As someone who has been reading into all phases of the Vietnam Wars for a decade (including have read most of the essentials beginners stuff such as Bernard Fall's writings and the books America's Longest War and A Bright Shining Lie)...........

Having gotten into the war between Japan and China, I am amazed that there were similar situations to Dien Bien Phu where the Japanese were not only fighting against the high ground and surrounded in some cases but were even on the defensive, sometimes against American aid in bombings and artillery attacks against much higher number of forces.

The Japanese would survive......... By doing full out bayonet charges! Breaking out of the encirclement in a disciplined retreat or even outright defeating Chinese forces despite the Chinese holding the high ground and using artillery, vehicles, and even direct bombings from American planes........ In some cases in the same exact environment of a mountain with the low ground in a bowl like Dien Bien Phu.

The Japanese too would defeat European forces holding high ground (though not necessarily bowls in a low valley) during WW2 partially because of an all out bayonet attack combined with support from heavy gunners, artillery, vehicles, etc. Even against the America, their trench system did include mass counter attacks that sometimes succeeded in stopping marine advancement for enough time period for gameplans like newer tunnels to be built.

Indeed the French would often recapture important positions but be forced to abandon it due to lack of weapon supplies to hold it long enough to matter and the VietMinh would recapture it. The basic pattern was wait for air supplies for more ammo to recapture the fortress again from the VietMinh and attempt to hold the same recaptured places but end up abandoning again due to lacking ammo. The places they'd do the capture and abandon pattern were essential because they often were some of the easiest places to resupply by airdrop.

Eventually a combination of too high casualties and the fact French planes dropping resupplies getting shotdown and thus decreasing the already strained resupply system efficiency even more decided the siege.

The French would be sitting ducks each time they recapture the positions just hoping for the next parachute drop of ammo. Its an interesting thing to learn while casualties cut down on French numbers in these counterattacking units during the wait, what really pushed the French back and forced them to retreat was the VietMinh counterattacks............ A fair number consisting of troops who did bayonet charge in an attempt to copy World War 1 tactics. The French actually would hold off these attacks even with dwindling ammo before retreating. Its not even the VietMinh attempts at combined arms that ultimately pushed the French soldiers back from these positions but in the end its the report of mass VietMinh with bayonets attacking when they ran out of ammo that led to retreat.

I bring the less details up because the Japanese were infamous for being terrible at resupply in WW2..... Yet even in isolated fortresses that were bombed by supreme American airpower and bombarded by horrible amounts of American artillery and well-armed American soldiers with superior guns including a crap ton of some of the best heavy machine guns at the time and a coupleof tanks..............................................

These fortresses would take so much longer than expected even against an already dwindling supply stocks for Japanese soldiers. What would happen as marines and later even army soldiers tried to attack these trenches en mass in traditional firepower tactics of the time suddenly Japanese soldiers would counter attack and the superiority of the Imperial Japanese Army in close combat would end up pushing marines away.

Even in cases where the Japanese just stuck still sitting in their trenches and bunkers, when Americans attacked en wave.... Despite their preference for using guns to clear lines of trenches via flank and shoot in which a few American soldiers run across in the trenches while shooting...... Japanese soldiers even when taken by surprise would defend these trenches with bayonet and knives.

Their insane aggressiveness and far better skill with knives and bayonets (not to mention some were even using swords) had pushed back and even killed American marines and soldiers armed with Thompsons and other machine guns specifically for the purposes of clearing trenches. And the Americans had not choice but to clear many trenches one by one with soldiers entering it and clearing it by running the line trenches had.......

Because Japanese soldiers were both too well-dug in as well as too stubborn to abandon the trenches not to mention they were skilled with protective measures against artillery and air bombings...........

This is not even counting the Japanese use of tricks that shocked American soldiers such as how extensive their trench system was, the tunnels built to travel around, entire Japanese units pretending to be dead and suddenly stabbing American soldiers sent to start a clearing of each trenchline, and Japanese soldiers who by their fanaticism had the first few men bear so many bullets but closed in enough to kill the first American in line of his squad the clearing attempt (which allows the rest of the Japanese soldiers who ran out of ammo to quickly follow through and kill the rest of the surprised American trench clearing squad in close quarters).

I mean its obvious the VietMinh was doing the same mass wave tactics of World War 1 where Allies soldiers would attempt to take enemy trenches by fighting in melee............

I know Dien Bien Phu had many differences from the typical Japanese defenses such as lack of tunnels and the trenches being poorly dug and structures being made out of weak wood and having terrible architectural stability.......... Which was why so many positions fell so quickly in the first day............ And the French were too in-grained with modern Western firepower tactics and many units weren't that trained in hand to hand............

But would the French, if they didn't become so picky about sticking to Western squad fire tactics, been more successfully at counterattacking? Or at least last long enough in holding positions for it to make a difference? If not that than at least extend the battle by weeks or even a month (possibly even 2 or 3)?

If not the French, could the Imperial Japanese Army have done so in Dien Bien Phu in the same exact circumstances at the start (same defensive structures, airfield destroyed, enemy holds high ground, etc)? Japan's soldiers were insane in putting themselves in DBP like situations yet extending it 3X-4X even sometimes 5X longer than what Western generals expected and even surprising the Japanese high command's projection! Even sometimes ultimately winning esp in China........... With a surprising number won by bayonet counterattacks!

Some of these defensive battles didn't even have the infamous Japanese tunnel systems and superb entrenchments but were last minute efforts similar to how the French high command planned DBP turning it into a fortress out of the blue!

https://preview.redd.it/eywsmmoxcdvd1.jpg?width=430&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=565d036cfb061a5649f8bde9492fc2027a5f7ee6

To this day this absolutely dumbfounds me.

In World War 1 Navarre served in Cavalry often in scouting roles. In World War 2, he was involved in the intel and planning espionage roles for Free France when he wasn't out leading armored divisions. In fact before the war he even drafted a plan to assassinate Hitler back when his main job was in the German intel of French general staff!

So as someone so affiliated with intel-gathering for much of his military career, why the heck couldn't he spot the defects of fighting in a location like Dien Bien Phu? I simply cannot believe the kind of mistakes made in the battle esp during preparation months before fighting considering the resume he had!