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The Lost Battalion Controversy and Casualties in the Battle of Hue

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By Charles A. Krohn

Foreword by F. Clifton Berry, Jr.

ISBN: 0-275-94532-4

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-94532-9

DOI:

224 pages, maps, photographs,

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 11/30/1993

List Price: $106.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)

Availability:

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Military Studies » Strategy & Tactics
History » Vietnam War

Awards:

Military Book Club Selection

Reviews:

His first-rate account demonstrates what can happen in combat when such systems do break down.
—Publishers Weekly

Endorsement From
John Collins

Senior Defense Specialist, Library of Congress

: Only the mediocre are always at their best. This book tells about the price a U.S. Army cavalry battalion paid in blood when a few senior officers were off form during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
Endorsement From
General Donn A. Starry, USA-Ret.

: Anyone who has fought will recognize this as a real story about some very tough battles, written by a real soldier who was there. Fortunately, Charles Krohn is a keen observer who with just the right amount of trenchant humor tells a tragic story, tells it extremely well, and lets the emperor appear unclothed whenever it is appropriate to do so. A superb chronicle about a handful of brave men who did what they were asked to do despite the odds against them--on both sides.
Endorsement From
Lewis Sorley

Author of Thunderbolt, a biography of General Creighton Abrams
: This book calls to account those responsible for 'cutting loose' the 2/12th Cavalry to suffer grievous losses in the fighting north of Hue. The account is very interesting, often moving, and authentic.

Description: In 1968 in South Vietnam, a U.S. infantry battalion was ordered to charge a fortified North Vietnamese Army force 200 yards away over an open field with no artillery or air support. The defenders had every advantage. The Americans started moving across the field just before noon, every man a target. By the time they reached the tree line at the other side of the open field, nearly one half of the 400-man battalion was a casualty. Nine long, agonizing hours afterwards, U.S. artillery units began support fire, although the units remained desperately short of ammunition. The entrapped men saw their fate: death or captivity. Help from headquarters was neither offered or available. The following night the battalion commander decided to make a run for it. It was a gamble with high stakes. But the battalion did make it through enemy lines to a mountaintop where the NVA could not follow. When the Lost Battalion finally escaped encirclement, after nine hours with no artillery or air support, and 30 hours of fighting against an enemy that outnumbered them three to one, the tragic episode disappeared from official memory and relevant U.S. Army records--as if nothing had happened. Krohn tells the whole story--and it tells it with the words of those present. That some of the testimony comes from those responsible is remarkable.

Table of Contents:

Foreword
America's Best
Cast of the Past
Curtain Raiser
Reasonable Worries
Operation Rawhide
Rehearsing the Gladiators
The Death Battalion
Sweet Takes Charge
Historical Moment
Hue's Burning
Getting the Word at Camp Evans
From Camp Evans to PK-17
Dead in Our Tracks
Attack Now
Scudder, A Miracle Man
Cordite Stinks
Artillery Fiasco
Take a Break, Death Will Wait
Day Two: Hell's Last Circle
Saving the Living, Leaving the Dead
Leaving TFP: Our Only Hope
Hugging Jeff
Helvey's Raiders
TFP
Heroes Not Forgotten
After the Battle Is Over
Forgotten Favor Repaid
View from the Other Side
Who Won? Who Lost?
We'll Never Know
Ambiguous Facts
Tet, Meet Desert Storm
Pascagoula Flashback
Infantry Battalion Organization
Where Are They Now?
The Presidential Unit Citation
Maps
Photos of Key Participants, Locations

LC Card Number: 93-2867

LCC Class: DS558

Dewey Class: 959.704


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