In 1982, Gen. Galtieri’s Argentine military regime faced increased domestic trouble at home and they were looking to hold on to power. Since the formation of the Argentine state, the Malvinas issue (Basically the Sovereignty over the Falkland Islands between Argentina and the United Kingdom) had created political and domestic passions and heated debate in Argentina. It was the ideal moment for Galtieri to reclaim what Buenos Aires called the “lost islands”. Negotiations with the British over sovereignty had been going on for many years, with various British governments being more sympathetic than others to the proposal.  Long-standing tensions between the two countries reached a head on March 19, 1982, when some Argentinian scrap metal workers lifted their country’s flag at an abandoned whaling station on the even-further-away island of South Georgia, which was then a Dependency of the Falkland Islands. Two weeks later, on April 2, Argentinian troops stormed South Georgia’s Leith Harbor, overwhelming main British outposts without causing any casualties. But after conquering the islands, Galtieri and the junta regime faced one big problem: Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s Conservative government, which was dealing with increasing unemployment, rising interest rates, and an ailing economy, was also facing a degree of domestic hostility. The Argentine invasion of British sovereign territory was intolerable to Thatcher and much of the world and had to be dealt with. There were no contingency measures for the Falklands at the government level or within the military, let alone possessing the mechanisms to launch a task force to fly the 7,000 miles to the islands. Despite efforts to secure a diplomatic solution at the United Nations and through the Reagan administration, the two parties were stubborn and war appeared inevitable.

Lt. Col. Mike Rose, commanding officer of 22nd Special Air Service Regiment in Hereford, was on the phone to the headquarters of the British Antarctic Survey Group in Cambridge during the afternoon of Friday, 02 April 1982. Having learned that Argentine forces had invaded the Falklands, Rose swung into action and called in the regiment’s top advisors, canceled leave, and created a command situation. The situation was a difficult one for SAS planners. In the case of the invasion, no contingency arrangements were in place to rehabilitate the Falklands. This possibly owed more to the Ministry of Defence’s general disbelief that an operation to recover the Falklands was feasible. The tiny British settlement of the Ascension Islands, about 3,700 miles from the UK and halfway between the Royal Navy’s ports and the Falklands themselves, was the only practical ‘jump off’ point for the Falklands.

In Hereford, events started to move fast. Keen (had to use a British word) to play a pivotal role for his men in the upcoming operation, Rose provided SBS (Special Boat Service) with the services of two specialist Boat Squadron men who were preparing to sail to the South Atlantic. Rose was closely aligned with Brigadier Julian Thompson OBE, who commanded a landing on the islands for the operation code-named “Corporate”. An advance group from “D” Squadron SAS joined their SBS comrades on Sunday, 04 April and flew to the Ascension Islands. The Falklands Task Force was commanded by Rear Adm. Sandy Woodward on his flagship HMS Hermes, specially approved by the British Cabinet. The Battle Command Headquarters, Operation Corporate’s command center, was also located onboard Hermes. In an attack on the island of South Georgia, about 900 miles south of the Falklands, the men of D Squadron SAS’s mission were to join 42 Royal Marine Command.

San Carlos Bay beaches on East Falkland offered the best hope of a British landing for Task Force Commander Woodward. On the opposite side of the island from Port Stanley, before the long march across the island to seize Stanley, the Brits needed to establish a bridgehead. The problem for Woodward was that, to the west of the San Carlos beaches, the Argentinians had built a forward airbase on Pebble Island. The threat needed to be neutralized, with a garrison of over 100 men armed with ground attack IA-58 Pucaras, each with two 20 mm cannons and four 7.62 machine-guns. D Squadron’s boat troop men, fresh from South Georgia operations, were assigned to recce on Pebble Island. On the night of Tuesday, 11 May, the reconnaissance party’s forward frame edged its way to the narrow one-mile strip of land bordered by the sea on either side and offered no natural cover. The D Squadron men had to travel with extreme care and were forced to leave their Bergen backpacks in a shallow hollow to avoid detection against the horizon. However, the Argentinian sentries were not especially alert. The rest of Woodward’s landing fleet gathered before beachhead landings at San Carlos as the recce party confirmed Hermes’ findings.

G Squadron Assault (Mountain Troop)

The timeline was tight for the attack on Pebble Island. The assignment was given to Capt. John (Gavin) Hamilton, a young 29-year-old Mountain Troop Leader. Hamilton and his men had already survived two helicopter crashes in Fortuna Glacier’s blizzard conditions in the thick of the South Georgia action. Still, he led his men to seize the outpost of Grytviken, the former whaling station. He was under no illusion as to the scope of the mission and the dangers involved as he briefed the Mountain Troops’ men.

Onboard HMS Hermes, Hamilton briefed his men, but there were some problems. As the Hermes faced the South Atlantic’s heavy headwinds, she was well behind schedule, and she arrived late at the launch site. The foul weather had stopped the Sea King helicopters from being set up on the flight deck as they steamed west to make things worse. With the legendary SAS versatility, Hamilton was forced to revise the attack plan and change the production to take 30 minutes instead of the initial 90. With the men of the Mountain Troops armed with 81 mm mortars, M203 grenade launchers, and the deadly Rule 66 mm anti-tank rockets, the Sea King left Hermes’ deck. In support, to take out the Argentinean garrison positions, a Naval gunnery officer landing with the SAS said he would help provide the Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) directing the fire from the decks of HMS Glamorgan of their 4.5-inch guns. The Sea King touched down four miles from the airstrip at a point marked out by the Boat Troop in reasonably calm weather. As troops from the Boat Squadron established a defensive perimeter, Hamilton and his men emerged from the Helo and started to unload mortar bombs and light guns. The Mountain Troopers were instantly hit by the unbelievable moonlight and the silhouette problems against the solid landscape began. The SAS men humped their way across Pebble Island to the airstrip after a short briefing from the Boat Troop (G Squadron) commander.

The outline of the FMA IA 58 Pucará (an Argentine ground-attack and counterinsurgency) (COIN) came clearly into place as they approached the airstrip, as rounds from the guns of HMS Glamorgan started crashing into the Argentinian garrison. Hamilton assembled his men on aircraft dispersals and calmly affixed explosive charges to the waiting Argentinian jets, receiving inaccurate incoming small arms and machine gunfire. The shells from Glamorgan destroyed the Argentinian fuel dump, ammunition store, and watchtower as the first of the Pucaras were blown up, producing some secondary explosions, and illuminating the remaining Pucaras further. The SAS men took out 11 planes, including six Pucaras, four Turbo-Mentors, and a Skyvan transport aircraft, in a 20-minute frenzy of destruction. Between them, in glaring view of the enemy, Hamilton and ‘Paddy’ Armstrong, a Mountain Troop explosives specialist, had destroyed another four Pucaras.

Withdrawal and Assessment

The whole operation was running on time. Within 30 minutes, the SAS had neutralized the Argentinian outpost and all the aircraft. There were minor casualties; one man was struck by shrapnel, and one was concussed from a remote-controlled Argentine mine. The entire SAS force was picked up by the Sea Kings on a tight schedule and transported back to HMS Hermes and Glamorgan, where a well-earned, full-cooked English breakfast awaited! Hamilton confirmed, de-briefly, that the Argentinians had not put on the island a radar facility and that the garrison was made ineffective. As a result, the Argentine force on Pebble Island played no part in opposing the landings in San Carlos, and again the SAS supported the main landing force that had famously crossed East Falkland to free Port Stanley.

On 10 June 1982, while directing naval gunfire from a position overlooking an 800-strong Argentinian garrison, Capt. John Hamilton was tragically killed. Hamilton, surrounded, was killed while covering a soldier who slipped through Argentina’s lines and was finally taken prisoner. The Military Cross was posthumously awarded to Hamilton and the award’s quote cited his “outstanding determination and character, his extraordinary will to fight despite hopeless odds and wounded suffering”. Only four days later, Maj. Gen. Jeremy Moore accepted the surrender of the islands’ Argentine forces, and the Union Jack was returned to the Falklands.

I know this has nothing to do with diving, but I grow up outside of Boston, and I have always felt that this is an excellent piece of history. I am sure many of you have heard this story, but maybe you didn’t know all of it as you should.

On 5th March 1770, British troops in Boston killed five colonists. The incident was stared over a wig that lead to the taunting of  British soldiers in Boston. The British retaliated by firing their muskets at the Americans, killing three and injuring eleven. Two of the injured succumbed to their injuries. The colonists’ deaths, which became known as the Boston Massacre, inflamed American anti-British feelings and was one of the most critical incidents leading up to the Revolutionary War.

It was only a matter of time before the British troops sent to Boston clashed with the colonists. (General Thomas Gage had ordered over 4 British Army regiments to Boston, of which the first regiment landed at Boston on 1st October 1768. Two left in 1769) On 5th March 1770, the day arrived. A British sentry was stationed at the Customs House on King Street that early evening (today “State Street” in downtown Boston.) The colonists started taunting the sentry. The crowd grew quickly. Captain Thomas Preston, the Officer of the Day, ordered seven or eight soldiers under his command to assist the sentry as the crowd rose. Preston was not far behind. The crowd had increased to between 300 and 400 hundred men by the time the additional troops arrived. The British soldiers, whose muskets were loaded, were taunted by an ever-increasing crowd. The crowd then started throwing snowballs at the sentinels. One of the soldiers was knocked out by a colonist. As he stood up, the soldier fired his musket and shouted, “Damn you, shoot!” After a brief pause, British soldiers opened fire on the colonists. Three Americans died instantly: ropemaker Samuel Gray, mariner James Caldwell, and Crispus Attucks, an African American sailor. A ricocheting musket ball hit Samuel Maverick in the back of the crowd, and he died a few hours later in the early morning the next day. Patrick Carr, a thirty-year-old Irish refugee, died two weeks later.

The incident was soon called “the Boston Massacre.” But also known as the “Incident on King Street.” This alternate name is more popular among the British people. The depiction of the above events rapidly spread across the colonies thanks to Boston engraver Paul Revere, who copied a drawing by Henry Pelham. The image inflamed Americans’ distrust of the British. Captain Preston and four of his men were charged with manslaughter and convicted. The soldiers were tried in open court, with one of the Defense Attorneys being John Adams. Preston was found “not guilty” when it became apparent that he did not give the firing order. Some accounts say that the order to fire came from the crowd. The other soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded as a punishment.

What lead to it

All the clashes between soldiers and civilians were published in the “Journal of Occurrences,” which was nothing, but a series of newspaper articles published anonymously. The Journal was aimed at chronicling the clashes between British soldiers and Bostonians, but in doing so, the reports were often exaggerated. These exaggerated reports led to further tensions. Unfortunately, the tensions between the civilians and the soldiers increased significantly after the death of Christopher Seider. He was an 11-year-old, killed on 22nd February 1770 by a British customs employee.

His death raised the tensions between the Britain troops and the civilians of Boston. Seider received the most prominent funeral in Boston, and the Boston Gazette covered the whole event. Media coverage continued and kept the tensions alive. Colonists started harassing soldiers, and the soldiers, in turn, started looking for a confrontation. A young man named Edward Garrick (who was an apprentice of a wig maker) showed up in front of the Boston Custom House and called out to Captain-Lieutenant John Goldfinch.Edward started saying that Goldfinch did not settle a bill from Garrick’s master. (He had paid for the wig the day before). Private Hugh White shouted at Garrick (as privates do) and asked him to be more respectful towards the officers. As the two-man started to yell at each other even louder, this began to make things worse. Garrick began to poke the Private in the chest with his finger. Private White responded by relinquishing his post and striking Garrick on the side of the head with the butt of his musket. Now the crowd started to get bigger. Both sides made threats. Henry Knox, who later became a general in the American Revolutionary War and Ft Knox fame, told the Private that if he fired, he should die for it. As, the evening progressed, the number of people in attendance grew. The church bells were rung. Many people came out because the bells signaled a fire. Private Hugh White, who had taken a safer spot-on Boston Custom House’s steps, was being surrounded by nearly 50 civilians. Crispus Attucks was one of the people in the crowd. He was a former slave who was of mixed race. Private Hugh White was forced to call for help due to the tumultuous crowd. Runners told Captain Thomas Preston, the officer of the watch, about the entire incident. Preston dispatched six privates and a non-commissioned officer from the Regiment of Foot as soon as he received the news. These soldiers were armed with fixed bayonet muskets. Preston had directed them to relieve Private Hugh. Captain Preston accompanied the six privates and the non-commissioned officer on the mission. To get to Private Hugh White, these eight people forced their way through the crowd. When they were approaching Private White, Henry Knox threatened Preston that if he shot, he would die. Preston replied to the alert by saying, “I am aware of it.” When Preston and his men arrived at Private Hugh’s place, the soldiers formed a semi-circular defensive position. They drew their muskets and pointed them at the onlookers. Preston then yelled at the crowd, telling them to disperse. The crowd was estimated to be between 300 and 400 people. Preston’s pleas were ignored, and the crowd began to move forward, tossing small objects and snowballs at the troops. Private Hugh Montgomery was struck by one of the items hurled by the crowd (one of the six privates who came to rescue Private Hugh). Private Montgomery was knocked down and lost his musket as a result of things being thrown at him. Private Montgomery recovered quickly, collected his weapon, and yelled angrily, “Damn you, shoot!” before firing into the crowd. There was a brief period of silence after Private Montgomery fired the shot, ranging from a few seconds to two minutes. After that, the soldiers opened fire on the crowd. Even though Captain Preston had not given any orders to shoot, the soldiers did so anyway.

The bullets struck 11 people in the crowd. Private Montgomery was the soldier who assassinated Crispus Attucks. Samuel Gray was shot and killed by Private Kilroy, a soldier. Although all of the soldiers (including Preston) were arrested the next morning, and they all pleaded not guilty. A town meeting was held at Boston’s Faneuil Hall as Hutchison conducted his investigation. The Bostonians formed a committee to look into the incident. Samuel Adams was the chairman of the committee. The committee looked into it and recommended that troops be removed from Boston. During the initial investigation, four civilians were arrested for taking part in the massacre, but they were later found not guilty and released. The British administrators were forced to transfer the troops to Castle William, an old fort on Boston Harbor, under duress. For the events of 5th March 1770, Samuel Adams coined the word “Boston Massacre.” On 27th November 1770, Captain Thomas Preston and his eight men (including Private White) were brought to trial. Preston was tried separately from the other soldiers. Josiah Quincy Jr. and John Adams were the trial’s defenders. Samuel Adams, the chairman of the Bostonians’ committee, and John Adams’ nephew. Samuel Quincy and Robert Treat Paine were the trial’s attorneys. At the appeal, Captain Thomas Preston was found not guilty on all charges, and he returned to England on 2nd December 1770. For all of the hardships he suffered during the Boston Massacre, he got a £200 reward. Two of the eight soldiers were convicted of manslaughter. Kilroy and Montgomery were sentenced on 14th December 1770, nine days after their trial. They were expected to face the death penalty as a matter of course. Montgomery and Kilroy both filed appellees, and their lives were spared. They were released, but the letter “M” was tattooed on their thumbs, indicating manslaughter. On 8th March, the first three victims of the Boston Massacre were buried at the Granary Burying Ground. On 17th March, the fourth individual to die was buried alongside the first three. The victims’ funeral procession drew 12,000 people from Boston. The procession also paid a visit to the Liberty Tree.

It’s not hard to say that anyone who wanted to be in military Special Forces when they were a kid has watched the movie Gung Ho! So, in honor of Evans F Carlson’s Birthday on the 26th. He was one of the best leaders in military history and helped build today’s Special Forces foundation. He spends over two years in China with the guerrilla, learning unique tactics that he would bring to the U.S. to help fight the Japanese in WW2. We need more leads like this in the world.  

Evans F Carlson enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 16 and began his military career in 1912. He served in the Philippines, Hawaii, and Mexico, and less than a year after leaving active duty, he reenlisted in time for the Mexican punitive expedition. During his military service, he was wounded in action in France and was awarded a Purple Heart. He was promoted to Captain in May of 1917 and was made a lieutenant in December of 1917. After the war, he entered the Marine Corps as a private and gained the rank of second lieutenant the following year.

Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, he was awarded the first of three Navy Crosses. In 1940, he became an observer in China during the years leading up to World War II and was impressed with the guerrilla warfare being waged against Japanese troops. While he was in Japan, he became convinced that Japan would attack the United States.

He advised General Douglas MacArthur of an impending invasion in the Philippines and the need for guerrilla units in case the Japanese army attacked. However, MacArthur ignored his recommendation.

Carlson returned to the United States and joined the United States Army again. Carlson and Merritt Edson advocated the use of guerrilla warfare as part of the Allied Pacific War effort. After Edson was assigned the 1st Raider Battalion, Carlson received command of the 2nd Raider Battalion.

Approximately 7,000 applied for enlistment in the 2nd Raider Battalion, but many people that applied were rejected. He asked each candidate about the political significance of the war. He later said he favored men with initiative, adaptability and held democratic views. James Roosevelt, the son of Franklin D. Roosevelt, became Carlson’s assistant.

The Raiders learned the tactics employed by the Red Army against the Japanese. This practice involved learning how to kill people silently and quickly. To more effectively imitate the guerrillas of China, Carlson eliminated the privileges of officers. The same level of nutrition, wearing the same clothing, and carrying the same equipment were all factors.

Carlson’s field research into the Red Army convinced him that trust in the men in battle improved their performance and the belief in a better pollical system. So, he would provide information on how undemocratic governments are under Nazi Germany and Japan. Also, he encouraged the men to discuss their vision of a functioning society after the war.

In August of 1943, Carlson and 222 marines left Pearl Harbor and landed on Makin Atoll. After two days of battle, Carlson’s men destroyed the radio station, burned the radio station’s equipment, and captured documents. Thirty marines were among the first to die during the Battle of Tarawa. As a result of this raid, the Japanese fortified the Gilbert Islands.

On 4 November 1943, the Raiders landed on Guadalcanal. During the next 30 days, Carlson’s man killed over 500 enemy soldiers and only lost 17. Carlson had been wounded and was forced to return to the United States for medical treatment.

Carlson’s superiors expressed concern about his unorthodox tactics and ideas. They were also concerned about his relatively close relationship with Agnes Smedley. This radical journalist was involved in campaigning for USA support of communist forces in China to help them defeat the Japanese Army in Asia.

In May of 1943, Carlson was promoted to be the Raider Regiment’s executive officer and was stripped of the direct command of his battalion during the Guadalcanal campaign. Carlson was also upset with his superiors by becoming involved in a controversial project of publishing pamphlets on the contribution of the Afro-Americans in the war. Carlson eventually returned to action in November 1943 at the battle of Tarawa. On Saipan, he received severe wounds when trying to rescue a radio operator who the Japanese had shot.

Carlson eventually returned to action at Tarawa in November 1943. During the Battle of Saipan, he was injured while rescuing a radio operator who the Japanese had shot. Being injured caused him to have to retire from the United States Marines after the war.

warfarehistorynetwork.com/2015/07/27/evans-carlson-forms-carlsons-raiders

Here is the movie:

I will try and tell this story the best I can, but there was a lot that happened during this month of fighting, and not going to lie, I forget how it all happened every time I read about it.

The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of attacks by the North Vietnamese on over 100 South Vietnamese cities and outposts. The attack was an attempt to promote resistance among the South Vietnamese people and encouraging the U.S. to decrease its participation in the Vietnam War. The ensuing battles were characterized by confusion, gallantry, and bravery for almost one month, 30 January through 28 February. Without losing any strategically important foundation, the United States effectively repelled the assaults by the north in every city except Hue.  

Hue City is a center of Vietnamese culture and religion. The city’s cultural prominence during the war made it a place of strategic importance for U.S. forces. The Marines were forced to go home-to-house, for 26 days, carrying out urban operations for the first time since WWII. Hue was challenging for Marines as the Perfume River separates it, and no air support was provided for the first ten days following the Tet Offensive.

Hundreds of Viet Cong (VC) had already entered the city in the days leading up to Tet and had mingled with the pilgrim crowds that were streaming into Hue for a holiday. Their arms and munitions were quickly transported into the vibrant city and disguised in the bikes, cars, and trucks carrying the flood of merchandise, food, and goods intended for the day’s festivities. Like clockwork, the VC unpacking their guns in the middle of the morning of 31 January, and they put their uniforms into their assigned positions in Hue in preparation for connecting them with cracked Vietnamese People’s Army (PAVN) and city-closed VC agents. Infilters gathered at the gates of Citadel to lead their comrades to achieve their primary objectives.

On the holiday morning of 31 January 1968, as dawn broke, almost all could see it in Hue’s old walled town. The National Liberation Front’s gold-starred, blue-and-red banner flew at the top of the Citadel’s ancient flag tower. Just a few hours before bed on the eve of Tet, the elegant former capital city citizens were packed with anticipations for the forthcoming festivities and celebrations. But now, as they were in battle, a shield of terror and foreboding descended on them. The Communists now appeared to be in charge of Hue in a flash.

This moment was inevitably made possible by months of careful preparation and training. The Communists chose the time for the attack attentively. With Tet, the enemy knew that troops in the city were reduced in strength, with northeastern monsoon usually bad weather impeding all ally re-supply operations and impeding close air support.

Around 0330, the assault forces signed an attack by launching a simultaneous missile and mortar barrage from the mountains to the West of the city. This lasted until daybreak, and by then, they had gained reasonable control of the city. As PAVN and VC troops roamed to consolidate their victories, political officials were unlucky to compile the “special lists” for South Vietnamese and foreigners. The cadres marched along the Citadel’s narrow streets, called out the names on loudspeakers, and told the cadet to report to a local school. Those that do not submit will be hunted down. It is not until the end of the war that what became of the rounded-up would become readily apparent.

The activity in Hue on the morning of 31 January was just one aspect of an astonishing, orchestrated assault. About three-quarters of southern Vietnam’s capital and most of its key cities were affected by about 80,000 North Vietnamese and VC simultaneously. They were almost completely surprised in most objective locations, as they did in Hue, where a long, bloody battle was being waged.

Hue’s 140,000 inhabitants in 1968 made it the third-largest town in South Vietnam and one of the most celebrated areas in Vietnam. In reality, Hue is two cities separated by the Song Huong River, two-thirds of the city population living in the old town’s walls called the Citadel, to the north of the River of Perfume. The 3-square-mile Citadel, once the residence of the Annamese emperors who controlled the center of Vietnam, was enclosed by walls up to 30 feet and up to 40 feet in thickness, each about one mile and a half in length on its side. There is a zigzag seam across three walls not bordering the Perfume River, 90 meters wide at several points and 12 meters deep.

The Citadel had homes, apartment blocks, villas, restaurants, and parks. Another fortified experience, the Imperial Palace, is located in the old walled city, where emperors kept court until the French took over Vietnam in 1883. The square with 20-foot high 2,300-foot-long walls is situated at the south end of the Citadel. The Citadel was once was dream destination, but it would prove to be “a marine rifleman’s nightmare” in February 1968.

The current portion of the city of Hue, which had around half of the Citadel site and existed in around 1/3 of the city’s population in 1968, is located to the south of the Perfume River and connected to the Citadel by the Nguyen Hoang Bridge. The jail, the regional prison, the Catholic Cathedral were there.

A reinforced army of the Republic (RVN) 1st Infantry Division head office in the Citadel’s northwest corner has been the only military presence in the region. In the city, the only fighting force was the recognition company, the Hac Bao elite, called the Black Panthers, which was established outside of the city. The national police were mainly responsible for the preservation of protection within Hue.

Around one- and one-half blocks to the south of the Ngary Hoang Bridge in the eastern edge of the modern sector was the U.S. military’s only presence in Hue on 31 January. The compound had approximately 200 U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and officers and men of Australia who acted as advisors of the 1st Division of ARVN.

The closest U.S. combat base was at Phu Bai, about eight miles south on Highway 1. Phu Bai was a major Marine Corps command post and support facility, home to Task Force X-Ray, a forward headquarters of the 1st Marine Division. Commanded by Brig. Gen. Foster LaHue, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, the task force consisted of two Marine regimental headquarters and three battalions—the 5th Regiment, with two battalions: and the 1st Regiment, with one battalion. LaHue and most of the troops had only recently arrived in Phu Bai from Da Nang and were still getting acquainted with their area of operations when the Battle of Hue City began. There were U.S. Army units in the area as well. Two brigades of the 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile), including the 7th and 12th Cavalry Regiments. The 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, recently attached to the 1st Cavalry Division, had recently arrived at Camp Evans, north on Highway 1 between Hue and Quang Tri.

There were eight thousand communist forces in the area of Hue, with ten total battalions, including two three PAVN regiments and one battalion each. The North Vietnamese regular units were highly trained. The PAVN units were joined by six major battalions of the Viet Cong, including the 12th and the Hue City Sapper units.

While the PAVN and VC troops were very skilled in the jungle and rice paddies, they required more urban areas training. As the soldiers preparing for the war ahead, a list of “cruel tyrants and reactionary elements” prepared by VC intelligence officials was ready for Hue’s battle during the early hours of the attack. Most officers, military officers, and politicians from South Vietnam and American civilians, and other foreigners were on this list. They were taken to the jungle outside the town after being “arrested,” and they were held responsible for their “crimes” against the Vietnamese people.

The PAVN 6th Regiment launched the main southeast assault, connecting it to the VC infiltrate and racing across the Perfume River into the Citadel to the ARVN 1st Division’s headquarters, with two infantry battalions and the 12th VC Sapper Battalion. Much of the Citadel was taking, but General Ngo Quang Truong, the first commander of ARVN Division, and his squad held attackers at the compound at bay, hoping not to be overrun by the 800th and 802nd Battalions of the 6th Regiment.

Meanwhile, the ARVN held its position on the east end of the airfield until it was ordered to retire to the Division’s headquarters to facilitate its reinforcement. While in the hours of pre-dawn, the PAVN 802 battalion has repeatedly probed the ARVN defenses, its soldiers were thrown back, leaving the I Division compound in the hands of the southern Vietnamese. But at daylight, much of the Citadel and the Imperial Palace was occupied by the PAVN 6th Regiment.

The condition was not much better for Americans south of the Parfum River. Twice, the PAVN 804th Battalion attacked the MACV complex. Each time, security forces armed with individual guns were quickly mobilized. The North Vietnamese soldiers subsequently stormed the compound walls, where a group of Marines in a bunker held them away for a short time until they were removed with several B-40 rockets. This action slowed down the PAVN attack and allowed the Americans and Australians time for defense organization. The communists attempted to cut down with mortars and automatic guns from the adjacence building after they did not take the compound in an intense firefight. The defenders went to the ground and called for reinforcements.

Two Viet Cong fighters took over the Thua Thien headquarters, the police station, and other state buildings south of the river as the fighting went raging around the MACV complex. The PAVN 810th Battalion also blocked the south edge of the city to avoid this route’s strengthening. The PAVN 810, The 4th Regiment of North Vietnam, occupied the entire city south of the Perfume River in the morning except for the MACV complex. The Communists thus took over almost all of Hue in very short order.

With only a tiny hold of his Citadel headquarters, General Truong ordered his 3rd Regiment to battle their way into Citadel northwest from their positions, supported by two airborne battalions and an armorial cavalry troop. These forces met with heavy opposition, but Truong’s headquarters reached late afternoon.

As Truong strengthened his forces, the surrounding Americans and Australians in the MACV complex issued yet another call for reinforcement. Responded, but not completely aware of the enemy situation in Hue, Brig. General Foster C. Marine Amphibious Force order. LaHue Frosty, Commander of the X-ray Task Force, has sent Company A, 1st battalion, and 1st Marine (1/1) to Phu Bai on Route 1 to alleviate the 200 MACV advisor surroundings.

Once the Marines entered the area, just a few kilometers away from the consulting team. More Phu Bai Marines joined the original forces to fight for the compound with ten people who were killed in the fight. After their relation, the Marines were ordered to cross the river and break into the Citadel of ARVN 1st DivisionDivision’s headquarters. A hail of enemy fire met the Marines as they went across Nguyen Hoang Bridge, subjecting them to heavy casualties.

Marines south of the river met Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Lam, commander of the ARVN I Corps, and Lt. Gen. Robert Cushman, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, to come up with a plan to retake Hue. They chose to clear communist fighters from the Citadel and the rest of Hue north of the river by ARVN troops, while X-Ray task force would control the southern part of the city.

Colonel Stanley S. Hughes, First Marine Regiment Commandant, was sent by General La Hue to take overall charge of U.S. forces, now completely understanding what his marines were up to. A bitter, room-to-room building war to throw out the Marinas waged communist forces. The Marines were expected to learn on-site strategies and methods untrained in urban warfare, and their progress was expensive and methodical. The soil was gained in centimeters, and the blood was paid for each alley, street corner, window, and garden. Serious injuries have taken place on both sides.

The Thua Thien Province Headquarters, which acted as a post to monitor the PAVN 4th Regiment, was captured by H Company 2-5 of Marines on 5 February, which caused the North Vietnamese’ credibility defenses to collapse. The next week lasted hard fighting, but much of the city to the south of the river had been in U.S. hands by 14 February. Rockets and mortar rounds began to fall, and snipers threatened naval patrols, taking another 12 days to avoid. For the Marines, 38 dead and 320 injured, the new town’s fighting had been expensive. The communists were paying a higher price, and the bodies of over 1,000 soldiers from the VC and NVA were scattered over the city to the south of the river.

In the meantime, the northern battle of the river was still raging. While ARVN forces had been mobilized, the progress on the northwest and southwestern Citadel walls had effectively been blocked by 4 February, between the houses, the alleys, and the narrow streets. The Communists, who had burst deep within walls and tightly packed homes, still had the Imperial Palace and the majority of the area around and seemed to be improved as the reinforcements made their way into the city.

His troops halted, General Truong was disappointed and humiliated and compelled to seek III MAF assistance. General Cushman ordered General LaHue on 10 February to transfer a battalion to the Citadel. On 12 February 1/5 Marines reached the Citadel through a gap in the northwest wall on landing ships through the river. Around the same time, the Citadel’s south-west corner was pushed by two battalions. This accumulation of allies put intense pressure on the communist powers, but they stood up.

The Marines attacked the southern wall and suffered major losses, as the struggles were much more challenging than in the southern part of the city. The Marines were supported by aerial attacks, naval guns, and artillery support, but the enemy fiercely fought back. Back and forth was the battle before, after losing 47 people killed and 240 wounded on 17 February, the 1/2 Marines accomplished their objective.

The battle lasted for days, but ARVN soldiers eventually shot down a banner from Viet Cong, 25 days, at dawn of 24 February, hung the South Vietnamese flag on the Citadel flag tower. The communist forces suffered heavy losses in this battle, losing 5,133 men at Hue; about 3,000 more were estimated to be killed outside of the city. American losses were about 142.

The epic battle over Hue left much of the historical town a devastated pile, leaving some 116,000 people homeless, as 40% of its buildings were demolished. 5,800 people have been listed as killed or missing in the population. Many of the bodies disappeared for a long time, months after the battle, mass graves were found with about 1,200 civilian bodies in 18 hastily hidden mass graves. A second large group of graves was discovered within the first seven months of 1969. Then, in September, three communist defectors said that, at the Da Mai Creek, about 10 kilometers south of Hue in February 1968, 101 AIDS agents witnessed the killing of a few hundred civilians. The majority of about 300 people in the bed of the creek were found on a quest. In all, about 2,800 bodies from these mass graves have been retrieved.

In the beginning, in the American media, the mass graves were not widely talked about. The media did not accept the early findings since they came from outlets that they viewed as discredited. Instead, most journalists appeared to focus on the bloody battle and downfall of the region. However, when the graves were identified, inquiries were started to discover the truth of the murders.

Pham Van Tuong was hiding with his family when the VC came to make the list of “reactionaries” in Viet Cong for serving as a part-time janitor in the Government Information Office. The Viet Cong gunned down all of them instantly when he came out with his three-year-old daughter, five-year-old son, and two nephews and left them on the street as a reminder for the rest of the family.

The Viet Cong traveled to Phu Cam Cathedral on the fifth day of the occupation, where about 400 men and boys had gathered. Some were on the list as the enemy; some were military age, and some looked wealthy.  This party was found later on in the bed of Da Mai Creek.

An account from a group of Mennonite aid workers trapped at their homes in the communist occupation is documented by Omar Eby’s book A House in Hue, published in 1968. The Mennonites said they saw some Americans, one a farmer from the United States. They had been seen with the VC leading them away with their arms bound behind their backs. They, too, were found to be executed later.

Over the ensuing four weeks, Hue’s fighting was house by house, street by street, block by block slow with the Marines battling and tactically adapting to their enemy’s new tactics. Gradually, untimely, the Marines won back the Triangle and the Citadel, first and foremost. The devastation and bloodletting were of the essence, as well as the killing of souls. The massacre of innocents was deep, with countless civilians embedded within the fighting forces.

The political system, rooted in the NVA, forces people to recognize, chase and exterminate lists of individuals unfolded. Political cleansing started deliberately immediately after the start of the Hue attack.

This battle is one of the most important for the Marine Corps history and has been taught to every new Marine. The Marines are trained from the beginning of training “Hue City: house by house, street by street,” shouting it until their voice is grieved. Lessons learned in Hue city are still used to this day and were used in the battle of Fallujah. This battle also demonstrated every Marine’s ability to improvise and overcome as they could adapt from jungle to urban territory. Hue City is an excellent example of how fast Marines can “adapt and survive.”

There were 5 Medals of Honors awarded for actions during the Battle of Hue.

Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley received his award over 50 years after carrying wounded Marines to safety.

Chief Warrant Officer Frederick Ferguson flew his helicopter through a barrage of anti-aircraft fire to rescue wounded comrades.

Sergeant Joe Hooper is described as the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam War

Sergeant Alfredo Gonzalez repeatedly exposed himself to direct enemy fire, leading his men despite his personal wounds.

Staff Sergeant Clifford Sims flung himself on top of an explosive device to save his platoon.

taskandpurpose.com/news/battle-hue-city-medal-honor

mca-marines.org/commanders-forums/bsp-asia/hue-city

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