The Tet Mau Than Offensive
Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dang Hoa
Phase 1 : Saigon
After more than three months performing operations one after another in Bong Son, Tam Quan, Phu Cu, Duong Lieu of II Corps, the 4th Marine Battalion was granted permission by the Joint General Staff to have an R & R over the Lunar New Year. I had left the Military Training School eight years ago: during that time I had never had the opportunity of celebrating the New Year with my family. Everyone in the unit was terribly excited, and all sorts of plans were drawn up to keep ourselves amused over the period during which time we would be at the base camp of Vung Tau.
The sea wind and the waves washed the dirt and grime and reality of the battlefield from our bodies. On New Year's Eve whilst the air was still reverberating with the sound of firecrackers, I received a telephone call from the Base Camp Commander, telling me to come to the Battalion Commander's residence for an emergency briefing. My wife looked at me, stunned, not daring to ask anything. Her sixth sense and experience as an officer's wife told her that after such a briefing there would be an unusually long period of separation. When I arrived I saw that the Battalion Commander - Major Do Dinh Vuong, was already armed and sporting a flak jacket and steel helmet. The atmosphere was tense. A map lay open on his dining room table. He told us that one hour following the briefing we were to take the battalion to the area surrounding Saigon - mainly Go Vap, and once there to clear the area of the Viet Cong. The NVA had occupied the Military Prison and the Armour School.
My 1st Company was the first to be airlifted from Vung Tau to Tan Son Nhut Airbase. It was exactly midnight. The soldiers were not in Base Camp, but scattered in different places. I managed to herd together 90 of them: the rest were to follow. When I landed at Tan Son Nhut, a VNAF commander welcomed me so warmly I was given the impression that somehow he had come to the conclusion that I was the Saviour. He and an officer representing the Military Capital Specific Zone then asked me if I could recapture three blockhouses in Go Vap which had been seized by the NVA. I radioed the Marine Brigade to verify the task with them, and was told that it was not my orders. A few moments later a Jeep from the G3 of the Brigade pulled up, and my “real” orders were issued: the 4th Battalion was to move as fast as possible to Cong Hoa Military General Hospital, the operative phrase being the faster the better.
When I reached the hospital, the voice of my Battalion Commander sounded over the radio. His aircraft had taken off after mine. He now issued me further orders. He told me that my troops and I were to accompany the four M.48 tanks which upon arrival at the Armour School would fire at the walls. My company and I would then charge through the hole to recapture the school. The order was straightforward: it was going to be as easy as stealing from a baby. But we had reckoned without one fact - a fact which was instrumental to the success of the operation...
The tanks which were meant to breach the walls came from this very Armour School, and when the NVA had seized the School all the family members of the crew had been captured, and were now still trapped there. Consequently, when we reached the gates instead of firing the cannons to destroy the walls as was previewed, all four tanks rumbled off: they had not the heart to fire at the School for their wives and children were housed therein. They knew that the Communists were there as well, but they still could not bring themselves to fire. In lieu of the departure of the tanks, the 1st Company had no choice but to try to charge after attempting to breach the walls with their 75mm guns. Had we delayed in charging we surely would have been mown down; standing there at the gates we would have been sitting ducks for the Viet Cong inside the School. Once inside, my company branched off to launch a three-pronged attack. The first target was the main building in the School.
When we recovered this main building I recognised it to be Lieutenant Colonel Tuan's home and office. He was the Commander of the Armour School. My heart constricted as I beheld the tragic sight which confronted me. I felt a hot burning sensation pricking my eyes - it had nothing to do with the gun smoke... they smarted from the pain, the horror at the fate which had befallen the family members of the Commander. He had had nine people in his family... all nine bodies now lay there... nine headless corpses. Lieutenant Colonel Tuan's family had all been decapitated! Only the Communists with all their warped and twisted cruelty could have meted out such a fate on innocent civilians... on children! I had not the time to analyse the Viet Cong's inhumanity. My blood raged and boiled, and my heart screamed vengeance. It was the New Year - a sacred time, these children had had a whole lifetime ahead of them. And now they were dead. And for the entire duration of their torture, they would not have known why it was that they were being killed. Revenge and justice in this case was one and the same: I was going to avenge these children, the baby...
Recapture of the water tank looked like it might be the most difficult target for my company. It was situated 15m above ground and protected by an enemy platoon, armed to the teeth with a smorgasboard of weapons. Still seething with rage my Company visited its revenge on the platoon. The 4th Marine Battalion, belonging to the Marine Task Force A succeeded in ejecting the enemy from both the Armour School and Military Prison.
Meanwhile, the 1st Marine Battalion (also of Task Force A) eliminated all presence of Viet Cong from Hoc Mon T-junction to Hang Xanh intersection in Thi Nghe. Within two weeks, Vietnamese troops managed to repulse the NVA invasion altogether, much to the amazement of the world who had thought that South Vietnam must surely change governments. The communists had been so sure of their victory. A quick forage through the rucksacks of each NVA revealed 5,000 South Vietnamese piastres and on their limbs were tattooed the words “Born in the North, Die in the South”. It illustrated well how confident they were in the belief that the South would be theirs. The most successful victory of the Marine Task Force A was gained by one of its Marine Battalions. This battalion besieged an NVA battalion at the T-junction of Cay Thi, near Bang Ky bridge, forcing the surrender of 150 Viet Cong.
Phase 2 : Hue
It would not be an exageration to say that the patriotism of South Vietnamese men reached an all time high during that period: we were particularly enthusiastic to go and defend our homeland.
Landing at Phu Bai Airbase I saw the unmistakeable atmosphere of war everywhere. Aircrafts took off and landed continually, medevac helicopters hovered and supplies came and went almost as soon as they had arrived. We were issued with extra ammunition supplies, gas masks, and “10 day C rations”.
A convoy of GMC trucks transported the 4th Marine Battalion to the right side of Perfume River. Once there we boarded amphibious boats to attack the Hue citadel. It was early spring and still rather cold and wet. When it was not raining, there were heavy blankets of fog, limiting vision to about 5m in front of us. We might as well have fought blindfolded! The enemy had an edge on us: they had had the time to prepare fortified bunkers. In addition to that, they had no qualms about using the civilians as human shields. This made it particularly difficult for us, the fact that they hid in amongst the civilians. We had to eject them from Hue, at the same time taking care not to harm the innocent townsfolk.
The old Hue citadel had been built from stone, sand, and limestone. In some places on the ramparts, the inhabitants grew their vegetables. Aircrafts were not allowed to give fire support for fear of damaging the civilians' properties. Applying the same theory, meant that we had very limited use of our artillery. One question remains in my mind until now. Why was it that the NVA attacked nearly every corner of Hue, except the US camps? US units in operations were not assaulted; US troops were seen lying down, leaning on their rucksacks, smoking, listening to the radio as if they were on a picnic. I wondered then as I wonder now if there had not been any secret agreement between the USA, Russia, or China, which had been binding on the Viet Cong. Mayhap the NVA had been told by their “masters” not to attack US troops on that occasion. In spite of that, once or twice, small US units were attacked by the NVA who had no doubt mistaken them for South Vietnamese troops.
The Marine Task Force A's orders had been to recapture Hue. The task force was composed of three battalions: the 1st, 3rd, and 4th. The enemy were far better equipped than we were. They had sophisticated AK47s and B40s in their employ. The number of Marine deaths could be said to be directly proportional to the distance of land recovered. Every inch of land won back was sown red with the blood of Marines. But on we pushed, for love of our country, for love of our freedom. The last night of the counter offensive was particularly tough. The Battalion Commander ordered me to choose 40 strong Marines to perform a nocturnal assault. We stormed them, fox hole by fox hole with suffocating grenades. The next day the President of South Vietnam came to visit Hue and the communist flag was replaced with the national flag. It was heart warming to know that my unit had contributed to this moment, when the brilliant yellow flag with its three red stripes was raised high up in the sky.
The victory of Tet Mau Than made the citizens of Thua Thien provinces come to appreciate the cause of the ARVN. Up until that point, a large number of those who came from the provinces had been indoctrinated by widespread communist propaganda. When, in the past, we had performed operations in their areas they had regarded us coldly and suspiciously. Now, with their own eyes these peasants had witnessed the cruelty of the NVA. They had seen the Communists burying alive people, beating civilians to death with mallets, not to mention the mass graves. And in the end, it had been the ARVN who had come to protect them. It had been South Vietnamese soldiers who had shared their meagre rations with these people. The citizens of Hue, and especially its student population had finally recognised the blood thirsty nature of Communists, and none to soon either.
In rescuing the citizens of Hue from certain death at the hands of the Communists, a fact that they well recognised, we had at last earned their trust. From then on, relations between the ARVN and the civilians improved greatly.
List of Commanders:
* 1st Marine Battalion: Major Phan Van Thang
* 3rd Marine Battalion: Major Nguyen Nang Bao
* 4th Marine Battalion: Major Do Dinh Vuong
- 1st Company: Captain Nguyen Dang Hoa
- 2nd Company: Captain Phan Nhu Don
- 3rd Company: Captain Nguyen The Phuong
- 4th Company: Captain Tran Xuan Quang
- S. 3 Officer: Captain Nguyen Van Nghiem (pen name Song Linh. He later died in Cailay, My Tho in 1969)
Lt. Colonel Nguyen Dang Hoa
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