One now can still find the iron vaults and sandbags atop the bunker. There used to be a roofed trench connecting the bunker of De Castries with the blockhouse at Cay Da in Hill A1. French troops piled up wooden planks and sandbags to make trenches. They took the wooden planks from the houses of the Vietnamese ethnic minority groups.
Command bunker of General De Castries
Location: The Command bunker of De Castries lies at the heart of the entrenched camp of Dien Bien Phu in the middle of the Muong Thanh Field.
Characteristics: The original shape and size, structure and arrangement of the bunker are kept intact.
Fifty years ago, one could see the top of the bunker from a high hill. To reach there, however, Vietnamese troops had to fight heroically during 55 days and nights, amidst numerous hardships and difficulties. Around the bunker were situated dense systems of defense lines, including many layers of barbed wires and four tanks. The bunker is 20m long and 8m wide. It consists of 4 compartments, which serves as both working offices and resident places.
One now can still find the iron vaults and sandbags atop the bunker. There used to be a roofed trench connecting the bunker of De Castries with the blockhouse at Cay Da in Hill A1. French troops piled up wooden planks and sandbags to make trenches. They took the wooden planks from the houses of the Vietnamese ethnic minority groups.
Inside this bunker, De Castries received such high-ranking officers as French Prime Minister Joseph Laniel, US President Dwight Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as well as well-known journalists. At 5h30pm on May 7th, 1954, Ta Quoc Luat, head of Company 360, Regiment 209, Division 312 captured alive General De Castries who was sitting at his desk in the corner of the bunker.