Page 263 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

darling, die beside buddiest. I later found out that this was alrnost
a slogan, stres6ing the spirit of dedication and sacrifice of the 4th
C ornpany as well as that of the entire Marine Battle Group A.
rr
A soldier died. Another soldier stepped forward to
take his place. The firefight continued with increasing ferocity, frorn
house to house, frorn garden to garden, frorn street io st"eeirt.
The Vietnarnese and Arnerican forces were pledged to
annihilate the enerny in the Citadel at all costs. Wave after wave of
US Marine jet fighters rained bornbs, rockets and cannon fire on
enerny positions for two days running. Cn Feb 14, for the fir6t tirne
in the 15-day-old Hue battle, airstrikesweredirected
at enerny posi_
tions dug into the thick rock and brick warls of thecitadel. The ord-
nance expended included napalrn bombs, three_inch rockets, tear gas
bornbs and high explosive fragrnentary bornbs weighing up to 750
pounds.

The enerny continued to hold out frorn. entrenched
positions along the great walls encornpassing the northeast and south_
rl/est sections of the Citadel. Many friendly a6Bault waves were repul-
s ed.

The battle for Hue was rnade even rrlore arduous for
the friendly forces by poor weather - low cloud ceiJ.ings, nippingty
cold ternperatures, etc, Furtherrnore the friendly fo".." *... J"g",
to reduce civilian casualties and avoid as rnuch destruction of p.o"pe"_
ty as possible. Most of the roads and streets leading to .rr...ry posi_
ti-ons were barricaded by hirn with stolen pieces of furniture, *ir.do*",
doors etc... The enerny delivered sniper fire against friendly troops
{rorn behind these barric ade s.

Throughout the day of Feb 16 fighting continued in its
{arniliar pace andferocity inside the Citadel. A..rerican artillery fired
white phosphorous shells. Crusader jet fighters conducted rnassive
bornb and rocket strikes against .rr.rrry po"itions. Houses, buildings,
walls collapsed and burst into flarnes, lighting part of the ancient
capital city that night.

The 7/5 US Marine Battalion pushed back an enerny
force to the south in order to trap it within the crossfire of the
friendly {orces positioned on both sides of the perfurne River. Arne-
rican tanks also rnaneuvered into the southern end of the Citadel and
struck the enerny dug in on the flanks of the Citadel walls.

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