Mountain warfare involves steep gradients, restricted manoeuvre, isolation, and high-altitude combat. This tag highlights battles shaped by terrain dominance and physical endurance.
The Battle of Hòa Mộc Was the fiercest and most costly battle of the Sino-French War. The battle was fought just a few kilometres south of besieged Tuyên Quang, as Colonel Laurent Giovanninelli’s 3,400 man force made a 300 km forced march to relive the siege, and cleared the final Black Flag position between themselves and the Tuyên Quang defenders.
April 2025. Ba Khe, near the village of Cát Thịnh, Yên Bái Province, Vietnam. I am exploring the old Route Coloniale 13 west of Yen Bai, retracing the ground fought over during the October 1951 battle for Nghĩa Lộ. This is steep, broken country. The road winds through narrow valleys, overlooked by sharply rising hills, with restricted movement corridors and very little room to manoeuvre once committed.
April 2025. Nà Sản, Vietnam. Our next stop was at the old fortified ‘hedgehog’ of Nà Sản, just east of Son La. The French and Viet Minh fought a massive battle here in late 1952, the outcome of which convinced the French that holding a remote airbase and using superior French firepower to defeat enemy attacks was a valid strategy. Dien Bien Phu says – “Hold my beer!”
February 2020, Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru. I am exploring the site of a 1537 battle between Manco Inca’s indigenous forces and the Spanish Conquistadors under Hernando Pizarro. Part of the Spanish conquest of the New World.
October 2025, Kalkriese, Germany. I am exploring the ancient battlefield of Teutoberg Forest, accompanied by Stefan, the Chief Archaeologist at the site. In AD 9, Roman General Varus led a punitive expedition of three veteran Legions into the area of Teutoberg Forest. Arminius led the Roman Legions to a location near present-day Kalkriese. Here, the Kalkriese Heights and the Lower Saxony bogs funnel any movement along a very narrow pass.
April 2025. Tu Lê Valley, Yên Bái Province, Vietnam. I am exploring the site of Major Marcel Bigeard and 6e Bataillon Colonial de Parachutistes (6e BPC) epic stand and fighting withdrawal from Tu Lê in October 1952. In my personal collection, I have a 6e BPC paratroopers beret, so I brought it back here to this famous valley.
Across the Long Tan battlefield, there is very little apparent relief in the terrain. The ground is largely flat and agricultural, with sections planted in rubber trees at varying stages of growth or left fallow.
August 2002, Isurava, Papua New Guinea. I explored the Isurava battlefield in August 2002, around the 60th anniversary of the battle, during preparations to open the spectacular new memorial on the Kokoda Track. At the time, I was still serving in the Army back then, and I flew Prime Minister John Howard and veterans of the battle to the memorial site for the official opening.
In the autumn of 1947, the French Far East Expeditionary Corps launched Operation LÉA, one of the most audacious operations of the Indochina War. The operation aimed to strike deep into the Việt Bắc, the mountainous sanctuary of northern Tonkin, with the explicit objective of capturing Hồ Chí Minh, dismantling the enemy’s political and military command structure, and collapsing the insurgency at its source.
From November 1884 to March 1885, 630 French troops of the Foreign Legion, Marines and Tonkinese Riflemen, held the citadel of Tuyên Quang against a force of 15,000 Chinese and Black Flag Army troops. Their endurance, and Colonel Giovanninelli’s epic relief march, made the siege one of the Foreign Legion’s most legendary battles.
The Battle of Phủ Thông Hoá was a small but significant milestone in the French Indochina War. For the French Foreign Legion, it was yet another heroic but costly defence of an isolated outpost against overwhelming odds. The battle entered Legion folklore alongside legendary stands like Camerone and Bir Hakeim. Although the Legion retained control of the post, it was abandoned a few months later as part of a broader strategic withdrawal.
For the Viet Minh, however, Phủ Thông Hoá held even greater significance. It marked the first time they had attempted a coordinated assault on a fortified French position.