Chapter EightIN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, the battles blurred with a sameness. The week ending February 20 recorded the highest casualty count of the war, with 543 U.S. combat deaths. The Marines pushed through rows of courtyards and smoldering huts and tightened their stranglehold on the core of the Citadel. Much of the fighting was at bayonet range. The grunts used CS gas, and the NVA responded with their own mortar-delivered gas. It had been the first time in the war both sides fought wearing gas masks at the same time.
Eventually, tactical air restrictions were rescinded, and bombardments from the warships of the 7th Fleet, 14 miles off coast, pounded the north side with 200 shells a day. Marine A-4 Skyhawks and Navy F-8 Crusaders dropped bombs and napalm along the northeast wall of the
