Vietnam, A Reader by David T. Zabecki

Author:David T. Zabecki [Brigadier General David Zabecki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: e-ISBN 1-59176-019-4
Publisher: ibooks, Inc.

Storming the Citadel

By Michael D. Harkins

It was a chilly morning and the skies were a lead gray as the convoy slowly snaked its way along Highway 1. Captain Gor­don D. Batcheller, Commanding Officer of Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (1/1), was worried. His orders were to relieve the MACV (Military Assistance Command Viet­nam) compound at Hue and link up with ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) units north of the city. But he had little information to go on. Moving up the main coastal highway that ran from Da Nang all the way through Dong Ha in the north, where the 3rd Marine Division Headquarters was located, things were unusually quiet. Batcheller knew “something was up.” The previous day, January 30, 1968, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units had taken advantage of the Tet (Vietnamese New Year) cease-fire to attack cities and towns throughout Vietnam. Fight­ing raged everywhere.

As Batcheller’s understrength company advanced, they fortu­itously met four M-48 tanks of the 3rd Tank Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, also heading north. As they approached Hue, the polyglot force experienced harassing sniper fire that wounded several Marines, but the convoy hurriedly pushed on and crossed the An Cuu Bridge spanning the Phu Cam Canal on the outskirts of Hue. It was evident from large holes in the cement that the enemy had tried to destroy the bridge but, luckily for Alpha Com­pany, they had failed. A downed bridge would have delayed them for hours, even days. Ahead of them was majestic Hue City, the old Imperial capital of Vietnam.

The column halted as Batcheller assessed the situation. There was no one visible in the streets. Odd, he thought, since Hue was the third-most populated city in the country. An eerie silence pre­vailed. As Batcheller gave the order to move out, the Marines climbed aboard the tanks and, as the clanking machines roared forward, the leathernecks raked the surrounding structures with automatic-weapons fire as they rode through the narrow streets.

Suddenly, a B-40 rocket ripped into the lead tank, shattering Batcheller’s eardrum and fatally wounding his radio operator. His legs were severed at the knees. Both sides exchanged a tremen­dous fusillade of small-arms fire. The NVA began dropping mor­tar rounds among the Marines, as the tanks’ 90mm cannons and .50-caliber machine guns opened up to support Alpha Company. All radio sets were jammed with Vietnamese voices. Pinned down, the infantrymen dragged their wounded to safety behind the tanks, in ditches, anywhere to escape the deadly barrage. As the morning sun burned away the overcast, giving way to a pale blue sky, the first day in the struggle to retake Hue City had begun.

Not realizing it, the leathernecks of 1/1 had walked right into a deathtrap. The 800th and 802nd battalions of the North Viet­namese Army (NVA), 6th Regiment, had launched a two-pronged assault from the west in the early morning hours of January 30. Storming through the lightly defended gates, their plan was to destroy the ARVN’s 1st Division near the Citadel. However,

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