This
web page will bring you an insight
into the involvement
of the Hre Nation with the GCMA
and specially the "Forces Hre Libres"
and his creator, GCMA Captain Pierre Hentic.
SDECE
The Service
de
Documentation Exterieure
et de Contre-Espionnage
(External Documentation
and Counter-Espionage Service)
was France's external
intelligence agency from 1944 to
1982.
It should not be confused with the
"Deuxieme Bureau" which
was purely for military
intelligence.
*
*
"Groupement
de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés"
(Mixed Airborne Commando Group)
commonly referred as GCMA,
was the "Action Service"
of the SDECE (Cold war Frenchcounter
intelligence service).
*
*
Operation "Lea"
took place during
7 October and 22 December 1947.
An airborne force tried to capture
the Viet Minh leadership and three
French columns did strike into the
Viet Minh heartland.
The parachute assault surprised the Viet Minh, nearly capturing Ho Chi Minh and General
Giap.
The
operation was a tactical success,
inflicting severe casualties on the
Viet Minh, but strategically
indecisive, because it failed to
capture the Viet Minh leadership or
seriously crippling its military
forces.
*
*
Operation
"Laterite"
The
French Forces during the Laterite
Operations were about 250 men strong
and lead by Cpt Hentic,
with Lt De Montauzan leading
one of the centaine and
Lt Rouquette the other,
Lt Cardona and 20 French para were
attached to the force as
reinforcement.
I believe some of the NCO on
this operation where Sgt Dupuy,
Isaac, Reisen.
*
*
*
* "RR"
"Representation
Regionale" were Operationnal
bases which had attached to them
several Operational
Detachment "Antennes"
which were made of a variable
numbers of Guerillas Companies
"Centaines"
See
the GCMA page for more details
*
Read
about it
"In August 1945 due to the power vacuum left by the Japanese capitulation, the lack of French troops in Indochina and the truce achieved by Ho Chi Minh, the Viet-Minh gained control of most of central Vietnam.
The Binh-Dinh, Quang Ngai and Quang Nam provinces were under Viet Minh control and the Hre were "rallied " under duress to the Viet-Minh
ideology. Two Viet-Minh Hre Regional Forces battalions were formed.
Only major towns like Tourane (DaNang) stayed under French control.
By 1946 the under strength French Expeditionary Corps "Corps Expeditionnaire Francais en Extreme-Orient" CEFEO started its campaign to regain control of the highlands with very limited effect due to lack of military means. They mainly controlled to the north: areas around Da Nang, Dong Hoi,
Hue and to the south: area from Ninh Hoa down to Saigon
as well as some of the Delta. The rest of the
Central Highlands had a few French outposts which controlled very small areas and were under constant threat of being overrun.
By 1949, the Viet-Minh had eliminated most of the rallied Hre chiefs, en-rolled most males as soldiers or coolies, distributed most of Hre cultivable ground to
Viet-Minh settlers. These continuous actions sparked a Hre uprising, resulting in the death of several thousand of military and civilians Viet-Minh. In fear of the heavy reprisal
to follow, most of the up-risers converged onto the French Outpost of Kon Plong to seek protection from the French. The garrison officers: Capitaine Pierre et Lieutenant Richard saw an opportunity of rallying all Hre tribes to France.
As a direct result of their forward thinking, they created "The Jungle Mission"
giving it in 1950 to one of their young Corporal: Rene Riesen. (see Jungle Mission page)
This was an unconventional operation designed by the enterprising officers from Kon Plong outpost and was not backed up by the French High Command.
In 1951, Cpt Hentic during his second
tour in Indochina received command of some of
the Central Highlands GCMA forces. (Représentation
Régionale du GCMA Plateaux Montagnards du
Sud Indochinois a Ban Me-Thuot)(see right hand side
column)
July
1953, after Cpt Hentic medical evacuation,
Lieutenant Thebault took over the Highlands
GCMA. No more in depth lengthily operations
were carried out and the Highlands GCMA
limited itself to short raiding missions in
the Viet-Minh controlled Hre country and
coastal areas. A new concept was started
were small combined teams of one or
two French NCO and several Hre partisans
would go in after specific Viet-Minh
targets. These small teams were called
"Mosquitos" or "Wasp"
teams and despite recruitment problems, they
accomplish very daring raids with
varying degree of success. They often
carried out joint operations with the "
Centre Annam centaines"
specially the one from Cu-Lao-Reo.
(page 81, Services Speciaux book)
In
1953 the GCMA was renamed the GMI, Groupement
Mixtes D'Intervention and by
the end of the year, the RR Plateaux was
dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred
to the Tourane RR* (Da Nang) .
After July 1954 and the cease fire, the
"would be" Vietnamese special
Forces took over the GCMA mission and offered
Hres to be integrated in the Vietnamese
Army.
Force Hre Libres,
cast fob badge
Below is the story as written in "Commandos de choc en
Indochine/
Les heros oublies"
I have been unable to confirm some of the information especially on the Hre.
I understand that this novel is based on true facts and give the reader a fairly good insight
on the GCMA, but is certainly not fully accurate on some of the operations described.
I have been advised by veterans that "Erwan Bergot" has used his
"writer
license" to make the novel more appealing.
I
am also under the
impression thanks to
Vietnam USSF veterans that most
Hre did not speak Vietnamese.
The "Hre ancient
History" may have been embellished
for the book!
But
this is still worth reading!
As
the book is written in French, here is an "extract translated by myself"
Looking
to get in touch with Hres
to learn more about their ancient History.
Cpt Hentic
working for the SDECE in Saigon
first heard of the Hre during
one of Colonel Lecoq briefings
in 1951.
Col
Lecoq like Cpt Hentic, was a WWII
Free French paratrooper and ex
resistant and as the commander
of the Central Highland, he saw
the possibility of creating
"Maquis" with the Hre
population in Viet Minh
contested area.
Cpt
Hentic interest was immediately
sparked
as during his first tour, he
carried out
(with "Thos"
indigenous partisans)
very successful anti guerrilla operations in
"North Vietnam" during operation "Lea". Unfortunately
in 1947, Hanoi French HQ did not realise the potential of such actions.
After the briefing, Cpt Hentic approached General Lecoq to get more information on the possibility of Hre
Maquis in the Central Highlands
and this is what he was told:
"It
all started a year ago in Jan
1950, when the Kon Plong
commander saw about a 1000 Viet
Minh soldiers with their wives,
children, oldest, animals all of
them peacefully assembled around
his post. He discovered that
these were a Hre Viet Minh
battalions which wanted to rally
to the French.
The
Hre were not the usual
Montagnards, they lived in the
mountains above Bin Dinh and
Quang Ngai costal areas. For
centuries every 3 or 4 years
they organized raiding parties
on the costal areas, killing
Vietnamese, and pillaging
villages, taking back rice,
animal, women and children.
This created an interbreeding
which made the Hre nation a lot
more resilient that the other
Montagnard, they had the courage
and robustness of the yards as
well as the ingenuity and open
mind of the Vietnamese, this was
also the only tribe who spoke
Vietnamese. So they were well
feared by neighbors Vietnamese
from the costal plains. When Ho
Chi Minh formed his government
in 1946 he included two Hre
ministers to gain their alliance
in Viet Minh controlled
"Central Annam" . For
the next two years the Hre were
left alone in their ancestral
valley of the Song Hre until the
Viet Minh decided to accelerate
their indoctrination and
allegiance and send military
instructors, political
commissars and settlers to take
over. Their fighting instincts
awoke and their chief dealt with
the Viet Minh invasion in their
ancestral way!
"Death
to the Kloui"
(Death to the Vietnamesse).
After several days the Vietminh
reacted and moved two Vietminh
regiments the 108 and 803 from
Quang Ngai towards the
"Song Hre" Valley.
The Hre fought bravely but were
not equipped or trained to fight
and win against two regular VM
regiments, so they decided to
move south to Kon Plong post to
rally to the French and ask for
their protection.
At
first they were integrated in
the "Suppletifs"
forces with the Vietnamese but
unfortunately this was not
successful, so some went back to
their land with weapons to carry
on their own fighting and
about 200 fighters stayed a
Kontum."
These were going to be "Cpt Hentic's Hres"!
Above is the story as written in "Commandos de choc en
Indochine/
Les heros oublies"
I have been unable to confirm some of the information especially on the Hre.
I understand that this novel is based on true facts and give the reader a fairly good insight
on the GCMA, but is certainly not fully accurate on some of its operations described.
I have been advised by veterans that "Erwan Bergot" has used his writer
license" to make the Novel more appealing.
I
am also under the
impression thanks to
Vietnam USSF veterans that most
Hre did not speak Vietnamese.
The "Hre ancient
History" may have been embellished
for the book!
Looking
to get in touch with Hres
to learn more about their ancient History.
******************
Description of insignia:
A sword and Black Panther (famous around Pleiku and Kontum) symbolize the commando style jungle mission, this is over a white parachute and star
is super imposed on the black mountains of the central Highlands
in the V for Victory all placed on a Colonial anchor.
The parachute and anchor denote
the Colonial Airborne troops.
In black letters are the words;
"FORCE HRE LIBRE" Free Hre Forces.
This insignia is known to have been manufactured by Decat and Drago in
France and locally made in Vietnam like this one.
Forces Hre Libres & Cpt Hentic study has been written with the help of
Anne Alexandre, daughter of Colonel
Hentic,
and many members of what I call
the "Gia Vuc & Ha Thanh community"
A very special thank you to Maureen Robinson for her immense help on the Hre research
and
Robert Henzler MAT 1/27 for doing
a lot of map work and locating these forgotten villages or outposts.
Information from the following books have been used:
"Commandos de Choc en
Indochine
Les heros oublies",
Erwan Bergot
"Commandos et Forces Speciales en Indochine",
Commandant Raymond Muelle
"Services Speciaux, GCMA - Indochine 1950/54",
Commandant Raymond Muelle and Eric Deroo
"Les maquis d'Indochine",
Colonel Trinquier
Please note this page is "a work in
progress",
if you have any additional information or
correction, please get in touch
via the Gia
Vuc contact page
Black
and white photos are courtesy of
www.maho-hentic.com (Collection Hentic)
On the 18 April
1951, Cpt Hentic arrived in Saigon for his secondtour and was attached to the "Action Hre" in the Central Highlands of Central Annam. By the 26 April the GCMA was created and he received the command of the Central Highlands GCMA "Representation regionale" at Ban Me Thuot with the mission of re-organising military
the Hre tribes and integrating them as a fighting force in the GCMA. In fact they had revolted against the Viet Minh in late 1949 and had
sought French protection.
About 200 of its Hre warriors were still on the outskirt of Kontum with the by now famous Corporal Rene Riesen who had rallied them in 1950 and had been adopted by the Hre as one of them.
(See Jungle mission page).
For this mission Cpt Hentic had a small team of 4 officers and about 10 NCO. The first few months was spend training and assigning Hre NCO, they also carried out reconnaissance operations in the region of
Son Ha to Vi Muk. During that period they discovered that the Vi Muk Hre chief was in fact a double agent working for the
V-M. The Mang Buk French outpost was also
attacked.
Mang Buk was the last French outpost in the Sedang territory and was about 12 hours march from
Kontum. After that point they had to cut through the jungle for days to places like Dak Ninh, Kola, Viholac
and Vi Muk.
Photos
are courtesy of
(Collection Hentic)
for more GCMA photos from Cpt Hentic,
visit
www.maho-hentic.com
On the 8th August 1951 the outpost of Kon Plong was overrun and an Airborne operation with the 2e BEP was launched to regain the outpost and
stabilize the situation. Cpt Hentic and his newly trained 3
"centaines" were asked to assist and after an undetected 3 days march, they attacked
V-M forces in their rear.
Encouraged by their success they carried on guerrilla action
in Viet Minh controlledarea for
the next few months.
I autumn 1951, Cpt Hentic with 2 to 3 French cadres and Hre forces of 150-200
men carried out more raids deep into Viet Minh controlled
territory. These raids lasted from three weeks to six weeks
reaching places like Vidzen, Vibliang and Gi
Lang andrallied more troops and
population through the lower valleys of the Son Hre.
By the winter of 1951, Cpt Hentic and his Hre were becoming a real threat for the Viet
Minh and they moved their 108 and 803 Regiments to try
to crush Hre forces and regain control of the Quang Ngai valleys. In fear of
V-M reprisal, the hills Hre population moved down to Kontum were Cpt Hentic
ended up having to cope with about 700
partisans and their families. They settled down in
and around the Training Camp.
In the spring of 1952, a long awaited French re-enforcement arrived with the addition
of one officer and six NCO. The French high command in the military region decided to re-established the Hre
in their native land, the Quang Ngai province and
launched the operation "Laterite". It
is to be noted that Cpt Hentic and his team not only
reorganized the Hre Military but carried out Civic
Actions helping them greatly on a social level. This
was not part of his mission but was done benevolently
and was a key factor to his success with the Hres.
Cpt Hentic with less than three Hre "centaines" left Gia Vuc
on 26 April 1952, they crossed the Song Re on the 27th and attacked and took Ba To in the morning of the 2nd of May, destroying all V-M installations and ammunitions depots as well as the VM 108 Regiment headquarters.
Then they disappeared in the jungle before the Viet Minh reacted.
On 5 May, they were back to the Song Hre to a pre arranged crossing point where a French regular Montagnard battalion was supposed to cover them during the crossing, but no sign of
their support was found. With
over 3000 men of the 108 VM regiments on their
tale, Cpt Hentic decided not to wait for their elusive support but to cross the Song Hre in three separate groups giving each other mutual fire support. While crossing, the Viet Minh sprung the attack resulting in high casualties on the French/Hre side with the lost of two French officers (Lieutenant Montauzan and Lieutenant Cardona) and about forty Hres. Cpt Hentic and his Hres
managed to get back to Kontum with their dead
officers.
By late 1952, approximately 1500 Hre
guerillas generated by the GCMA were fighting the Viet-Minh forces in the
central Higlands, relieving pressure around Tourane (Da Nang). The French High Command instructed the GCMA to conduct operations in the Viet- Minh infested Binh Dingh province where they carried out ambushes, prisoner snatch, destruction of food depots, road and rail network.
They also made contact with other local ethnic
minorities in view of rallying them.
Cpt Hentic(right) and Lt Rouquette (left) crossing
the Dak Hre during an operation in the region
south of Gia Vuc .
In December 1952 after the fall of the Vimuk outpost, the Hre population was regrouped around
Kontum then moved to Ankhe. The overall supervision
of the Central Highlands GCMA operations was transferred to
the Vietnamese Army and local administration
which did not facilitate Cpt Hentic task.
By the fall of 1952 with a Vietnamese Commando and
a Hre platoon (approx 100 men), Cpt Hentic
achieved a two months deep reconnaissance via Dak To
into Laos leading to Attopeu. In its path, they
destroyed Viet-Minh bases and laid booby traps on the
Viet-Minh trails. During this reconnaissance mission
they discovered in Laos a well camouflaged large tails
network, Viet Minh staging and rest areas, food dumps
etc. This was the first sighting of the famous Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh trail!
They also capture a V-M officers party coming back from Thailand which provided valuable intelligence.
Unfortunately prolonged operations outside Hre territory started to affect the Hre moral and
effectiveness. The idea laid by Cpt Hentic of "Free Hre
Forces" created to free and retain the Hre country was of course misunderstood by the French High command and more
commando raids outside Hre territories were asked of them !
By July 1953, Cpt Hentic was medically evacuated
due to illness created by two years non-stop jungle operations.
Later
on, large raiding operations were abandoned in
favor of guerrilla tactics and smaller intelligence-gathering raids in which the Hre Forces were the equal to
any of the best V-M troops
Photo courtesy of Anne Alexandre,
daughter of Colonel Hentic
Pierre Hentic
Pierre Hentic was born on the 2
April 1917
in Paris, France.
He joined the French Army and
was assigned to the
"27eme Bataillon de Chasseurs
Alpins".
(Mountains Troops)
A great lover of sport, he was
a civilian rowing athlete and became a military
skiing champion. He also
qualified as a Medic NCO and in 1940 was shipped to
Norway to fight at Narvik with the French Expeditionary
Corps.
After France defeat, he was demobilize
and joined the French Resistance in January 1941.
He served as
a "Liaison Agent" with Jade-Fitzroy
Resistance network
and was arrested in 1942 by the Vichy Government in
"Zone South". Luckily he managed
to escape and early 1943 he joined the Free French
Forces in England and trained as paratrooper and as "Head of an
escape network".
He was parachuted in France and
organized
with the French resistance a Maritime/Airborne
escape network for agents and downed Allied pilots.
In January 1944, he was once
more arrested, this time by the Germans in Paris and
was jailed in Fresnes prison. In June 1944 he
was deported to
"Dachau" concentration camp.
Liberated in 1945, he was integrated to the
French Regular Army with the rank of Lieutenant due to his exceptional
services during WWII.
Lieutenant Hentic was send to
Indochina and arrived on the 10th of March 1947 in
Saigon here he served
with the "1er Bataillon de Choc" as a
"Commando" Commanding Officer, as the battalion intelligence
Officer and then was assigned to the SDECE.
(
1er Choc was the First French Special Forces Parachute battalion).
In 1951, he did his second tour in Indochina as a Captain assigned
to the newly created GCMA.
He commanded the "Representation Regional"
at Ban Me Thuot and created the Forces Hre Libres
in the central highlands of Annam.
In 1953 he was medically evacuated out of Indochina
and then send to
Algeria were he was given the command
of a 300
"Harkis" indigenous local force.
Later on, he was posted on the
Tunisian border before returning to France.
Colonel Pierre Hentic finished his Military career
as 2nd in Command of the 1er RCP
(regiment de
Chasseur Parachutiste).
Colonel Pierre Hentic, one of
France Resistance heroes is Commandeur de la Légion
d'honneur, with thirteen citations. He was also
awarded
la Médaille de la Résistance,
la
Croix de guerre 1939-1945,
la Croix de Guerre des
T.O.E.,
la Croix de la Valeur Militaire,
Member of
the British Empire
Medal of Freedom with Silver Palms
and many
other decorations.
Colonel Hentic passed away on
19 March 2004
******************
The Legion
d'Honneur
(National Order of the Legion of
Honor)
is the highest decoration in France
and was established by Napoleon
Bonaparte
on the 19 May 1802.
This world-renowned Order is divided into
five various degrees:
Chevalier (Knight),
Officier (Officer),
Commandeur (Commander),
Grand Officier (Grand Officer)
and Grand-Croix (Grand Cross)
******************
Pierre Hentic did
write his "memoirs" in two books
(written in French)
"TANT QU'IL Y AURA DES ETOILES"
Volume one
"RESISTANTS"
which received
"le Prix Littéraire de la Résistance"
This book is his WWII memoirs as Resistant
and a Free French Paratrooper head of an Escape
network in occupied France.
Please click on the
photo to purchase the book
"TANT QU'IL Y
AURA DES ETOILES"
Volume two
"PARTISANS"
This book is about his two Indochina
tours one with the Ier Choc (elite Paratrooper
batalion) and his second one as a Cpt with the
GCMA in the Central Highland of South Vietnam.
This book also cover the Algerian war.
Please click on the
photo to purchase the book
This webpage is dedicated to
Cpt Hentic and his beloved Hre
and I hope will act
as a tribute in memory of their achievements and suffering
during this often forgotten part of the French Indochina war.
This
page has been written by J-L Delauve (Gia Vuc webmaster) after
reading the following books,
this is a work in progress and the webpage can and will
be updated if new information come to light.
Reference
Materials: Uniforms of the Indo-China War and Vietnam War,Leroy
Tomphson; Les 170 Jours de Dien Bien Phu, Erwan
Bergot;
French Foreign Legion Paratroops and The French
Indochina War 1946-54 Martin Windrow;
Une Guerre sans Fin, Indochine 1945-54, Pierre
Ferrari et Jaques M.Vernet;
The Last Valley, Martin windrow; Commando et Forces
Speciales en Indochine, Raymond Muelle;
Services Speciaux, GCMA-Iindochine, Raymond Muelle -
Eric Deroo;
Jungle Mission, R Riesen; Le Silence du Ciel, R Riesen;
Les Heros Oublies, Erwan Bergo.