Its pretty much a common meme mocking the arrogance of the French army for the cluster%@#! that is Dien Bien Phu in particular about the widespread belief in the military stationed in Indochina that there is no way for the VietMinh to bring up artillery over the top of the mountains of DBP. An assumption that would cost the battle and lead to the worst defeat any European colonial power has aver faced after World War 2. So much to the point the French are the only major empire that lost a major head-on conventional pitch battle in the style of Clausewitz against the colonized rebels during the downfall of colonialism.
But as I read more into the whole war, it becomes apparent the French weren't alone in believing that it'd be impossible to transport artillery to Dien Bien Phu. Bernard Fall mentions that Americans who were involved in French affairs actually believed the uphill mountains would be extremely difficult even for the US army to transport any equipment with noteworthy firepower like AA guns and tanks never mind large tall heavy cannons that made up the bulk of Vietnamese far ranged weapons in the battle. At least one American intel officer ultimately agreed with the French conclusion that there's no way the stationed division there could lose as the VietMinh wouldn't have the weapons to obliterate the flimsy trenches and bunkers built on the location esp with French counter-battery. And even if they brought big guns, American analysts sincerely believed no way would they be brought in large enough numbrs with enough shells to pose a threat.
I seen British statements to the French also saying that while they warned the place would be a death trap if a Western equipped army is able to cross over, the artillery equipment would be a gigantic pain to bring up. Even the Soviets were treating the whole thing as a side show where if the VietMinh lost, its no big deal and a minor liability and if they win, well great investment for the communist PR withe little money thrown which is why the bulk of equipment came through Chinese direct aid rather than Soviets directly doing the supply chains. Basically plenty of the goods where Chinese-purchased if not even made in China and the Soviets while hoping for a victory, where not throwing big investments because they thought it'd more likely be another typical defeat in the war.
I have to ask why did the West practically believe that the VietMinh would unlikely to have transport mass artillery into Dien Bien Phu? I mean I'm just flabbergasted reading from not just Bernard Fall but from other books of how its not just the French but the Americans equally believed as well that artillery (or at least enough of it) would be impossible to transport across the hills over the summit of the highest mountains into the valley and the Brits and Soviet pessimism in the situation for the Vietnamese side. Why was this believe so rife among first world nations? instead DBP would be the greatest single victory in a traditional Western style mass battle ever won by the anti-colonialist revolutionaries and this is due to the fact they did the impossible task of transporting howitzers and other heavy firepower into the place despite large hills and even a mountain or two alone the way!
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Napoleon once said "where a goat can go, a man can go. And where a man can go, he can drag a gun".
And he was right.
However, another factor in getting the artillery in place was that the Vietnamese were able to do so stealthily. That was considered the really impossible part. The general western expectation was that in order to get any artillery heavier than a mortar up on those mountains would require a massive undertaking with the assistance of combat engineers, making the efforts readily noticeable.
Vietnamese forces learned to do things other militaries couldn't, in particular, moving vast quantities of materiel unseen over bad ground.
Well shit, if any country has earned its independence, it's Vietnam
That feel when you've kicked out the Japanese, the French, the Americans, and the Chinese with a detour to depose the Khmer Rouge and nobody thinks you're a military innovator because you had a modest budget. Worth it to sit down for a bowl of fucking noodles without some foreign dipwad telling you how to wipe your own ass.
The French were good at underestimating both the capability and will to fight of the Viet Minh. This was a fatal mistake, and it was one from which the Americans would not learn, leading to similar difficulties a decade later
It's the amount they were able to get there, and how well they were able to fortify and camouflage it. The French had a significant amount of artillery, but could not find any destroy the Viet Mihn artillery with counter battery.
The level of effort (and hundreds who died) moving this artillery through the jungle hundreds of miles defied belief.
It’s always a stupid move until someone does it. We mock the defeated for not blocking it. But Hannibal going through the alps, the Germans crossing the Ardennes, landings at Normandy and the Vietminh moving the artillery up the mountain worked because before they happened they sounded like stupid ideas. And to clarify all of these were extradionarily difficult feats that did incur heavy casualties. So the defenders in each situation are overly criticized for not anticipating something that most people wouldn’t try cause it sounds really dumb. The real strategic genius is in each case is the attacking force made something that sounded utterly illogical work to catch the enemy with their pants down.
It’s not just the guns but the logistics to keep them fed with ammo.
I don't think the issue was believing they wouldn't be able to bring artillery to DBP but rather that they won't be able to hide them on forward slopes. Since operating them from reverse slopes would be too hard due to spotting issues they would need to be operated from forward slopes, where French would see them and destroy them with their own artillery and airpower. In turn VM was able to camouflage and protect them well enough and airpower had its own issues providing expected support.
There were additional issue with doubting whether VM could keep supply chain going (high shell expenditure that would need to be covered by shitty infrastructure and even shittier VM transport capability) and whether they could even operate such weapons effectively due to lack of technical knowledge and whether Chinese would help.