forms and means of transporting military supplies such as: rafts, pack horses, wheelbarrows, buffalo carts, ox carts, a car transport team of 446 vehicles... The total volume supplied for the campaign was 30,759 tons, of which 19,989 tons were consumed. |
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| Engineers used rafts to cross the Nam Na River to bring goods to Dien Bien Phu. The total number of rafts used in the campaign was 11,800. |
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| More than 1,800 buffalo carts were sent to the front. In the photo: Firemen used buffalo carts to transport weapons to the front. |
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| The wheelbarrow was made by Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam, a laborer in Dinh Lien commune, Yen Dinh district, Thanh Hoa province, to transport rice for the Dien Bien Phu campaign. Of the three pieces used to make the cart, one was taken from the family's ancestral altar. The number of wheelbarrows mobilized in the campaign was more than 7,000. |
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| To facilitate the transportation of food, weapons, and ammunition to the battlefield, soldiers, laborers, and youth volunteers built 89km of new roads and repaired and reinforced 500km of roads. Thanks to that, the total volume of transportation in the Dien Bien Phu campaign reached about 4,450,000 tons/km, 36 times the volume of transportation in the Border campaign. |
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| The Dien Bien Phu campaign had a significant contribution from the ethnic minorities of the Northwest. Among the 260,000 laborers serving the campaign, nearly 90,000 were ethnic minorities, a part of whom were ethnic minorities of the Northwest. Notably, there was a 70-year-old man who still served as a laborer. |
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| Contributed over 43% of rice used at the front, hundreds of tons of meat, vegetables... and about 550,000 working days. |
.jpg "Kỷ niệm 71 năm chiến thắng Điện Biên Phủ (7/5/1954 – 7/5/2025): Nghệ An giáo dục truyền thống, lý tưởng cách mạng cho thế hệ trẻ")
