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Marine Corps University Archives Photo

THE CITADEL

(The battle for Hue)

The third largest city in Vietnam,

Was the sacred city of Hue,

Set on the Perfumed River's banks,

Which divided the city in two.

The new city lay towards the south,

While the Citadel was in the north,

Looking quite unassailable,

But a city of treasured worth.

'Twas several concentric inner towns,

Surrounded by an inner wall of brick,

Then an outer  wall thirty feet high,

And a good twenty more feet thick

Thus moated by the rivers flow,

The Citadel stood strong indeed,

Though it's anti American people

With this thought had not agreed.

Ngo Quang Truong of the ARVN's force,

The Brigadier General then,

Put his defending soldiers on full alert,

Any prolonged attack to stem

The detachments of North Vietnam,

Under the misty skies so grey,

Entered the city from the south,

And great stealth they did display.

 Most of the city fell at once,

But the Republic army held them back,

Kept their HQ safe and sound,

For fighting skills they did not lack.

The Military Assistance Command compound,

A walled hotel on the southern side,

Was attacked by two battalions no less,

But many NVA and Viet Cong died.

The second wave with heavier arms,

Sent rockets pouring in,

But they were  soundly repulsed again,

Mid the blasting and the din.

A fourth Battalion took the airfield,

While others secured the streets,

The NVR and Viet Cong ,

Had suffered no more defeats.

US Troops retook the New City,

Gaining ground block by block,

Fighting for every step they took,

Suffering horror and shock

'twas cold and wet hindering support,

but the NVA were pushed right back,

into the Old and sacred City,

where defences they did not lack.

Comrade Son Lam who led the troops,

Of Viet Cong and NVA,

Withdrew into the  Citadel fort,

To keep his American foe at bay.

With the main bridge blown ,

The US troops across the river went,

In assault boats to the Northwest point,

With covering aircraft sent.

Now at half strength the US troops,

Retained their desperate grip,

And the South Vietnamese were doing fine,

They were not going to let this one slip.

An SVA regiment in surprise attack,

Replaced the Viet Cong flag,

Which above the Citadel flew so proud,

In place of the of the communist rag

Reinforcements arrived from the west,

But Son Lam knew he could not win

But his orders said he must resist,

All manner of folk had been formed  in groups,

And slaughtered  where they stood,

Americans, clergy, none were troops,

Citizens all bathed in blood

They were tied together, when they were shot,

Some decapitated met their doom ,

Some were dead and some were not,

Shallow buried near Tu Docs tomb.

But the battle for Hue was over now,

And the Viet Cong moved away,

One hundred and nineteen Americans died,

One  for every yard they say,

Three Hundred and Sixty South Vietnamese,

And nearly five thousand Viet Cong

Their bodies lay  like fallen leaves,

A mass bleeding battered throng.

One hundred thousand homeless folk,

Without food and little to drink,

Cringed in the rubble and rising smoke,

Watched their City slowly shrink.

The Perfumed River was running red,

An American sat on the throne,

In the Imperial Palace where the dead,

Would never make it home.

© Colin F. Jones  09/07/02