Indochina
The battalion boarded the transport ship “Pasteur” on the 24th of October, 1948 at Mers El-Kebir, and arrived in Indochina on the 12th of November that same year. During the entire period of conflict in Indochina, the unit primarily saw action in Tonkin (northern Vietnam).
As part of a consolidation of parachute-trained French formations the Parachute Company of 3e REI was disbanded on May 31st, 1949 and its men - three officers, fourteen NCOs and ninety-two legionnaires - were transferred to 1er BEP.
On September 16, 1950, the French post at Dong Khe was overrun, with only a small handful of survivors of the garrison making their way south to French lines at That Khe. In response, on September 17 and 18, the battalion jumped on That Khe in order to reinforce the combat command under Lieutenant Colonel Lepage, operating out of nearby Lang Son, and to rescue the evacuated survivors of the Battle of Cao Bang, who were holed up in That Khe. Following a consolidation of French forces at That Khe, the battalion lead the French forces north towards Dong Khe with plans to retake the town, hold it long enough to link up with French forces retreating from the north, and then evacuate south. Although the two French groups were able to link up, heavy Viet Mihn interdiction on the roads and constant ambushes in the thick jungle forced the French off the roads in an attempt to bypass the town. In so doing, the entire battle group was forced into the Coc Xo gorge, where it was destroyed piecemeal. An attempt to reinforce the battle group occurred on the night of October 8 when approximately 570 additional reinforcements were dropped near That Khe in an attempt to draw the Viet Minh forces away from the gorge, but this operation became hopelessly bogged down and the reinforcements were cut to pieces in turn. The unit was almost entirely destroyed in the subsequent battle in October around Dong Khe, with only 130 men of the battalion remaining of the original 500 who jumped. In this engagement, the battalion distinguished itself in its willingness to go to great lengths to evacuate their wounded through forbidding terrain, including an incident in which the men rapelled down a 75 meter cliff at the Coc Xo gorge with the wounded strapped to their backs. Over the course of the battle and subsequent engagements between the 17th of September and the 30th of October, the unit lost 21 officers, 46 NCOs, and 420 men killed or wounded, including the battalion commander, Pierre Segretain, killed in action the night of October 7. Only isolated elements of the battalion were able to rejoin the French lines, including Captain Jeanpierre, who would later command the regiment in Algeria. Having ceased to exist as a combat-worthy formation, the unit was disbanded on December 31, 1950.
The 1st BEP reformed on the 18th of March, 1951 from the survivors of the original battalion (which had up to that point been attached to the 2nd BEP), as well as men from the 2nd BEP and reinforcements newly arrived from North Africa. Thus the battalion consisted of 3 companies, including a headquarters formation, the 1st and 2nd companies, and a company composed of Indochinese volunteers.
On the 10th of September, 1951, the unit returned to combat during Operation Tulip, part of General de Lattre de Tassigny's effort to put the Viet Minh on the defensive around the Cho Ben pass, north of Hoa Binh. The operation was a tactical success with the battalion successfully assisting in the capture of Hoa Binh, but further counter-attacks by the Viet Minh in November convinced the French military command at they were overextended and as a result the area was evacuated, with the last units leaving Hoa Binh in February, 1952.
Having reached an apparent stalemate in early 1952 around the Red River Delta, the French command again decided to go on the offensive, giving the plan the code name Operation Lorraine. On November 9, 1952, the 1st BEP and other airborne formations were dropped into combat near Phu Doan, capturing a quantity of Viet Minh supplies and securing the area. However, the operation failed in drawing the Viet Minh into a large, set-battle (as the French commanders had hoped), and as such the operation was abandoned and the remaining French forces were withdrawn on the 16th and 17 November. The battalion was one of the formations selected to hold the rearguard post at Na San, where it sustained a fierce assault from the Viet Minh between November 23 and December 2, 1952. The post was well-fortified and held in the face of overwhelming numbers, with the bloodied Viet Minh falling back after a week of fighting.
After falling back to the French defensive positions around the de Lattre line, the battalion was reorganized and reinforced, with a third company of legionnaires being added, bringing the total strength of the battalion to 4 combat companies: 3 legion and 1 Indochinese. In addition, on September 1, 1953 the 1st Foreign Parachute Heavy Mortar Company (French: 1ere compagnie étrangère parachutiste de mortiers lourds, 1 CEPML) was created and attached to the 1st BEP.
On November 21, 1953, the unit was dropped as part of the second wave of French troops into the area around Dien Bien Phu as part of Operation Castor, with the objective of securing a WWII-era landing strip and drawing the Viet Minh into another pitched battle against a well-defended position. The operation was completed without incident, with the battalion digging in around Dien Bien Phu in late November, 1953. During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the battalion was divided into mobile fire-brigades, with the primary focus being the Huguette forts, specifically Huguette 5. The 1 CEPML was stationed at Dominique 2 until the 14th of March, 1954, at which point it was shifted to various locations in the fort. Despite furious resistance, the 1st BEP is destroyed for a second time on May 7, 1954 with the final fall of the outpost. The unit lost 316 men killed in action over the course of the siege, not including those who subsequently died in captivity in Indochina.
Read more about this topic: 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment, History