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021 - Chapter 10 Part 2 - Hagarus Night of Fire · Marine Operations in Korea The Chosin Reservoir Campaign

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten, Part two of US Marine Operations in Korea
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty three, Volume three, The Chosen
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  Speaker 1: Reservoir Campaign by Lynn Montross and Nicholas Canzona. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Hagaroo's Night of Fire
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  Speaker 1: CCF attack from the Southwest. How in Item companies were ready,
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  Speaker 1: All platoon positions were well dug in. Though the earth
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  Speaker 1: was frozen to a depth of six to ten inches.
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  Speaker 1: The men of Item Company used their heads as well
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  Speaker 1: as hands. After Lieutenant Fischer managed to obtain one thousand
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  Speaker 1: sandbags and several bags of C three. This explosive was
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  Speaker 1: utilized in ration cans to make improvised shape charges, which
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  Speaker 1: blasted a hole through the frozen crust of snow and earth.
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  Speaker 1: Then it became a simple matter to enlarge the hole
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  Speaker 1: and place the loose dirt in sambang to form a parapet.
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  Speaker 1: This ingenious system resulted in deluxe foxholes and mortar emplacements.
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  Speaker 1: Attaining to the dignity of field fortifications. Both company fronts
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  Speaker 1: bristled with concertinas, trip flares, booby traps, and five gallon
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  Speaker 1: cans of gasoline rigged with thermite bombs For illumination. Three
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  Speaker 1: probable routes of enemy attack channeled the low hills to
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  Speaker 1: the southwest, a main draw leading to the junction between
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  Speaker 1: the two company sectors, and a lesser draw provided an
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  Speaker 1: approach to each. The ground in front of the junction
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  Speaker 1: had been mined and two tanks from the provisional platoon
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  Speaker 1: were stationed in this quarter. Detachments from Weapons Company also
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  Speaker 1: reinforced both rifle companies. Thus, the six platoons faced the
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  Speaker 1: enemy in the following order item company Company commander Lieutenant Fisher,
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant de Gern, first Platoon, Lieutenant Hall, third Platoon, Lieutenant Needham,
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  Speaker 1: second Platoon, Howe, Company Captain Corley, Company commander, Lieutenant Barrett,
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  Speaker 1: first Platoon, Lieutenant Ensley, third Platoon, Lieutenant Mason, second Platoon.
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  Speaker 1: Beginning at seventeen hundred, hot food was served to all
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  Speaker 1: hands in rotation. A fifty percent alert went into effect
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  Speaker 1: after dark, as the men were sent back on regular
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  Speaker 1: schedule for coffee and a smoke in warming tents located
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  Speaker 1: as close to the front as possible. The first snowflakes
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  Speaker 1: fluttered down about nineteen fifty, muffling the clank of the
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  Speaker 1: dozers at work. As usual under the floodlights on the
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  Speaker 1: airstrip behind the how Company sector. Just before twenty one thirty,
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  Speaker 1: the expected time of CCF attack. Both company commanders ordered
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  Speaker 1: one hundred percent alert, but the enemy did not show
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  Speaker 1: up on schedule. It was just over an hour later
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  Speaker 1: when three red flares and three blasts on a police
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  Speaker 1: whistle signaled the beginning of the attack. Soon, trip flares
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  Speaker 1: and explodevading booby traps revealed the approach of probing patrols
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  Speaker 1: composed of five to ten men. A few minutes later,
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  Speaker 1: white phosphorus mortar shell scorched the marine front line with
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  Speaker 1: accurate aim. The main CCF attack followed shortly afterwards, with
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  Speaker 1: both company sectors being hit by assault waves closing into
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  Speaker 1: grenade throwing distance. The enemy, in turn was staggered by
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  Speaker 1: the full power of marine supporting arms. Snowflakes reduced an
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  Speaker 1: already low visibility, but fields of fire had been carefully
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  Speaker 1: charted and artillery and mortar concentration skillfully registered. In Still,
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  Speaker 1: the Communists kept on coming in spite of frightful losses.
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  Speaker 1: Second Lieutenant Wayne L. Hall, commanding the third platoon in
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  Speaker 1: the center of item Company, was jumped by three Chinese
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  Speaker 1: whom he killed with a forty five caliber automatic pistol.
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  Speaker 1: After his car being jammed, the third foe pitched forward
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  Speaker 1: into Hall's foxhole. On the left flank, tied in with
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  Speaker 1: how Company, First Lieutenant Robert C. Needham Second Platoon sustained
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  Speaker 1: most of the attack on Item Company. The fire of
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  Speaker 1: Second Lieutenant James J. Bowley sixty millimeter mortars and Second
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant John H. Miller's light machine guns was concentrated in
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  Speaker 1: this area. It seemed impossible that enemy burp guns could
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  Speaker 1: miss such a target as Lieutenant Fisher, six feet two
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  Speaker 1: inches in height and weighing two hundred and thirty five pounds,
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  Speaker 1: but he continued to pass up and down the line,
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  Speaker 1: pausing at each foxhole for a few words of encouragement.
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  Speaker 1: By midnight, the enemy pressure on Needham's and Hall's lines
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  Speaker 1: had slackened, and on the right flank, Second Lieutenant Maylon L.
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  Speaker 1: De Jarn's first Platoon received only light attacks. This was
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  Speaker 1: also the case on the left flank of how Company,
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  Speaker 1: where Second Lieutenant Ronald A. Mason Second Platoon saw little
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  Speaker 1: action as compared to the other two. A front of
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  Speaker 1: some eight hundred yards in the center of the twenty
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  Speaker 1: three hundred yard marine line incl voting two platoon positions
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  Speaker 1: and parts of two others borne the brunt of the
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  Speaker 1: CCF assault on how An Item Companies. Captain Corley had
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  Speaker 1: just visited his center platoon when the first attacks hit
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  Speaker 1: How Company. Second Lieutenant Wendell c Ensley was killed, while
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  Speaker 1: the company commander was on his way to Second Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Roscoe L. Barrett's first platoon on the right, which soon
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  Speaker 1: had its left flank heavily engaged. Never was CCF's skill
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  Speaker 1: at night attacks displayed more effectively. Barrett concluded that the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese actually rolled down the slope into the how Company lines,
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  Speaker 1: so that they seemed to emerge from the very earth.
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  Speaker 1: The third platoon, already thin by accurate CCF white phosphorus
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  Speaker 1: mortar fire, was now further reduced in strength by grenades
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  Speaker 1: and burp gun bursts. About this time, the company wirenet
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  Speaker 1: went out, and Corley could keep in touch with his
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  Speaker 1: platoons only by runners, the battalion telephone line also being cut.
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  Speaker 1: He reported at his situation by radio to the battalion CP.
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  Speaker 1: Two wiremen were killed while trying to repair the line.
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  Speaker 1: The Chinese continued to come on in waves, each preceded
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  Speaker 1: by concentrations of light and heavy mortar fire. On the
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  Speaker 1: right and center of the Howe Company position. About zero
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  Speaker 1: zero thirty, the enemy broke through in the third platoon
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  Speaker 1: area and penetrated as far back as the company's CP.
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  Speaker 1: A scene of pandemonium ensued, the sound of Chinese trumpets
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  Speaker 1: and whistles, adding to the confusion as it became difficult
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  Speaker 1: to tell friend from foe. Tracers were so thick, recalled
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  Speaker 1: Sergeant Keith E. Davis, that they lighted up the darkness
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  Speaker 1: like a Christmas tree. Corley and five enlisted men operated
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  Speaker 1: as a supporting fire team, while First Lieutenant Harrison F.
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  Speaker 1: Betts rounded up as many men as he could find
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  Speaker 1: and tried to plug the gap in the third platoon line.
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  Speaker 1: This outnumbered group was swept aside as the next wave
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  Speaker 1: of CCF attack carried to the rear of how Company
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  Speaker 1: and threatened the engineers at work under the floodlights. A
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  Speaker 1: few Chinese actually broke through and fired at the marines
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  Speaker 1: operating the dozers. Second Lieutenant Robert L. McFarlane, the Equipment Officer,
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  Speaker 1: led a group of Dog Company engineers who counterattacked and
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  Speaker 1: cleared the airstrip at the cost of a few casualties.
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  Speaker 1: Then the men resume work under the floodlights. The battalion reserve,
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  Speaker 1: if such it could be called, consisted of any service
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  Speaker 1: troops who could be hastily gathered to meet the emergency.
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  Speaker 1: Shortly before midnight, Ridge sent a platoon strength group of
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  Speaker 1: ten Corps signalmen and engineers under First Lieutenant Grady P.
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  Speaker 1: Mitchell to the aid of How Company. Mitchell was killed
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  Speaker 1: upon arrival, and First Lieutenant Horse L. Johnson Junior deployed
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  Speaker 1: the reinforcements in a shallow ditch as a company reserve.
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  Speaker 1: About midnight, the fight had reached such a pitch of
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  Speaker 1: intensity that no spot in the perimeter was safe. The
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  Speaker 1: company see medical clearing station, only a few hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: to the rear of item Company, was repeatedly hit by
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  Speaker 1: machine gun bullets whipping through the wooden walls. As surgeons
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  Speaker 1: operated on the wounded, The Division CP also took hits,
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  Speaker 1: and a bullet which penetrated General Smith's quarters produced unusual
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  Speaker 1: sound effects when it ricocheted off pots and pans in
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  Speaker 1: the galley. The Chinese seemed to be everywhere on the
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  Speaker 1: how Company's own Shortly after midnight, they surrounded the CP
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  Speaker 1: portable galley and provision tent. It is my personal opinion,
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  Speaker 1: commented Captain Corley that if the enemy had decided to
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  Speaker 1: effect a major breakthrough at this time, he would have
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  Speaker 1: experienced practically no difficulty. However, he seemed content to wander
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  Speaker 1: in and around the third Platoon galley and Hut areas.
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  Speaker 1: The Chinese, in short, demonstrated that they knew better how
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  Speaker 1: to create a penetration than to exploit one. Once inside
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  Speaker 1: the how company lines, they disintegrated into looting groups of
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  Speaker 1: purple useless tactical fragments. Clothing appealed most to the plunders,
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  Speaker 1: and a wounded marine in the third Platoon area saved
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  Speaker 1: his life by pretending to be dead while communists stripped
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  Speaker 1: him of his parka. About zero zero thirty, the battalion
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  Speaker 1: CP advice Corely by radio that more reinforcements were on
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  Speaker 1: the way. Lieutenant Johnson met the contingent, comprising about fifty
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  Speaker 1: Service troops and guided them into the company area, where
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  Speaker 1: they were deployed as an added reserve to defend the
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  Speaker 1: air strip. Item company was still having it hot and heavy,
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  Speaker 1: but continued to beat off all CCF assaults. Elements of
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  Speaker 1: Weapons Company manning the South roadblock came under attack at
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  Speaker 1: zero one point fifteen. Apparently a small enemy column had
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  Speaker 1: lost direction and blundered into a field of fire covered
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  Speaker 1: by heavy machine guns. The hurricane of marine fire caught
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  Speaker 1: the Communists before they deployed, and the result was virtual annihilation.
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  Speaker 1: East Hill lost to enemy half an hour later. With
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  Speaker 1: the situation improving in the Howe Company zone, the Battalion
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  Speaker 1: CP had its first alarming reports of reverses on East Hill.
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  Speaker 1: The terrain itself had offered difficulties to men scrambling up
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  Speaker 1: the steep, icy slopes with heavy burdens of ammunition. These
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  Speaker 1: detachments of service troops, moreover, included a large proportion of
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  Speaker 1: newly recruited Rocks who had little training and understood no English.
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  Speaker 1: The largest of the East Hill units, Company D of
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  Speaker 1: the tenth Engineer Combat Battalion, commanded by Captain Philip A.
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  Speaker 1: Colbs U S Army, was composed of seventy seven American
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  Speaker 1: enlisted men and ninety Rocks. Combat equipment, in addition to
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  Speaker 1: individual weapons, consisted of four fifty caliber machine guns, five
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  Speaker 1: light thirty caliber machine guns, and six three point five
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  Speaker 1: rocket launchers. The Army Engineers had arrived at Hagarou at
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  Speaker 1: twelve hundred on the twenty eighth, shortly before the enemy
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  Speaker 1: cut the MSR. After being assigned to the East Hill
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  Speaker 1: sector during the afternoon, the company used the few remaining
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  Speaker 1: hours of daylight to move vehicles and gear back to
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  Speaker 1: an equipment park in the perimeter. It was twenty thirty
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  Speaker 1: before the four platoons got into position on East Hill,
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  Speaker 1: after an exhausting climb in the darkness with heavy loads
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  Speaker 1: of ammunition. Some use was made of existing holes, but
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  Speaker 1: most of the men were not dug in. When the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese attacked on the left. The collapse of a Rock
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  Speaker 1: platoon attached to ten Core headquarters led rapidly to confusion
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  Speaker 1: everywhere on East Hill. Captain shell Nutt, the marine officer
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  Speaker 1: assigned to the Army Engineers, found that he could not
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  Speaker 1: close the gap by extending the line to the left,
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  Speaker 1: nor did the men, particularly the Rocks, have the training
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  Speaker 1: to side slip to the left under fire and beat
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  Speaker 1: off flank attacks. The consequence was a general withdraw on
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  Speaker 1: East Hill, attended in some instances by demoralization. Shell Nutt
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  Speaker 1: was killed as the four engineer platoons fell back some
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty yards in a tight knot, according
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  Speaker 1: to Lieutenant Norman R. Rosen, US Army, commander of the
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  Speaker 1: third platoon. This was the situation as reported by the
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  Speaker 1: marine radio operator Pfc. Bruno Podolac, who voluntarily remained as
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  Speaker 1: an observer at his post now behind enemy lines. At
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  Speaker 1: zero two thirty, a telephone called a Colonel Bowser from
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  Speaker 1: the three to one CP was recorded in the message
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  Speaker 1: blank as follows. How companies still catching hell and are
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  Speaker 1: about ready to launch counterattack to restore line. About an
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  Speaker 1: hour ago enemy appeared on East Hill. A group of
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  Speaker 1: enemies sneaked up to a bunch of Banks's men and
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  Speaker 1: hand grenated hell out of them and took position, sending
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  Speaker 1: an executive officer over to see if we can get
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  Speaker 1: some fire on that area. Should be able to restore
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  Speaker 1: the line, but liable to be costly reserve. Practically nil
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  Speaker 1: do have a back up behind the break and howe
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  Speaker 1: lines on this side of airstrip composed of engineers and
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  Speaker 1: other odds, and ends at zero four hundred. There was
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  Speaker 1: little to prevent the enemy from making a complete breakthrough
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  Speaker 1: on East Hill and attacking the division. CP and the
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  Speaker 1: supply dumps, a friendly foothold that had been retained on
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  Speaker 1: reverse slopes of the southern nose, but the northern part
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  Speaker 1: was held only by artillery fires. Along the road at
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of East Hill, a thin line of Service
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  Speaker 1: troops with several tanks and machine guns formed a weak barrier.
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  Speaker 1: All indications point to the fact that the Chinese themselves
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  Speaker 1: were not in sufficient strength to follow up their success.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Their attack on East Hill was apparently a secondary and
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  Speaker 1: diversionary effort in support of the main assault on the
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  Speaker 1: sectors held by how and Item companies. At any rate,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the enemy contented himself with holding the high ground he
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  Speaker 1: had won. Some of the defenders of East hid Hill
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  Speaker 1: had fought with bravery, which is the more admirable because
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: of their lack of combat training. Battle is a business
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: for specialists, and Lieutenant Rosen relates that the Army engineers
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  Speaker 1: had a great deal of difficulty with our weapons because
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  Speaker 1: they were cold and fired sluggishly. We had gone into
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  Speaker 1: action so unexpectedly that it had not occurred to us
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  Speaker 1: to clean the oil off our weapons. As an example
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: of the difficulties imposed by the language barrier, the officers
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  Speaker 1: were given to understand by the Rocks that they had
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  Speaker 1: no more ammunition. Weeks later, commented Rosen, we found that
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: most of them had not fired their ammunition this night,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: but continued to carry it. In view of such circumstances,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the Service troops put up a creditable, if losing fight
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: in the darkness on East Hill. The seventy seven Americans
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: of the Army Engineer Company suffered losses of ten KIA,
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  Speaker 1: twenty five WIA and nine MIA, and the ninety Rocks
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  Speaker 1: about fifty were killed, wounded or missing, chiefly the latter
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the volcano of supporting fires. As usual, the men in
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  Speaker 1: the thick of the fight saw only what happened in
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  Speaker 1: their immediate area. The scene as a whole was witnessed
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  Speaker 1: by a young Marine officer of Company A First Engineer
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  Speaker 1: Battalion on duty at a sawmill two miles north of Hagaroo.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: From the high ground, he could look south down into
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  Speaker 1: the perimeter, and the awesome spectacle of a night battle
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: made him think of a volcano in eruption. Gunflashes stabbing
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the darkness were fused into a great ring of living flame,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and the thousands of explosions blended into one steady low
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: pitched roar. Seldom and marine history have supporting arms played
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: as vital a part as during this night at Hagaroo.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: It is possible that a disaster was averted on East
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Hill when the Marines of Captain Benjamin S. Reed's how
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: batteries shifted trails and plugged the hole in the line
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: with howitzer fires alone. Lieutenant Colonel Banks and Major Walter T. Warren,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: commanding the Anti Tank Company of the seventh Marines, acted
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: as observers, reporting by telephone to the gun pits. They
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: directed the sweating gunners so accurately that an enemy attack
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: would have come up against a curtain of fire. Captain
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Strominger's dog battery had been attached to three to one
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: so long that a high degree of coordination existed. His
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: one O fives fired about twelve hundred rounds that night,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and POW interrogations disclosed that enemy concentrations in rear areas
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: were repeatedly broken up When CCF guns replied shortly before midnight,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: there was danger of a fuel or ammunition dump being
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: hit and starting a chain reaction of detonations in the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: crowded perimeter. Stromannger ordered five of his howitzers to cease
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  Speaker 1: fire while he moved the sixth out about one hundred
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: and fifty yards to act as a decoy. Its flashes
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: drew fire from the enemy as he had hope revealing
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the positions of the Chinese artillery. Dog battery officers set
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: up two aiming circles and calculated the range and deflection.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Then the command was given for all six marine howitzers
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to open up. The enemy guns were silenced for the night.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: A later survey established that two CCF seventy six millimeter
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: guns had been destroyed and two others removed. The sixty
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: millimeter mortars of the two rifle companies fired a total
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: of more than thirty two hundred rounds, and on both fronts.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: The heavy machine guns of Weapons Company added tremendously to
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the fire power, Illuminating shells being scarce, two Korean houses
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: on the Item company's front were set ablaze by orders
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of Lieutenant Fisher. The flame seemed to attract CCF soldiers
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: like malls, and the machine guns of the two tanks
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: stationed here reaped a deadly harvest. Curiously enough, the Chinese
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: apparently did not realize what excellent targets they made when
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: silhouetted against the burning builds. By zero four hundred, it
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: was evident that the enemy's main effort had failed. No
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: further attacks of any consequence were sustained by the two
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: rifle companies. It remained only to dispose of the unwelcome
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: CCF visitors sealed off in the how Company zone, and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: at zero four to twenty, Captain Corley rounded up men
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: for a counter attack. It will be just as dark
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: for them as for us, he told his NCOs. Second
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Edward W. Snelling, was directed to fire all his
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: remaining sixty millimeter mortar ammunition in support. Corleyan Betts led
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the Service troops and as reinforcements while Johnson advanced on
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the left. A bitter fight of extermination ensued, and by
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: zero six thirty the MLR had been restored. How Company,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: which sustained the heaviest losses of any marine unit that night,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: had a total of sixteen men killed and thirty nine wounded,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: not including attached units. After it was all over, the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: stillness had a strange impact on ears, attune the whole
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: night long to the thump of mortars and clatter of
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: machine guns. The harsh gray light of dawn revealed the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: unforgettable spectacle of hundreds of Chinese dead heaped up in
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: front of the two marine rifle companies. Shrouds of new
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: white snow covered many of them, and crimson trails showed
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: where the wounded had made their way to the rear
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: marine attacks on East Hill. But even though the enemy's
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: main attack had failed, his secondary effort on East Hill
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: represented a grave threat to perimeter security. At zero five thirty,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Ridge decided to counterattack, and Major Reginald. R. Myers volunteered
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to lead an assault column composed of all reserves who
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: could be scraped together for the attempt. It was broad
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: daylight before the battalion executive officer moved out with an
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: assortment of Marine Army and Rock Service troops, some of
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: them stragglers from the Knights withdraws from East Hill. Their
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: total strength compared to that of an infantry company. About
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: fifty five separate units were represented at Hagaru, many by
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: splinter groups, so that most of Meyer's men were strangers
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to one another as well as to their officers and NCOs.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: The largest marine group was the Patoon, led by First
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Robert E. Yoakums Assistant Operations officer of the first
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Engineer Battalion. Clerks, typists, and truck drivers were included, along
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: with Company D engineers, armed with carbines or m ones
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and two grenades a peace. The men carried all the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: small arms ammunition they could manage. Few had recent combat
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: experience that the platoon commander knew only one of them personally,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a company clerk whom he had made his runner. It
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: was typical of the informality attending this operation that a
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Marine NCO with a small group attached themselves to Yoakum's,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: giving him a total of about forty five. They had
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: an exhausting forty five minute climb up the hill to
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the l line of departure, where Myers directed them to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: attack on the left of his main force. The early
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: morning fog enshrouded East Hill, and myers attack had to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: wait until it cleared The jump off line lay along
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a steep slope with little or no cover from the outset.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: The advancing troops were exposed to scattered small arms fire
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: as well as grenades, which needed only to be rolled downhill.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: New snow covering the old icy crust made for treacherous footing,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: so that the heavily laid men took painful falls. Meyer's
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: little task force can scarcely be considered a tactical organization.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: His close air support was excellent, but both artillery and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: mortar support were lacking. Yoakums did not notice any weapons
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: save small arms and grenades. Our plane assaults were very effective,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: especially the napalm attacks. He commented on the basis of
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a personal log kept at the time. During these strikes,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: either live or dry run. The enemy troops in the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: line of fire often rise and run from their positions
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to those in the rear. Marine air came on station
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: at zero nine thirty as VMF three twelve planes peeled
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: off to hit the enemy with napalm and bombs. The
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: squadron flew thirty one sorties that day at Hagaroo, nearly
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: all in the East Hill area. Enemy small arms fire
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: crippled one aircraft, but the pilot, First Lieutenant Harry W. Colmery,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: escaped serious injury by making a successful crash landing within
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the perimeter. All accounts agree that the ground forces meant
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: more serious opposition from the terrain at times than from
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the enemy, so cut up into ridges and ravines. Was
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: this great hill mass that the troops seldom knew whether
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: they were advancing in dephilate or exposing themselves to the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: fire of hidden adversaries. Thus the attack became a lethal
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: game of height and seek, in which a step to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the right or left might make the difference between life
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and death. On the other hand, when the horse airs
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: provided shooting gallery targets by flushing out opponents, only a
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: few men could get into effective firing positions along the narrow,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: restricted ridges before the Communists scuttled safely to new cover.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: It took most of the energies of the attackers to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: keep on toiling upward, gasping for breath, clutching at bushes
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: for support, and sweating at every pore in spite of
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the cold. At noon, after snail like progress, the force
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: was still far short of the main ridge recognized as
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the dividing line between friendly forces and the enemy. By
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: this time, more than half of Meyer's composite company had
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: melted away as a result of casualties and exhaustion. Yoakum
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: saw no more than fifteen wounded men in the attacking
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: force during the day. He noted about the same number
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of dead Chinese as for enemy strength. He estimated that
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the total may have amounted to a company or slightly more.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: It was his conviction that three well organized platoons could
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: have pressed the assault without serious consequences and seized the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: immediate highest objective. What was behind that, I am unable
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: to say, but I feel that taking this high ground
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: would have solved the problem. Most of the friendly casualties
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: were caused by the grenades and grazing machine gun fire
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: of concealed opponents who had the law of gravity fighting
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: on their side. Yoacoms was painfully wounded in the foot,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: but continued with his platoon. The age old problem of
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: leadership in such an operation, he concluded, may be compared
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to moving a piece of string. Pulling it forward will
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: get you further than pushing enemy small arms fire increased
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: in volume when Meyer's remnants, estimated at seventy five men
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: reached the military crest of the decisive ridge. There, the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: groups in the center and on the right were halted
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: by the Chinese holding the topographical crest and reverse slope.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: On the left. Yocum's men managed to push on to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: an outlying spur before being stopped by CCAS fire from
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a ridge to the northeast. Yocum's position was still short
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of the commanding high ground, yet it was destined to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: be the point of farthest penetration on East Hill. Myers
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: ordered his men to take what cover they could find
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: and draw up a defensive line short of the topographical
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: crest while awaiting a supporting attack. This was to be
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: carried out by elements of Captain George W. King's Able
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Company of the first Engineer Battalion, which had been stationed
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: at a sawmill two miles north of Hagaroo to repair
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a blown bridge. These troops reached a perimeter without incident
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: at noon and proceeded immediately to the assault. First Lieutenant
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Nicholas A. Canzona's first platoon led the column. Orders were
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to ascend the southwestern slope of East Hill, passed through
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Myer's force, and clear the ridge line, But after completing
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: an exhausting climb to the military crest, the engineer officer
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: was directed to retrace his steps to the foot. There.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Captain and King informed them that a new attack had
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: been ordered on the opposite flank, from a starting point
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: about one thousand yards to the northeast, moving to the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: indicated route of approach. Canzona began his second ascent with
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: two squads in line, pushing up a spur and a draw,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: which became almost perpendicular as it neared the topographical crest.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Only his skeleton platoon of about twenty men was involved.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: There were neither radios nor supporting arms, and a light
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: machine gun was the sole weapon, in addition to small
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: arms and grenades. Upon reaching the military crest, the engineers
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: were pinned down by CCF machine gun fire along a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: trail a few feet wide with nearly vertical sides. Only
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Canzona staff Sergeant Stanley B. McPherson and Pfc. Eugene B.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Schlegel had room for deployment, and they found the platoon's
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: one machine gun inoperative. After it was laboriously passed up
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: from the rear. Schlegel was wounded and rolled down hill
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: like a log, unconscious from loss of blood. Another machine
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: gun sent up from the foot enabled the platoon to
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: hold its own even though it could not advance. Canzona
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: put in a request by a runner for mortar support,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: but only two eighty one millimeters rounds were delivered. After
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a long delay, it was late afternoon when he walked
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: downhill to consult King, who had just been ordered to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: withdraw Company A to a reverse slope position. Canzona returned
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to his men and pulled them back about halfway down
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the slope while Macpherson covered the retirement with machine gun fire.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: The winter sun was sinking when the Werry engineer set
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: up a night defense, and at that moment the howitzers
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: of how Battery cut loose with point detonation and proximity bursts,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: which hit the Chinese positions with deadly accuracy. Canzona estimated
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the enemy's strength in his zonne at no more than
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: a platoon, which might have been dislodged with the aid
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: of artillery or even mortar fire. About five hundred yards
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: south of the U. S Engineers, Major Myers held a
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: defensive position with his remaining force of about two platoons.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: The Battalion CEP had reason to believe that the outposts
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: on East Hill would be relieved shortly by George Company
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: with the forty first Commando and Perimeter Reserve. Both had
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: departed coto Ree that morning in a strong convoy which
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: also included an Army infantry company, four platoons of marine tanks,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and the last serial of Division Headquarters Battalion. It was
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: still touch and go at Hagaro at dusk on the
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, but the defenders could take satisfaction in having
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: weathered the enemy's first onslaught. General Smith, courteous and imperturbable,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: as always, visited the battalion CP to command Ridge and
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: his officers for the knight's work. Two rifle companies had
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: inflicted a bloody repulse on several times their own numbers,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and the counter attacking forces on East Hill had at
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: least hung on by their eyelashes. In the final issue,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: a bobtailed run riiffle battalion, two artillery batteries and an
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: assortment of service troops had stood off a CCF division
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: identified as the fifty eighth and composed of the one
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: hundred seventy second, one hundred seventy third, and one hundred
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: seventy fourth infantry regiments, reinforced with organic mortars and some
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: horse drawn artillery. Chinese prisoners reported that the one hundred
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: seventy second, taking the principal part in the attacks on
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: how An Item companies, had suffered ninety percent casualties. Elements
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: of the one hundred seventy third were believed to have
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: figured to a lesser extent, with the one hundred seventy
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: fourth being kept in reserve. This was the situation in
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the early darkness of twenty nine November, when the disturbing
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: news reached Hagarou that George Company and the Commandos were
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: being heavily attacked on the road from Codo Ree and
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: had requested permission to turn back. End of Chapter ten,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Part two read by Aaron Bennett SA