Yen Bai Mutiny - Attack

Attack

At around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, 10 February 1930, approximately 50 troops belonging to the Second Battalion of the Fourth Regiment of Tonkinese Rifles (Régiment de Tirailleurs Tonkinois), stationed at Yen Bai, reinforced by around 60 civilian members of the VNQDD, attacked their 29 French officers and warrant officers. The plan was for the rebels to split into three groups. One group was to infiltrate the infantry barracks, kill French NCOs in their beds and raise support amongst the Vietnamese troops; a second, which was to include the external VNQDD members, was to fight its way into the post headquarters, while the third group would enter the officers' quarters. The longer term goal was to capture the barracks, secure the city, set up anti-aircraft guns in the hills and create a strong point around the railway station. They were to dig trenches around it to defend it from incoming colonial forces.

The Frenchmen were caught off guard and five were killed, with three seriously wounded. The mutineers managed to win over a few more tirailleurs from the 5th and 6th companies of the battalion, and even managed to raise the flag of the VNQDD on top of one of the buildings. They managed to capture the armoury and proclaimed victory. The leaders of the uprising sent a patrol into the centre of the town to exhort the populace to join the insurrection, falsely claiming that they had already eliminated the entire French officer corps.

About two hours later, it became apparent that the badly coordinated uprising had failed, as the remaining 550 native soldiers refused to participate in the mutiny, instead helping to quell the rebellion. Some went into the town to protect French civilians and office buildings from attack. Three Vietnamese sergeants were subsequently awarded the Médaille militaire for their role in the suppression of the mutiny, while six other tirailleurs received the Croix de Guerre. The attack initially generated confusion among the French administration. It was widely reported by the French media in Vietnam and Europe that the Indochinese Communist Party had organised the uprising.

Due to the failure of their attempt to take control of the barracks, the VNQDD leaders did not get around to seizing the train station and reinforcing it. They also forgot to cut the telegraph lines, allowing the colonial forces to send a message requesting air support.

One reason given to explain the failure of the bulk of the garrison to support the rebels was that a local VNQDD leader inside the garrison, Quang Can, had fallen ill in the lead-up and was sent to a hospital in Hanoi. When he heard of the failed uprising, he committed suicide. In addition, the insurrectionists had failed to liquidate the Garde indigène (native gendarmerie) post of Yen Bai town and were unable to convince the frightened civilian population to join them in a general revolt. At 07:30, a counterattack by tirailleurs of the 8th company of the battalion led by their French commander, backed by a single aircraft, scattered the mutineers; two hours later, order was re-established in Yen Bai.

On the same evening, the two VNQDD insurrectionary attempts in the Son Duong sector also failed. When Nhu saw the light flashing from Lam Thao, he ordered his men—numbering around 40—to enter Hung Hoa and head for the barracks, to raid the Garde indigène post. Nhu's men traversed the streets and avoided passing the French administrative offices and arrived at the military complex, shouting at the Vietnamese sentries to open the doors and join the revolt. One of the VNQDD militants carried a banner saying "Revolutionary Armed Forces: Every Sacrifice for the Liberation of the Fatherland and the Vietnamese People". They had banked on their countrymen joining them, but instead were met with gunfire. The VNQDD responded by throwing bombs over the walls and setting fire to a side door. They then forced their way in and focused their attack on the residence of the commanding officer, but he managed to escape. Three of the men penetrated the officer's compounds to mount a search. The colonial forces were vastly stronger and easily repelled the VNQDD group, who retreated and headed towards the river. However, their three comrades were in the compound searching for the commanding officer and did not hear the signal to retreat. Nevertheless they were able to escape after the colonial troops had already dispersed their VNQDD colleagues. The French captured three other men and 17 unused bombs.

It appeared that the Vietnamese soldiers and Garde indigène gendarmes comprising the Hung Hoa garrison had received prior warning of the insurrection. The VNQDD members had done propaganda work in trying to cultivate the Hung Hoa tirailleurs in the past and were confident of being able to sway them. Possibly wary of the loyalty of the locally recruited tirailleurs and gardes, French officials had brought in 50 troops from another area on the eve of the uprising.

Nhu then decided that his men would go to Lam Tho to reinforce their colleagues. On the way, they stopped at the nearby town of Kinh Khe, where the instructor, Nguyen Quang Kinh, and one of his two wives were slain by VNQDD members in an apparent revenge killing. Kinh had previously been affiliated with the VNQDD, whose members took him away. His wife had tried to follow him, so the VNQDD captured her as well. French intelligence reports speculated that Kinh had been killed because he would not join his former colleagues. Nhu then led his men through Lam Tho. The plan was that they would help to consolidate the other unit's control on the town until the afternoon. They were hopeful that the attack in Yen Bai would have been successfully completed by then, and that the mutineers and people of Yen Bai would come to Lam Tho and stage their forces before attacking the barracks at Phu Tho. However, they were not fast enough.

Earlier in the night, the NVQDD group at Lam Thao had managed to destroy the Garde indigène post in Lam Thao and the VNQDD briefly seized control of the district seat. They had disarmed the Vietnamese personnel of the Garde indigène detachment in the town and the district chief fled, so the nationalists were only able to burn down his quarters. A young VNQDD member had rallied the towns population by propounding the plans of the VNQDD, and the population in the surrounding areas responded by entering the town shouting nationalist slogans and offering to either volunteer to join the uprising or donate food supplies. The VNQDD flag was raised over the town and a proclamation of victory was read out. At sunrise, a newly arrived Garde indigène unit inflicted heavy losses on the insurgent group, mortally wounding Nhu, one of the main leaders of the VNQDD. Nhu attempted to commit suicide, finally succeeding on the third attempt. Many of the rebels were captured and the remainder retreated. The French engaged in punitive raids into Son Duong, burning down 69 homes, forcing the villages to pay extra taxes and perform corvee labour to rebuild the destroyed French property in Lam Thao.

Aware of what had happened in the upper delta region, Chinh abandoned plans for an attack on the Son Tay garrison and fled, but he was captured a few days later by French authorities. The French imposed a curfew on Hanoi, the capital of northern Vietnam for 12 days. French troops were sent to Son Tay and Phu Tho where attacks by the VNQDD had been planned, and reinforcements were sent to Tuyen Quang, Nam Dinh and Hai Duong as well. Garrisons that consisted entirely of Vietnamese were reinforced with French soldiers.

A few further violent incidents occurred until February 22, when Governor-General of French Indochina Pierre Pasquier declared that the insurrection had been defeated. On February 10, a policeman was injured by a VNQDD member at a checkpoint in Hanoi; at night, arts students pelted government buildings with bombs. The buildings were targeted because they symbolised what the students regarded as the colonial state's repressive power. On the night of February 15 and the early morning of February 16, the nearby villages of Phu Duc in Thai Binh province and Vinh Bao in Hai Duong province were seized for a few hours by the leader of the VNQDD, Nguyen Thai Hoc, and his remaining forces. In the first case, the VNQDD fighters disguised themselves and colonial troops and managed to trick their opponents, before seizing the military post in the town. In the process, they wounded three guards and disarmed the post. In the second village, the local mandarin of the French colonial government, Tri Huyen, was murdered. After being driven out, the VNQDD fled to the village of Co Am. On February 16, French warplanes responded by bombarding the settlement. It was the first time that air power had been used in Indochina. Five wooden Potez 35 biplanes dropped 60 10 kg bombs on the village and raked machine-gun fire indiscriminately, killing 200, mostly civilians. On the same day, Tonkin's Resident Superior René Robin, ordered a mopping-up operation involving two hundred Gardes indigènes, eight French commanders and two Sûreté inspectors. The insurrection was officially declared over on February 22, after Hoc and his lieutenants, Pho Duc Chinh and Nguyen Thanh Loi, were apprehended while trying to flee into China. Robin told his officials to publicise the punitive bombing of the village in order to intimidate and dissuade other settlements from supporting the VNQDD.