On the second day of the Tet battle, February 1, the Marine headquarters at Phu Bai was in a quandary. The men had little information as to what was happening at Hue. Brigadier General Foster C. LaHue, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, thought his Marines were in control of the south side and that the enemy would soon be finished because it lacked resupply capabilities. Also, Saigon had issued a press release saying the “enemy was being mopped up.” Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) HQ at Da Nang concurred, stating, “[Marines] were pushing VC out of Hue this morning.” Even Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Lam, overall head of I Corps, thought the enemy had been routed with the exception of a “platoon” holding out in the Citadel. They were all woefully incorrect.
Despite this optimism, two additional companies, Fox and Hotel of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, were alerted for immediate duty in Hue. As the C-46 Sea Knight helicopters approached the embattled city, several Marines were wounded in their seats when bullets tore through the thin-skinned “birds.” Landing on the university soccer field, the heavily laden infantrymen scrambled from the rear door and bolted for cover near the MACV HQ. That night was spent organizing for the following day’s attack.
Lieutenant Colonel Ernest C. “Big Ernie” Cheatham Jr., 2/5 commander, and Colonel Stanley Smith Hughes, 1st Marine regimental commander, arrived on the scene. Hughes’ orders were simple and straightforward—clear Hue’s south side. To Cheatham’s 5th Marines went the bulk of the task: push west from the MACV compound, following the Perfume River all the way to the Phu Cam Cathedral. Their main route would be along Le Loi Street paralleling the river. Unknown to the Marines, this was the site of the NVA HQ and the location of most of their troops. Gravel was given the assignment of keeping Highway 1 open for traffic, since Alpha 1/1 had suffered the most casualties and was undermanned.
Prior post: https://bigboardgaming.com/a-week-in-hell-hue_2/
That night NVA infiltrate
The next morning stiff fighting puts a lot of hits on G Company. Support and Reserve can swap out in between round and by doing so extend the fight. [Video on line as to how combat works.]
The school is cleared
But the rest of the day will be spent carry these hits around. Which will degrade our ability to fight. Yellow hits -1 to Cf, Red means not fighting allowed.
Alpha pushes deeper into the town, flanking Treasury a key VP location.
Alpha takes the heat as they close on treasury!
Thankfully Fox Company arrives from the 2/5 and they head to MACV for instructions-
Golf stands down as all units are red. They will await recovery in the night phase. A blow to progress for sure.
A heart breaker over night. Infil efforts drop 3 four rated enemy behind us, and almost block coms lines!
We will need to re allocate forces. Keeping 1 company on solely to root out infiltrators and garrison VP locations!
What a mess:
And so the game of whack a mole goes!
