Operation Mouette

Operation Mouette was a military offensive conducted by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, in 1953, in Southern Vietnam, during the French Indochina War. Launched on October 15, 1953, the ojectives of Operation Mouette was to search for the location of the Viet Minh 320th Division, which was operating in the area of Phu Nho Quan, south of the Red River Delta, and destroy it.

Once a French military camp had been established in the area, several units were sent to fight the Viet-Minh forces. To carry out Operation Mouette, seven Mobile Groups (Groupes Mobiles), reinforced by an airborne unit, were deployed with river and amphibious units, under the command of French Colonel Christian de Castries.

Mouette was a accomplished successfully as approximately 1,000 enemy troops had been killed, and 2,500 wounded, by the time the French forces ended the campaign on November 7, 1953. Around 185 Viet Minh soldiers had been captured along with a substantial quantity of enemy weapons and ammunition. In the same month and year, the French would carry out Operation Castor to secure the valley of Dien Bien Phu.