to have a look at the French. A shot rang out, the Viet fell down. Death walked the valley.

### Chapter 32

### 6 May

### The battered survivors still defending Dien Bien Phu held on for the relief force or a miracle neither was forthcoming.

"This will never do, you there cover these men!" Bastien-Thiry watched two men carry out his orders. Wounded lay out in the rain without any form of shelter. Full to capacity the bunkers held the badly injured while those deemed not too serious sprawled in the mud.

"There has been a call for volunteers Mon Lieutenant every man able to fire a weapon has been asked to man the perimeter." A slow procession of wounded walked solemnly past Steele taking up positions beside their comrades. Some hadbandages covering their limbs, others helped by their friends sat behind machine guns. It was to be a desperate last stand.

"Those bloody Viets are going to tunnel their way underneath us all the way down to the central position, mark my words." Waiting for the next attack, Voyeur sat down next to Steele in the waterlogged trench.

"I doubt it, Voyeur, I think they have something else in mind. We have all heard them tunnelling for a while now, but there is not much we can do about it. I hope the mud caves in on the bastards." Giap had now brought up the dreaded Katyusha rocket launchers. Nicknamed Stalin organs during the war the weapon fired multiple rockets with devastating psychological as well as the destructive effect on