Operation Atlantide

The Battle of Hanoi marked the entry into total war between France and the Việt Minh. On the night of 19 December 1946, the Việt Minh launched a general offensive against all points held by the French in Hanoi. The street fighting was of rare intensity, spanning several weeks. French forces, although encircled, managed to hold the center and regain control of the city, inflicting heavy losses on the attackers. This bloody confrontation definitively transformed the Indochinese crisis into open conflict.

Operation Léa was the largest airborne and mechanized operation launched by France during the Indochina war. Its objective was to capture the Việt Minh high command at Bắc Kạn and destroy Giáp's main forces. Despite an initial tactical success (the capture of Bắc Kạn in a bold paratrooper raid), the resistance and rapid escape of the Việt Minh leaders, along with counterattacks on the retreat routes, prevented a decisive success.

The Battle of RC4 is one of the heaviest defeats of the French army in Indochina: the evacuation of Cao Bằng turned into a debacle in the mountainous jungle, with French columns annihilated in a series of ambushes and sieges at Dông Khê and along RC4. This catastrophe opened the way to the Việt Minh's conquest of northern Tonkin.