Photos Battle for Hue, 1968.

[Chazman]

 

[uktabber]

Wow, great pictures mate!!! I just finished a book about the battle of Hue, I never knew it was as intense as it was, what a battle there was nothing else like it in Vietnam I should think!!

 

[Gaz]

Would I be right in assuming that Hue was the first experience of heavy fighting in streets/city for the US since WWII?

 

[BravoZulu]

Would I be right in assuming that Hue was the first experience of heavy fighting in streets/city for the US since WWII?

No mate, there were some nasty street fighting battles in Korea

 

[Gaz]

No mate, there were some nasty street fighting battles in Korea

Thanks - this thread coupled with Chazman's Fallujah thread just got me thinking about would the Marines streetfighting in Iraq still be using lessons learned in Hue? Would the Hue Marines have been using lessons learned in Korea or WWII?
I realise things change such as mass use of IEDs and UAVs now that weren't around in 1968, but do other basics stay the same?

Just idle thinking on my lunchbreak....

 

[Chazman]

 

[Chazman]

 

[Chazman]

Thanks - this thread coupled with Chazman's Fallujah thread just got me thinking about would the Marines streetfighting in Iraq still be using lessons learned in Hue? Would the Hue Marines have been using lessons learned in Korea or WWII?
I realise things change such as mass use of IEDs and UAVs now that weren't around in 1968, but do other basics stay the same?

Just idle thinking on my lunchbreak....

Good question. Both were vicious urban battles. Marine casualties were much higher in Hue, however. I do believe that lessons learned in the battle for Hue were used in Fallujah.

 

[Chazman]

 

[Chazman]

Note the Thomson submachine gun.

 

[Chazman]

 

[Chazman]

 

[Chazman]

A U.S. Marine carries an American flag as he charges across a rubble-strewn courtyard in the old citadel in Hue, South Vietnam, in Feb. 1968 during the Vietnam War. The Marines secured the flag atop a wall of the ancient fortress as fighting continues in its third straight week here. (BILL TUOHY / AP)

 

[BravoZulu]

A US Marine takes aim at the enemy from a storefront during the battle for Hue, Vietnam 1968

 

[BravoZulu]

U.S. Marine riding a civilian motorcycle during the Battle of Huế, circa 1968.

 

[BravoZulu]

A group of US Marines from the signal detachment prepare to defend part of the eastern outer walls surrounding Hue Cities Citadel against incoming Viet Cong guerillas during the Tet Offensive

 

[BravoZulu]

In this Feb. 22, 1968, Lance Cpl. James Avella or North Bergen, N.J., left, fastens the stars and stripes to a telephone pole near the south wall of Hue's Citadel, Vietnam. Sgt. Greg Pratt of Ojai, Calif., follows. The Marines of Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment took their south wall objective after fierce fighting and heavy casualties.

A U.S. Marine carries a blanket-wrapped wounded Vietnamese child from an aid station to an ambulance for evacuation from the Citadel in Hue, Feb. 17, 1968. The child wandered into Marine lines after he was wounded by American artillery fire directed at Red positions. (AP Photo)

 

[BravoZulu]

The main bridge across the Perfume River, connecting two parts of Hue, was blown up by Viet Cong, Feb. 6, 1968. The ancient Vietnamese imperial city is 50 miles south of he demilitarized zone in South Vietnam. (AP Photo/Rick Merron)

The Vietnam flag flies atop a tower of the main fortified structure in the old citadel as a jeep crosses a bridge over a moat in Hue, during the Tet Offensive, Feb. 1968. (AP Photo)

 

[BravoZulu]

In this Feb. 1968 photo, a unit of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment U.S. Marines, rests alongside a battered wall of Hue's imperial palace after a battle for the Citadel during the Tet Offensive. The Marines reported heavy casualties in street fighting in the ancient capital city of Vietnam.

US Infantryman next to a wounded soldier, Hue 1968

 

[BravoZulu]

Marines at the Battle of Hue. (H.D.S. Greenway/New York Times)