[9]:519. [12]:60, On 10 February two forward observers from the Marines' 1st Field Artillery Group were flown into Ty Lc to help coordinate artillery and naval gunfire to support the fighting within the Citadel, however Trng instructed them that the Imperial Palace was not to be fired on. Those deemed guilty of the most serious "crimes" were speedily tried and executed. Hue vietnam 1968 Stock Photos and Images. Company H withdrew so that air strikes could be launched and these knocked out mortar and machine gun positions killing 20 PAVN; however, one bomb fell short killing four Marines. The sweep continued until 25 February. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. In spite of the beating they took in November, they will continue to assert they repelled the initial attack and fought well thereafter. On August 20, 2009, Lt. Gen. G. R. (Ron) Christmas, USMC (Ret.) Four days would pass before they were at last able to punch a hole in the PAVN-VC lines and reach the MACV compound. During the months and years that followed, dozens of mass graves were discovered in and around Hu. He led an armored column toward Hu, but like the other South Vietnamese units, found it impossible to break through. The world is urban and thats where youre going to fight and its up to you to ensure that you prepare yourself. One of the offensives chief targets was the city of Hue. In one instance, Downs says there was a machine gun directly down a street that his Marines needed to cross to advance their attack. HUE, VIETNAM -- After Vietnamese Communists briefly occupied this picturesque former imperial capital during the 1968 Tet offensive, nearly 3,000 people were found buried in mass . Its alive and well today and is in response to your leadership, said Downs to the SNCOs gathered in the lecture hall. [4]:205 On the night of 16 February a radio intercept indicated that a battalion-size PAVN force was about to launch a counterattack over the west wall of the Citadel. The Battle of Hue, part of the Tet Offensive, 1968 The Tet Offensive. He essentially made a memorial of each Marine by keeping a book in which he wrote down the names and dates of all Marines killed and injured during the battle. Following this visit two more cavalry battalions (1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment) and additional air and artillery support were committed to the attack on La Chu. Attacking in a southeasterly direction, the two battalions would then attempt to close the PAVN-VC supply line into Hu. 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. The second company from the 804th Battalion seized the An Cuu Bridge while the third company stormed a smaller bridge over the canal a short distance to the west. These ambushes killed 20 Marines and wounded 39. It comes from the non- commissioned officers.. They were to relieve a MACV Microwave/Tropo communications facility approximately 2.5km southeast of the MACV Compound surrounded by a VC force. [4]:17374 This was easier said than done as the PAVN-VC were well dug-in and firing from virtually every building in the Citadel. The 1/5 Marines commander Major Robert Thompson ordered Company B up to relieve Company A and the advance continued slowly until it was halted by PAVN flanking fire from the Dong Ba Gate (162837N 1073459E / 16.477N 107.583E / 16.477; 107.583). He led the Marine push to capture the Citadel on the north side of the Hue river. Significant architectural element in Hue, the bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the French structural engineer famous for Paris's Eiffel Tower, and was completed in 1899 by the French Colonial government. This time they crossed the An Cuu Bridge into the new city. [9]:33235 The Marines raised an American flag to celebrate their victory, but shortly thereafter were ordered to lower it, as according to South Vietnamese law, no American flag was permitted to be flown without an accompanying South Vietnamese flag. 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. delivered a Banner Lecture entitled The Battle of Hu City, South Vietnam, 1968.. 4,856 civilians and captured ARVN personnel were executed by the PAVN-VC or went missing during the battle according to the South Vietnamese Government. [9]:49698 Over the coming months U.S. public opinion turned decisively against the war. Your email address will not be published. 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. However at 10:30, 31 January Company G was ordered to Phu Bai as the Task Force reserve and Company F was removed from Hughes' operational control later that afternoon. The combined force then headed for the Mang Ca compound with the goal of neutralizing Trng's headquarters before it had time to organize the city's defenders. [9]:288 That evening VC sappers succeeded in blowing up the An Cuu bridge, cutting the road link to Phu Bai. Meanwhile, the team of thirty sappers who had scaled the northwestern wall overpowered the guards standing watch at the An Hoa and Hau Gates, then opened their doors to the infantry company waiting outside. By the end of the day, the Marines had sustained two dead and 34 wounded and claimed to have killed nearly 140 PAVN-VC. The lead elements of the southern wing, the 1st Sapper Battalion and part of the 804th Battalion, arrived two hours ahead of schedule, which meant that they reached the crossing well before the sun had set. But as the intensity of the battle increased, the policy was eliminated. Soldiers wave from truck. After the launch of the Tet Offensive campaign on January 30, 1968, in South Vietnam, a series of battles were fought between the southern Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the Northern People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). [4]:20810, To the west, the South Vietnamese forces continued to meet stubborn resistance. Vietnam War veterans and retired Marines Lt. Gen. George Ron Christmas and Brig. 5) Walk Around the Thien Mu Pagoda. After battling RF troops who were guarding a series of four bridges over the canal, some of the PAVN troops crossed into the city and headed for a list of targets that included the Montagnard military school, the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) center, the Le Loi transportation camp, the provincial administration complex and prison and the Tha Thin Provincial Headquarters (162740N 1073455E / 16.461N 107.582E / 16.461; 107.582). During Tet, the lunar New Year holiday, the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies staged attacks across South Vietnam, none more dramatic than the assault on Hu, the old imperial capital. 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. The American command still had little realization of the situation in Hu. Loyde Yates, Hue City, Feb 1968. 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. We are going to have to fight our way in piecemeal and then gather up and retake the city from within.. On the night of 23 February the PAVN attempted another counterattack, but were forced back by artillery fire. The imperial city of Hue has for centuries played a significant role in Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among. 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. Hue city 1968 Vietnam History Vietnam War Photos North Vietnam Vietnam Veterans American War American History Bergen Hue Us Marines A dead US Marines carried by commrades at Battle of Hue. On January 30, 1968, after months of preparation, North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops and Viet Cong (VC) guerrillas launched a massive, coordinated assault on nearly every city, town, and. The PAVN strongly defended the perimeter, but once the Cavalry forces broke through with the support of two newly arrived M42 Dusters, they found that the base had been largely abandoned while the Cavalry had been building up their forces for the attack. [4]:16667 At 05:00 a reinforced company from the 1st Sapper Battalion 10 PAVN/VC Battalions with 8,000 Communist soldiers. Throughout the entire battle, the U.S. command consistently underestimated the size of the PAVN-VC forces engaged and the Allied forces necessary to deal with them. [9]:28086 After securing the Jeanne d'Arc High School, Company A, 1/1 Marines recaptured the Le Loi Elementary School. The Battle of Hue City occurred with the Tet Offensive, where Marines were surprised by a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) attack during what was supposed to be a cease fire negotiated during a. I witnessed the fighting in Hue at close quarters and came away with the impression that it was a bloodbaththat neither side "won" or "lost." Some were marched north into captivity, while others were executed, including three West German doctors, two French Benedictine monks and two U.S. government employees. Christmas was leading Hotel Company into Hue City from the south. Over the next three days these forces would slowly reduce the PAVN's perimeter. On the 31st, two of its battalions, the 2nd and 3rd, advanced east from encampments southwest of the city along the northern bank of the Perfume River, but PAVN defensive fire forced them to fall back. As LaHue later wrote: "Initial deployment of forces was made with limited information. U.S. Marines and Vietnamese troops move through the grounds of the Imperial Palace in the old citadel area of Hue, Vietnam, on February 26, 1968, after seizing it from Communist hands. [14]:81 On 5 February the Marines recaptured the Hu Central Hospital complex (162747N 1073513E / 16.463N 107.587E / 16.463; 107.587), rescuing Lieutenant Colonel Pham Van Khoa (the Mayor of Hu and Thua Thien Province chief), who had been hiding in the grounds. The government troops tried to fight their way through but lacked the strength or the firepower to do so. Eight CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters made the flight in marginal weather with a 61152 metres (200500ft) ceiling and 1.6 kilometres (1mi) visibility, arriving at an improvised landing zone under enemy mortar fire. 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. Since Vietnam was expected to be a jungle fight, Marines who fought in Hue had only one hour of training in urban combat. [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. screened on 27 February 1968, Cronkite closed the report with the editorial comments: We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. CALL: 804.340.1800 or 800.358.8701 On 24 February, the 5/7th Cavalry, rejoined its detached company and the armored cavalry platoon from the 3/5th Cavalry, near the western corner of the Citadel. A 75mm recoilless rifle knocked out one of the supporting tanks. and, more recently, The Finish: "The Killing of Osama bin Laden", and Hue 1968: A Turning point of the American war in Vietnam. See my book, "The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story." Hue became the imperial capital of a unified Vietnam for the first time in two centuries and retained this status until 1945. There are endless must-see historic sites, especially those that are UNESCO World Heritage designated. The Vietnam War is often pictured as a jungle conflict, punctuated by American troops fighting in rural hut-filled villages. [4]:177 As the convoy, accompanied by Army trucks equipped with quad .50 machine guns and two M50 Ontos, entered the city, enemy snipers opened up on the Marine reinforcements. Allied intelligence estimated that 1618 PAVN battalions, totaling 811,000 soldiers, were engaged in the battle. [23] Cadres called out the names on their lists over loudspeakers, ordering them to report to a local school. Everybody will fight. Maj. John Canley's actions during the battle of Hue City, Vietnam, in 1968 have him one step away from receiving the nation's highest award for combat valor, the Medal of Honor. The city was totally overrun, so were not about to isolate it because we dont have the forces. By 22:15 that night, Tolson's command had agreed with III MAF on its designated area of operations in the Hu sector. On 24 February 2/5 Marines launched an operation to the southwest of Hu to relieve the ARVN 101st Engineering Company compound which had been under siege by the PAVN since the start of the battle. The next day Company F swept the west bank of the canal, fighting through houses and the Hu Railway Station that had been sheltering PAVN snipers, before withdrawing back across the bridge. Country Maps. [12]:37 At 08:00, PAVN troops raised a liberation flag over the Citadel flag tower. On 2 March 1968 the Marines concluded Operation Hu City. The last pocket of PAVN at the southwest corner of the Citadel was eliminated in an attack by the 4th Vietnamese Marine Battalion in the early hours of 25 February. Outside the Citadel walls sapper teams failed to destroy the Bach Ho and Trng Tin Bridges after being ambushed by RF troops. [15][9]:12728, The embattled Trng called in reinforcements ordering all four battalions of the 3rd Regiment in the countryside to return to the Citadel, he also instructed two armored units, the 3rd Troop, 7th Cavalry, stationed at PK17, and the tank-equipped 1st Troop, 7th Cavalry, at the Tam Thai camp southeast of new city to proceed to Mang Ca. Owned and operated by the 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. [9]:34749 On 9 February 5/7th Cavalry resumed their advance with artillery support from PK-17 and naval gunfire; they overran Lieu Coc finding PAVN bodies and fighting positions. In some of the buildings today, the remnants of the fight remain; there are pock marks in some of the buildings exteriors that were hit with machine gun fire and M16 bullets. And more than a half century on, what lessons should we take from the battle as we prepare for a future of warfare that is increasingly likely to be urban? Upon their flashlight signals, the 800th Battalion and several teams from the 12th Sapper Battalion rushed through the gate and headed northwest towards Ty Lc Airfield. February 1968. 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. [4]:191 The PAVN forces in the new city, worn down by more than a week of incessant combat and effectively cut off from their comrades on the other side of the river, began to slowly abandon the city, the 815th and 2nd Sapper Battalions moved to the southern side of the Phu Cam Canal, where the 818th Battalion was already in place. The walls of the Citadel form a square with sides of 2,500 meters. That young Marine of yours, that corporal who has always been the joy of everybody and always has a joke, gets killed next to you. One of the aircraft returned safely; but the other, flying through dense fog, crashed into a mountain, losing all on board. With the promise of U.S. Marine reinforcements, Chi's column, with three tanks in the lead, tried once more. The enemy force, the forty sappers and an infantry company from the 800th Battalion that had been waiting in the graveyard northwest of An Hoa, did not return fire but crept away before they could be illuminated by the descending flares. Hue 1968 pays particular attention to key role played by journalists played in exposing the fact that a major battle was taking place in Hue, contrary to inaccurate claims from . [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. For his actions Ferguson was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor. A short time later, their transmissions went dead and they were never heard from again. On 16 February two companies from the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, fought elements of the 803rd Regiment, 324B Division, about 20 kilometers (12mi) northeast of Hu, killing 29 PAVN before they broke contact the following day. ), participated in the battle for Hu as a company commander and will present a first-hand account of the conflict. In the early morning hours of 1 February the PAVN withdrew and at midday a Hac Bao unit led the Airborne force into Mang Ca. The cavalrymen fought their way into the PAVN-occupied hamlet and found beneath its shattered remains a honeycomb of tunnels and bunkers and spent the rest of the day searching the ruins for survivors and combing through the adjacent cemetery, where the 806th Battalion had ambushed the ARVN 7th Airborne Battalion on 31 January. Brigadier General Foster LaHue, the Task Force X-Ray commander, actually had very little reliable intelligence on the situation. "[29][30] This account has been questioned in a book on journalistic accuracy. The toughest fight of the day centered on a pagoda that contained a PAVN battalion headquarters. Although the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 3rd Regiment remained outside of the Citadel walls, unable to penetrate the PAVN defenses; the 2nd and 7th Airborne Battalions, supported by armored personnel carriers and the Hac Bao Company, recaptured the Ty Lc airfield. 33. [26] Bowden conservatively estimates that 2,000 people were executed. This pictorial is a testament to their will and their sacrifice. 4) Take in a Performance at the Royal Theatre. The supporting fire continued throughout the day, but the PAVN did not abandon their positions. "[4]:171, As the Marines approached the southern suburbs of the city they came under increasing fire from the PAVN 804th Battalion. The Modern War Institute does not screen articles to fit a particular editorial agenda, nor endorse or advocate material that is published. [9]:27273 On the morning of 4 February the Marines launched their attack on the Treasury. The original series of articles which became "Black Hawk Down" earned him the Overseas Press Club's Hal . [12]:29 The PAVN B5 Front created a special logistical and administrative zone known as the Hu City Front to manage the upcoming battle. One Marine, Lance corporal Lester A. Tully, later awarded the Silver Star for his action, ran forward, threw a grenade, and silenced the gun. At dawn the only areas of the new city still under Allied control were the prison defended by a Hac Bao platoon; the Le Loi transportation camp; the Huang Giang Hotel; the MACV Compound; the communications facility; and the Navy loading dock. Several local force companies operated in the districts surrounding Hu. Death in the Citadel: U.S. Marines in the Battle for Hue City, 31 January to 2 March 1968 (2017). Neither flight crew could find the city in the fog, however, and both aircraft returned to North Vietnam without dropping their bombs. The allied platoon stayed out of sight as the 800th, 802nd and 12th Sapper Battalions marched past its position, heading east along the river toward the city. After marching southwest approximately 4 kilometers (2.5mi), the team concealed itself in some bushes near the river and waited. Their objective was to capture the Mang Ca Garrison. [34] In his analysis of the Battle of Fallujah, Jonathan F. Keiler, a military historian and former officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps wrote:[36]. While the ARVN 1st Division had cancelled all Tt leave and was attempting to recall its troops, the South Vietnamese and American forces in the city were unprepared when the Vit Cng (VC) and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched the Tet Offensive, attacking hundreds of military targets and population centers across the country, including Hu. 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