Battle of Muong Khoua

Battle of Muong Khoua
Part of the First Indochina War
The three French positions at Muong Khoua. Alpha fell first, followed by the Mousetrap, while Pi held until midday.
Date April 13 – May 18, 1953 Location 21°4′39″N 102°30′18″E / 21.07750°N 102.50500°E / 21.07750; 102.50500 Muong Khoua, Kingdom of Laos (Phongsaly Province, Laos) Result Việt Minh victory
Belligerents
Democratic Republic of Vietnam	French Union Kingdom of Laos
Commanders and leaders
	Captain Teullier
Strength
	300 to 315[1][2]
Casualties and losses
One battalion and supporting mortar detachment.[1][2]	~310, four known survivors.
Sources give the strength of the French force as 300 Laotians, and a "dozen" French. Four are known to have made it to a second French outpost.[1]

The Battle of Muong Khoua took place between April 13 and May 18, 1953, in northern Laos during the First Upper Laos Campaign^[3] in the French Indochina War. A garrison of a dozen French and 300 Laotian troops occupied a fortified outpost in the hills above the village of Muong Khoua, across the Vietnamese border from Điện Biên Phủ. Muong Khoua was among the last French outposts in northern Laos following the decision of the French High Command to string isolated garrisons through the region in order to buy time to fortify the major Laotian cities against Việt Minh attack.

Many of these garrisons were given orders by radio to dig in and resist the approaching Việt Minh forces. Following the fall of a satellite strong point at Sop-Nao, the troops at Muong Khoua under Captain Teullier fought off a Việt Minh siege force for thirty-six days while supported by air-dropped supplies and air strikes. The small defending force repelled several direct attacks and endured a series of artillery bombardments. Two of the outpost's three strong points eventually fell in the early morning of May 18, and by midday the French force was defeated.

Four soldiers—two French and two Laotian—reached another French position 50 miles (80 km) away after six days of travel through the jungle; however, no one else escaped. The resistance of the French garrison became a popular rallying cry for French troops in Indochina as well serving as a precursor to French and Việt Minh strategies at the decisive Battle of Điện Biên Phủ the following year.^[1]