Operation Mouette
| Operation Mouette | |||||||||
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| Part of the First Indochina War | |||||||||
 A Bearcat of the Aéronavale drops napalm on Viet Minh Division 320th's artillery during the operation. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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 Viet Minh
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Christian de CastriesJean Gilles
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Văn Tiến Dũng
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| Strength | |||||||||
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21,000–24,500 supported by Chaffee tanks. |
1 regular division + regional forces |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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France: 113 killed 505 wounded 151 missing |
1,000 killed 2,500 wounded 182 captured (French estimates). |
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Operation Mouette was an operation in 1953 by the French Army in Northern Vietnam during the First Indochina War. It was launched on October 15 in an attempt to locate and destroy Viet-Minh Chu Luc troops operating under the command of Võ Nguyên Giáp around the area of Phu Nho Quan, south of the Red River Delta. Following the establishment of a French camp in the area, various troops were dispatched to engage the Viet-Minh forces. The operation was ended and the French withdrew by November 7, claiming approximately 1,000 enemy combatants killed, twice as many wounded, and 181 captured as well as a substantial quantity of weapons and ammunition.
The First Indochina War had raged, as guerrilla warfare, since 19 December 1946. From 1949, it evolved into conventional warfare, due largely to aid from the People's Republic of China ("PRC") to the north. Subsequently, the French strategy of occupying small, poorly defended outposts throughout Indochina, particularly along the Vietnamese-Chinese border, was failing. Thanks to the terrain and the close border with China, the Viet-Minh had succeeded in turning a "clandestine guerrilla movement into a powerful conventional army", something which previously had never been encountered by the western world. In October 1952, fighting around the Red River Delta spread into the Thai Highlands, resulting in the battle of Na San, at which the Viet-Minh were defeated. The French used the lessons learned at Na San – strong ground bases, versatile air support, and a model based on the British Burma campaign – as the basis for their new strategy. The Viet-Minh, however, remained unbeatable in the highland regions of Vietnam, and the French "could not offset the fundamental disadvantages of a road bound army facing a hill and forest army in a country which had few roads but a great many hills and forests". In May 1953, General Henri Navarre arrived to take command of the French forces in May 1953, replacing General Raoul Salan. Navarre spoke of a new offensive spirit in Indochina – based on strong, fast-moving forces.
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