heavily trained armies in Southeast Asia as well as Asia in a large extent. Establishment The PAVN was first conceived in September 1944 at the first Revolutionary Party Military Conference as the Propaganda Unit of the Liberation Army (alternatively translated as the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army, ) to educate, recruit and mobilise the Vietnamese to create a main force to drive the French colonial and Japanese occupiers from Vietnam. Under the guidelines of Hồ Chí Minh, Võ Nguyên Giáp was given the task of establishing the brigades and the Propaganda Unit of the Liberation Army came into existence on 22 December 1944. The first formation was made up of thirty-one men and three women, armed with two revolvers, seventeen rifles, one light machine gun, and fourteen breech-loading flintlocks. It fought the PAVN's first ever engagement at the Battles of Khai Phat and Na Ngan against French soldiers in late 1944. The United States' OSS agents, led by Archimedes Patti – who was sometimes referred as the first instructor of the PAVN due to his role - had provided ammunitions as well as logistic intelligence and equipment. They also helped train these soldiers, who formed the backbone of the Vietnamese military to successfully fight the Japanese and other opponents. For instance, the PAVN's July 19, 1945 attack at Tam Dao internment camp in Tonkin saw 500 soldiers kill fifty Japanese soldiers and officials, freeing French civilian captives and escorting them to the Chinese border. The PAVN also fought the Japanese 21st Division in Thai Nguyen that year, and regularly raided rice storehouses to alleviate an ongoing famine. The name was changed to the Vietnam Liberation Army (Việt Nam Giải phóng Quân) on 15 May 1945. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed in Hanoi by Ho Chi Minh and Vietminh on 2 September 1945. Then in September, the army was renamed the Vietnam National Defence Army (Việt Nam Vệ quốc Đoàn). At this point, it had about 1,000 soldiers. On 22 May 1946, the army was called the National Army of Vietnam (Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam, not to be confused with the opposite Vietnamese National Army of the France-associated State of Vietnam which had a synonymous English name and exactly the same Vietnamese name). Lastly, in 1950, it officially became the People's Army of Vietnam (or Vietnam People's Army, Quân đội Nhân dân Việt Nam). Võ Nguyên Giáp went