For other uses of Operation Condor, please see Operation Condor (disambiguation)
Operation Condor (French: Opération Condor) was the name of a secret French intelligence service GCMA operation against the Viet Minh supply column during the First Indochina War's clicmactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Mission
Operation Condor was an attempt to weaken the Viet Minh artillery's assaults against the besieged French Union garrison.
On April 22 1954, General Cogny insisted with his superior General Navarre to take a decision about Condor. General Navarre approved the mission on April 27 and it was launched on April 30.[1] Jedburgh veteran Captain Jean Sassi led the GCMA Malo - Servan commando unit consisting of Mèo partisans through the jungle, they walked all day to join Dien Bien Phu.[2][3]
Sassi's objective was "to allow a kind of breakthrough with the help of the French Union troops based at Eliane hill in order to surround the coolies supplying the Viet Minh combatants" and "to suddenly attack these weak ennemies with the benefit of surprise".
The GCMA commandos were lightly equipped with submachine guns and rifles.
Notes
- ^ Dien Bien Phu - Le Rapport Secret, Patrick Jeudy, TF1 Video, 2005
- ^ Dien Bien Phu - Le Rapport Secret, Patrick Jeudy, TF1 Video, 2005
- ^ Laos, L'armée des ombres, Le Figaro Magazine, 31 September 2006
Internal links
- Battle of Dien Bien Phu
- Column Crèvecœur (colonne Crèvecœur, 1954)
- GCMA
- Jean Sassi
- SDECE
- First Indochina War
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