As a 19-year-old scout and spy for communist forces in South Vietnam, Hoang Thi No remembers the determination of her team of young women who took part in the Tet Offensive that turned the tide of the Vietnam War 50 years ago.
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"If we didn't fight the enemy, they would destroy us all," she said. "We were young and weren't afraid. ... Once we had a strong ideology, we could do anything."
Her 11-member unit was known as the Perfume River Squad for the river that runs through Hue, Vietnam's third biggest city. Four of them died in the fighting that raged for most of that February and two died later in the war.
They were among 80,000 mobilised fighters - regular soldiers from North Vietnam, Viet Cong guerrillas from South Vietnam and village militia - who launched simultaneous surprise attacks on more than 100 cities, towns and US military bases in South Vietnam on January 31, 1968.
Official US statistics put the death toll at more than 58,000 enemy combatants, 3995 American soldiers and 4954 allied South Vietnamese troops plus 14,300 civilians.
"Psychologically, the war turned against the Americans at that point," said Alan Dawson, at the time a 26-year-old US Army journalist in South Vietnam. "That attack in the Tet Offensive was really the moment that the final outcome of the war was decided to the communist advantage."
US and South Vietnamese forces rallied to overwhelm the communist attackers, largely through superior firepower.
It might have been more clearly recognised as a major military defeat for the communists but the tenacious Vietnamese guerrillas in Hue held out for about a month, helped by the Perfume River Squad.
"Our duties were to enter the city to get information of movements and important locations of the enemy," No said.
They also guided forces to attack the US Army and mobilised locals to support the revolutionary forces by stocking up food and digging secret trenches and tunnels.
On Wednesday, No joined her comrades in Hue to mark the anniversary of the offensive.
No suffers from a thyroid condition that doctors attribute to contact with Agent Orange, the herbicide that US warplanes sprayed over large parts of Vietnam to try to deprive the communist forces of jungle cover.
The veterans, mostly in their 70s and 80s and some wearing combat medals, laughed as they shared wartime stories and posed for group photos taken with their smartphones.
Communist military planners hoped the Tet offensive would incite a popular uprising and weaken American political will, which was wilting under anti-war sentiment back home.
Dramatic footage of the harrowing fighting dominated US television coverage, with devastating political effect.
In March, embattled US President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not run for another term and limited bombing as a prelude to peace talks.
The fighting dragged on for seven more years, fuelling US street protests and convulsing American politics, before the North prevailed and the last Americans evacuated in 1975.
