His remaining Hac Bao platoon, made up of the most experienced soldiers, took up position at the centrally located Ty Lc Airfield to act as a rapid-reaction force. [14]:2930 East of the MACV Compound, a heavy weapons team from the 2nd Sapper Battalion attempted to destroy the communications facility. The two aircraft radioed that they were scrubbing the mission, then headed out to sea to jettison their bombs. Death in the Citadel: U.S. Marines in the Battle for Hue City, 31 January to 2 March 1968 (2017). On the night of 23 February the PAVN attempted another counterattack, but were forced back by artillery fire. [7]:49 Mark Bowden suggests that PAVN-VC anger at the lack of enthusiasm among the population of Hu may have fuelled the purges, particularly as defeat loomed closer. By John Walker. The Marine Corps' military operations in urban terrain doctrine recognizes that tactical success does not necessarily translate to strategic victory the Battle of Hu in the Vietnam War, when Marines defeated an enemy that sought to put up a good fight but never expected to win. The Marines had to use the weapons that were available and often, they were used for other than their intended purpose. I live with that to this day, Christmas said. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could. After initially losing control of most of Hu and its surroundings, the combined South Vietnamese and American forces gradually recaptured the city over one month of intense fighting. [12]:27 The 1st Division's units were spread throughout I Corps, two battalions of the 3rd Infantry Regiment were west of Hu, one on a routine sweep mission and the other undergoing training at the Van Thanh center, while the remaining two battalions of the regiment were searching for the PAVN-VC near the coast southeast of Hu. At 05:00 on 24 February they raised the South Vietnamese flag on the Citadel flag tower and proceeded to secure the southern wall by 10:25. But once you get them out you have to take them out the way you came in. The PAVN/VC crossed the river without incident on the evening of 30 January, but the delay meant that only the 1st and 2nd Sapper Battalions and an 82mm mortar company would be in their forward positions when the offensive began. US Marines spent nearly a month fighting a brutal urban battle to retake the city which was 80% destroyed by the battle's end, according to H.D.S. [4]:216 It was estimated that it would have taken at least 16 battalions to establish an effective cordon around Hu, at this time there were only 30 battalions available in all of I Corps. RM JA01HR - Crowd at Ba Tang Cemetery where more than 400 victims of the 1968 Communist Tet Offensive lie in a mass grave, Hue, Vietnam, 1968. Hue City - MCA HIGH INTENSITY URBAN FIGHTING IN THE MIDST OF A JUNGLE GUERRILLA WAR. Hue vietnam 1968 Stock Photos and Images. [12]:6970, By 20 February the 1/5 Marines advance had stalled and after conferring with his commanders Thompson decided to launch a night attack against three PAVN strongpoints that were blocking further movement with the entire battalion attacking at daybreak. A PAVN blocking force from the 806th Battalion in the graveyard stopped the ARVN relief force about 400 meters short of the Citadel wall destroying two M113s. As LaHue later wrote: "Initial deployment of forces was made with limited information. In the resulting confusion, the convoy exchanged fire with a Marine unit already in the city. During the Battle of Hue City, most of the civilians hid out in buildings, according to Christmas. [4]:213 MACV gave figures of 5,133 PAVN-VC killed at Hu. Their objective was to capture the Mang Ca Garrison. The initial press statements by MACV played down the events in Hu, claiming that only a part of the city had fallen to a small enemy force, that the city would soon be fully restored to South Vietnamese Government control and that the main attack would be directed against Khe Sanh. [4]:213 Allied air and artillery support was restricted by the poor weather, supply difficulties and, initially, by restrictions intended to limit damage to Hu's historic structures. Outside the Citadel walls sapper teams failed to destroy the Bach Ho and Trng Tin Bridges after being ambushed by RF troops. [4]:171, Up to this point the fighting for Hu had been entirely a South Vietnamese affair. The Treasury building was hit by M-48 and 106mm fire and tear gas, while a M274 Mule-mounted 106mm recoilless rifle engaged the machine gun in the Le Loi Elementary School. At Thon La Chu a South Vietnamese official who was a VC agent had earlier used aid money to build a three-story concrete and steel bomb shelter for local villagers and the command group of the Hu City Front used this as its headquarters. One Marine, Lance corporal Lester A. Tully, later awarded the Silver Star for his action, ran forward, threw a grenade, and silenced the gun. [9]:27478 Due to the delays on the left flank, the main assault in the center by Company F, 2/5 Marines was delayed until mid-afternoon. Operated by the United States Army Signal Corps 513th Signal Detachment, 337th Signal Company, 37th Signal Battalion, it was the main communications link for the Hu area, the DMZ and for the besieged Khe Sanh Combat Base. At the end of January in 1968, the Viet Cong launched an offensive that turned the tide of the Vietnam War. After a few minutes, the RF soldiers stopped shooting, and some began to wonder whether they had seen enemy troops or had been firing at shadows. Seeing an opportunity to trap the PAVN-VC, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham reinforced Company H with his Command Group and Company F.[4]:170 With his other companies in blocking positions, Cheatham hoped to pin the PAVN-VC against the Truoi River. Why is that important? The fighting that kicked off with the initial attack would last until early March, taking a heavy toll on both sides of combatants, noncombatant residents, and the city itself. Hue is a city in central Vietnam, which most Americans may know from the 1968 Battle of Hue, one of the longest and bloodiest battles in the Vietnam War. RF soldiers opened fire and radioed a warning to Trng's headquarters. He has been involved in urban operations training for two decades and is an urban operations subject matter expert and urban warfare historian, having participated in, planned, executed, and intensively instructed on urban operations for the past seven years. [4]:213, The fighting in other parts of South Vietnam during Tet was generally confined to a week or sometimes less; the battle for Hu was the longest, lasting from 31 January through 2 March 1968. At 22:00, South Vietnamese Regional Force (RF) troops stationed in a village a few hundred meters north of the An Hoa Bridge observed what appeared to be enemy figures moving past them in the dark. While the helicopters and men of the Division were soon in position, most of their heavy and support equipment was loaded on trucks that would have to proceed by convoy up Highway 1. [9]:346 As the 5/7th Cavalry approached Que Chu the command and control helicopter was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, the crew was rescued by a dustoff helicopter. Hu was also a base for United States Navy supply boats. During the next five years the battalion participated in combat operations in Hue city, Que Son, Phu Bai, Dong Ha and Phu Loc. The 1st Cavalry Division was in the midst of relocating from Bnh nh Province in II Corps to Qung Tr and Tha Thin Provinces in I Corps. . Cntr. On the afternoon of 29 January, the main body of the southern wing, the 804th Battalion, the 1st Sapper Battalion, the 815th and 818th Battalions of the 5th Regiment, the southern wing command group, and various supporting units descended from their mountain staging area and headed for the T Trch River, which stood between the attacking force and Hu. 2/5 Marines killed 18 PAVN or VC and captured one, at a cost of three Marines killed and 13 wounded. Mr. Bowden undertakes this task with the talent and sensibility of a master journalist who is also a humanist and an honest man . I know how to do this, said the lance corporal according to Downs. [16] While a new supply port was being constructed on the coast, the Division relied on the Marine supply base at Tn M and supply convoys along Highway 1 from Da Nang. He served twenty-five years as an infantry soldier, which included two combat tours in Iraq. Retired Sgt. [People would say] that weapon isnt for use in an urban environment. Entering the building the Marines fought room by room, clearing the building, but many of the PAVN slipped away. [9]:27273 On the morning of 4 February the Marines launched their attack on the Treasury. The enemy was 35 meters away and we were launching RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) at each other, said Christmas. The Cavalry had finally captured the PAVN's main support base, but were still 8km from the Citadel. Within Hu, approximately 100 U.S. Army advisers and administrative personnel, as well as a few Marine guards, were headquartered in the new city in the lightly defended MACV Compound (162758N 1073531E / 16.466N 107.592E / 16.466; 107.592) a block and a half south of the Perfume River on the east side of Highway 1. The Battle of Hu (also called the Siege of Hu), was one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the Vietnam War. By the last week of January, most of its combat units had arrived, but many of the division's logistical components were still in transit. Attacking in a southeasterly direction, the two battalions would then attempt to close the PAVN-VC supply line into Hu. [4]:199 On 14 February the Marines resumed their attack supported by Marine and Navy gun fire and Marine close air support. Highway 1, passing through the city of Hu, was an important supply line for Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and United States forces from the coastal city of Da Nang to the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto border between North and South Vietnam only 50 kilometers (31mi) to the north of Hu. [12]:31, Premature Tet Offensive attacks at Nha Trang and Qui Nhn on the morning of 30 January led to the cancellation of the Tt ceasefire, but many ARVN soldiers were already away on leave, meaning that defenses in and around Hu were undermanned. On the morning of 25 February 1968 Nguyen heard screaming coming from the far side of her village of Ha My - not far from the now-popular tourist town of Hoi An - and saw smoke filling the sky . The Army gunners and the Marine Ontos quickly responded. [12]:3233, On the night of 30 January it started to rain; from 2 February onwards this rain, low cloud and foggy weather (known locally as the crachin) would last through much of the battle and severely hamper Allied air and artillery support. The attack resumed the following morning and the ridge was secured with 20 PAVN and two Marines killed. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. Meanwhile, several kilometers to the south, the 2/12th Cavalry, made contact with another PAVN force just before noon. Hu (Vietnamese: ()) is the capital of Tha Thin Hu province in central Vietnam and was the capital of ng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. [12]:29, On 28 January, the PAVN/VC units tasked with attacking the new city began moving into position 48 hours earlier than the northern wing tasked with attacking the Citadel, because it had a longer distance to march and more difficult terrain to cross. [4]:168[12]:4344, The ARVN 3rd Regiment had an even more difficult time. Both the Marine and the airmobile units operating near Hu were in a state of flux as the Tt holiday began. Each building on the fighting lines was defended by snipers and machine guns, while spider holes were dug in gardens and streets, creating cross-fire between all buildings and streets. North Vietnamese casualties were twice those of the Marines, but the number of killed and wounded on both sides was heavy. [9]:28086 After securing the Jeanne d'Arc High School, Company A, 1/1 Marines recaptured the Le Loi Elementary School. By this time, the PAVN-VC attackers had pulled back their forces from the immediate vicinity of the Compound. At the end of January in 1968, the Viet Cong launched an offensive that turned the tide of the Vietnam War. Later that day, U.S. Marine helicopters from HMM-165 brought part of the ARVN 4th Battalion, 2nd Regiment from ng H Combat Base into the Citadel. General Christmas is president and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Like previous case studies focusing on Stalingrad and Mosul, the Battle of Hue also plays an outsized role in the way the US military conceptualizes urban warfare. This was an operational area that actually required two complete regiments to secure. [4]:223 Delaying the counterattack until a clear strategy was developed and the necessary forces assembled might have reduced casualties among the ARVN, U.S. forces and civilians and shortened the battle. 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