Somewhere outside of Dien Bien

Book cover tank https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar-france-amx-13-avec-tourelle-fl-11/ 0500 Somewhere outside of Dien Bien, A herd of five black AMX-13 battle tanks, employed by the French army, sit idly in the cover of dusk, the sky is a light purple as the sun begins to slowly rise, there are 10 men gathered by the tanks, loading huge 76 mm shells of all kinds into the tank, checking the engines and suspension, where at a cleared position in the field lies a gathering of 5 men standing in a semi-circle around a trucks hood, the truck full of infantry , they’re loading their rifles and being briefed by their leaders. 

The 5 men, all tank commanders all look at a map of Dien Bien, and inscribed at the bottom of the valley is the position of the infantry and what directions and areas can be provided by fire support, Dien Bien is a heavily fortified clearing surrounded by rough terrain huge, towering mountains covered in jungle. An arrow indicates that from the South west air support will provide heavy bombings to enemy positions, the tankers position were marked and circled at “Sop Hun” and the Main infantry divisions to the right of the marked position, past the mountains and by the river “Na San”. A French tank commander named “Jean-Pascal Renou” brushes his thumb on his shaven face, his thumb brush through the small bristles as they poke his thumb, a tank commander to his right named “Maxime Auch” holds a porcelain cup desperately , as it’s warmth seeps into his cold frozen hands, the steam rises from the inside of the mug with each sip he takes. They all stand, the sun now having risen a little, the purple sky turning to a bright pink illuminating their position a little, the creek the tanks lie dormant by flows as chatter can be heard. 

Jean points at the map at their position, Sop Hun and clears his throat, speaking in his father tongue he says. 

“well with the terrain we have, we need to stay on the right side of the river, the left side is certainly a death sentence.” 

He then, slowly drags his finger over the aged paper and taps at the mouth of river “Nam Nua” continuing 

“All we need to do is follow the river to Ban Cang-“ 

Dragging his cold bony finger up the paper, following the blue faint line, he draws a path to Ban Cang, tapping their destination continuing. 

“- Here we will support the infantry and taking out the positions from behind and afar, strike the positions that are closest and work our way from there.” 

Jean than turns his head to the tanks, and around the silhouettes of the black tanks, the skies pink visage begins infusing with a bright orange. He looks at the other commanders , they are studying his finger as it points to the map, Jean continues. 

“- let’s aim to get here by let’s say 06 to 0700”. 

He looks around and a commander to the left of him named “Félix Crevier” plant’s his finger onto the map and his lips part. 

“Jean with all do respect, following the river on the left side gets up there safer, the right side is more dangerous and more accessible for an on foot enemy, further yet, if we are caught in an ambush where do we go?” 

Jean stands and inspects the map for a while until the commander to the far left of Jean named “Daniel Vannier” rose his raspy voice and spoke with a lisp. 

“If we are to achieve operational success I may advise that we situate ourselves onto the right of the river bank, this way we are protected from scouting parties and more adversely their artillery fire, if we are hit by artillery we are in trouble, We need the cover of the mountain.” 

The rest of the rabble begin chattering amongst themselves, all discussing various aspects of the map and how to go about certain terrain features, Jean watches as they all point to various positions and grow quiet, Maxime Auch places his now empty mug, onto the corner of the map and plant’s his warm finger onto the page and speaks, his breath smelling strongly of coffee, his tongue glide over his moustache savouring every drop that leaked into his thick moustache weaving under and over every fine bristle. 

With a groan he plants his finger onto the map and speaks in a deep voice. 

“Right here, here, here and here the river bends on the right, giving us a flat spots to scout with a clear view and to assess the situation, on the left it’s all hill terrain or slopes, we have no other option, furthermore, when we round the corner to the engaging position on the left we will be obscured by trees and foliage.” 

Jean inspects the map, as the deep voiced commander Maxime, continues. 

“We have infantry with us to cover us in case we do suffer from an ambush, and if that is the case, we will get there faster to minimize the response time of the defending battery, even then the possible points of an ambush are..”  

He pauses brushing his chin , thinking hard until the Raspy voiced man from earlier, Daniel Vannier chimes in. 

“it’s that last bend in the river that’s the ambush point, they don’t push too far out for they get surrounded, they don’t stay too close to their positions or the ambush is defective.” 

Jean watches as Daniel takes a pen and circles the hill he is talking about. 

“Nice pen” 

Jean says as, Daniel clicks the pen into it’s sheathed position and pockets it away discreetly, Jean inspects the map once more and with a slight smile he speaks. 

“If I was Ho Chi Min himself I would be laughing at our stupidity.” 

The commanders look up quickly and like confused dogs, stare long into his face as he watches the map. 

“Care to elaborate Jean?” says a new commander who has not spoken up until this point, he is a young feller, an aspiring commander whose voice beams with excitement, concealed with an obviously fake scratchy voice. His name is “Hervé Fétique”. 

Jeans eyebrow raises as he looks at the young commander and scoffs. 

“Well c’mon napoleon spit out the secret of war” 

Said Hervé with a fierce tone. 

Jean head raises from the map and , inspecting the gazes of the commanders his lips part. 

“Why have the enemy set up their defences as such?” 

The generals lower their head and inspect the map and while they inspect the map, Jean speaks. 

“one at a time, starting from left to right, so you Daniel, why do you think the enemy have set up their defences as such?” 

Daniel inspects the terrain and straightens his back, the badge on his beret glistens in the now orange and yellow sky as he speaks. 

“To hold the infantry this track is almost impossible with our heavier tanks like the Shermans and Chaffee’s , so  they think a hammer and anvil with infantry and tankers is not possible.” 

Jean nods and then looks at the young and naive Hervé and awaits his response. 

Hervé inspects the map and quickly scratches the back of his head as he looks to the side at the map speaking. 

“Well…I personally think that they want us to fear the right side, and take the left side unintentionally falling into an ambush, it’s far too obvious…” 

Jean nods, a little impressed with the young commanders response and, he turns to Félix and awaits his response. 

Félix having already inspected the map confidently is standing and was waiting for his turn patiently and speaks. 

“The left side is not suited for tanks, so why would the enemy gamble on an enemy taking the treacherous dangerous route for our tanks? who is to say they do not have a gun waiting for our tanks to crawl up the right side of the bank, and in the cover of the left forest, they take us out, one by one while we try and locate the gun.” 

Félix always was a strategist, however he had overlooked something crucial that Jean had noticed before by looking at the map, Félix smiled a little as Jean nodded and turned to his right, to Jeans right was Maxime who was plucking his moustache, watching the whole ordeal and , when Jean had turned to him, he stood firm and spoke. 

“I think that, although the theories so far have been good, they are not found or just, the Chinese have only gave the Chinese ancient artillery and never dare to give Uncle Min anything too serious, sure they could direct fire artillery, but they know as well as we do that we’re gonna give em hell with our boys and they’re gonna use every shell on our men, that’s why we need to be quick, and fast to support them.” 

Jean nods approvingly and says only one word. 

“Mines.” 

Everyone even Félix was a little surprised and looked a little puzzled, Maxime scoffed it and spoke. 

“Uncle Min ain’t got mines, they can barely fire at us with arty, let alone put mines in the ground.” 

Jean quickly snapped back speaking. 

“It is unanimously agreed that we take the path to the left of the river correct?” 

The commanders were silent but all silent but one, Maxime, He spoke in a annoyed tone as his face started to get illuminated by the rising sun. 

“Our boys out there are going to be getting massacred , we need to get there ASAP” 

Jean quickly snaps back once more like an old dog speaking. 

“It’s better we get there rather than not at all Maxime, Now call the Infantry leader over and let’s tell him the plan.” 

Maxime with a furious look on his face plants two fingers in his mouth and whistles, a bereted man just like the commanders comes jogging over with his sub machinegun hoisted around his chest with a sling. 

He jogs through the mud, with audible squishes and slushes through the terrain as he finally reaches them, he speaks. 

“Yea?” 

Jean points to the left side of the river Nam Nua and speaks. 

“We’re heading up the left side, theres gonna be some tough terrain jut avoid sitting Infront of the turret guns if you and your boys are gonna ride on the tanks.” 

The infantry platoon leader, nods in agreement and turns his head yelling. 

“IN FIVE” 

The soldiers spring up and all start sorting themselves. 

The other commanders, turn and head over towards their respective AMX-13 battle tank. 

Jean spins with on foot planted and proudly marching over with the map, he marches to greet a younger fellow, who is his driver, his name is “Louis Poullain”. Louis knew who was approaching him, by the sound and pace of the stride, Louis taps a suspension with his index finger and plants his dirty left hand on the hip of his coveralls, extending his right hand. 

Jean passes the map to Louis and taps him on the shoulder, inspecting the black beast up and down. 

“She combat ready?” 

As he awaits a response he slides his hand along the black steel, Louis squats down checking the suspension once more and speaks. 

“The shock absorbers need some adjusting but that’ll only take a minute, go check on that dolt Loïc” Louis than tucks the map into his back pocket and reaches for a spanner. 

Jean turns his head to the chatter that is to his right. And approaches “Loïc Leroux” he was the tanks gunner and the driver’s brother. He was talking with some men of the tank crew of the tank behind them, and Jean came up and with an air of authority spoke to Loïc. 

“Please go and check if the cannon and the cannon breach are ready Loïc” 

Loïc bid his friends farewell and quickly with great agility climbed up onto the top of the tank and opened up his gunner hatch, crawling into the darkness. 

Through the sunrise the yellow overtook the orange and faintly a blue hue could be seen in the distance as Louis pats the side of the tank and climbs up onto it, the first fourth and fifth tank in the columns engine fire up, with a thick smog flying out of the right side of the tank, the engines are not as loud as those the Shermans carry, but still loud enough to where you could hear it from a decent distance away, the infantry start coming over to the tanks to climb on, with one left behind in their truck carrying the rest of their gear, ready to follow the tanks. 

Jean grabs onto the side of the tank, as the infantry line up behind him, waiting for him to get inside the tank, he grabs onto the block on the back of the tank turret and slides over to his hatch, and upon opening it, in side it is completely dark, and sitting on the edge of the tank Jean quickly lowers himself into his seat, his head is half sticking out of the tank before he lowers the commanders hatch, infront of his eyes lie 4 visors that he can peer through quite easily however it’s a little blurry until he leands in, the cannon breach sits to the right of Jean and, on the other side of the cannon breach Loïc’s beret can be seen, infront of his legrest lies six shells of ammunition, and when Jean looks over his shoulder, a rack lies containing six more shells, Jean is quickly running through the preliminary checks before he commands his crew, Jean checks his right foot, which as expect has the trust radio system, Jean grabs the headset seated ontop of the cold metal box and quickly wears the one earpiece headset and speaks. 

“Hello?,Hello?,Hello?” 

Unanimously the crew responds. 

“Aye!” 

Jean smiles a little and produces his trust notepad which lies in the pocket ontop of his heart, he flips through a few notes, drawings and sketches of terrain before coming to a new new empty checklist, Jean reads off the list. 

“Horizontal Turret Traverse?” 

Quickly the turret begins to spin to the left and the visors the commander can see through begin filling with a yellow and blue sky Jean squints a little and continues. 

“Vertical Turret Traverse?” 

With a few squeaks and grinding noises the cannon breech starts falling and the gun barrel in turn, rising. Loïc gives Jean a reassuring smile and nods quickly. 

Jean points with the notepad in his right hand and taps the shell ejector behind the cannon breech and speaks. 

“Shell ejector?” 

Lazily Loïc quickly pushes his hand through the circular hatch and, when he pushes it open, some soldiers lower their head and peak in at Jean who are now seated on the back of the tank. Loïc begins returning the turret to it’s default position when Jean speaks. 

“Load APBC” 

Loïc than turns his head behind and watches as the shells roll into place, auto loading into the cannon breech, than raises his thumb up and begins filling the autoloader with the shells that lie Infront of his legs. 

Jean than inspects his notepad once more and quickly opens the small circular hatch that opens to the back of the turret sticking his hand through to get the soldiers attention. 

A solider grabs Jeans thumb and he quickly retracts his hand and speaks. 

“Please move out of the way of this hatch, unless you want to catch a hot shell in your lap.” 

Jean than quickly brings his hand inside of the tank once more and with his notepad in his other hand he speaks. 

“Engine checks?” 

Louis takes a good second look and does his preliminary checks, As he does this, through the visor jean can see that the commander in the tank Infront of him is waving a green flag, signalling that they’re ready 

Louis speaks. 

“Aye she’s rearing for a fight!” 

Jean leans back and exhales saying. 

“Start engine.” 

With a grunt muffled by the sound of a engine roaring the engine starts, it’s first few splutters are loud and indistinguishable however, they slowly come down to a more moderate volume, Someone says something through his earpiece but the engine being so loud Jean, pressed the earpiece against his skull a little harder and beckoned that they repeat, A voice, fileld with static replied. 

“What else Jean?” 

Jean quickly looked down at his notepad and spoke. 

“That’s it lad, I gotta make a check before we’re good to set off, while you’re at it pass me that map I gave you earlier.” 

The tank recoils forward as the infantry hop off the tank and bag the side of it loudly, Jean quickly undoes his hatch and springs out ripping off his headset snapping at the soldiers. 

“What?” 

They quickly snapback. 

“Watch where you are moving that turret! You almost crushed us!” 

Jean quickly sits back down and fastens his hatch, between his feet, hunched over is the driver, Louis holding his beret in one hand, and the map in the other, passes it to Jean and crawls back to his driver seat. Jean opens the map up a little and then reaches down to the radio, fiddling with a few dials. And with a flick of a switch, his ears are blasted with static for a few solid seconds before it dampens and he hears. 

“FOB 1442 SITREP?” 

Jean quickly replies. 

“AMX squad is almost ready to go Grid 121.234,349.009, Jean-Pascal Renou tank commander under shardou signing off.” 

Through the static a voice replies. 

“Copied, You should have been moving 30 minutes ago, do we need to delay the attack?” 

Looking at the map Jean than speaks. 

“If possible yes..” 

A sigh comes over the radio and there is some yelling in the background a voice quietly speaks over the radio. 

“Do not delay any further.” 

With that Jean gives a single reply. 

“Understood.” 

And quickly switches off his radio and reaches for his signal back which is located underneath his seat. 

Placing the pack onto of the cannon breech jean unshackles his hatch, and stands up on his foot rest twisting his torso a little raising the green flag high, waving it back and forth in the mostly light blue sky, that still radiates with hints of yellow. He than sees that the tanks behind him, like clockwork spring up out of their hatch waving the green flag in response, Jean than lowers himself neatly assorting his signal pack and placing it in its designated holder. 

Jean rapidly switches through the radio stations and speaks. 

“Unit are we all ready? 

Maxime, Félix, Daniel and Hervé all respond confirming they’re ready. Daniel’s tank was at the front of the formation labelled 01 with Félix following it labelled 02, and behind Félix lied Jeans labelled 03 tank than Maxime’s tank labelled 04, the last in the line was Hervé’s tank labelled 05 

With that conformation, the tanks roared as mud spewed from the track up onto the side of the tanks, the metal boxes jolted and Shaked around as the treads filled the gaps in the uneven, rough terrain as the followed the left side of the river, around about 20 minutes into the ride up the river Jean turned his head looking through the visors, the sky started to form clouds, the air grew heavier in the tank and Jean felt a little hot, so he unbuckled his hatch and rose out of his tank placing his hands, crossed on the rim of the hatch hole. 

Jean looking around Jean saw the beautiful azure sky, casting it’s grace onto the terrain below, the trees of the mountains were soft and graceful like silk, gracefully following the commands of the wind as if nothing was wrong. In his ear a voice spoke, it was that of Maxime. 

“Get your head down there could be enemy about anywhere! And I don’t want my sights getting covered in your brains!” 

Jean turned back towards the tank behind him and laughed before lowering himself into his tank and locking the hatch inside Jean replied. 

“I was surveying the area, if an ambush is up ahead they would have scout parties, they would never take the shot, if they did take the shot that means it’s an unexperienced unit who could never even hit the shot.” 

The mud entrapped itself in the tracks as the steel beasts sank into the mud  the engines roared carrying the tanks through the mountains, the rivers flowed and as the fumes erupting from the exhausts flushed down the side of the tank, Jean glances through his visor to see and it’s a surprise that anything can be seen he surveys the land but within the safety of the steel, tohis right lies the river, a bit of a distance away, maybe around 60 meters and to his right lied a dense jungle that lead into a valley, which held to no surprise more untamed jungle the view was a little blurry and through the fumes and mud being spewed from the tank Infront of his, Jean saw the infantry walking Infront of the tanks with their knifes and rifles and suddenly without warning the column stopped.  

Jean pressed his ear against his earpiece and with his hand signals to the driver to kill the engine. 2 or 3 voices came through a thick static wave into Jean sear all speaking at the same time. 

“Why have we stopped? What is this?” 
 

“The route that Jean forced us down is fucked! We can’t pass without taking hours to clear the foliage!” 

 

Jean unbuttoned so to say, and was standing outside of his tank and looked around, the infantry Infront of the column were taking shade in the jungle, and the tank at the front of the columns hatch opened. It was Daniel, he turned around waving his hand speaking, no cursing. 

“Where do we go now? we can’t get through this shit!” 

One by one the commanders’ hatches start to open, they shield their eyes as the sun makes unrelenting attacks towards their irises. The infantry commander begins walking over to the tanks when a squabble breaks out between the commanders, they all bicker in the blistering heat and Loïc taps Jeans leg. 

Jean lowers himself into the tank after having had enough of their squabble and sits in his tank, the inside is illuminated as the sunlight reflects and bounces off the left side of the tanks interior, as if it was a 180 the inside of the tank could be made out, and for the first time in this journey, Loïc’s face could be made out in the darkness. 

“What’s goin on?” 

Loïc says with a bit of concern Jean takes off his gloves and sits them onto the cannon breech, and raising his bottom off of his seat a little he digs deep into his back pocket and produces the map he had first drawn up, his finger traces over the left side of the river and whilst his finger slowly, and with an a distinguishable sound, slowly glides up the paper, he speaks after exhaling. 

“They’re all having a fuss, best just to wait it out.” 

As Jeans finger frolics up the paper, the other tank commanders curse each other, there’s all kind of talk of mothers dogs and sisters, with faint bobs and bangs of artillery and gunfire in the distance. 

The infantry leader begins yelling too and this continues for a while as Jean now stands out his tank, drawing lines from nearby mountains to where he suspects he is on the map. 

Jean has mapped his location roughly and sits inside of his tank and fiddles with his radio a little and holding his earpiece he speaks. 

“When you are done squabbling, I want to discuss a possible path ahead” 

The tank commanders pretty much all stop at this and sit within their tank and listen, none of them say a work, jean continues. 

“We obviously cannot traverse up the right side, so the infantry will push through the jungle and we will traverse the fields to the right , the water should be shallow enough for us to cross, we will follow the river up the right side, alongside the infantry covering them, as they move, vice versa, is this understood?” 

The tankmen all give a quick reply, and rotate their chassis 90 degrees to the right and begin crossing the river, Jean switches channels and talks to the infantry commander and informs him of the plan, and so the division split in two and travel up the stream. 

Around an hour later, the sun has now risen high, high above the tanks, the inside feels like furnaces as they bounce and plough through patties and flattened farms, demolishing the crops and scattering families as the beasts roar, some retreat to their homes and some would run into the forests. 

Jean and his crew, alongside the other tanks are bombed in the extreme heat and are sweating like pigs, they unbutton and come out of their tanks once more, although now in the direct vision of the sun, the cool winds smash against their faces and chests, cooling them down considerable. Surprisingly the engine oil temperature is barely reaching 70 degrees, as the engines roar sending echo’s through the valleys, if the Vietminh hadn’t heard them before, they defiantly have now. 

The infantry could somewhat be seen with their camo sometimes coming Infront of the tree line and weaving in between, Jean had taken a gander once he was free of the oven he was locked within, and all around him were mountains, reaching high covered in dense jungle harbouring potential enemies in any direction or distance, however his tanks lied within the empty, flat patties by the river.  

Unbeknownst to the tank crew, through the thick foliage, an artillery crew scrambles to lift the heavy piece, and aim it’s muzzle directly at a black steel beast, moving its way through thick mud, crushing the crops as it moves charging, full speed ahead towards it. 

The captain of the artillery crew, plants his eye against the eyecup of the artillery and lines up the centre of the crosshair to the entre of the tank, he licks his lips and quietly speaks in Vietnamese 

“Wait till the last moment…wait till they are right Infront of us” 

and quickly screams. 

“Bắn” 

Daniel , leading the column was talking to his gunner about this nice café he had been to once, that had a particularly nice woman, who had served him there on multiple times this discussion was cut short when a a 122 millimetre round, with an explosive warhead, bored it’s way through the steel, as it spun it grinded the steel on impact like a drill bit, forcing it’s way through wood. The time between the shell landing and the explosion of the charge, that lied behind it, from the artillery piece was so short that nobody had time to react, and before Daniel and his crew even knew their death was imminent , the shell had pierce their hull and from the corner of Daniels left eye he was a great white flash, everybody in that tank was filled with shrapnel from the explosive warhead of the round, their bodies spraying blood from their mouths, ears, noses and the wounds, coating the inside of the hull red as flames began to spew from the fuel tank. 

Jean heard the boom and saw a great array of sparks, along with an explosion erupt from somewhere Infront of his tank and immediately everyone had connected onto the radio system, they were initiating protocols to retreat when, a second boom erupted from the jungle and a lout screech can be heard as the shell flies by the tank column, Hervé’s voice erupts through the radio systems he orders his crew around the tank, trying to reverse however, another 10 seconds have passed and Jean hiding behind the tank infront of him as he reverses, sees the steel burning wreckage that is now bellowing smoke high into the sky, erupt into a flurry of explosions. 

Jean quickly speaks. 

“Don’t worry it’s just their ammo, keep reversing.” 

Hervé’s tank reverses and , his right track, crushes a landmine, spewing mud and debris through the bottom of the tank, a small shallow thud is heard by Jean. Jean is constantly trying to bring order to the formation however, without knowing where the shells come from, chaos breaks out, the fifth tank driven by Hervé’s right track, that had crushed me mine, ends up coming loose and breaks off, leaving it immobilised and it’s side exposed to the artillery cannon, Before Jean could even do anything, like return fire or smokes, Hervé the young tanker, receives a shell into the side of his tank, his ammunition explodes instantly sending the turret high into the sky. 

Jean dots a cross on his chest and orders his driver to turnoff the engine, and when the engine shuts off he comes out of his hatch and looks around quickly and cautiously. 

The tank at the start of the column which was spewing flames out of it’s engine and , the tank at the end of the column that was now turretless, as it’s turret ring spewed fire from within the hull, Jean caught a flash in the corner of his eye and immediately followed it up , a shell flew above their tanks it screamed as it zoomed by, making Jean retreat inside of his tank, he immediately shouts over the radio. 

“TO THE RIGHT OF THE TREELINE, BY THAT BIG ROCK WITH THE HUGE TREE TO THE LEFT OF IT LOB HE THERE!” 

Tank 04’s commander, Maxime, hiding the fright in his voice speaks. 

“Why not reverse in cover of smokes?” 

Jean than orders his crew to fire at where had described, and deploys all of the smokes in his tank , continuing. 

“We’re boxed in! the tank behind you Maxime is destroyed!  Deploy your smoke and shoot to the left of that rock if you want to live!” 

And so the steel beasts, roared as the cannons lobbed rounds back towards the enemy, the artillery Battery continued to fire as it received near misses from the tanks shooting randomly into the jungle, however, Jeans tank suddenly rocked forward and began roating to the right instead of reversing. 

“FUCK” 

The driver Louis cries out. 

Jean fumbles over his headset and screams. 

“STOP!” 

The artillery continues firing directly at their tanks as they lie in the field. 

“what the fuck is it?” 

“Check my right track is it fucked? We can’t move” 

“back off we have mines, go ahead and try follow the path we took, we’re stuck.” 

Jean said to the bickering commanders, Jean’s tanks treads had unbuckled like the 5th tank in the column and they were sitting ducks, the other commanders deployed their smokes and radioed once more 

“We can’t just leave you here Jean, you’ll surely be dead!” 

“Come in our tanks and we’ll get you out!” 

Jean smiled a little and responded. 

“We can’t who is going to cover you? If you try to get out of here, they’ll surely pick you off.” 

“aye Jean, so what do we do?” 

There was a silence over the radio and the smoke began to dissipate and clear. 

“there’s no time for thinking now Maxime, only action, go I’ll cover you two.” 

And so as the smoke cleared Jean ordered his gunner and his driver to help with firing, while Jean manual fired the gun. Tank 02 and 03, began to climb across the field while Jean lined the sights with that tree line and BANG, the entire tank rocking back, and the shell seamlessly flying out the back of the tank, they quickly inserted another High Explosive shell and within 5 seconds, they were ready to fire again BANG! This repeated for a good minute, countless high explosive rounds flew across the field in each direction , trees ripping and tearing out from their roots in the jungle as the explosion and shockwave threw dirt and mud up all over the place, whilst in the field the heavy shells tearing through the rice fields and sending water and mud all over the place, creating  decent sized craters. 

The artillery battery men, had been scrambling from gun to gun, a few had died, a few lost a leg or an arm, but those who could operate the artillery that wasn’t destroyed, had scrambled gun from gun to avoid the enemies fire and preserve the fire, two shirtless men, would carry the heavy round and run between the guns, loading them only once the tank had shot, they tried to see it through the scope however the winds from the east had blown a smoke stack that acted as a perfect screen across the field from the first tank that was destroyed, there was also small clouds of smoke that had bene ejected from the tanks the artillery commander who had wrapped his shrapnel filled face with his shirt, had continued to run with the boys form gun to gun to aim it. 

“I can’t see the demon! Where Is he?” 

The commander fiddles with his sight and through the blurred scope he can see a black shape moving to the left of the black column and with all and his men’s might, moves the heavy gun and aims it towards the shape. Leveling the gun, the shirtless men load the shell and the sights turn into a blur once they’re placed over the back shape and the men run from the gun covering their ears, as the commander yanks the firing pin with a string. 

Ducking for cover the men scramble to another gun, and by the time they reach it they hear that the tank they have aimed at has erupted into flames. 

They cheer as they the captain aims through the scop of the gun and searches for the next target. 

Jean in his commander seat searches for the artillery and running low on HE decides to switch to APHEBC, and orders the men to move the gun to the left, and right there his sight had passed, a boom erupts the muzzle flash as bright as the sun, Jean quickly reverses the traverse and shoots a shot straight through the artillery piece to the right of Jeans tank a loud eruption can be heard alongside the screams of men, jean looks through the visor in his commander hatch and see’s a man on fire running around helplessly, and he ends up running into a mine and his lower half is vapourised into a red mist, and is carried off with the wind, the tank spews fire, high into the sky with thick black smoke bellowing out faster and faster, making it’s way towards Jeans tank. 

Jean goes to signal to the last tank not to continue onwards, but by the time he can try and radio to them , in his vision he see’s a great orange array of sparks erupt from the side of the black tank labelled 04,  out from the entry point fire along side a red mist, flew out the ammunition exploded sending the turret high into the sky along side a black and red mix of smoke. Jean calmly told his crew to stop firing, and without telling them why he radioed to his head command,, around 4 times, receiving no response. The same with the infantry commander, Jean took off his beret and ruffed his hair up a little as panic really began to settle in. 

The men sat there and without a word waited, waiting for a response or something from the headquarters but a few hours passed and the faint voices of Vietminh could be heard, these men were almost all around their tank and the men sat silent, Jean slowly made sure his hatch was locked and peered through the visor he saw, five or six men, crawling up to his tank, with rifles and other assortment of weapons, they had climbed onto the tank and, seeing that hope was all but gone, Jean pointed the barrel of his service pistol towards the button of head, and aimed it up through his brain, slowly pulling the trigger as the Vietminh jumped onto the tank trying to saw open the hatch.