The reconnaissance platoon, having made its way back into the city, defended the Imperial Palace but eventually had to retreat to Mang Ca. 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. [4]:168, South of the river a reinforced company of the 2nd Sapper Battalion launched a simultaneous attack on the MACV Compound in the new city. [4]:17778 That night the PAVN 815th Battalion overran the ARVN defenders at the Thua Thien Prison releasing the 2,500 prisoners, including 350 VC who were soon armed with captured ARVN weapons and joined the fighting. [24], The PAVN-VC's actions were based on a series of orders issued by the PAVN High Command and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG). An Ontos was brought forward to blast an entry into the building, but was disabled by a B-40 rocket. The 2/12th Cavalry withdrew to a night defensive perimeter, but at dawn on 3 February following a mortar barrage the PAVN attacked their position. 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. Brigadier General Foster LaHue, the Task Force X-Ray commander, actually had very little reliable intelligence on the situation. 2 kilometers (1.2mi) to the northwest, an engineer unit moved within sight of its target, the An Lo Bridge that spanned the Bo River, as it did, the 806th Battalion, one company from the 800th Battalion and a sapper platoon of forty men, all from the 6th Regiment, quietly occupied a forward staging area in a graveyard 2 kilometers (1.2mi) northwest of the Citadel. 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. In addition, in any combat fight, there are going to be innocent civilian bystanders. [4]:167 At 04:40 sappers captured the Huu Gate and the command group of the PAVN 6th Regiment entered the Citadel. Gen. Michael Downs, who were then captains serving as commanding officers in Hue, recently spoke about their experiences in the Battle of Hue City to an eager group of staff-noncommissioned officers (SNCOs) during a Professional Military Education (PME) event held at Marine Corps University. This was only beaten back with heavy artillery fire. He led an armored column toward Hu, but like the other South Vietnamese units, found it impossible to break through. [9]:52425, PAVN General Trn Vn Tr later wrote of the Tet Offensive, "We did not correctly evaluate the specific balance of forces between ourselves and the enemy [its objectives] were beyond our actual strengthin part an illusion based on our subjective desires. This was the seat of the Nguyen dynasty. The outer stone wall is one meter thick, five meters high and is separated from the inner wall by dirt fill. 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. He split up two more platoons to reinforce security at the various gates leading into the Citadel. 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). In February 1968, in the South Vietnamese city of Hu, 11 battalions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), four U. S. Armybattalions, and three understrength U. S. Marine Corps battalions, for a total of . One of their battalion commanders, (then) Major Robert Thompson became a close friend during and after the war. power. General Christmas is president and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Hue City,, Vietnam, 1968 Me love you long time! Ret.) 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. 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. VIETNAM Hue is home to a plethora of intricate imperial structures, such as the Meridian Gate Matthew Pike Writer 26 October 2021 View From 1802 to 1945, Hue was the capital of Vietnam and home to the Nguyen dynasty. A Leaders Guide to Conducting Research Staff Rides, The Overlooked Irregular Warfare Expert the Pentagon Should Study Today, MWI Podcast: When Cities Become Battlefields, Frank Sobchak Joins MWI as Chair of Irregular Warfare Studies, Announcing the Modern War Institutes 202223 Senior and Research Fellows, Call for Submissions: Civil-Military Relations and Modern War, Call for Applications: MWIs 202223 Fellows Program. . 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. 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. [14]:2930 East of the MACV Compound, a heavy weapons team from the 2nd Sapper Battalion attempted to destroy the communications facility. (Eddie Adams/AP) 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 two generals not only told the SNCOs about the difficult fight, but also told them about the lessons learned that can be beneficial to Marines today. [4]:16, The headquarters of ARVN Brigadier General Ng Quang Trng's 1st Division was located in the Mang Ca Garrison, a minifortress in the northeast corner of the Citadel. In this Feb. 1968 photo, a unit of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment U.S. Marines, rests alongside a battered wall of Hue's imperial palace after a battle for the Citadel during the Tet Offensive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfMocPJZvfQ&t=40s. Those deemed guilty of the most serious "crimes" were speedily tried and executed. However, they were soon stopped by strong PAVN defenses; after two days the Vietnamese Marines had only advanced 400 meters. Both the Marine and the airmobile units operating near Hu were in a state of flux as the Tt holiday began. Loyde Yates, Hue City, Feb 1968. These North Vietnamese regulars had arrived to invade the provincial capital city of 140,000 as part of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong's (VC . 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. Since Vietnam was expected to be a jungle fight, Marines who fought in Hue had only one hour of training in urban combat. 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. On August 20, 2009, Lt. Gen. G. R. (Ron) Christmas, USMC (Ret.) Youve got to protect your corpsman, said Downs. Victims included women, men, children, and infants. They tried again five days later, but once again, bad weather prevented them from locating Mang Ca. 5/7th Cavalry would be stalled north of La Chu for 2 weeks, probing but failing to penetrate the PAVN defenses. Unknown to the Marines, the ARVN Airborne had withdrawn from the area two days previously when the Vietnamese Marines began to arrive at Mang Ca and the PAVN defenders had used this opportunity to reoccupy several blocks and reinforce their defenses, Company A was engaged by the PAVN and quickly suffered 35 casualties. The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense. He led the Marine push to capture the Citadel on the north side of the Hue river. This book is the capstone volume of the entire series in that 1968, as the title indicates, was the defining year of the war. The 806th Battalion, which was dug into a cemetery along Highway 1 near the western corner of the Citadel, dispatched a group of soldiers to capture the An Hoa Bridge, driving off the RF detachment guarding the bridge and opening a line of communication with the other PAVN-VC in the Citadel. 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. At about 15:15 the Marines managed to make their way toward the MACV 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. 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. This is also where the Marine needs to use their ingenuity. 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]:177, During the mid-afternoon of 2 February, the 2/12th Cavalry arrived in a landing zone about 10 kilometres (6mi) northwest of Hu. [9]:490, At 09:30 on 22 February, Company A, 1/5 Marines led the day's attack to find that the PAVN had largely disappeared and the south wall was soon secured. 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. 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. Advancing with tank and air support they completed the mission meeting little resistance. 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. Then, you need to select where you enter the city, then you can determine what you are going to use to take the city. A native of Portsmouth, Ohio, then-First Lieutenant James K. Redding arrived in South Vietnam on January 7, 1968, and was assigned as the assistant American advisor to the 7th Airborne . [9]:32022 The PAVN-VC no longer tenaciously defended each building, relying more on sniper fire, mortars and rockets. 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. 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