Battle of Palan

The Battle of Palan (1 September 1883) was one of several engagements between the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army during the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886). The battle took place during the period of increasing tension between France and China that eventually culminated in the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885).

The battle

The Battle of Palan was fought two weeks after the Battle of Phu Hoai, in which General Alexandre-Eugène Bouët (1833–87), the French "commandant supérieur" in Tonkin, had failed to defeat Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army. Heavy flooding in mid-August had obliged the Black Flags to abandon their positions in front of the Day River and retreat behind the river. The key to their new positions were the villages of Phong, commanding the main road to Son Tay at its crossing of the Day River, and Palan, at the junction of the Red and Day rivers.

Under pressure from Jules Harmand, the French civil commissioner general in Tonkin, Bouët attacked the new Black Flag positions at the end of August to clear the road to Son Tay, the ultimate French objective. Bouët committed 1,800 French soldiers to this offensive. The French force consisted of two marine infantry battalions ("chefs de bataillon" Berger and Roux), each strengthened by contingents of Cochinchinese riflemen, one marine artillery battery (Captain Roussel) and a battalion of Yellow Flag auxiliaries. [Roux’s battalion consisted of the 25th, 26th and 27th Companies, 4th Marine Infantry Regiment (Captains Drouin, Taccoën and Lancelot) and the 1st Annamese Rifle Company (Captain de Beauquesne). Berger’s battalion consisted of the 26th and 27th Companies, 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment (Captains Doucet and Guérin de Fontjoyeux) and the 2nd and 3rd Annamese Rifle Companies (Captains Boutet and Berger).] The attackers were supported by the gunboats "Pluvier", "Léopard", "Fanfare", "Éclair", "Hache" and "Mousqueton" from the Tonkin Flotilla, under the command of "capitaine de vaisseau" Morel-Beaulieu.

On 1 September 1883 Bouët assaulted and captured the villages of Phong and Palan. At the climax of the battle two companies of marine infantry (Captains Taccoën and Guérin de Fontjoyeux) of Berger's battalion stormed a heavily-defended embankment in front of the village of Phong. At the same time "chef de bataillon" Roux attacked Liu Yongfu's right wing and drove it back. The Black Flag defence collapsed, and the French captured seven Black Flag standards.

French casualties in the Battle of Palan were 16 dead and 43 wounded, mostly in the two marine infantry battalions that had stormed the embankment. The Black Flags abandoned 60 bodies on the battlefield, and their total casualties were probably several hundred dead and wounded. [Barbou, "Les héros de la France", 304–23; Bastard, "Bazeilles", 197–205; de Lonlay, "Au Tonkin", 88–92; Duboc, "Trente cinq mois de campagne", 180–91 (with map); "Histoire illustrée de l’expédition du Tonkin", 92–5; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 131–5; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 285–95; Sarrat, "Journal d’un marsouin", 81–94; Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française", 64–6]

Significance

Although the battle was a clear tactical victory for the French, it brought little strategic gain. Liu Yongfu's Black Flags escaped to fight another day, and Liu Yongfu showed his disdain for the French by fortifying yet another defensive position a few kilometres back from the Day River. The French were no nearer to Son Tay than they had been before the battle. Bouët was criticised for failing to win a victory of annihilation, and resigned shortly after the battle. Many of his officers regretted his departure, recognising that he had inflicted two defeats upon the Black Flags in difficult circumstances and had avenged the French defeat at the Battle of Paper Bridge in May 1883. But public opinion in France was anxious for a resolution of the 'Tonkin Affair', and although the French now installed a post at Palan, enabling their gunboats to patrol the Red River as far as Sontay, this limited advance hardly satisfied Bouët's critics.

More importantly, the battle hardened attitudes both in France and China, and hastened the slide into war. The French premier Jules Ferry substantially reinforced the Tonkin expeditionary corps, while the Chinese stepped up their covert support for the Black Flags in Tonkin.

Notes

References

* Barbou, Alfred, "Les héros de la France et les pavillons-noirs au Tonkin" (Paris, 1884)
* 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)
* Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin" (Paris, 1887)
* Lonlay, Dick de, "Au Tonkin, 1883–1886: récits anecdotiques" (Paris, 1886)
* Nicolas, V., "Livre d'or de l'infanterie de la marine" (Paris, 1891)
* Sarrat, L., "Journal d'un marsouin au Tonkin, 1883–1886" (Paris, 1887)
* Thomazi, A., "Histoire militaire de l'Indochine français" (Hanoi, 1931)
* Thomazi, A., "La conquête de l'Indochine" (Paris, 1934)