The General Offensive was to comprise conventional and guerilla military action aimed primarily at the "puppet" South Vietnamese military and government, attempting to destroy their legitimacy among the South Vietnamese population. 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. By the end of the day, the Marines had sustained two dead and 34 wounded and claimed to have killed nearly 140 PAVN-VC. At 06:30, Hughes ordered the company to reinforce the Truoi River Bridge. With darkness approaching the attack was postponed until the next morning. [4]:168, Three USMC battalions were protecting Phu Bai Combat Base, Highway 1 and all western approaches to Hu. In a 3500-page document issued on 26 January 1968 by the Tr-Thin-Hu Political Directorate, the political cadres were given specific instructions:[25] Operating in close support of the regular military and guerrilla elements, the political cadre were to: destroy and disorganize the Republic of Vietnam's administrative machinery "from province and district levels to the city wards, streets, and wharves; motivate the people of Hu to take up arms, pursue the enemy, seize power, and establish a revolutionary government; motivate (recruit) local citizens for military and "security" forces transportation and supply activities, and to serve wounded soldiers pursue to the end (and) punish spies, reactionaries, and tyrants and maintain order and security in the city. Whether you like it or not you are all leaders and someday, one way or another, you will be involved in urban operations, Christmas said. Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam is Black Hawk Down author Bowden's worthy effort to give the battle its due. PAVN forces blocked the 1st and 4th Battalions of the regiment, operating to the southeast, as they attempted to reinforce the units in Hu. All he knew was that Trng's headquarters had been under attack, as was the MACV Compound. 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. The distance between the walls varies from 75 meters to 17.5 meters. In mid-morning the 5/7th Cavalry, came under heavy fire from an estimated company-size force who occupied the hamlet of Thon An, approximately one kilometer from the An Hoa Bridge. One of their battalion commanders, (then) Major Robert Thompson became a close friend during and after the war. Although one battle account stated that the South Vietnamese "offered no strong resistance", the PAVN report acknowledged "the heavy enemy ARVN fire enveloped the entire airfield. [9]:269, About 11:00, Company H, 2/5 Marines, crossed the An Cuu Bridge in an armed convoy. 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. [12]:7376, The 3rd Brigade would not reach the west wall of the Citadel until 25 February by which time the PAVN-VC had successfully withdrawn from the battlefield. Few returned. One company occupied a six-way intersection on Highway 1 a few blocks southeast of the MACV Compound to prevent Allied mechanized forces from entering the city. The Battle of Hue City . [9]:17174 French journalists Catherine Leroy and Francois Mazure were captured by the PAVN, but were allowed to return to U.S. lines bringing photos of the PAVN side of the battle which were subsequently published in Life Magazine.[27]. [14]:99101 On 13 February Companies F and H crossed the bridge again with the aim of securing the entire area. Rather, the Modern War Institute provides a forum for professionals to share opinions and cultivate ideas. This could mean going through the same holes and breaches that you have been through. This book is the capstone volume of the entire series in that 1968, as the title indicates, was the defining year of the 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. This time they crossed the An Cuu Bridge into the new city. However, the shock of the Tet Offensive, coming so soon after General William Westmoreland's "End in view" tour of the U.S. in November 1967, undermined the credibility of Westmoreland and his strategy within the Johnson Administration. For the board wargame based on this battle, see, The 1st Cavalry Division attacks PAVN supply lines, Last edited on 24 February 2023, at 12:50, Massacre perpetrated by Vietcong and the PAVN, dressed in ARVN uniforms killed the guards, Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support, Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Developments in the war, News media and the Vietnam War Tet Offensive, 1968, November 2004 anti-insurgent Marine operation, United States Army Center of Military History, "The History Place Vietnam War 19651968", "Urban Operations: An Historical Casebook", "An Excerpt from the Viet Cong Strategy of Terror", "Pham Van Dong, Voice of Vietnam's Revolt, Dies at 94", "Vietnam War Medal of Honor Recipients (AL)", "Medal of Honor Monday: Army Sgt. They turned left and immediately came under automatic weapons and recoilless rifle fire from the Citadel wall. Flying through overcast skies, the aircraft returned two hours later, its pilot having seen nothing out of the ordinary. At the Chanh Tay gate (162826N 1073340E / 16.474N 107.561E / 16.474; 107.561) on the west wall of the Citadel, a six-man PAVN sapper team dressed in ARVN uniforms killed the guards and opened the gate. The armored troop at Tam Thai was first to respond to Trng's order. 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. The enemy usually pulls them all together and tries to build a buffer, said Christmas. Meanwhile, 4km to the west of the city the PAVN 416th Battalion, 5th Regiment, as well as a local force company and a recoilless rifle company, swarmed into the villages of Thon Que Chu and Thon La Chu (162852N 1073014E / 16.481N 107.504E / 16.481; 107.504). But, also like Stalingrad and Mosul, Hue was also a fundamentally unique battle in certain key ways, and the case study sheds light on the unique lessons that can be derived from it. In spite of the beating they took in November, they will continue to assert they repelled the initial attack and fought well thereafter. Meanwhile, the other two IL14s, which had been modified to drop bombs, had orders to bomb Mang Ca. The 804th Battalion of the newly created 4th Regiment was reported to be near Ph Lc District, 30 kilometers (19mi) southeast of the city. Because of enemy mortaring of the LCU ramp in southern Hu, the allies had stopped all river traffic to the city. [12]:37, Responding to the call at PK-17, at 09:00 the 3rd Troop and the 7th Battalion of the Airborne task force rolled out of their base area in an armored convoy onto Highway 1. What happened in Hue in February, 1968, may have been the biggest, longest battle of the war, but it did not represent a contradiction in Cronkite's conclusion that the United States was stuck in a stalemateboth military and politicalin the long, deadly Viet Nam War. The PAVN-VC could not afford to engage in a firefight at this point, and they succeeded in sneaking away without raising further alarms. Loyde Yates, Hue City, Feb 1968. On 2 March 1968 the Marines concluded Operation Hu City. 33. 7) Walk Around the Thai Hoa Palace. [4]:171, While the fighting continued in the Truoi River and the Ph Lc sectors, the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines had begun to move into Hu. The cost had been heavy: the ARVN suffered 131 casualties including 40 dead, and lost four of the 12 armored personnel carriers in the convoy. [9]:268, On the night of 3 February, the PAVN commander, seeing the buildup of Marines at Hu University, thinned out his frontline forces leaving just a platoon to defend the Treasury building and adjacent Post Office. The mechanized task force swept along the northwestern wall toward the An Hoa Bridge, flushing out a number of PAVN soldiers who had taken refuge in the grasses and weeds. 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. [4]:21113, On 28 February 1/5 Marines and 2/5 Marines launched an operation to the east of Hu to try to cut off any PAVN forces moving from Hu towards the coast. [12]:3839, In the early morning a U.S. Army helicopter was shot down over the city; the crew sought refuge with a group of ARVN in a small compound. The patrol commander reported by radio what he had seen, Trng immediately dispatched a light observation airplane from the Ty Lc Airfield to look for the enemy force. [4]:201 That day at a meeting at Phu Bai between Generals Abrams, LaHue, Trng and South Vietnamese Vice President Nguyn Cao K, K approved the use of all necessary force to clear the PAVN-VC forces from the Citadel, regardless of damage to historic structures. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among. Greenway, a photographer embedded with the Marines . 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. These ambushes killed 20 Marines and wounded 39. 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. Of course, the U.S. Marines were proud of their achievement in retaking the territory of the city. This article is about the Vietnam War battle during the Tet Offensive. Christmas says theres not a day that goes by that he doesnt think about two mistakes he made during the Battle for Hue City. General Christmas is president and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. The company also helped a group of sappers seize the Treasury Building (162754N 1073524E / 16.465N 107.590E / 16.465; 107.590), the post office and a radio station a few blocks to the north. The PAVN-VC failed to hold the city or spark a general uprising, but they had undermined confidence in the Thiu-K government and the prospect of victory. Meanwhile, the ARVN 3rd Regiment fought off a PAVN counterattack in the northwest corner of the Citadel. Finally, a small detachment of U.S. Navy personnel was stationed at a boat ramp just north of the MACV Compound. With the number of wounded rising, the Marines commandeered some abandoned Vietnamese civilian vehicles and used them as makeshift ambulances to carry out the wounded. The two aircraft radioed that they were scrubbing the mission, then headed out to sea to jettison their bombs. The 2nd Airborne Battalion reinforced the convoy and conducted a flanking attack. (Eddie Adams/AP) 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. While the Marines encountered few PAVN in their sweeps they located various abandoned infrastructure that had been used to support the battle, including a 3km trench system with over 600 fighting holes. [12]:34, At 03:40, ten minutes behind schedule, elements of the PAVN 164th Artillery Regiment fired a barrage of 122mm rockets into the new city from firing positions in the southwestern hills. 10 Apr 2018| 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. [12]:3132, On the afternoon of 30 January Trng dispatched a Hac Bao platoon and an Australian Army adviser to scout the north bank of the Perfume River which provided the simplest route from Base Area 114 into the city. The deteriorating weather forced the squadron to cancel the remaining lifts with about half of the battalion in the Citadel. For his actions Ferguson was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor. Coming upon the central police headquarters in southern Hu, the tanks attempted to relieve the police defenders, but a B-40 rocket made a direct hit on Chi's tank, killing him instantly. God Bless these two Marines , who in the heat of battle, find the opportunity to escort this blind local girl to safety. The city was totally overrun, so were not about to isolate it because we dont have the forces. 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. The General Uprising was the expectation that the oppressed South Vietnamese population would then spontaneously rise up and overthrow the Thiu-K government and that this would force the United States to withdraw in the face of the will of the people. [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. It was mid-February 1968, and American and South Vietnamese forces were. [9]:290, Following the capture of the Treasury, Cheatham continued his methodical advance to the west leading with tear gas, M-48s and Ontos, followed by Mules and Marines, while PAVN-VC resistance lessened as its manpower and ammunition was depleted. The 4th Battalion, 3rd Regiment, south of the river, crossed the river and assaulted the Thuong Tu Gate near the eastern corner of the Citadel. Victims included women, men, children, and infants. They were to relieve a MACV Microwave/Tropo communications facility approximately 2.5km southeast of the MACV Compound surrounded by a VC force. Unplanned by the North Vietnamese, their greatest success was the shock and negative impact of the battle and the entire Tet Offensive on U.S. public opinion. Hue became the imperial capital of a unified Vietnam for the first time in two centuries and retained this status until 1945. It started on Jan. 30, 1968, the eve of Tet (the Vietnamese lunar new year): More than 80,000 soldiers from the People's Army North Vietnamese and southern allies staged simultaneous attacks on cities, towns and U.S. bases throughout the south, a mass occupation meant to inspire the rest of South Vietnam to rise up . 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. [34][35] Both battles were fought in close quarters in an urban setting where the enemy ensconced itself in the midst of civilians. Entering the building the Marines fought room by room, clearing the building, but many of the PAVN slipped away. The base remained under fire from PAVN positions in a Buddhist temple to the south and from a ridgeline to the west and at 07:00 on 25 February Companies F and G began to attack the ridgeline, but were met by intense mortar fire. John Spencer and Jayson Geroux | 11.04.21. in January 1968, North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive, a series of coordinated attacks aimed at demonstrating to the governments in Washington and Saigon that continuing the war was futile. CALL: 804.340.1800 or 800.358.8701 [9]:470, Foreign civilians captured in the city received varying treatment. The Battle of Hue City, Vietnam has come to be regarded as one of the most infamous urban battles in Marine Corps history. Although the PAVN battalion penetrated the division compound, an ad hoc 200-man defensive force of staff officers and clerks staved off the assaults. Company D was also engaged by PAVN in the village of Lieu Coc and forced to withdraw. 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. Hue City Vietnam - Etsy Check out our hue city vietnam selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. Joe Ronnie Hooper", "Command Chronology for period 1 February to 29 February 1968", "Communist political executions at Hue in the 1968 Tet Offensive", "Soldiers of North Vietnam strike a pose for her camera", "Who, What, When, Where, Why: Report from Vietnam by Walter Cronkite", "Chris Matthews invokes the 'if I've lost Cronkite' myth in NYT review", "The Grim Calculations of Retaking Fallujah", "Many U.S. The U.S. Navy Ticonderoga class-guided-missile cruiser USSHu City, commissioned in 1991, is named after the battle. Over the next three days these forces would slowly reduce the PAVN's perimeter. The main body of the 818th Battalion had left camp later than planned and had gotten lost on its way to the city. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. Richmond,Virginia23220, Galleries, Store, & Caf daily 10:00 am-5:00 pm We take care of civilians, added Downs. The Marines together with five M48s from the 1st Tank Battalion would later be loaded onto Mike boats at the LCU ramp in southern Hu and ferried across to Mang Ca. None of that was available. PAVN soldiers also fired 130 82mm mortar rounds into the Mang Ca Compound the opening minutes of the battle. Notes were created from Richard Camp's (Col. The sweep continued until 25 February. You know where those decisions come from? 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