Charles Piroth

Charles Piroth
Born	1906
Died	15 March 1954 Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam
Allegiance	France
Service/branch	French Army
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	Groupement Opérationnel du Nord-Est (GONO)
Commands held	Artillery at Dien Bien Phu garrison
Battles/wars	World War II First Indochina War

Charles Piroth (1906 - 15 March 1954) was a French Lieutenant Colonel and veteran of the Italian Campaign during the Second World War and more notably serving three tours in Vietnam during the First Indochina War. Piroth commanded the artillery of the French Dien Bien Phu garrison during the siege of the valley by the Viet Minh. After failures by his artillery batteries to provide adequate support, he committed suicide in his bunker.

Indochina

Piroth served a total of three tours in Indochina, arriving at first with General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque as a major in October 1945, he was pressed into service as an infantryman despite being an artilleryman due to the need for soldiers on the front line and the lack of targets for artillery.^[1] Piroth proved a popular commanding officer when serving north of Saigon in an area known as Thu Dau Mot.^[2] On 17 December 1946, Piroth was critically wounded during an ambush though he remained in command until he was eventually evacuated to Saigon, where his arm was amputated without anaesthesia.^[2]

Piroth was sent to recover in France, but a year later, in 1950 newly arrived French General de Lattre de Tassigny dismissed him from the general staff. In late 1953, Piroth was given command of the artillery force at Dien Bien Phu by its commander Colonel Christian de Castries. During the opening phases of the battle, the artillery was unable to adequately assist besieged French forces on two outlying hills, Gabrielle and Beatrice. Both these fortresses fell into the hands of Viet Minh General Giap, and Piroth suffered from heavy depression, not only due to the failure of his artillery to support the defenders, but also as he had failed to nullify the Viet Minh artillery before the battle began as he had promised.^[3]

On 15 March 1954, having circled the camp to apologise to various fellow officers, Piroth returned to his bunker and removed the pin from a grenade clutched to his chest.^[3] He was buried secretly in his bunker, and his death was covered up for several days until newspapers dropped on the camp notified the men, the news of the death having been leaked to the paper from an unknown source.^[3] His replacement, Lieutenant Colonel Guy Vaillant, arrived on 20 March via air ambulance, one of the few to successfully land at Dien Bien Phu during the conflict.^[3]

Notes

1. ^ Windrow p342
2. ^ ^{a b} Windrow p343
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Windrow p412

References

• Windrow, Martin The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004. ISBN 0-297-84671-X

Persondata
Name	Piroth, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1906
Place of birth
Date of death	15 March 1954
Place of death	Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam