The Battle of Hue 1968

Fight for the Imperial City

James H. Willbanks, Ramiro Bujeiro, James H Willbanks

• Publisher: Osprey Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781472844712
• eBook ISBN: 9781472844651
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

In late January 1968, some 84, 000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launched a country-wide general offensive in South Vietnam. The bitter fighting that raged in Hue for more than three weeks drew the attention of the world. Hue was the ancient capital of Vietnam, and as such, had been previously avoided by both sides; it had not seen any serious fighting prior to 1968. All that changed on the night of January 31 that year when four North Vietnamese battalions and supporting Viet Cong units simultaneously attacked and occupied both parts of the city straddling the Perfume River. The Communist forces dug in and prepared to defend their hold on the city. US Marines and South Vietnamese soldiers were ordered to clear the city, supported by US Army artillery and troops. A brutal urban battle ensued as combat raged from house to house and door to door. Eventually, the Marines and the South Vietnamese forces retook Hue, but it was a bloody fight and resulted in large-scale destruction of the city. This illustrated volume details one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Tet Offensive, which led to a sea change in US policy in Vietnam.

THE BATTLE OF HUE

PRELUDE TO THE BATTLE

The Tet holiday truce went into effect at 1800hrs on January 29. However, because of widespread truce violations by the enemy, MACV and the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff officially terminated the Tet holiday ceasefire on January 30. Shortly after midnight, there were a series of enemy attacks on Da Nang, Nha Trang, Qui Nhon, Tuy Hoa, and several other South Vietnamese installations along the central coast. The North Vietnamese plan called for the countrywide attack to begin on the first night of the Lunar New Year. However, North Vietnam’s Maritime Meteorological Department adjusted its lunar calendar, moving the date of the new year one day forward. Word of this change reached only the coastal areas of central Vietnam. As a result, Communist forces in this area launched their attacks 24 hours ahead of the attacks in the rest of the country.

Brigadier-General Ngo Quang Truong, commander of the 1st ARVN Division, learned of these attacks the next morning, Lunar New Year’s Day. At the same time, First Lieutenant Nguyen Thi Tan, commander of Truong’s division reconnaissance company, reported that one of his patrols had observed an enemy force about 4km southwest of Hue; this force, estimated to be about two battalions, was reportedly headed toward the city (this was probably two battalions from the 6th PAVN Regiment). At 2200hrs that night, a Regional Force (RF) company to the east of Ngo Quang Truong’s recon patrol was also attacked by a large enemy force. Additional intelligence reports indicated that there was an ongoing buildup of enemy troops 20km west of Hue. At the same time, enemy units had been harassing the Phu Loc area to the south of the city.

Brigadier-General Ngo Quang Truong, concerned with the enemy buildup in his area of operations, gathered his division staff at the headquarters in the Mang Ca Compound inside the Citadel and began making hasty measures to prepare to defend against what might come next. Unfortunately, over half of the division’s troops were already on holiday leave and away from their units. Ngo Quang Truong put his remaining troops on full alert, confining them to the barracks. As for himself, the general decided to remain at his headquarters that night, rather than spend the holiday at his home south of the river in the New City.

Believing that the Communists would not attack the “open” city directly and that the most likely enemy course of action would be to strike in the Phu Loc area to cut QL 1, Ngo Quang Truong had positioned the forces around the city to defend outside the urban area. The only units inside the city were the division’s 36-man reconnaissance platoon and the elite Hac Bao “Black Panther” Company, commanded by Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Hue.

Elite South Vietnamese “Hac Bao” (Black Panther) troops conduct a combat assault in the A Shau Valley in 1967; the company would play a key role in the battle for the Citadel in Hue in 1968. (Bettman via Getty Images)

Ngo Quang Truong’s closest units to the city were a troop from the 7th Armored Cavalry Squadron located at the Tam Thai military camp at An Cuu, 2km to the southeast of the Triangle, and the 3rd ARVN Regiment with two battalions, which was operating 8km to the west of the city. Two more of the regiment’s battalions were operating southeast of the city near the coast. The 2nd and 7th Airborne battalions, attached to the 1st ARVN, and another troop from the 7th Armored Cavalry Squadron were operating from a temporary base called PK-17 10km northwest of Hue along QL 1. There was also a South Vietnamese engineer battalion camp about 2km southwest of the city. Additionally, there were several Regional Forces companies and Popular Forces platoons scattered throughout the surrounding villages and hamlets.

The only US military presence in Hue when the battle began was the aforementioned MACV Compound, which housed about 200 US Army, US Marine Corps, and a handful of Australian officers and men who served as advisors to the 1st ARVN Division. They maintained a lightly fortified compound on the eastern edge of the modern part of the city south of the river about a block and a half south of the Nguyen Hoang Bridge. A small group of advisors and Marine guards were on duty at the Mang Ca Compound and other advisors stayed in the field with the units they advised, to include a rotating group of staff personnel stationed at Brigadier-General Ngo Quang Truong’s headquarters. Also inside the modern city, a handful of US Army technicians manned a radar station and communications facility a few hundred meters to the west of the advisory compound. Lastly a small detachment of US Navy personnel was stationed near the Navy LCU (landing craft utility) ramp on the south side of the river just north of the MACV Compound.

The closest US combat units were located to the southeast of Hue. The 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, a unit from the 101st Airborne Division attached to the 1st Cavalry Division, was defending the division’s rear logistical base at LZ El Paso, 7km southeast of the Citadel along QL 1. Task Force X-Ray, a brigade-size task force from the 1st Marine Division, and its attached elements from the 1st and 5th Marine regiments operated from Phu Bai, 15km southeast of Hue. Twenty-five kilometers northwest of the Citadel, the 1st Cavalry’s 3rd Brigade operated out of Camp Evans.

Despite Ngo Quang Truong’s concerns about an enemy buildup in the area, Lunar New Year’s Day in Hue passed without further incident amid the traditional holiday celebration. Still, he dispatched half the Hac Bao Company south of the river to secure the Thua Thien Provincial Headquarters just in case.

The interior of the MACV Compound in southern Hue City. (Bettmann via Getty Images)

Unknown to Ngo Quang Truong as he made his preparations for whatever was to come, there was clear indication that there would be a direct attack on his city. On the day before the South Vietnamese commander put his staff on alert, a US Army radio intercept unit at Phu Bai overheard Communist orders calling for an imminent assault on Hue. Following standard procedure, the intercept unit forwarded the message through normal channels. Making its way through several command layers, the intercept and associated intelligence analysis did not make it to the Hue defenders, including US advisors at the MACV compound south of the river, until the next day when the city was already under attack.

Even as the intelligence report made its way slowly through channels, the Viet Cong had already infiltrated the city. Communist sappers had donned civilian clothing or ARVN uniforms and mingled with the throngs of people who had come to Hue for the Tet holiday. They had previously transported their weapons and ammunition into the city hidden away in wagons, truck beds, and other hiding places. In the early morning hours of January 31, these soldiers retrieved their weapons and took up initial positions within the city, preparing to link up with the NVA and VC assault troops and guide them to their targets.

THE INITIAL ATTACK

At 0233hrs on January 31, a signal flare went up in the sky over Hue. North of the river at the Huu Gate in the southwest of the Citadel, a four-man VC sapper team, dressed in ARVN uniforms, killed the guards and opened the gate. The PAVN 6th Regiment, with two battalions of infantry and the 12th Sapper Battalion, poured into the Citadel. The 6th Regiment had three primary objectives—the Mang Ca Compound, the Tay Loc Airfield, and the Imperial Palace.

Once through the gate, the 800th Battalion turned north and attacked toward the airfield, where its advance was initially halted by the Hac Bao company, reinforced by the division’s 1st Ordnance Company. Meanwhile, the 802nd Battalion struck east toward the Mang Ca Compound, with the goal of neutralizing the 1st ARVN Division headquarters before Brigadier-General Ngo Quang Truong could rally the city’s defenders. At the same time, a company of NVA regulars from the 806th Battalion captured the An Hoa Bridge over the moat at the western tip of the Citadel; sappers then scaled the northwestern wall and, once over the wall, opened a gate to let more of their comrades into the Citadel. The remainder of the 806th Battalion set up a defensive position about a block north of QL 1.

At the Mang Ca Compound, Ngo Quang Truong and his patched-together 200-man defensive force of clerks, doctors, and patients fought back fiercely against the attack by the 802nd Battalion. At one point, the enemy broke into the medical area, but a staff officer, Lieutenant Nguyen Ai, although wounded in the shoulder, led a counterattack by ARVN clerks and other headquarters personnel that repulsed the NVA attackers.

January 31, 1968: Communist attacks

At the airfield, the outnumbered Black Panther company led by Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Hue, fought desperately against the 800th Battalion, firing M72 LAWs into the attacking enemy ranks and driving them back. Still holding the Mang Ca Compound, but under heavy pressure, Brigadier-General Ngo Quang Truong ordered the Black Panthers to withdraw from the airfield to the compound to help strengthen his position there. When Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Hue and his troops arrived at the compo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Origins of the Campaign
• Chronology
• Opposing Plans
• Opposing Commanders
• Opposing Forces
• The Battle of Hue
• Aftermath
• The Battlefield Today
• Bibliography
• eCopyright