Editing Battle of Route Coloniale 4 (section)

==Battle of RC4==
[[File:Ho Chi Minh in Dong Khe, 1950.jpg|thumb|[[Ho Chi Minh]] observing the battle at Dong Khe]]
On 30 September, Groupement Bayard set out from Thất Khê, led by the 1 BEP. However, Giap had concentrated ten battalions around Đông Khê, reinforced by a complete [[artillery]] [[regiment]], together with the remaining forces from Le Hong Phong I. The Việt Minh rebuffed the French forces, which were forced to pull back and wait for air support. Le Page renewed the attack on 2 October, pushing west to bypass Đông Khê as Việt Minh numbers were overwhelming.

Meanwhile, Colonel Charton's group, led by the 3rd Battalion, 3rd REI, left Cao Bằng on 1 October; contrary to orders he took with him his heavy equipment. The group's movement down RC4 was slowed by Việt Minh ambushes. After bitter fighting, they finally abandoned their heavy equipment and linked up with Groupement Bayard in the hills around Đông Khê on 5 October.

The French forces were driven into the Coc Xa gorge, where they were completely annihilated by 7 October. Martin Windrow notes that "Some 130 of the Legion parachute battalion out of the 500 that had jumped emerged from this breakthrough fight; they had only escaped by clambering down lianas shrouding a 75&nbsp;ft cliff with their wounded tied on their backs".<ref>Windrow, Martin: ''The Last Valley'', 2004</ref>

In an attempt to support the embattled troops the 1st BEP Replacement Company (120 men) under Lieutenant Loth had been merged with 268 men from the [[3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment|3rd Colonial Commando Parachute Battalion]] (3rd BCCP) under Captain Cazeaux and they were parachuted into Thất Khê on 8 October, but over the course of the next week were destroyed as well. Only 23 survivors of the 1st BEP, led by [[Pierre Jeanpierre|Captain Jeanpierre]], managed to escape to French lines: it became the first French parachute battalion lost in combat, followed by the 3rd BCCP, of which only 14 soldiers returned unscathed.