-
derivative filename/jpeg
-
363-06675 to 363-06692.pdf
-
Digital Object Identifier
-
363-06675 to 363-06692
-
Title
-
First article about the Battle of Huế
-
Description
-
Original title: "citadel", Keever's title: "U.S. Push to Retake Hue Citadel", Article draft about the fighting surrounding Huế's Imperial City and Citadel during the Tet Offensive, for the Christian Science Monitor
-
AI Usage Disclosure
-
Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
-
Transcript
-
--------------------
- Page 1
--------------------
zcze sag
ᎩᎩ .jp
citadel 1 (normans/deepe)
(This is the first of a series describing the last two days of
fighting for the ancient imperial palace in Hue (pop. 113,000), Vietnam's
Historic
third largest city. The battle of Hue, which began in the pre-dawn hours
of January 31, constitutes the longest, sustained face-to-face contact
between Allied and Communist forces in the eight-year history of. the
WEI, This article details the Amorican Marines action;
piece de describes the final day's assault into the
Palace by the Vietnamese Army).
the second
THE CITADEL, HUE, SOUTH VIETNAM, February 25-An
que mist, fog and drizzle,
opaque
rather than dawn,
ushanin ushered
in the morning within this fairytalish fortress.
==more reuter
--------------------
- Page 2
--------------------
2020 seg
yy 1jp
citadel 2 (normass/deepe)
FOR B. d
The mist, reminescent of silk paintings on ancient Chinese
douBLE. her
scrolls, engulfed the high towers and turrets of the die citadel and
then descended on the America battalion of American Marines below.
Once upon a time time, the df citadel resembled something out of a
child's f fairytale book describing princesses and dige splendor
in ermine robes and the Middle Age splendor and security once found
within castle wall walls. The citadel wait itself was built
in 1802 in an area covering roughly slightly more than a mile on
each side. It was constructed Copied from Chinese the old Chinese
walled city imperial city, it was constructed with e serios of
obstacles to ward off unwante unwanted armies first deep moat,, then
a wall, another moat and another wall. Inside this outer double wall,
por protected by towers with curlesque tiled of roofs, lay the Pat
former Imperial Palace, xx which was itself protected by another
wall several feet thick and more than 15 feet high, and on the south
side by its old private moot. In more regal and ar aristocratic
INNER LOR times,
permission from the mandarins was needed to enter the ground until
even tourists needed a special slip of paper from the
Vietnamese government to ente roam about them. the 800 ground which
last month,
covered 800 yards on a side.
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 3
--------------------
zcze nag
Jy 1jp
citadel 3 (normass/deepe)
But
One February 23,
flags flew over the citadel and three
three armies were fighting for the
Imperial Palace--none with authoriz visiting authorisation from the
Curator, a government official who was descendant from the royal former
royal family.
B.
The North Vietnamese Army elements held the Palace Wall
and all the grounds. The Vietnamese government forces of eight battalions-
all understrength-was moving southward
between the western on the west
between the citadel wall and the palace wall. And the American Marines
-
had fought for eleven days and nights, block by block, tow turret to t
turret and house to house, to sweep southe southward along the east
wall of the citadel and then between that and the east wall of the Pale
As they advanced forward, they left in their wake a hurricane of
Palace.
destruction. The towers xmxmxmxmxmxmmmm and homes in the citadel resembled
Cmore reuter
the rubble of the battle of Stalingrad. Along one tower of the east citadel
wall, the Marines were pinned down for days until the ewe ther permitted
x napalm-ladden airstrikes. More than 1000 Marines were killed or wound
wounded in the battle for Hue;
most of them in the fight for and through
the citadel. The citadel-battalion suffered more than fif roughly fifty
per cent casualties.
semore reuter
--------------------
- Page 4
--------------------
2020 986
yy 1jp
citadel 4 (normass/deepe).
citadel.
First Battalion, Fifth
At 1 p.m. on the tenth day, Alpha Company,
Regiment of the 1st Marine Division had raised the U. S. flag on a steel
xx rod atop a civilian house in the souther southeastern corner of the
(L/Cpl. James Avella, 21, of North Bergen, N. J., was one of the
few in the battalion to have a flags he had taken it off a U. S. Navy
landing craft which carried him across the Perfume River to the citadel).
Later in the afternoon, Lima Company, a fresh company from Third
Battalion, Fifth Mainre Maris, passed through Alpha Company securing
more of the southern wall as the Marines inched towards the Palace Wall,
and breaking through the first turret, and gateway
D BREOVER
the
and moat facing the
Perfume river.
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 5
--------------------
zcze sag
Jy 1jp
citadel 5 (normass/deepe)
tu
By the morning of their 11th citadel-day, the Marines had a
pocket maximakram of uncontrolled territory roughly two
city blocks from the east wall of the Palace and two city blocks from the
south wall of the citadel adjoining the Palace wall. The Third
6Battalion command post was stationed in a rather stately ochre-colored
villa. The battalion commander, Maj. Robert Thompson, 37, of Corinth,
Miss., studied his plastic-colored greason map and the assortment
of grease-pencil markings denoting his unit's positions. Staff officers
cooked their C-rations on stoves ek of made of the biscuit cans
resupply of rations had come in during the morning, and since even the
command personnel were short on food the previous day, some of them eating.
Emax enjoyed the aroma of coffee
only two meals, they rXXX
fading into the mist.
===more reuter
--------------------
- Page 6
--------------------
2020 seg
yy 1jp
citadel 6 (normass/deepe)
Rad
Maj. Thompson ad already decided Lima Company would carry
the workload of the several-block sweep where he assumed Communists
under ROSE! BUSHES
were holed up in the cabbage patches, front gardens and vie
villas
near the citadel. Alpha Company,
HUE
New
The
tired and understrength
R COMMAND
after ten days and nights of fighting, would be pulled back.
(Marine battalions are generally commanded by lieutenant colonels, and
Major Thompson Har
is,
scheduled to so be promoted soon to that rank.
Tar lanky, Southernery who was serving as embarkation officer
was assigned given his assignment after the two previous
battalion commanders were wounded before the battle of Hue.
"Bombing Hil
in Danang,
In its
Camper
previous position near the district town of Phu Loo, the North Vietnamese
Marne bore
mortarted and rocketed theft perron three times daily for several
days and launched a ground assault on the district headquarters,
that the Third Battalion x had been engaged in hard fighting even
being rushed into the battle of Hue. The Marines.
before
VIETNAM.
have suffered such high casualties among officers/it is not unusual
to have a platoon lead by a sergeant,
instead of a lieutenant, or a
company commanded by a lieutenant, instead of a captain).
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 7
--------------------
2020 sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
oitadel 7 (normass/deepe)
Then, Maj the major called his four company commanders
tod together to outline their assignments for the day ad and at 9:25
the Lima company commander "Platoon yelled, "Platoon ComCommanders Un,"
The to troops of
indicating they should come forward for his briefing.
Alpha and Lima Companies waiting waited huddled under bushes and hedges,
under the eaves of buildings.
or, where possible,
mortars from the Inner Walls of the Palace began flying over the Marine
Chinese-made mart
them.
heads 75 meters behind them, but they had heard these so many times,
OR
Notic ED
few of them even moved or flinched.
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 8
--------------------
zozo sag
yy 1jp
citadel 8 (normass/deepe)
Ma Herg
DEAD PIGS Then down the muddy street, passed burned out bussesal
and downed trees, Alpha Company began to moved through Lima Company
to the rear,
with the sergeants and lieutenants constantly yelling "Spread it
out," unknowing that bunches of Marines often draw eñe Communist mortar
fire.
But, as one of the Snuffies remarked correctly,
there were so
many Marines per blo m street, it was impossible to spread out add
adequately.
hot molten metal pellets.
He
At 10:25-it happened. A Communist rocket swerved into
an American tank, killing one by concussion, prewing others with
a Communist mortar simultaneously t
_ like a bucking branch
into, ditoh, where half dozen Mai were sitting, the tank swerved
cutting apping one of them into the
into the wounded infantrymen,
Marines
tank Tumbering tank tracks and cutting the trooper in half.
Then, it
stipped further across tw the two legs of another wounded Marine before
it was brought under control.
wast
== More.
Rent
--------------------
- Page 9
--------------------
zcze sag
yy 1jp
citadel 9 (normass/deepe)
the
Total casualties: two killed and ten wounded, bus o
the wounded with the the one wounded both by moratr mortar and the tank
chewing up his legs later died.
at 11:03, mortars again splattered within fifty meters
was
of the Marine position and the order "get the arty p down here,"
passed from one Marine, taxmam lying in a street-side ditch, to the
next until the 106 mm. recoilless rifle was driven forward on a
wheeled flat-bed, called a "Mule."
==more reuter
--------------------
- Page 10
--------------------
.
zcze sag
Jy 1jp
citadel 10 (normass/deepe)
With these volleys of fire coming into his troop lines, Hejo.
Maj. Thompson decided to request a bombardment on the east wall of
the Palaco, but not into the Palace grounds and buildings proper. The
low cloud ceiling, of approximately 500 feet, prevented the use of
howitzer artillery was too light
airstrikes.
The Vietnamese Army 105 mm.
to more than chip the massive Palace walls.
American 1155 mm. artillery
the major
far more
was also discounted because the margin of error was too great that a shell
might fall into the Marine lines only 400 yards away. So,
requested the use of 8-inch guns self-propelled 8-inch guns,
potent than anything else, but also more act accurate.
request and the Marine troopers waited--and waited for their next order.
He made the BE MADE
dec
to
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 11
--------------------
2020 sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
citadel 11 (normass/deepe)
By noon, the troops moved from the ditches into the first row
of houses off the street. The orders came down: "Take one meal out of
your pack and pack it back up."
Half dozen Marines from the Third
Squad, Third Platoon followed instructions,
some sitting on the front steps,
or under trees in front of the house, some sitting on the ruins of the
interior of the house. Like almost every home in the citadel, the/h
well-but built masonry structure of half dozen rooms was in shambles.
heavy weapons round had shap shattered through a window, an arching doorway
and detonated in the living room. The brick-colored tiles on the roos & roof
home furnishings
were scattered to the winds. The house had been throughly looted and demolished
REIRA Vietnamese
The
by the Vietnamese Army troops ahead of the Marines.
interpreter with t the Marines perused the family's photo album.
tables and chairs were either ruined by rain or looters or gunfire.
==more reuter
--------------------
- Page 12
--------------------
zozo sag
Jy 1jp
citadel 12 (normass/deepe)
The Marines young Marines opened their C-rations,
except one
"I got
who offered large cans of sardines to the others--with no takers.
these when Lima Company overran that NVA cache near the moat," he said.
"The gooks had a whole room-ful of American Marine rations stockpiled
up there--not C-rations either, but our A-rations."
grenade
The conversation among the others lingered on the xxxc tank
The word had just been received that Gonzalez, wounded by
both the mortar and the tank running over his legs both his legs,
incident.
had
died.
"Poor old Gonzalez," one said.
Chicago and we shipped over together.
"He and I came both came from
His brother-in-law was already
killed in Vietnam. I don't know how his mother, will take this.").
Another added: He was a nice guy. He was going to go to college
once he got out of here.
where.
Another, who had been scratched by the grenade fragments,
remarked, "That grenade cãe came from those houses were all those
remered
ARM
ARVN's (Army, Republic of Vietnam) were.
to find the guy who threw it.
They didn't even try
The ARVN isn't good for anything but looting.
==more reuter
--------------------
- Page 13
--------------------
czc sag
yy 1jp
citadel 13 (normass/doope)
The younger youngsters shook their heads about other casualty
losses. The second squad had lost six men recently-was now down to only
onem man, the squad leader. The tankers, in the armor unit, had
started out with 22 men and only five were left. One Marine, they
while the unit was tak seizing the moat,
said, was a wounded the day before th taken back to the battalion
CAS
aid station for treatment, and I was wounded again by the Communist
grenan grenade.
out.
"Two Purple Heat Hearts in two days," one said.
The Chicagoan shrugged, "yon can have it."
"Oh,
Spettand
let's get off this subject," the sardine-eater muttered.
==more router
--------------------
- Page 14
--------------------
2020 sag
yy 1jp
citadel 14 (normass/deepe)
The subject shifted to the Chinese-made AK-47 one of the Marines had
captured and they discussed withe whether he would be allowed to take it back
to the "the world."
"I think I could use it for deer hunting," he said.
"Only if you got the barrel in the deer's eye," another joked.
"You could soare a rabbit to death with just that banana clip,"
another Inde ejected.
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 15
--------------------
zozo sag
Jy 1jp
citadel 15 (normass/deepe)
for the
An officer passed by and said the battalion was still waiting
on permission to use the 8-inch guns on the Palace Wall. He thought the
the request, passed up to division, had necessitated approval from Saigon,
which had slowed things up.
"This is the big bugaboo right now. It's these political
things we get mixed up in," he said. "They say the Vietnamese artillery
should be used to shell the Palace and other buildings, but not American s
the PAG
the Vets Can Hsson
artillery and we have to go to Saigon to even hit the wall. I'm sure
they're thinking about the propaganda effects of this.
I'm sure Peking
has its propaganda all cranked up about the rape of Hue-the pillage and
plunder of Hue. They have a very good propaganda machine."
==more reuter
--------------------
- Page 16
--------------------
zczc sag
yy 1jp
citadel 16 (normass/deepe)
The air throughout the day reverberated with the electric sounds
Communist rockets and automatic weapons
of machine guns, mortars, sets
ahead and around us. No one paid much attention.
"Look for a safe place when those 2-8-inchers come in," one said.
"One of those shells is enough to obliterate a house. It's eight inches
in diameter and about two feet long
500 meters away and Hwil.
9s 200 pour s
It will shake the plaster of houses
$ 600 meters.
more reuter
--------------------
- Page 17
--------------------
2020 sag
yy 1jp
citadel 17 (normess/deepe)
At 1:30, the major,
called "the old man" by his subordinates,
the wall Palace wall and the self-propelled
received permission to "prep"
How. RIPS WERE
weapon was moved into the southeast fringer's outside the city.
and were
purte
The Marine troopers re-traced their steps,
pulled back another block to avoid the 300-meter safety margin
of the blast itself. Fragments from the projectiles, however,
were liberablly liberally sprayed over the tin roore and tile
roofs in the command post area.
Plot (252)
pound in
WERE H
Hell
the 3:35, the first projectiles beg
one projectile at a time was used,
while an aerial observer over flying overhead and a forward observer
in one of the towers be observered and then adjusted the gunfire.
Once on target, the tap tempo and crescendo accelerated as battery
firing began. Themkoanxi xmxumamatan The one-shell-at a-time
firing was escalated to "platoon 2's"
of battery firing, three guns firing
two shells each in rapid succession, with six sheets of projectiles
converging on the same point almost sum simultaneously.
Then,
the "platoon 2's" targeting was "walked up" the palace wallon
on the eastern side.
=-more reuter
--------------------
- Page 18
--------------------
2020 sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
citadel 18 (normass/deepe)
A total of 84 rounds descended upon the Wall, each of them
hit whistling "like a frieng iri freight train was moving overhead,"
and gris crashing into the reh grey-exterior and red-briom brick interior
of the wall, sending mushrooms of red-clay clouds belching upwards into
the mist. The bombardment ended at darkness when the firing could no
longer be observed.
During the night, as Communist mortars splattered
sporadically in the Marine area, small fire-teams of marines
eks
moved forward wh and took up five positions in houses only fifty meters
from the Palace Wall. The Vietnamese forces had also moved through
the Marine lines and captured the flagpole Tront immediately in
front of the main gate and moat of the Palace,
diately in
U.ET
where the National
ont flag had flown for twenty four days.
At 3:50 a.m., February 24, the government forces rung down
and raised two
The Vietnamese forces were
the red and blue flag with a gold star in the middle
small flags of the Vietnamese government.
now properod to assault the Palace itself.
(Hank: my apologies for length of this, but think this deserves
eye'll send eyewitnesser of Palace assault.
splash coverage.
Tomorrow,
I'm still in Danang and must send cov copy down with other correspondents,
I'll file several other
hence maybe some delays in your receiving this.
Hue pieces this week, while getting some background briefings and will
then go to Khe Sanh, late this week if possible. But, the e we her
is bad here which means one must wait two or three days at times to reach
places. Cheers Bev)/
-
Date
-
1968, Feb. 25
-
Subject
-
Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Hue, Battle of, Huế, Vietnam, 1968; Kinh thành Huế (Huế, Vietnam); Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; United States. Army
-
Location
-
Huế, South Vietnam
-
Coordinates
-
16.4498; 107.5623
-
Size
-
20 x 26 cm
-
Container
-
B9, F23
-
Format
-
dispatches
-
Collection Number
-
MS 363
-
Collection Title
-
Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
-
Creator
-
Keever, Beverly Deepe
-
Collector
-
Keever, Beverly Deepe
-
Copyright Information
-
These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
-
Publisher
-
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
-
Language
-
English
