Black April by George Veith

Author:George Veith [Veith, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594035739
Publisher: Encounter Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“MAINTAIN A FIRM GRIP ON ROUTE 1, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST”

In Saigon, Wolfgang Lehmann watched Danang’s growing refugee problem with concern. On 18 March he cabled Washington and recommended that “it would not be too early to think in terms of a possible sea lift to move large numbers of people” out of I Corps. If PAVN attacked Hue, hordes of people would flee to Danang, greatly aggravating that situation. Lehmann wrote: “In such a contingency I should think that a sea lift of refugees . . . using suitable U.S. Navy assets, and perhaps augmented by ships from other countries . . . would be the right thing to do on plain humanitarian grounds alone.”28 At the same time, Lehmann ordered the evacuation of all non-essential U.S. personnel from I Corps. Embassy officers in those provinces would man their offices during the day, and then leave at dusk by helicopter for Danang.

As recounted in chapter 9, Lehmann met with Thieu on 20 March at the insistence of the State Department to obtain from the president his precise military intentions. In a wide-ranging discussion about the country, Thieu stated in regard to I Corps that he would not abandon Thua Thien. Aware that removing the Airborne had made the situation worse, Thieu said he had instructed Truong to do “his best with the forces he has at hand. Hue would not be abandoned.”29 He did not, however, think Truong could hold Hue, and he believed that forming an enclave at Danang was the best option. “It would have to be decided later whether to try to hold that enclave. If it were to be useful as a beachhead for the future recapture of other territory that was one thing, but if it were to be held simply as a suicide mission that would be another.” It was Thieu’s way of gauging U.S. intentions, and slyly offering an opening for an American return. No U.S. official grasped the president’s subtle message.

While Lehmann was attempting to divine Thieu’s intentions, on 17 March ARVN received a piece of excellent intelligence. A defector from the 325th Division told his interrogators that the division intended to launch a two-regiment assault toward the district town of Phu Loc on Route 1 near the northern entrance to the Hai Van Pass. Truong immediately moved the 8th Marine Battalion, 258th Brigade, to the town. He also began air strikes and long-range 175-mm artillery fire onto the suspected location of the 325th Division in hopes of delaying its movement. It was the best he could do. The presence of the 304th Division in Thuong Duc continued to force Truong to maintain a Marine brigade in western Quang Nam to guard against a thrust by that unit. Truong simply had no troops left.

The defector’s intelligence was accurate: renewed assaults in Thua Thien province were imminent. PAVN’s plan called for the B-4 Front to attack the Marines defending the Bo River northwest of Hue while concurrently sending forces across the My Chanh River.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.