My home was in Lyons, and I was a corporal in the Indo-China expeditionary force, disembarked from the Pasteur at the end of May 1950. After being temporarily attached to the ‘Fire Convoy’s”[1] escort, I was finally posted to the forces operating in the plateaus of the hill country, in Annam.
From Saigon, via Bien-Hoa and Ban-Methuot, I went on a two-day road convoy to Pleiku, garrison town of the Fourth Hill Battalion, commanded by Colonel Mille.
At the office of the command post I was lucky enough to run into a fellow-citizen, also from Lyons, Lieutenant Richard. We were both skiers and mountaineers, and had met before at club reunions. After the first surprise of recognizing each other, we talked over old times, chiefly centering on the city of Lyons and the banks of the Rhone and the Saone.
From that moment I was taken over by my compatriot who for two years – he was already on his second term of service – had been engaged in fighting over the plateau country, at the head of Moi partisans and irregulars.
On his orders, I was at once attached to the first company of the Fourth Hill Battalion, via Kontum and the outpost of Kon-Brath, some twenty and forty miles from Pleiku respectively, a day’s journey by jeep took us to the most advanced French outpost in the heart of the hill country, some sixty miles northeast of Kontum, Kon-Plong.
No more than a camp for the Indo-China militia before fighting broke out, Kon-Plong occupied a strategic position on the line of hills, at the intersection of the Kontum valleys and the pass which gave access to the plains of the Song-Ha and Bato, leading down to the sea.
In 1946 the higher command sent a company of hill riflemen there. It was out in the wilds, nearly six thousand feet up, on a rise surrounded by jungle, and the different units took their turn of mounting guard there, in the mist, the cold, and the torrential downpour of the monsoon which on the heights lasted for seven months of the year.
After 1948 the chief pioneer work of the settlement was undertaken, when weather and lulls in the fighting permitted. The Viets, while also harassing our patrols, tried again and again to reconquer this dominant position, which was an obstacle to their military and political activity in the valleys and plains.
After 1948, the military outlook changed. The defensive tactics to which the Kon-Plong garrison had been reduced gave way to daring raids on the enemy’s most distant bases. Three officers, gaining territory and extending political influence at the same time, battling against nature, men, and the minds of men. made Kon-Plong a stronghold and a base for further attacks by the French forces. The three officers were Second-Lieutenant Duret, of the geographical service, Lieutenant Richard, who was in charge of the commandos and partisans, and finally Captain Pierre, the commander of the outpost, who had earlier been with the Alessandri column in Tonkin.
Supported by some fifteen N.C.O.s and European troops, among them Regimental Sergeant-Major Jacquet, Sergeant Jean, and Sergeant-Majors Ture and and Canivet, all of tehm posted there to train regular rifle units, they had penetrated into almost unknown territory, with the encouragement of their senior officer, Colonel Mille, and with aid from the administrative services of the Resident, M. Riner.
Captain Pierre Hentic
Reconnaissance patrols had led to friendly visits which made many of the natives rally to their side. Swift and effective raids had overwhelmed the Viet-Minh support positios along the Song-Hre and Song-Tra-Cuk.[2]
Liaison between Kontum and Kon-Plong was assured once a month by road convoys of four-wheel Dodges and six-wheel-drive trucks.
The outpost became a strong point with blockhouses, loopholes, look-out posts, trenches, and a network of barbed wire, completed by an airfield, where Morane aircraft could land in the dry season.
The jungle retreated a little every day. The forest yielded ground to the axe, and the field of vision was enlarged at the same time as fresh paths were made towards villages where people had returned. A road was opened up right over the hills in the direction of Bato, thanks to the picks of the coolies, for whom a village had been planned, and beyond the defense network fresh soil was brought into cultivation to supply their needs.
Captain Pierre set up a market for provisions and trading goods in the outpost, itself. Distant tribes came from east and west to exchange the produce of their fields or their hunting for salt – a valued commodity – dried fish, cloth, and fancy goods. N.C.O.s among the hillmen, Djarais or Rhades, got into friendly conversation with every new arrival and, as a result of information obtained, Lieutenant Duret was able to mark on his map the position of a Viet unit three or four days’ march away.
Such was Kon-Plong when, a young soldier hardly licked into shape by three weeks in the country, I crossed the drawbridge over the defense outworks. Brought by Lieutenant Richard into the presence of Captain Pierre, I was at once strongly impressed by his personality, which had become a legend from Kontum to Ban-Methuot. At every stage of my journey to Pleiku I had heard the same talk in all the European messes – the topis was always Kon-Plong, the men there, and Captain Pierre.
He was a dark man of medium build, and his energy was evident in his bronzed face. His reserve, the shrewdness of his glance and his controlled gestures showed at once that he was a born leader of men. Behind the reserve and the aloofness of his rank was concealed a man whose character was just yet generous, reasonable yet daring, impulsive yet balanced, weighing the issue and pursuing it with a dogged will-power.
Lieutenant Richard asked him to have me attached to one of the units for special duties.
Much impressed, I stood respectfully to attention in front of Captain Pierre, as he asked, “You volunteer for service outside the regular formations?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t be surprised tat I should consult you. Normally we only take on N.C.O.s who have been promoted or at least hardened by several months of active service out here, to work in these special units. You fulfill none of these conditions, and you are new to the army.”
“of course, sir,” I mumbled, worried.
“Sit down. Lieutenant Richard has told me about you, and I am trusting in his judgement. But it is essential that you should have some insight into what we require.”
“Whatever you say, sir.”
“This is not like life in the barracks. So forget for the time being the sort of duties which fall to a soldier according to his rank in his section or company. At this outpost there are seventeen of us, Europeans, officers, and other ranks, as against a hundred and twenty native riflemen and a hundred and fifty partisans.
So every European, whatever his age or rank, has to take on the responsibilities of a leader. You will engage in guerrilla warfare, be responsible for the defense of an outpost, the opening up of roads, the protection of convoys.
“You will have a variety of other duties, some medical, some of those of a pioneer, clearing the ground and building, some more like those of a map-maker and missionary.
“You will have to make good use of your Tommy gun, your hands, and your legs – for we get about a lot at Kon-Plong – and above all your eyes, your ears, and your memory.
“It’s up to you to set an example: to the hillmen we live among, we stand for France. A single expression, word, or gesture out of place, and your general behavior, may threaten the safety of us all. Don’t forget that.
“If you make an enemy among the natives, he becomes the enemy of us all. Remember that, for he respects or despises us as a whole.”
Captain Pierre stopped for a moment, letting his words sink in and adding weight to his pronouncements. I had plenty on my mind, for nothing, either before I left France nor during my brief stay in Saigon, had prepared me for this course in local politics.
Tapping with a ruler on his desk, Captain Pierrre gave Lieutenant Richard an understanding glance and then smiled at me. “Then you’re going to help form special units, train partisans in guerrilla warfare, and teach the natives to defend their own Hre villages.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you know about the Hres? No, then I shall brief you rapidly on the men you will have under you. There are about a hundred thousand of these Hres, and they are one of the most important Moi tribes on the plateaus, together with the Bahnars, the Rhades, the Djarais, and the Sodangs. With the Sodangs they are the best fighting men among the hillmen, which explains our interest in turning them into soldiers, according to their own ideas and arming them with our own weapons, instead of their spears, cross-bows, and shields.
“It is the first importance that they should rally to our side, because they occupy some slopes of the range to the east of our outpost, and because the greater part of them are settled on the fertile valleys which issue into the China Sea, towards the Quang-Ngai.
“Their rice fields produce two crops a year. They cultivate maize and cotton, rear herds, and every village has fruit-trees and its frames for weaving.
“You will realize that the enemy, having chased them out of their country, has no great desire to see them return with rifles in their hands, when he has been living on their land for four years.
“From 1945 to 1946, as a result of the truce achieved by Ho Chi-Minh, the Viets took advantage of the fact that we had laid down our arms and got hold of the port of Quinhon, invested the Binh-Dinh, the Quang-Ngai, and Quang-Nam provinces, up to the outskirts of Faioo and Tourane, towns which were held by our troops.
“In the region which interests us to the east of the outpost, they first pushed into the interior, and achieved the neutrality of the Hres by propagating their opinions. They used force to make the hill chiefs their allies and got rid of them later.
“Winning support by bribery, conscripting the younger men, carrying off any rebels to forced labour in the salt marshes and suppressing all resistance. The Viets spread terror over the whole Hre country, from Son-Ha to Bato, which they made their administrative centre for the area.
“Having got rid of the men, they settled in an Annamite village near every Moi group of huts to cultivate the land and reap the harvest.
“Responding too late to the call of the surviving chiefs, the Hres in the Viet units mutinied in 1949, going off with their arms and equipment, and raised the country against the Viet occupants by achieving unity of action.
“One night, at an agreed signal, all the Annamites, men, women, children, and old men, were mercilessly massacred and beheaded. The bodies of five thousand settlers were thrown into the rivers or burnt in holocausts to the spirits of earth and sky.
“The houses of the invaders were looted and burnt, making joyous bonfires to celebrate the return of freedom in which the political commissaries were burnt alive, while the remnants of the occupying forces fled in terror to the sea.
“The Hre warriors. Once the fever of victory had passed, were afraid that the Viets would return in force, so they came to make their submission to our outposts at Kon-Plong, Mambuk, and Dakto, asking for our armed support.
“Although a French campaign was quickly planned it could not strike back in time, and the country is still in enemy hands.
“Then the Hre took to the maquis. Aided by our arms and supplies, they made night raids on the Viet quarters, intercepted their supply columns, and engaged in guerrilla warfare on the banks of the Song-Hre, the river sacred to their gods.
“While some took to the maquis, other Hres preferred to enlist with us as partisans to get ready to free their country in a movement known as Doc Lap Hre the Hre independence movement, to which Lieutenant Richard has specially devoted himself.
“Now there is one distinction you should know – the Hre tribe is divided into two separate peoples:
“First there are the northern or great Hres. It was they who fomented the 1949 revolt, under the leadership of their provincial chief Dinh-Loye, a former corporal in the Indo-China militia Dinh-Diu. From them we have drawn our present guerrillas and partisans. The guerrillas in the maquis come under the outposts of Mambuk, Vimouk, and Dakto, while we confine ourselves to the training of commandos.
“Second come the Hres, of Giavus-Mankara, who did not take part in the rebellion. Their country in the hills is not yet occupied by the Viet-Minhs, who are fighting in Binh-Dinh. These Giavuc-Mankara or lesser Hres obey a sort of feudal potentate, an old man called Ong-Dia-Kiou, the lord of the Mankara. He has his own slaves, personal servants, and warriors in the old style, and he refuses to join any side, white or yellow.
“So all the Diac-Hre country is open to our influence, but it’s through the northern Hres that we will achieve an alliance with those of the south.
“For the moment you will get in touch with your comrades, with the partisanswhose affection you must win, and once you have shown that you can fight, which comes first in their eyes, then we shall whether the hillmen approve of you or not.
“After that you will be called upon to go off on patrols alone with them, often at some days march from the outpost. So it is up to you to turn these naked warriors into fighting men. First of all, you will have special training____”
Here Lieutenant Richard cut in to say, “And tomorrow you will begin to learn their language.”
I could only stammer, “But, sir!”
“It’s an order, Riesen. Their dialect is quite different from the Bahnar and the Sodang, for which we have dictionaries. Nobody here can make himself understood to them. The other officers and myself are reaching the end of our term of service, so it’s up to you, who are new here, to become the interpreter. You will only have your memory to help you, as no grounding is possible. Never mind, I give you a week to learn at least ten words.”
“Very good, sir.”
“And,” added Captain Pierre, more gently, “you don’t know what a service you will be rendering to our cause, and to yourself, if you one day succeed in understanding them and in making them understand you.”
“Very well, sir, I shall learn Hre.”
“And don’t pay attention to the sarcasms of those who’ve tried before and been too easily discouraged.
“One other point: with Hre as a basic dialect, you will also have the key to the speech of the neighbouring tribes, the Keyons, Kouas, Kotuas, Boutes, and Alakhones, whose countries are not marked on the map.”
Rene Riesen and Ilouthi, his Hre wife
Rene Riesen, Jungle Mission, 1957.
[1] The ‘Fire Convoy’ consisted of five trains, three of them for passengers and goods, the other two being armoured trains. This rail convoy maintained weekly communications between Saigon and Nhyatrang.
[2] At its source in the hills the Hre River is known as the Diac-Hre, in the plains it becomes the Song-Hre, and when swollen by its tributaries as it approaches the sea, the Song-Tra-Cuk.
