Word: citadel
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...Citadel of Hue resembled nothing so much as the ruins of Monte Cassino after allied bombs had reduced it to rubble. An avalanche of bricks littered the streets and open spaces, and loose piles of masonry provided cover for both sides in the battle for the fortress. With every explosion of bomb or shell, the air turned red with choking brick dust. Having fought through Hué block by block, house by house, then yard by yard, the U.S. Marines were now engaged in what a company commander called a "brick-by-brick fight" to drive the North Vietnamese forces...
...gone before it in the war that allied forces had to learn by doing. During the four weeks that they had clutched the city, over 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong had holed up hard-behind the foundations of crumbled buildings, among the jagged battlements of the Citadel's six-mile wall, in darkened houses and inside the secondary wall of the imperial city. Enemy sharpshooters trained their scopes on the allies from Hué's highest spots; machine-gunners picked wide-angle vantage points; and mortar fire struck everywhere, like an infernal rain...
...Marines southbound on the east, ARVN Marines headed the same way on the west. Clearing the way through the city's debris-covered avenues came U.S. tanks, their turret guns swiveling from side to side as if to sniff the air, then belching fire at the Citadel walls. Overhead, helicopters sprayed napalm across the ponds and courtyards of the Imperial Palace, and fighter-bombers blasted away at three main enemy positions. From below, out to sea, a U.S. cruiser kept shelling the Communists...
From a crescent-shaped position along the west wall, the enemy was able to keep a steady stream of supplies and reinforcements flowing into the Citadel. At week's end this position was threatened by allied forces advancing on the Citadel from the west. For mobility within the city, the Communist troops found a second, more cunning conduit. They crawled through sewer lines beneath the city that led up to street level behind allied lines. Time and again, Communist mortar and rocket fire slammed into the advancing U.S. armor. Sometimes a tank lurched, then treaded wildly through brick walls...
...Leathernecks, taking grim note of each setback, only pressed the enemy harder. Sharpshooters with high-powered scopes hunkered down behind battlements in "secure" sections of the Citadel wall, squeezing off occasional rounds at moving targets. As they waited out the weather for air cover or rested for their next push, the unshaven, dust-covered Marines sipped endless cups of powdered coffee, occasionally breaking out a liberated magnum of French champagne to accompany their C rations...