Battle of Paper Bridge

The Battle of Paper Bridge, fought on 19 May 1883, was one of the numerous clashes during the Tonkin campaign (1883–86) between the French and the Black Flags. A small French force under the command of "capitaine de vaisseau" Henri Rivière blundered into a well-prepared Black Flag ambush at Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier), a few miles to the west of Hanoi. The French were enveloped on both wings, and were only with difficulty able to regroup and fall back to Hanoi. Rivière and several other senior officers were killed in the action.

Background

The battle took place two months after the French "commandant supérieur" Henri Rivière had raised the stakes in Tonkin, after several months of relative calm, by mounting an expedition to capture Nam Dinh (27 March 1883). During Rivière's absence at Nam Dinh the small French garrison at Hanoi defeated a Vietnamese army under the command of Prince Hoang Ke Viem at the Battle of Gia Cuc (28 March 1883). Relations between Liu Yongfu and Prince Hoang were very strained at this period, and a major factor in the Vietnamese defeat at Gia Cuc was Liu's failure, despite a promise to do so, to make a diversionary attack on the French defences with the Black Flag Army. In April 1883 the Chinese civil mandarin Tang Ching-sung, who had been sent to Vietnam in 1882 to assess the Vietnamese government's ability to resist French encroachment in Tonkin, reconciled the quarrel between Liu and Hoang and persuaded Liu to take the field in earnest with the Black Flag Army. Liu's decision to commit the Black Flag Army against the French was to have profound consequences, setting in train a chain of events that culminated eventually in the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). [Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française", 53–5]

The battle of Paper Bridge was precipitated by a challenge by Liu Yongfu, who posted up placards in Hanoi daring Rivière to come out and meet the Black Flag Army in the open field. Rivière believed that French prestige required him to respond to this challenge, and at dawn on 19 May 1883 led a column of around 450 French soldiers and sailors to attack the Black Flag Army in its positions at Phu Hoai, a few miles west of Hanoi. The column consisted of two companies of marine infantry (Captains Caboureau and Jacquin), the landing companies of the French warships "Victorieuse" and "Villars", and three artillery pieces. [Rivière’s column included the 31st Company, 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment (Captain Caboureau), the 24th Company, 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment (Captain Jacquin), the landing companies of "Victorieuse" and "Villars" (Lieutenants Pelletier de Ravinières and Sentis), 20 Cochinchinese riflemen (Lieutenant Dain), two 65-millimetre cannon and a Hotchkiss "canon-revolver" (Lieutenant Pissère and Ensign Le Bris), a small field hospital and a demolition party (Captain Guénot). Rivière left a small garrison at Hanoi, consisting of the 29th Company, 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment (Captain Retrouvey), the landing company of "Hamelin" ("enseigne de vaisseau" de Driésen), 19 marine artillery gunners and troops unfit to march.]

The French plan was discovered by Liu Yongfu's spies, and the Black Flag Army ambushed the French column at Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier), a bridge across a small river that took its name from a nearby paper mill. The Black Flags were deployed just to the west of Paper Bridge, in the villages of Trung Thong, Ha Yen Ke and Thien Thong. All three villages were surrounded by thick bamboo groves and clumps of trees, providing excellent cover for the Black Flags and also allowing Liu Yongfu to maneouvre his men without being observed by the French.

The battle

The French column set out from Hanoi at dawn and reached Paper Bridge at around 7.30 a.m. Rivière was unwell, and the column was under the direct command of "chef de bataillon" Berthe de Villers, an excellent professional soldier who had won a spectacular victory against the Vietnamese only seven weeks earlier at the Battle of Gia Cuc. While crossing the bridge, the French vanguard came under fire from Black Flag skirmishers. Berthe de Villers immediately deployed his men into line and pushed forward against the Black Flags, clearing them from the villages of Ha Yen Ke and Thien Thong. Liu Yongfu brought up his reserves, waited until the enemy line was fully committed, and launched a sudden counterattack against the French right wing. A Black Flag regiment trotted smartly into position with rifles at the slope, deployed into line, knelt down and fired a series of accurate volleys at close range. Berthe de Villers was mortally wounded in this engagement, and Rivière assumed direct command of the French column. To avoid being encircled, he ordered his men to retreat and regroup on the far side of Paper Bridge. The French retreat was initially conducted in good order, by echelons, and was covered by the three French cannon. However, disaster struck when one of the cannon overturned with the force of its recoil. Rivière and his officers rushed forward to help the gunners to right it, and the Black Flags fired a volley into this struggling mass of men. The volley killed one French officer and wounded Rivière and several of his aides. Seeing the French line in confusion, the Black Flags surged forward and drove back the French rearguard. During the fighting Rivière was killed. Complete catastrophe was only averted by the coolness of "lieutenant de vaisseau" Pissère, who assumed command of the demoralised French column, deployed the French infantry behind a dyke on the eastern side of Paper Bridge, and beat off a number of attempts by the Black Flags to cross the bridge and follow up their victory. The battle eventually died down, and Pissère marched the defeated French column back to Hanoi in good order. [Bastard, "Bazeilles", 171–89; Challan de Belval, "Au Tonkin", 131–2; de Marolles, "La dernière campagne du Commandant Rivière", 193–222; Duboc, "Trente cinq mois de campagne", 123–39; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 6–16; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 257–62; Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française", 55–8; Thomazi, "La conquête de l’Indochine", 152–7]

French casualties in the Battle of Paper Bridge were 5 officers and 30 men killed, and 6 officers and 46 men wounded. Besides Rivière himself, the dead included "chef de bataillon" Berthe de Villers, Captain Jacquin, "lieutenant de vaisseau" Héral de Brisis and Midshipman Moulun. Casualties in the Black Flag Army were around 50 dead and 56 wounded.

Significance

The battle was a serious defeat for the French, but its ultimate result was to strengthen the resolve of Jules Ferry's administration to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin. The news of Rivière's defeat and death reached Paris on 26 May, and the French navy minister Admiral Peyron declared 'France will avenge her glorious children!' The Chamber of Deputies immediately voted a credit of three and a half million francs to finance the despatch of a strong expeditionary corps to Tonkin.

In later years a reaction set in. Some critics questioned Rivière's tactics at Paper Bridge, suggesting that he had lost the battle because he had been too impetuous. In particular, he was faulted for accepting battle so readily and for exposing his guns to capture by placing them too far forward. Writing in the 1930s, Colonel Thomazi did his best to rebut such criticisms:

If Rivière had been more prudent and withdrawn his column as soon as he had crossed the bridge, when Berthe de Villers was wounded, our losses would have been smaller and the engagement would have remained indecisive. But he had marched out to disengage Hanoi and strike a heavy blow at the encircling enemy. To fall back at the first contact would have been to lose face, to encourage the boldness of the Black Flags, and to expose the town to attacks which even a modest success could prevent. And, given the results of the preceding skirmishes, such a success seemed certain. And were we not, by now, used to miracles? In Tonkin, as previously in Cochin China, victory seemed the invariable reward for boldness. Henri Rivière, a Parisian who considered himself anything but romantic, a writer who was also a man of action, died a hero, like Francis Garnier, for believing that nothing was impossible. [Thomazi, "La conquête de l’Indochine", 157]

Notes

References

* Bastard, G., "Défense de Bazeilles, suivi de dix ans après au Tonkin" (Paris, 1884)
* Duboc, E., "Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin" (Paris, 1899)
* Lung Chang [龍章] , "Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng" [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993)
* Marolles, Vice-amiral de, "La dernière campagne du Commandant Henri Rivière" (Paris, 1932)
* Nicolas, V., "Livre d'or de l'infanterie de la marine" (Paris, 1891)
* Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française" (Hanoi, 1931)
* Thomazi, A., "La conquête de l'Indochine" (Paris, 1934)