Evening star., 1954-04-04
French Defenders
To Fly Wounded
From Diem Bien Phu
BY the Associated Press

HANOI, Indo-C China, April 81
The French clung grimly. with
out further retreat, to their bat
tered Dien Bien Phu fortress to-
night and announced a spectac-
ular attempt would be made to
evacuate their wounded by plane |
Monday.
Gen. Henri Navarro, COM
mander of French Union forces
in Indo- China, said he planned
to land mercy planes, marked
with the Red Cross, into Dien |
Bien Phu's shell-pocked airfleld
about noon Monday while a
plane load of neutral observers
and newsmen of the interna-
tional press corps watched the
operation from the air.
The landing will be made, he
said, after the Communicated
Wet Mimi forces have been ad-
vised by Col. Christian de Cas-
tries, the Dien Bien Phu COM
mander, of the exact time of the
operation.
Guns to Fall Silent.
French guns at the fortress
IT'S miles west of Hanoi will fall
silent at the time. except at
points where attacks are in active
progress sand the sky will be
swept clear of all other planes,
Gen. Navarro said. He recalled
that the Wet Mimi had failed
to reply to his March 81 appeal
for a cease-fire on mercy planes.
The neutral observers. he
added, will laSsure that the Red
CrosS-marked planes carry no
supplies into Dien Bien Phu-
only medical corpsmen and
crews.
The crucial battle for the
dusty plain. ringed by hills, died
down somewhat in its third day
today. Unconfrmed reports said
the Viet-Minh commander. Gen.
Ho Nguyen Clap, had called for
q fresh division from Hanoi's Red
River Delta area to reinforce his
attack.
Casualties High.
Authoritative French sources
estimated the Wet Mini had
suffered around 1000 killed and
$4,000 wounded-roughly half
the besieging force-since March
13 when Ho loosed his first all
out attack in an effort to win a
decisive victory before the
Geneva Conference on Korea
and Indo-China that opens
April 26. (
This figure was expected to
soar when the French have time
to count the Wet Mini killed in
the renewed fighting that broke
out three days ago. t..
The French said the dead in
front of their barbed wire and
in the bloody Noua River, on the
south side of the plain, were too
thick to count.
The last French estimate in
the fighting said the Wet Mimi
lost 1000 killed in the first 48
hours. The French gave no flg-
ures on their own casualties.
(The Red China radio at
Peiping said Sunday that one
battalion and nine companies of
French troops had been "put out
of action" in the battle so far.D
The French disclosed that in
the last six days they have taken
80 prisoners.
Set for New Attacks.
All around the dust bowl to-,
night, the French stood ready
to hurl back fresh mass charges.
Late in the. day the enemy
stepped up his artillery barrage,
usually the prelude to another
series of mass charges.
Despite their heavy losses, the
Wet Mini had been able to drive
no closer than a mile from the
core of the defenses.
Pouring from the northwest,
southeast and south, waves of
bugle- blowing, screaming Wet
Mimi soldiers overran some out
posts, especially in the north
west.
But French tanks, artillery and
infantry smashed every attempt
to score a break through, the
French command said.
Supplies Ample.
A French spokesman in Hanoi
said the garrison was getting
all the ammunition and sup
plies it needed by parachute, and
from time to time troop rein
forcements were parachuted in.
though no reinforcements had
been asked recently.
The French command tonight
announced that a iorce of the
Wet Mimi from southern Laos