炮兵指挥官之死(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
炮兵指挥官之死
the chinese communists played a vital part in the battle of dien bien phu, 1954, which marked the end of french power in indochina.
french estimates were that the viet minh had minimal artillery support, and france was bound to win. the french artillery commander, colonel piroth, was so confident that he rejected the offer of additional artillery, and promised he could defend dien bien phu with artillery alone, totally unaware of the viet minh's possession of heavy artillery, captured by the chinese communists from the us in korea. consequently, the french were surrounded by plenty of hidden artillery units on the mountain crests overlooking them, who proceeded to rip the french to pieces. piroth's artillery were rendered powerless.

having circled the camp to apologise to various fellow officers, piroth committed suicide by pulling the safety pin out of a grenade.
一九五四年奠边府之役，结束了中南半岛的法国势力。中共在战役中举足轻重。
据法国估计，越盟几乎没有大炮助阵，法军胜券在握。法军炮兵指挥官皮罗上校满怀信心，拒绝当局多运来大炮，还许诺单凭他的炮兵，就可保卫奠边府，完全不知道越盟拥有中共在朝鲜夺得的美军重炮。结果法军被大量隐蔽的越盟炮兵包围。那些炮兵在四周山顶上，居高临下，把法军杀得落花流水。皮罗的炮兵无能为力。
皮罗绕军营走了一周，向其他一些军官道歉，然后拔去手榴弹安全别针，自杀死了。