Battle of Hue

The Battle of Hue was a vicious military encounter fought mainly between the US Marines and the 324th Division of the North Vietnamese Army in the city of Hue, from January 31 to March 3, 1968. It was an urban battle fought street by street and house to house. It was part of the Tet offensive of the Vietnam War, during which the North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong units, had taken the city of Hue.

The US marines had the difficult task of recovering the city, which used to be the old imperial capital of Vietnam as it lay in the northern portion of South Vietnam. It was hard to flush out the Vietcong elements as they had surreptitiously dug tunnels. For the dangerous mission of taking back the city, the US marines were backed up by the South Vietnamese Army's Urban 1st Infantry Division, whose men bore the brunt of the communist forces attack. Without the vital support of these valiant soldiers, the elements of the US 1st and 5th Marines Divisions would not have been able to capture Hue.

This American and South Vietnamese victory over the communist forces proved that the Tet Offensive, launched by North Vietnam during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year had failed. Thus, the communists had lost the battle, even though the American press put it as if the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong guerrillas had definitely gained the upper hand in the war. It was a matter of how the events were portrayed by the press.

Summary

Despite the Tet Truce (Lunar New Year cease fire), the North Vietnamese Army, along with the Vietcong, launched a major offensive throughout South Vietnam (known as the Tet Offensive) as many military installations and cities were viciously attacked by the communist forces, taking the Americans by surprise. On January 31, on the same day they had launched the massive assault, the communist forces took Hue, quickly controlling most of the city. The main objective of the North Vietnamese Army was to capture the whole city to help sweep the Communist insurgents into power. Two of the targets hit the hardest were the local airfield and the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.

For about 32 days, the US 1st Battalion (1st Marines Div.), the 2nd Battalion (5th Marines Div.), and South Vietnamese forces fought ferociously a house-to-house street urban combat as they attempted to retake the city. During the Battle of Hue more than 4,000 civilians were killed, most of them executed by the Vietcong. Casualty among the communists were very high, around 9,000 men, as the South Vietnamese and American forces lost only 700 soldiers. It was an outright military victory for the Marines and South Vietnamese units as they totally recovered the city of Hue, annihilating the enemy forces. But it was a political and ideological defeat for the US government, for most of the American mass media portrayed it the other way round.

The Tet Offensive and the battle of Hue (archival combat video)

 

Below, US marines run up a side street as they search enemy sharpshooter nests.

Below, map of South Vietnam, showing the location of the city of Hue (in the north) and Saigon (in the south)