Editing Battle of Dien Bien Phu (section)

===Béatrice===
[[File:Dien Bein Phu map.png|thumb|250px|French dispositions at Điện Biên Phủ, as of March 1954. The French took up positions on a series of fortified hills. The southernmost, Isabelle, was dangerously isolated. The Viet Minh positioned their five divisions (the 304th, 308th, 312th, 316th, and 351st) in the surrounding areas to the north and east. From these areas, the Viet Minh artillery had a clear line of sight to the French fortifications and were able to accurately target the French positions.]]

The Viet Minh assault began in earnest on 13 March 1954 with an attack on the northeastern outpost, ''Béatrice'', which was held by the 3rd Battalion, 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade. Viet Minh artillery opened a fierce bombardment with two batteries each of 105{{nbsp}}mm howitzers, 120{{nbsp}}mm mortars, and 75{{nbsp}}mm mountain guns (plus seventeen 57{{nbsp}}mm recoilless rifles and numerous 60{{nbsp}}mm and 81/82{{nbsp}}mm mortars). French command was disrupted at 18:30 when a shell hit the French command post, killing the battalion commander, Major Paul Pégot, and most of his staff. A few minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel [[Jules Gaucher]], commander of the entire central subsector, was also killed by artillery fire. The Viet Minh 312th Division then launched an assault with its 141st and 209th Infantry Regiments, using [[sapper]]s to breach the French obstacles.

''Béatrice'' comprised three separate strong points forming a triangle with the point facing north. In the southeast, strong point ''Beatrice''-3, its defenses smashed by 75{{nbsp}}mm mountain guns firing at point-blank range, was quickly overrun by the 209th Regiment's 130th Battalion. In the north, most of ''Beatrice''-1 was swiftly conquered by the 141st Regiment's 428th Battalion, but the defenders held out in corner of the position for a time because the attackers thought they had captured the entire strong point when they encountered an internal barbed wire barrier in the dark. In the southwest, the assault on ''Beatrice''-2 by the 141st Regiment's 11th Battalion did not fare well because its assault trenches were too shallow and portions of them had been flattened by French artillery. Its efforts to breach ''Beatrice''-2's barbed wire were stalled for hours by flanking fire from ''Beatrice''-1 and several previously-undetected bunkers on ''Beatrice''-2 that had been spared by the bombardment. The holdouts on ''Beatrice''-1 were eliminated by 22:30, and the 141st Regiment's 11th and 16th Battalions finally broke into ''Beatrice''-2 an hour later, though the strong point was not entirely taken until after 01:00 on 14 March.{{sfn|Boylan|Olivier|2018|pp=78–83}} Roughly 350 French legionnaires were killed, wounded, or captured. About 100 managed to escape and rejoin the French lines. The French estimated that Viet Minh losses totaled 600 dead and 1,200 wounded.<ref name="d236">{{harvnb|Davidson|1988|p=236}}</ref> According to the Viet Minh, they lost 193 killed and 137 wounded<ref>Một số trận đánh trong kháng chiến chống Pháp và chống Mỹ 1945-1975. Viện lịch sử quân sự Việt Nam, 1992. Tập 2. Trang 71</ref> The victory at ''Beatrice'' "galvanized the morale" of the Viet Minh troops.<ref name="d236" />

Much to French disbelief, the Viet Minh had employed direct artillery fire, in which each gun crew does its own [[artillery spotting]] (as opposed to indirect fire, in which guns are massed further away from the target, out of direct line of sight, and rely on a forward artillery spotter). Indirect artillery, generally held as being far superior to direct fire, requires experienced, well-trained crews and good communications, which the Viet Minh lacked.{{sfn|Davidson|1988|p=227}} Navarre wrote that, "Under the influence of Chinese advisers, the Viet Minh commanders had used processes quite different from the classic methods. The artillery had been dug in by single pieces...They were installed in shellproof dugouts, and fire point-blank from portholes... This way of using artillery and AA guns was possible only with the expansive ant holes at the disposal of the Viet Minh and was to make shambles of all the estimates of our own artillerymen."<ref>Navarre, p. 225</ref> Two days later, the French artillery commander, Colonel [[Charles Piroth]], distraught at his inability to silence the well-camouflaged Viet Minh batteries, went into his dugout and committed suicide with a [[grenade]].<ref name="Windrow, p. 412">{{harvnb|Windrow|2004|p=412}}</ref> He was buried there in secret to prevent loss of morale among the French troops.<ref name="Windrow, p. 412"/>