Việt Minh was in the city of Bắc Kạn. The French planned to capture Ho Chi Minh and the staff of the Việt Minh and destroy the main military force of the Việt Minh to gain a decisive victory over the Vietnamese independence movement. Operation Léa Operation Léa began on 7 October, with the landing of 1,100 paratroopers at the city of Bắc Kạn. The paratroopers swiftly took control over the city but failed to capture Ho Chi Minh and the other Vietnamese leaders. Losing the opportunity to neutralize the Việt Minh leadership, the French paratroopers found themselves fighting for survival as the Việt Minh counter-attacked and surrounded them. Ten French battalions of French troops (about 15,000 men) had started moving at the same time from the city of Lạng Sơn to Cao Bằng in the north and then down through Nguyen Binh to Bắc Kạn, to cut off supplies to the Việt Minh from China. The second objective was to surround the Vietnamese forces and destroy them in battle. Delayed by bad roads, mines and ambushes, it took the French column until 13 October to reach the vicinity of Bắc Kạn, where the Việt Minh put up a strong resistance. The French broke through on 16 October and relieved the paratroops. A four battalion riverine force that was supposed to assault up the Clear and Gam rivers encountered so many delays that they played no useful part in the battle. The French were unable to destroy the Việt Minh forces and most of the 40,000 guerrillas escaped through gaps in the French lines, including Ho Chi Minh and his staff with General Võ Nguyên Giáp. On 8 November, the operation was called off. Aftermath After failing to destroy the Việt Minh insurgency through knockout blows in Operation Léa and the later Operation Ceinture, the French supreme command changed tactics again. For financial and economic reasons, France was not able to send more troops to Indochina. The French began to establish outposts on the major roads (Route Coloniale 4 and Route Coloniale 3), to restrict the Việt Minh movement in north-east Tonkin but the Việt Minh was easily able to slip through the cordons and reinforce themselves from across the Chinese border. This would take the war from the stalemate into the first Việt Minh victories from 1949–1950. Notes References 1947 in French Indochina 1947 in Vietnam Battles involving Vietnam