The Battle of Hue City
The “Battle of Hue” was a surprise attack that began on the morning of January 31, 1968, in the city of Hue, South Vietnam, and turned out to be one of the most time-consuming and costly battles during the War of Hue. Vietnam. It was also known as the “Tet Offensive” because it occurred during what was supposed to be a truce due to the “Tet” or “Vietnamese New Year” celebration. The Battle of Hue turned out to be one of the most costly and time consuming battles during the Vietnam War. Hue was used as a United States naval supply base and contained five US military battalions with approximately 3,000 US Marines, 2,000 US Army soldiers, and approximately 11,000 South Vietnamese Army (ARVn) soldiers.
The North Vietnamese forces of the Vietnam People’s Army and the Viet Cong were around 12,000 strong. Viet Cong forces attacked the Tay Loc airfield and ARVn 1st Division headquarters, located in the “Citadel”, and the US Vietnam Military Assistance Command Center or MACV, which was located south of the Huong River. At 2:33 a.m., an NVA flare was fired and lit up the sky giving the North Vietnamese forces the “go” for the attack. At this time, the NVA 6th Regiment began an attack on the western flank of the Citadel, while the 4th Regiment attacked the Military Assistance Command Complex located in the south of Hue.
Immediately, the ARVn 1st Artillery Company linked up with BPCo. (“Black Panther” Company) and halted the advance of the NVA 800th Battalion for several hours later in the morning. During that time, the NVA 802nd Battalion proceeded to attack the ARVn 1st Division headquarters at Mang Cu. Compound. Around 200 men, made up of officers and civilian defensive forces, managed to keep the 1st Division headquarters secure until Black Panther Company was able to catch up with them and help defend against enemy attacks.
At around 8 am, NVA troops raised the symbolic Viet Cong flag over the Citadel. The commanding officer of the US Marines in Hue, Colonel Stan Hughes, was stationed at Phu Bai Airfield ten miles from the city of Hue, along with three battalions of Marines. During the same hours at the start of the “Tet Offensive”, the Marines were facing their own attacks. Heavy rocket and mortar shells were exploding and NVA infantry engaged platoons of combined forces, including civilian soldiers and Marines.
On the morning of January 31, at 7 am, the Marines, CAP, and three tanks attempted a counterattack on Hue. They got no more than a quarter of a mile before they began to come under heavy sniper fire. Then a tank was destroyed by an RPG and the offensive stopped. All forces had then proceeded to return to the Assistance Command center.
For three weeks, the Marines, along with US Army and ARVn forces, fought rigorously to reach the Citadel. One street at a time, the Allied forces finally drove the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops out of Hue. On February 24, 1968, the city of Hue was completely emptied of communist forces. When it was all over, both fronts had suffered heavy losses. The North Vietnamese forces suffered over 8,000 casualties; about half of them were killed on the outskirts of Hue, and 98 were taken as prisoners of war. The Allied forces saw a loss of around 670 killed in action and a staggering 3,700 men wounded in the fighting. The Military Assistance Command reported that more than 2,800 civilians were executed and that 3/4 of the city was destroyed in the process, which began to further discourage American public support for the war. Thereafter, US forces and funding began to dwindle. The last American forces left South Vietnam in early March 1973.