(Tonkin Annam and Cochin China were regions in the North, Central and South Vietnam. They were French territorial divisions but had no significance other than that.)The capitulation of the Japanese in August 1945 saw the Viet Minh seize control of Hanoi and dedare an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN). In Saigon, the Provisional Executive Committee of South Vietnam, dominated by communists, recognised Ho's authority. The Potsdam conference had invested the responsibility of disarming the Japanese in Vietnam north of the 16th parallel with the Nationalist Chinese and with the British in the South. The Chinese had no sympathy for the French and when they withdrew, they left Ho's government in place. Not so, the British commander, Maj. Gen D.D. Gracey, who released and rearmed the French colon prisoners of the Japanese and permitted them to oust the Committee, thus setting the scene for the return of the French forces under General Lederc. By December, they had control of Vietnam to the 16th parallel. However the French were not able to gain control of the North and negotiations were opened with Ho in March 1946. These negotiations culminated with the Dalat and Fontainebleau conferences, but failed to satisfy Ho that the integrity of the DRVN would be preserved. Admiral Thierry d'Agenlieu, the French High Commissioner in Vietnam, proclaimed the Provincial Republic of Cochin China within the French Union on 30 May 1946 and on 23 November 1946, bombarded Hanoi's port, Haiphong, with naval gunfire, killing at least 6,000 Vietnamese. This was followed by landings at Tourane (Da Nang) and Nha Trang. The French forced the Viet Minh into the country areas and first Indo-Chinese war had begun. THE FIRST INDO-CHINESE WAR 1946-1954 In the early years, the Viet Minh forces suffered from shortages of arms and equipment, and so from 1946 to 1949, they were unable to undertake more than guerrilla operations.