? ? ? The Chu Luc were the professional soldiers within the VPLA and were described in 1954 by one French General as being the finest infantry in the world. They were extremely tough, brave and quite capable of quite astonishing feats on endurance. From a small cadre of just thirty-four men raised by Giap in 1944 they would eventually grow to a force of six Infantry Divisions of about 10,000 men each, plus the 351st Heavy Division in which the bulk of the Artillery and Engineer Units were concentrated. In addition there were about twenty independent Regiments and a similar number of independent Battalions which could be called upon for special missions or to be assigned to a ?Front? force.? ? ? In addition to the Chu Luc the VPLA also comprised ?Popular troops? and ?Regional troops?. The popular troops were units raised in every village under Viet Minh control and their role was to undertake minor offensive and defensive tasks at a local level. They would also provide manpower for Portering of supplies for the regulars. Members would otherwise lead their normal civilian lives until required. The ?Regional Troops? were full time soldiers whose role was to protect the Viet Minh bases and villages. They could also be employed to support the Regulars whenever the latter were operating within the region. There was normally one battalion of Regional troops per province and one company per district.? ? ? It was the Chu Luc however that was intended to defeat the French Expeditionary Corps in battle, and as such were husbanded very carefully by General Giap. When he did unleash them (as he did at Dien Bien Phu) he seems to have been quite prepared to accept quite staggering losses. Despite this the Chu Luc responded, with only a few exceptions, magnificently to every call made upon them and were quite prepared to die in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the cause of Vietnamese independence. Every Battalion had a ?Death Volunteer Platoon? which could undertake Kamikaze style missions. At Dien Bien Phu some of these suicide bombers would attempt to sneak into the French positions at night, shrouded in parachutes and with explosives strapped to their bodies intent on finding a command post that they could blow up. ? ? ? Thus the VPLA can be seen to have been a true peoples? army. An army, in which the population not only supported the Viet Minh, but quite often actively participated directly in its campaign.