forces there. Navarre committed his thoughts to paper on September 19 in a general instruction relegating the threat to Laos as "provisionally reduced" relative to the Delta, and thus chose to commit forces to that end over Dien Bien Phu. Division 320 of the People's Army, operating in the Phu Nho Quam forests, 12 miles from the De Lattre Line, was targeted by Operation Mouette. Operation Mouette is the French term for seagull, deriving from the Norse Mavri or Old English Maew. The operation, launched on October 15, was described by Martin Windrow as "not a raid, but an attempt to fix and destroy a major element of the Chu Luc before Giap could deploy it." The route for the Viet-Minh between Thanh Hóa and the Delta contained a crossroads at Lai Cac which was targeted by the operation. Seven Mobile Groups (Groupes Mobiles) were deployed with river and amphibious units; tank units (largely the M24 Chaffee); half-tracks and paratroopers at designated landing sites, after counter-intelligence misled the Viet-Minh into defending the wrong locations. GM 2 and GM 3 took Lai Cac and established a camp under Colonel Christian de Castries, who would go on to command at Dien Bien Phu, and General Jean Gilles who would command Dien Bien Phu's initial paratrooper occupation. After occupation, the night of October 18 saw heavy counterattacks, which the French resisted. A battalion of the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade under Major Paul Pégot held out all night against one enemy battalion, and was "regarded as a particularly solid unit." followed by two weeks of probing by GM 4 and paratrooper units. These columns fought major engagements in the surrounded countryside against Division 320, particularly on November 2, which continued until French withdrawal overnight on November 6. The French claimed over 1,000 enemy killed and 2,500 wounded, while 182 were captured, along with "500 infantry weapons, plus 100 bazookas and recoilless guns and 3,000 mines." Windrow notes that this would amount to one third of Division 320, and Wiest writes that the operation "weakened the VM 320th Division." French casualties amounted to 113 dead, including seven officers, and 505 wounded men, including 22 officers. 151 were also recorded as missing. Aftermath Navarre, despite the success of the operation, noted – according to Windrow – the "inefficiency of the bulk of the Expeditionary Corps' infantry by late 1953" and would state in front of the