This Friday, May 3, 2024, the Alpes-Maritimes department wanted to pay tribute to the soldiers who died at Diên Biên Phu.
On Friday, May 3, 2024, a ceremony was held to honor the soldiers who fell at Diên Biên Phu. In attendance was Eric Ciotti, Deputy, President of the Finance Committee of the Alpes-Maritimes Department. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of this conflict, the Alpes-Maritimes department organized a ceremony to honor the memory of the veterans who died for France.
From 1946 to 1954, the Indochina War, opposing the French Union to the independentist Viet Minh, caused the death of 76,000 French soldiers. The battle of Diên Biên Phu took place from March 13 to May 7, 1954, and left a violent mark on minds. On May 13, 1954, the battle of Diên Biên Phu marked a turning point in France’s defeat. Following this particularly deadly episode, the French army experienced a series of defeats that led it to surrender on May 7. The Indochina War officially ended on July 21, 1954, with the signing of the Geneva Accords.
Bodies Found and Buried in Fréjus
France will soon repatriate the remains of six soldiers who fell at Diên Biên Phu, in present-day Vietnam, where the last battle of the Indochina War took place in 1954. “Now, a long process of identification and analysis begins”, the statement specifies, in an attempt to determine the identity of the soldiers who died for France.
The families of identified deceased soldiers will be able to have their remains returned. Unidentified bodies will be buried in Fréjus, at the Indochina Wars Memorial. “Seventy years have passed, the time has come for a complete and scientific history and a peaceful memory”, says Marie-Pierre Ferrucci-Feigenspan, general delegate of the Souvenir Français of the Alpes Maritimes.
