I'm looking for stories of skirmishes and lesser battles during the Indochina war written by those who participated. Can anyone here recommend any books (which are still possible to buy through French Amazon or FNAC etc) which offers this, with details, OoB and so on?

A topic with the same subject here :
http://www.lestafette.net/t3663-indochine-conseil-de-lecture

for DBP from the vietnamese point of view you have "Dien Bien Phu vu d'en face : Paroles de bô dôi"
you have also the big book of Lucien Bodard that tells a lot of "inside sorties" from 48 (IIRC) to 52. I re-read the Vinh Yen part yesterday and you have a lot of information from the french point of view, from soldiers to commanders. You also have his own opinion as he was on the battlefield on the 15/01/1951 as a journalist
http://www.amazon.fr/Guerre-dIndochine-Lenlisement-Lhumiliation-Laventure/dp/2246552915/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298900748&sr=1-2

I saw this one to
http://www.amazon.fr/rizi%C3%A8res-souffrance-Combattants-Indochine-1945-1954/dp/2749900646/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298900918&sr=1-14
but I don't know really what it is worth.

For me the Bodar book is trully an astounding one and gives a lot of insights of what really was the indochina war. Remeber that he is not a soldier, he is a journalist and thus has at the same time a wider and a more restricted view of the events.

Thanks, I will look into all of this.

Basically what I'm searching for are encounters up to company level. Encounters not large but part of important battles when a lot was hanging on a thread. It could be something from RC4, the three battles around the delta in 1951, perhaps Hoa Binh / Tu Vu. It could be 6 BPC fighting withdrawal from Tu Le or the intial battle when Na San was nearly overrun. There can can be the fighting between the GCMA and VM between Son La and Tuan Giao in 1953 or at Plaine des Jarres during the same year. Of course, there are a couple of fights at Dien Bien Phu when everything could have ended then and there.

from what I remember he is present in lesser fights in the thai country in 1949 around Lai Chau, or maybe Lao cai, I don't remember. But there is no such thing like oob, he only cover it as a journalist.
Yesterday I briefly read the part from the arrival of "king john" to the end of the battle of Vinh Yen. There is no really battles except Vinh Yen itself and Tien Yen.
that is a long time since I read this book and I don't remember what it say about RC4 and later battles.

and if you are interested you have a smaller battle with the destruction of the GM100 at the Mang Yang pass battle in 54, after DBP in central annam
see here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mang_Yang_Pass#Ambushes
http://www.troupesdemarine.org/traditions/histoire/gm100_indochine_1954.pdf
http://www.troupesdemarine.org/federation/ancre_dor/340/dossier.pdf

I would bet on a scenario preparation instead

A new "Ici" game but...faster

A tactical for Algeria...well, I'm not sure. But for Indochina, for sure.

what about a ici on the portugese colonies (mozambique et angola)? This is not a subject often covered and this is interesting