Battle for Huế

Battle for Huế

Part of: Tet Offensive , Vietnam War

US Marines in Huế

date	January 30th to March 3rd, 1968
place	Huế , South Vietnam
output	Victory of South Vietnam and the USA

Parties to the conflict
South Vietnam United States	North Vietnam National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam
Commander
Ngô Quang Trưởng Foster LaHue	Trần Văn Quang
Troop strength
11 ARVN battalions, 2 US Army battalions, 3 US Navy battalions	10 NVA and FNL battalions

The Battle of Huế in 1968 was one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the Vietnam War (1954–1975).

From February 1, 1968, eleven battalions of the South Vietnamese Army, together with two battalions of the US Army and three weakened battalions of the US Marines (these three battalions were less than 2500 strong) , stormed the 140,000-inhabitant city of Huế , which had previously been owned by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the NLF (called Viet Cong) was largely conquered and defended by over 10,000 soldiers from both organizations. From a military-historical point of view , the Battle of Huế is one of the house -to- house fights , similar to the Battle of Stalingrad , the Battle of Aachen , the Battle of Berlin , the Battle of Grozny , the Battle of Mogadishu and the Battle of Fallujah .

background

Development in Indochina 1964 to 1967

Huế is on National Road 1 , which connected the coastal city of Da Nang with the EMZ (Demilitarized Zone) , and is separated by the Perfume River into a northern and southern part of the city. Huế was an important supply base and, due to the short distance (only 50 miles) from the EMZ, of great strategic importance and was therefore developed as a defensive fortress against possible communist offensives. However, for the actual dimension of the 26 days of fighting, Huế was defended too weakly and the buildings and streets were insufficiently prepared.

The battle for Huế was part and result of the Tet Offensive . In the course of this offensive, the NLF and the NVA attacked hundreds of military targets and urban agglomerations, including Huế.

However, since there had never been any fighting in Huế before and it was assumed that the NVA and the Viet Cong would respect the Tet holidays, the city was considered safe.

At the time of the offensive, only three US marine battalions were defending the then air base of Phu Bài , Highway One and the western entrances about 10 miles southeast of Huế, an area that was to be held by two full regiments. In the aftermath of the Battle of Khe Sanh , however, most of the US troops were concentrated there.

Commanding general of the Marines in Hue was Foster C. LaHue, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War .

The battle

In the early morning hours of January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched a well-coordinated multi-wing attack on the city of Huế.

Tactical targets were the airfield of Tây Lộc, the headquarters of the 1st ARVN Infantry Division in the citadel of Huế and the MACV complex in the new town south of the Perfume River. The strategic goal of the NVA and the Viet Cong was the conquest and permanent control of the entire city.

Opening battle in Huế

Before the battle in July 1967

At 2:33 a.m., the order to attack was given by a flare. Two battalions of the 6th NVA regiment crossed the western bank of the river and attacked the citadel in the northern part of the city. Their goal was to capture the Mang-Cá complex, the Tây-Lộc airfield and the Imperial Palace. At the west gate of the citadel, a four-man NVA pioneer team , disguised in South Vietnamese uniforms, succeeded in switching off the guards and opening the gate. At their light signals, shock troops of the 6th NVA regiment were able to advance into the old town. Similar to the procedure at the citadel, the NVA gained access to the old imperial city. The 800th and 802nd NVA battalions penetrated through the west gate and then advanced north. It was not until Tây Lộc airfield that the 800th NVA battalion was involved in heavy fire fighting by an ARVN company of the Black Panther Ranger . The resistance of the ARVN was generally described as weak, only the company of the Black Panther offered the North Vietnamese bitter resistance and thwarted all attempts to take the airfield into the evening hours.

While the fighting on the airfield continued with undiminished severity and froze in reciprocal advances and retreats, the 802nd NVA regiment managed to advance to the headquarters of the 1st ARVN Infantry Division in Mang Cá. The NVA managed to break into the complex, but the attackers were thrown back by the staff. General Trưởng had the majority of his Black Panther Rangers withdrawn from the airfield and carried out a relief attack on the headquarters. The rangers managed to stabilize the defense of the headquarters.

The next day the flag of the North Vietnamese Army was hoisted on the south gate of the citadel. 60% of the citadel including the imperial palace were in the hands of the NVA at that time. At 8:00 a.m. sharp, the North Vietnamese troops hoisted the red and blue NVA flag with its gold star on the flag tower of the citadel.

Attack on the MACV complex

At the same time as the attack on the citadel, the 4th NVA regiment stormed the MACV complex in the southern part of the city, where a situation similar to that in the citadel quickly developed. The almost block-sized complex, a collection of two- to three-story buildings including a former hotel, served as a base for advisory team 3 of the United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam , which provided fire support and logistics to the 1st ARVN division for both the headquarters in Huế and for the armed forces in the province of Thừa Thiên bot. The provincial headquarters were north of the MACV complex. The attack began with mortar and rocket fire at dawn. However, the defending Americans managed to repel the first attack. The NVA then refrained from further ground attacks for the time being, began a siege and occupied the complex with mortar fire, rockets and fire from fully automatic weapons.

The MACV complex was renamed the "Frank Doezema complex" after the battle, in honor of an elite soldier who was killed in defense of the complex in the early hours of the first day of the battle. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross .

The city in the hands of the NVA

The remaining units of the 4th NVA regiment began their large-scale offensive against the city itself at the same time, together with the 804th NVA battalion, supported by local Viet Cong forces and the NVA pioneer battalion "Stadt Huế". The units were divided into various shock troops, to take military and civilian targets in one stroke. A North Vietnamese military observer later wrote that the attack on the southern Huế was carried out by various troops with equally different tactics. One unit got lost in the dark and could not reach the city before 6:00 a.m., nevertheless the NVA managed to take the southern city except for the prison, the MACV complex and the LCU (Landing Craft Utility) ramp on the riverbank.

Request for ARVN reinforcement

On February 1, 1968, General Trưởng requested reinforcements. The 3rd regiment, the 7th ARVN cavalry and the 1st ARVN Airborne Task Force were called in to relieve the enemy pressure on the headquarters of Mang Cá. The task force then left their barracks and moved in a convoy on Route 1 towards Huế. The relief forces were brought to a standstill 400 meters from the walls of the citadel by strong North Vietnamese units. Since the South Vietnamese paratroopers could not gain any terrain, they also called for reinforcements. In the early morning hours of February 2, 1968, the 2nd ARVN Airborne Battalion encountered the NVA units. In these fights, the ARVN lost 131 men, 40 of them dead. According to ARVN reports, 250 NVA soldiers were killed and only five captured. The 3rd ARVN Regiment also had enemy contact on the northern banks of the Perfume River at the same time and was involved in heavy fighting by the NVA. It was impossible for both battalions to reach the citadel, so they took up their nightly defensive positions outside the south-eastern wall of the old town. The 1st and 4th battalions of the ARVN were surrounded by enemy forces and fought desperately against destruction. Captain Phan Ngọc Lương, commander of the 1st ARVN Battalion, tried to reach the coastal outpost Ba Long with his unit, but was repulsed due to its outdated armament with M1 carbines . The 4th Battalion only managed to break through the encirclement after a few days. South of the center of Huế, Lt. Col. Phan Hữu Chí and his heavily armed 7th ARVN Cavalry Battalion tried to break the enemy grip, but also failed. The NVA fought this attack with B-40 - mortars down. Only then was the US Marines in Phú Bài put into a state of alarm and was supposed to form a buffer between the encircled South Vietnamese units and the NVA in Huế. The 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Division , which belonged to Task Force X-Ray, was assigned to this operation .

Use of the US Marines

On the night of January 30th to 31st, the Phú Bài area was hit by mortars and mortars. Heavy firefights with North Vietnamese invasion units broke out on the Truồi River and at Phú Lộc. Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Cheatham had drawn these formations into sustained fighting when he was ordered to intervene immediately in the heavy fighting in Huế. While the fighting on the Truồi River and Phú Lộc was still going on, the 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Division marched south towards Huế. Meanwhile, the NVA attacked 18 targets between the Hải-Vân pass and Hu und and slowed down the advance of the marines on Huế decisively. Until then, the battle for Huế was a purely Vietnamese affair. General LaHue, Commander-in-Chief of Task Force X-Ray, had hardly any reliable enemy intelligence reports and no overview of the overall situation. His knowledge was limited to the fact that Trưởng's headquarters and the MACV complex in Huế were besieged. The ship traffic on the Perfume River was stopped due to continued mortar fire. LaHue later wrote in his memoir that at the beginning of the Battle of Huế there was very limited information about the current situation.

Marines advance in Huế

As they approached the southern suburbs of Huế, the marines were targeted by snipers from positions that could not be located. The infantrymen had to dismount from their tanks time and again and clear every single house of snipers. There was always bitter house-to-house fighting in the narrow streets before the convoy could continue.

Finally, at 3:15 p.m., the Marines arrived in front of the highly competitive MACV complex. The NVA had previously withdrawn their rifle troops from the immediate vicinity of the MACV complex. When the Marines' M48 tanks tried to cross the main bridges of the Perfume River, it turned out that this type of tank was too heavy for the bridges. In addition, the South Vietnamese refused to advance with their M24 light tanks. When the marines crossed the bridges dismounted from their tanks, they came under heavy fire from the machine guns of the NVA. Two rifle platoons reached the other bank, but were immediately taken under fire from fully automatic and recoilless weapons and had to retreat. The main corporal Lester A. Tully was awarded the Silver Star medal for bravery after the battle because he succeeded in eliminating an enemy machine-gun after throwing a hand grenade in this battle.

The NVA used the buildings on the north bank as a position from which they could fire the Marines from almost any position. The number of wounded among the marines increased, and civil vehicles were used as shields to rescue the wounded. Major Walter M. Murphy, the 1st Battalion staff officer, who later succumbed to his injuries, was among the casualties on the bridge. The 1st Marine Battalion was only able to take up its defensive positions near the MACV complex at around 8 p.m. A helicopter landing zone was set up near the LCU ramp. On the first day of the battle, the two naval companies had ten dead and 56 wounded. The first wounded could only be flown out during the night. The US High Command still had no overall assessment of the actual situation in Huế.

Counterattack

The following morning at 7:00 am, Lieutenant Colonel Gravel ordered two companies, supported by tanks, to attack the prison and the provincial administration buildings. After the Marines got through a block of streets, they came under sniper fire again. One tank was destroyed by a projectile from a 57 mm gun. The attack halted and the soldiers had to retreat to the MACV complex. North of the Perfume River, the 1st ARVN Division, with the support of the Black Panther Rangers, was able to recapture the airfield. During the day, helicopters flew in the 4th Marine Battalion and the 2nd ARVN Regiment from Đông Hà . While the troops were being set down, the helicopters came under mortar fire. Due to the worsening weather conditions, however, only half of the battalion could be flown in. In the afternoon, the MACV communications center was secured and at around 3 p.m. the South Vietnamese captured a command post at Mang-Cá headquarters. In Trần Cao Vân Street, however, a marine company was held down by North Vietnamese soldiers.

Breakthrough attempt across the perfume river

Destroyed bridge over the Perfume River

On February 1, 1968, General Cushman ordered the commander of the 1st Air Cavalry Major General John J. Tolson to move his 3rd Brigade to the sector west of Huế. Tolson planned with two battalions of the 3rd Brigade to drive a wedge into the north-western defense belt of the NVA, furthermore the NVA should be cut off from supplies. On February 2, 1968, the fighting shifted to a MACV radio station and the Huế university campus . During the night, NVA pioneers blew up several bridges over the river and only left the bridge over the Phủ-Cam Canal intact. At 11:00 a.m., a company-strength convoy of the 5th Marines reached the An-Cựu Bridge and was ambushed there. Snipers, machine guns and grenade launchers came under heavy fire at the Marines. In the chaos that followed, there were accidental fire exchanges between two Marines. By noon the NVA had successfully repelled the advance from the south. Numerous US tanks were knocked out by hits from 75 mm guns. However, according to reports from the Marines, 140 North Vietnamese soldiers were also killed. The US battalions decided to secure the positions they had reached overnight and to resume combat only with reinforcements the next morning.

Battle for the Citadel

A US soldier carries a wounded Vietnamese woman to safety

Heavy street and house fighting determined the marines' advance in the city for more than three weeks. The 1st and 5th US Marine Regiment, the 1st ARVN Infantry Division and the 7th and 12th US Cavalry Regiment were continuously involved in heavy fighting with the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong and were only able to recapture Huế slowly block by block. Many of the US Marines had little or no experience of house-to-house combat, so the fighting turned out to be harder and more lossy than expected. The communist associations had the advantage of the terrain, as snipers could operate from well camouflaged positions and machine guns from fortified buildings. Against attacks took to the great confusion of the Americans usually take place at night, as well as numerous previously explosives and booby traps were laid, which left the American losses in dead and wounded to skyrocket. Due to the religious and cultural status of Huế, the US Air Force was not allowed to bomb the city because it was feared that the historic old town would be destroyed. Since the battle also took place during the monsoon rainy season, poor weather conditions and cloudy visibility made air support temporarily impossible. However, as the battle intensified, the US High Command changed tactics. As a result, A-4 Skyhawk fighter planes launched targeted bombing and napalm attacks against the citadel and the imperial palace. Finally, the marines were able to hoist the American flag over the citadel, but had to bring it back up for diplomatic reasons and because of the South Vietnamese legal situation. It was not until February 24, 1968 that the Black Panther Rangers captured the Imperial Palace and were able to hoist the South Vietnamese flag. A few days later the NVA withdrew completely from the city.

The damage in Huế was considerable. Myron Harrington, captain of the Marines, described the situation with the words: "Did we have to destroy the city to save it?"

aftermath

The communist troops bought the initial successes with heavy losses. According to reports from the South Vietnamese Army, over 3,000 North Vietnamese soldiers were killed, a figure that is believed to be overestimated. According to US reports, only 1,500 North Vietnamese were killed within the city. Outside the city, another 3,000 NVA soldiers are said to have died. The psychological damage to the NVA was also significant, as, contrary to the assurances of the political officers, it had been shown that the supposedly decadent US soldiers could prevail against a numerically superior opponent in urban warfare even without simultaneous air support.

Many civilians fell victim to clean- ups during the communist occupation (→  Huế massacre ). South Vietnamese and American soldiers discovered numerous hastily dug mass graves within the city and in the outskirts with around 2,800 bodies. All those who had been declared class enemies and collaborators were victims of the purges .

From a military point of view, the Battle of Huế was described as a victory for the Allies, as NVA and Viet Cong units were driven out of the city in division strengths (around 10,000 men), but politically, the fighting during the Tet Offensive was the beginning of the end of the US Engagement in Vietnam. After this offensive, public opinion in the United States turned against the war. As a result of the change in mood, the US military involvement was gradually scaled back until 1973 and the Vietnam War “Vietnamized”.

Four soldiers were honored with the Medal of Honor , the US armed forces’s highest honor for their service during the battle .

• Chief Warrant Officer Frederick Edgar Ferguson; flew his helicopter through heavy enemy fire into the embattled city to rescue the crew and passengers of a crashed helicopter.
• Sergeant Alfredo Cantu Gonzalez; neutralized two machine gun and one anti-tank positions with his own hands within four days, and rescued a wounded man from enemy fire. Despite multiple wounds, he refused medical care and attacked another position of the enemy, but he was killed.
• Staff Sergeant Joe Ronnie Hooper; took out more than ten enemy positions in close combat himself, where he was responsible for at least 22 enemy losses.
• Staff Sergeant Clifford Chester Sims; As a group leader threw himself on a time-delayed booby trap in order to dampen the subsequent explosion with his body and thus to protect his men, in which he was killed.

Cinematic processing

The British - American anti-war film Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick from the year 1987 has the battle for Hue on the subject.

literature

• Mark Bowden : Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam . Grove, London 2017, ISBN 978-1-61185-625-5 .

swell

• Tuohy, William. "Many US Civilians Are Liberated in Hue," Washington Post, Feb. 8, 1968, pp. A8.
• Tuohy, William. "Marines Are Taking Hue Wall by Wall," Washington Post, Feb. 9, 1968, pages A1.
• "Reds Said To Execute 300 in Hue," Washington Post, Feb. 12, 1968, pp. A11.
• Braestrup, Peter. "Weather and Thin Ranks Slow Marines' Tough Fight in Hue," Washington Post, Feb 12, 1968, pp. A1.
• Battle of Hue, Time, February 16, 1968. Accessed April 18, 2007.
• Lescaze, Lee. "Hue: Fires Pinpoint the Foe," Washington Post, Feb. 16, 1968, pages A1.
• Pigott, Bruce. "Truck Route Said to Help Foe in Hue," Washington Post, Feb.17, 1968, pages A1.
• Lescaze, Lee. "Shortage of Men, Air Support Slows Marine Drive in Hue," Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1968, pages A1.
• "It's Up to 'Grunt And His Rifle'", Hartford Courant, Feb. 20, 1968, pp. 1.
• Lescaze, Lee. "Hue Marines: Bitter as They Are Brave," Washington Post, Feb. 20, 1968, pages A1.
• "Marine Chief Sees Lengthy Battle In Hue," Chicago Tribune, Feb.21, 1968, pp. 1.
• "Commission Leaves Hue," Washington Post, Feb. 21, 1968, pp. F6.
• Lescaze, Lee. "US Relieves Unit Hard-Hit at Hue," Washington Post, February 22, 1968, pages A1.
• "US Marines Capture Strategic Corner of Hue's Citadel," Washington Post, Feb. 23, 1968, pp. A9.
• "Grappling for Normalcy," Time, February 23, 1968. Accessed April 19, 2007.
• “South Vietnamese recapture Hue,” BBC, February 24, 1968. Accessed April 6, 2007.
• Lescaze, Lee. "Hue Marines Keep Determined Vigil Over a Dead Comrade," Washington Post, Feb. 24, 1968, pp. A8.
• Emery, Fred. "Allies Clear Enemy from Hue's Palace," Washington Post, Feb. 25, 1968, pages A1.
• "Hue Ruin Inspected By Thieu," Washington Post, Feb. 26, 1968, pp. A1.
• "After 26-Day Battle, Hue Is Devastation and Misery," Hartford Courant, February 27, 1968.
• Braestrup, Peter. "Capture of Hue Citadel Was a Must for S. Viet Unit," Washington Post, Feb.29, 1968, pp. A22.
• "Fight for a Citadel," Time, March 1, 1968. Accessed April 19, 2007.
• Tuohy, William. "New Red Assault on Hue Expected," LA Times, Mar. 7, 1968, pp. 1.
• Braestrup, Peter. “Foe Seen Aiming At Hue,” Washington Post, Mar. 7, 968, pp. A1.
• "Unburied Dead Lie Around the Citadel," Hartford Courant, Mar. 10, 1968, pp. 18A.
• "After" Tet, "Measuring and Repairing Damage," Time, March 15, 1968. Accessed April 18, 2007.

Web links

Commons : Battle for Huế  - Collection of images, videos and audio files