Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-04-08
French Smash
AT Besiiegers Of
Fort
Trenches Dug by Reds
Destroyed; Foe Still
Delays New Assault
BY the Associated Press

HANOI. Indo- China, April g.
French Union troops, tanning
out over wide area around Diem
Bien Phu today. destroyed a long
string of enemy trenches being
built for a fresh assault on the
Northwest Indo- China bastion :
Sixty rebels were killed in the
operations. the French said.
GrenadeS and tank guns were
used to crush in the rebel dig
gings on a sector almost two
miles west and southwest of the
heart of the fortress. Then in
fantrymen closed in for hand to-
hand fighting to rout the sur
viVorS.
Planes Blast Supply Lines.
French warplanes, supplied by
the United States, broadened
their bombing and strafing at
tacks on the rebels supply lines.
Military depots at Yenbay. on
the Red River 100 miles north
east of Diem Bien Phu, were
blown up, the pilots said, and
several hundred trucks hauling
war materiel to the besiegers
were destroyed.
(F'resh aerial aid was re-
ported to have arrived from
= the United States, this time a
shipment of United States c.
At transports. The French
News Agency announced their
landing in a dispatch from
Saigon. A group of B-26 bomb
ers got in earlier this week to
Reinforce the aerial onslaught.
Numbers were not specified in
either caSe.)
A French communique said the
garrison defenders again last
night had an "easy night" as the
Communicated Wet Mini still
did cot resume their direct in
fantry assaults on the fortress
plain. The rebels halted their
second round of such frontal
charges Monday after six days of
murderous French gunfire and
hand-to-hand combat.
But the Wet Mimi troops kept
up their feverish digging of new
foxholes and winding trenches
within 600 feet of the barbed-
wire mazes guarding the heart
of the French Union stronghold
ITS miles west of Hanoi. OBJ
servers believed Communist Gen.
Vo Nguyen Clap again would
send his black-clad legions pour
ing out In another attempt to
overwhelm Diem Bien Phu.
The first series of frontal as
saults began March Is and end
ed two days later after heavy
losses for the rebels.
Rebels Time Growing Short.
Thunderstorms and rain in
creased in frequency, heralding
the approach by the end of the
month of the monsoons. The big
seasonal rains annually halt
large-scale operations. Time OBJ
viously was growing short for
the rebels in their try for a big
victory before the Geneva Con-
ference, scheduled to start April
26.
AS the main Wet Mimi force
rested up in the hills around
Diem Bien Phu. long lines of
trucks and coolies still followed
the roads and trails from Com
muniSt China with ammunition.
other war material and rice for
the rebel force.
French fighters and American
supplied Bog bombers kept up
their constant attacks on the
supply lines, but some of the
conveys certainly were getting
through.
French army sources said Clap
also was rounding up every avail
able man from both regular
regiments and guerrilla units for
his next assault.
Operations in Delta Area.
In the vital Red River Delta
around Hanoi, the French Union
forces again were kept busy beat
ing off ambushes and sabotage
attempts on lines of transport
and thinly manned Wet Namese
militia posts.
In Saigon. the French high
command claimed that its opera
ton Atlante, along the coast of
Wet Nam, had cost the Wet
Mimi LAS killed, wounded and
captured.
Answering criticism that the
campaign to pacify a strip of
the coast should be halted and
forces there diverted to Diem
Bien Phu. the French said since
March Is the rebels had lost 745
dead and TOO wounded and pris-
oners
Two hundred weapons were
taken and 10000 Wet Namese