Cntr. Captain Gordon Batcheller later recalled that "we were rousted up about 04:00 on the 31st and launched south on trucks to rendezvous with and reinforce ARVN forces about a map sheet and a half south of Phu Bai." Additional battalions were later identified as coming from the 29th Regiment of the 325C Division, the 90th and 803rd Regiments of the 324B Division and the 24th Regiment of the 304th Division. By dawn, our troops were still unable to advance". Neither flight crew could find the city in the fog, however, and both aircraft returned to North Vietnam without dropping their bombs. [4]:167 Meanwhile, the PAVN 802nd Battalion moved north of Ty Lc to attack Mang Ca. Allied intelligence estimated that 1618 PAVN battalions, totaling 811,000 soldiers, were engaged in the battle. Power and water supply into the city had been cut off, and people were aware that the ARVN and U.S. forces would soon counterattack. 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. 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). 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. The Day Things Fell apart in Hue City, February 1968 - with Hotel/2/5, 1st Marine Div. [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. After a day of attacks the Marines withdrew to their night defensive positions. 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. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle Several dozen Army technical specialists and military intelligence personnel were billeted in the Huong Giang Hotel several blocks to the west. 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. 1st Marine Regiment commander Colonel Stanley S. Hughes, ordered Captain George R. Christmas, commander of Company H, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines to relieve the CAP unit and Company H engaged the PAVN-VC as they withdrew from the CAP position. The Marines secured the chapel and the east school building, but were pinned down for hours by interlocking fire from the west building. [9]:519. The Marines of Charlie Company were based at Lang Co Village, which was located adjacent to the Lang Co Bridge situated at the northern approach of the Hai Van Pass. Gravel launched a two-company assault supported by tanks towards the Provincial Headquarters and Thua Thien Prison, seven blocks west of the MACV Compound where the ARVN were believed to still be holding out. Make An Appointment to View Photographs & Museum Objects, Order Photocopies & Digital Reproductions, The Garden Club of Virginia Historic Restorations Project, Confederate Memorial Literary Society (CMLS) Image Collection, Major Business Record Collections at the Virginia Historical Society, Basic Virginia business and economic history bibliography and online resources, Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names, Virginia's Civil War: A Guide to Manuscripts at the Virginia Historical Society, Civil War in Virginia Published & Primary Sources, Index to African American material in the broadside collection, Index to African American material in the sheet music collection, Manuscript Collections for the Environmental History Resources Guide, Other Related Collections for the Environmental History Resources Guide, Virginia Historical Society Gift Calculator, Tax Information & Charitable Accountability, The Battle of Hu City, South Vietnam, 1968. The distance between the walls varies from 75 meters to 17.5 meters. For example, anti-aircraft vehicles called dusters were used in the front and the back of a 12-truck convoy heading into Hue City since there were no tanks available. General Christmas is president and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. [14]:140, Within the ARVN 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment and 2nd and 7th Airborne Battalions cleared out the north and western parts of the Citadel including the Chanh Tay Gate, while the 4th Battalion, 2nd Regiment moved south from Mang Ca towards the Imperial Palace, killing over 700 PAVN-VC by 4 February. Michael Bowden's new history Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam pulls off a rare feat: it takes a conflict of terrible scale and consequence, and allows us to see it. After the Vietnam War, Hue's unique history fell to ruin as the imperial era wasn't viewed favourably by the communist authorities. 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. Greenway, a photographer embedded with the Marines . Cheatham then joined his company commanders in Hu University and they proceeded to develop the tactics to be used in recapturing southern Hu. Also, since it was still monsoon season with heavy rain and low clouds on many days during the battle, it was virtually impossible for the U.S. forces to use air support. [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. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps. With Company A, 1/1 Marines as the Phu Bai reserve, Hughes directed Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Gravel to prepare the company for any contingency. The Battle of Hu (also called the Siege of Hu), was one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the Vietnam War. [4]:177, During the mid-afternoon of 2 February, the 2/12th Cavalry arrived in a landing zone about 10 kilometres (6mi) northwest of Hu. 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. The 804th Battalion and the 1st Sapper Battalion remained south of the canal near the An Cuu Bridge while the 810th Battalion began preparing to sneak west across the Perfume River by raft and boat to Gia Hoi Island. [12]:59, Also on 7 February, the North Vietnamese tried to bring their own air support into the battle, sending four Vietnam People's Air Force Il-14 transport aircraft from an airfield near Hanoi. He served twenty-five years as an infantry soldier, which included two combat tours in Iraq. One Marine, Lance corporal Lester A. Tully, later awarded the Silver Star for his action, ran forward, threw a grenade, and silenced the gun. More than half the company's 147 men had been wounded or killed in that day's fighting. Those deemed guilty of the most serious "crimes" were speedily tried and executed. [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. Half the population lived within the Citadel in 1 or 2 story houses surrounded by stone walls. When the headquarters of 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division arrived at Camp Evans, 27 kilometers (17mi) northwest of Hu on 26 January, it found that the site held no stocks of ammunition or fuel. [4]:208 Company L, 3/5 Marines was then tasked with clearing the area to the Thuong Tu Gate and out to the Trng Tin Bridge. The Tet Offensive began on January 30 as the North Vietnamese occupied the city of Hue . [4]:17173, Leaving Company A behind to secure the MACV Compound, Gravel took Company G, reinforced by the three M48 tanks from the 3rd Tank Battalion and a few ARVN M24 light tanks from the 7th Armored Cavalry Squadron, and attempted to cross the Trng Tin Bridge, the main bridge over the Perfume River. The plans for celebration were well under way, with fireworks and traditional religeous and social activities planned, but there were those who had other plans. 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. [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. 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. [9]:83, The ARVN and Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) were largely unprepared for the Tet Offensive. 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. 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. Also new to Tha Thin Province was the 5th Regiment, a three-battalion unit that normally operated from Base Area 101 near Qung Tr. All told, the PAVN-VC hit some 18 targets from bridges, CAP units, and company defensive positions. It comes from the non- commissioned officers.. 2 kilometers (1.2mi) south of the Perfume River and just west of Highway 1 was the Tam Thai military camp, headquarters of the ARVN 7th Armored Squadron Regiment equipped with M41 Walker Bulldog tanks. The battle was one of the longest and bloodiest of the war, and the battle negatively affected American public perception of the war. The PAVN-VC forces rapidly occupied most of the city. Hue was a major part of North Vietnam's Tet Offensive, and even. With the promise of U.S. Marine reinforcements, Chi's column, with three tanks in the lead, tried once more. 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. [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. Marine ingenuity was showcased in the battle to retake Hue City. As one of the CBS News correspondents who covered the Battle of Hue in 1968, I see no contradiction between what Cronkite said about the battle while he was in Viet Nam and what he said in his acclaimed documentary on CBS News some weeks later. 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