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009 - Chapter 4 Part 2 - Majon-ni and Ambush Alley · Marine Operations in Korea The Chosin Reservoir Campaign

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four, 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. Majohn Knee and Ambush
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  Speaker 1: Alley first attack on perimeter. The supplies were no less
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  Speaker 1: welcome than the Marines who brought them, for the CIC
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  Speaker 1: team had warned of an attack on Majohn Knee at
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  Speaker 1: zero one hundred. The following night, Colonel Poller placed Able
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  Speaker 1: Company under the operational control of three to one for
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  Speaker 1: the defense, and the commanding officer assigned the three rifle
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  Speaker 1: platoons in their reinforcing elements a sector between how and
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  Speaker 1: George Companies on the perimeter. This addition to his strength
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  Speaker 1: made it possible for Lieutenant Colonel Ridge to send out
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  Speaker 1: his executive officer, Major Reginal R. Myers, in command of
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  Speaker 1: a motorized patrol large enough to cope with the reported
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  Speaker 1: enemy build up of two thousand to three thousand men
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  Speaker 1: about six miles northwest of Majohn Nie on the Pyeongyang Road.
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  Speaker 1: Intelligence received by Corps indicated that this force was assembling
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  Speaker 1: in an old mining area, and a three to one
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  Speaker 1: reconnaissance in force was ordered. The marine task force, consisting
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  Speaker 1: of Georgian item companies plus elements of Weapons Company, was
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  Speaker 1: supported by artillery for majohn Nie. Nothing more formidable was
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  Speaker 1: encountered than a few guerrillas firing at long range, but
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  Speaker 1: Myers brought back eighty one willing prisoners that night at
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  Speaker 1: zero one thirty. Trip flares and exploding booby traps were
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  Speaker 1: the prelude to the first n kPa probing attacks on
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  Speaker 1: the perimeter. The enemy was half an hour late, but
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  Speaker 1: otherwise the assault developed pretty much as the CIC team
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  Speaker 1: had predicted, Even to the identification of elements of the
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  Speaker 1: forty fifth Regiment of the fifteenth n kPa Division. The
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  Speaker 1: assailants showed no disposition to close and the u The
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  Speaker 1: assault turned into a desulatory firefight at zero five hundred,
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  Speaker 1: with a fog reducing visibility almost to zero. The enemy
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  Speaker 1: could be heard but not seen in his assault on
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  Speaker 1: the Battalion op. This position was located on the Howe
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  Speaker 1: Company front and manned by wireman and artillery and mortar
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  Speaker 1: FO teams. When their ammunition ran out, these Marines were
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  Speaker 1: forced to withdraw, but Captain Thomas E. McCarthy, second Lieutenants
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  Speaker 1: Charles Maddox and Charles R. Stiles, with an assortment of
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  Speaker 1: H and S Company personnel, recaptured the position the moment
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  Speaker 1: that the fog lifted. The enemy withdrew into the hills
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  Speaker 1: after the corsairs came on station, and the action ended
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  Speaker 1: at zero seven thirty with two wounded Marines representing the
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  Speaker 1: casualty list of three to one in the engagement. Able
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  Speaker 1: Company returned to Wants On that morning with six hundred
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  Speaker 1: and nineteen of the prisoners who had been accumulating at
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  Speaker 1: Majohn Knee until the stockade was almost overflowing with Korean humanity.
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  Speaker 1: Barow packed the captives into open trucks covered with tarpaulins.
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  Speaker 1: This precaution was taken in order not to advertise the
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  Speaker 1: nature of the cargo while passing through Ambush Alley, since
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  Speaker 1: it might be embarrassing if the gorillas attempted to liberate
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  Speaker 1: prisoners who outnumbered their keepers three to one. Simultaneously with
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  Speaker 1: the return of Able Company, Colonel Pollar ordered his second
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  Speaker 1: Battalion minus to proceed via the Majohn Knee Road to
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  Speaker 1: Munchon Knee. Lieutenant Colonel Sutter's mission was similar to that
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  Speaker 1: of Lieutenant Colonel Ridge at Majohn Knee, to block enemy
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  Speaker 1: movement along the trails leading north and to screen civilians
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  Speaker 1: the hamlet of Munchon Knee squatted near the top of
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  Speaker 1: the highest pass along Ambush Alley. Trucks could be supplied
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  Speaker 1: for only one reinforced Rifle Company, Easy, which departed Wanson
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  Speaker 1: at zero A, thirty four miles short of the objective.
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  Speaker 1: The motorized column entered a horseshoe bend large enough to
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  Speaker 1: contain all the vehicles. On the left of the road
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  Speaker 1: was a sheer drop, and on the right rose cliffs
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  Speaker 1: two hundred feet in height. The last truck had just
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  Speaker 1: entered the bend when the first was stopped by a
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  Speaker 1: landslide roadblock. As the column ground to a halt, the
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  Speaker 1: enemy opened up with rifles and automatic weapons from well
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  Speaker 1: camouflaged positions in the high ground at the far end
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  Speaker 1: of the horseshoe. The marine scrambled out of the trucks
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  Speaker 1: and returned the fire, but it was necessary to attack
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  Speaker 1: in order to dislodge the enemy, and during the advance
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  Speaker 1: Easy Company took a total of forty six casualties eight
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  Speaker 1: KIA and thirty eight WIA. In addition to six wounded
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  Speaker 1: truck drivers, five of the seven officers were wounded, including
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  Speaker 1: the company commander, Captain Charles D. Frederick. It was estimated
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  Speaker 1: that the roadblock had been defended by about two hundred
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  Speaker 1: Red Koreans, who left sixty one counted dead behind them
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  Speaker 1: and probably removed at least as many wounded. As of
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  Speaker 1: one hundred twenty millimeter mortar ammunition were destroyed by the
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  Speaker 1: Marines and three hundred cases of small arms cartridges. At
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  Speaker 1: sixteen fifteen, Sutter and the remainder of the two to
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  Speaker 1: one force arrived on the scene from Wanson just as
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  Speaker 1: Able Company and its prisoners appeared from the opposite direction.
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  Speaker 1: Helicopters having already evacuated the Easy Company's critical casualties. Able
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  Speaker 1: Company brought the lightly wounded imprisoners to Wanson without further
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  Speaker 1: enemy interference. Sutter's force proceeded to munchon Nie as originally planned.
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  Speaker 1: KMC battalions sent to Majohn Nie. At Majohn Knee, an
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  Speaker 1: op man by two squads of Lieutenant Ronald A. Mason,
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  Speaker 1: second Platoon of how Company was threatened with encirclement on
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  Speaker 1: the eighth, when a Red Korean force gradually built up
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  Speaker 1: to an estimated two hundred and fifty men worked around
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  Speaker 1: to the rear. The other two platoons of the company,
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  Speaker 1: reinforced with heavy machine guns and an item company platoon
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  Speaker 1: were sent out from the perimeter. Artillery and mortars helped
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  Speaker 1: to scatter the enemy in confusion, with estimated forty percent losses.
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  Speaker 1: Marine casualties were one man killed and ten wounded. On
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  Speaker 1: ten November, reflecting the concern of CO. First Marines over
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  Speaker 1: enemy activity in the Majohn Knee area, the third KMC
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  Speaker 1: Battalion arrived as reinforcements, together with a convoy of supplies.
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  Speaker 1: CO three to one assigned the unit to the sector
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  Speaker 1: and the perimeter recently vacated by able company of one
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  Speaker 1: to one. The celebration of the one hundred seventy fifth
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  Speaker 1: birthday of the U. S Marine Corps was not neglected
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  Speaker 1: at Majohn Knee. Somehow, the cooks managed to bake up
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  Speaker 1: prodigious cake with thinly spread jams serving as frosting, and
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  Speaker 1: all hands were rotated a few at a time to
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  Speaker 1: their company cps to receive a slice. That afternoon, in
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  Speaker 1: oy of VMO six spotted an estimated three hundred enemy
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  Speaker 1: true about four miles west of madjohn Nie. Under direction
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  Speaker 1: of aerial observers, Captain Stromaninger's howitzers broke up this concentration.
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  Speaker 1: The CIC team warned that another attack on the perimeter
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  Speaker 1: by the forty fifth kPa regiment would take place on
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  Speaker 1: the night of eleven to twelve November. As a prelude,
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  Speaker 1: General Pak made an effort to terrorize inhabitants who had
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  Speaker 1: kept the team informed of his plans and movements. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the villagers took his threat seriously enough to prepare
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  Speaker 1: for a hurried leave taking, but the Civil Affairs Section
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  Speaker 1: reassured them and put a curfew into effect. After such
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  Speaker 1: a menacing build up, the second attack on the perimeter
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  Speaker 1: fizzled out like a damp firecracker. A few probing jabs
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  Speaker 1: beginning at zero one thirty, were followed by a weak
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  Speaker 1: main assault on the km seafront, which was easily repulsed.
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  Speaker 1: The enemy tried again to overrun the ope, but gave
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  Speaker 1: up the attempt after stumbling into a field of bouncing
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  Speaker 1: bedades At zero six hundred. The last action of the
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  Speaker 1: majohan Nie operation came to an end as the communist withdrew.
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  Speaker 1: Friendly losses were two men killed and six wounded. This
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  Speaker 1: was the final appearance of the fifteenth and kPa Division,
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  Speaker 1: which apparently abandoned majohan Nie as an objective and transferred
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  Speaker 1: it to guerrilla operations southward along the Imjim Valley. The
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  Speaker 1: relief of the Marines in kmcs On position began the
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  Speaker 1: next afternoon as elements of the first Battalion, fifteenth Infantry
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  Speaker 1: US third Infantry Division arrived to take over the perimeter.
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  Speaker 1: The army column, including thirty four marine supply vehicles, had
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  Speaker 1: moved out from Wansan at ten thirty the day before,
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  Speaker 1: although two to one less dog company had maintained its
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  Speaker 1: blocking positions at munchan Nie. The convoy was stopped a
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  Speaker 1: few miles beyond the marine outposts by a wrecked bridge
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  Speaker 1: and three large craters. Rillas poured in small arms fire
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  Speaker 1: from the high ground, which resulted in two soldiers being
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  Speaker 1: killed and four wounded. Two marine trucks and a jeep
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  Speaker 1: were destroyed, extensive repairs to the road being needed. Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Robert M. Blanchard, the commanding officer of one point fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: formed a defensive perimeter for the night. The column reached
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  Speaker 1: majohn Nie without further incident at fifteen thirty on the thirteenth,
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  Speaker 1: Following relief by the army unit. The Marine Battalion departed
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  Speaker 1: at ten fifteen on the fourteenth by truck for the
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  Speaker 1: Wansan area. A total of one thousand, three hundred ninety
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  Speaker 1: five prisoners had been taken during the seventeen days of
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  Speaker 1: majohn Nie, a large proportion of them voluntary and more
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  Speaker 1: than four thousand Korean transient screened. Enemy. Battle casualties were
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  Speaker 1: estimated at five hundred twenty five killed and an unknown
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  Speaker 1: number wounded. Losses of the Marine Battalion numbered sixty five
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  Speaker 1: sixteen KIA four ds in forty five WIA. Non battle
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  Speaker 1: casualties were remarkably low owing to strict enforcement of sanitary
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  Speaker 1: and health regulations. The vulnerability of a tenuous MSR must
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  Speaker 1: be taken into account, and casualties of nine killed and
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  Speaker 1: eighty one wounded or injured were incurred by Marines escorting
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  Speaker 1: supply convoys through ambush alley movement of first Marines to
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  Speaker 1: Chigyong from the first Marines in the Wansan area to
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  Speaker 1: the seventh Marines leading the northward advance. A distance of
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  Speaker 1: more than one hundred and thirty road miles separated the
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  Speaker 1: elements of the First Marine Division, but the arrival of
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  Speaker 1: more US Army units made possible a first step toward concentration.
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  Speaker 1: On twenty nine October, the seventeenth our CT of the
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  Speaker 1: seventh Infantry Division had begun, landing at Ewan, about sixty
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  Speaker 1: air miles northeast of Hungnam. Other units and reinforcing elements
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  Speaker 1: followed until all had comple on loading by eight November.
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  Speaker 1: A total of twenty eight THOY nine hundred ninety five troops,
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  Speaker 1: five nine hundred twenty four vehicles, and thirty thoy sixteen
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  Speaker 1: short tons of cargo transports had been sent by CTF
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  Speaker 1: ninety on thirty one October to Moji, Japan for the
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  Speaker 1: first units of the third Infantry Division. The sixty fifth
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  Speaker 1: RCT landed at Wanson on five November, but it was
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  Speaker 1: not until the eighteenth that the last elements arrived. All
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  Speaker 1: four of the major units of ten Corps the two
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  Speaker 1: Army Divisions, as well as the First Marine Division and
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  Speaker 1: one Rock Corps, were then in the zone of operations.
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  Speaker 1: Even though dispersed over a wide area, the commanding generals
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  Speaker 1: of both army units were old China hands. Major General
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  Speaker 1: Robert H. Sol CG. Third Infantry Division had been US
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  Speaker 1: military attache and nationalist China during the last months of
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  Speaker 1: the Civil War. During this same period, General David G.
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  Speaker 1: Barr CG, seventh Infantry Division was senior officer of the
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  Speaker 1: United States Military Advisory Group in China. On thirty one October,
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  Speaker 1: by order of kamnav Fee, JTF seven had been dissolved
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  Speaker 1: and the TG ninety five point two Support and Covering
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  Speaker 1: Group passed to the operational control of CTF ninety Admiral Doyle.
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  Speaker 1: As the center of gravity of ten Corps gradually shifted
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  Speaker 1: to the north, General Allman moved his advanced CP from
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  Speaker 1: Juansan to Hamhung onto November and the remainder of his
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  Speaker 1: headquarters on the tenth. He was joined four days later
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  Speaker 1: by Admiral Doyle and his staff as the Mam McKinley
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  Speaker 1: anchored off hung Nam. The First Marine Division CP had
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  Speaker 1: displaced from Juansan to hung Nam on four November as
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  Speaker 1: the fifth and seventh Marines carried out assignments in the north.
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  Speaker 1: This movement included two five which had been under the
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  Speaker 1: operational control of the First Marines for patrolling missions in
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  Speaker 1: the Wansana. Not until a week later was General Smith
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  Speaker 1: able to plan the northward advance of Colonel Poeller's regiment.
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  Speaker 1: On the twelfth, Ten Corps Operation Order six directed the
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  Speaker 1: third Infantry Division to relieve elements of the First Marines.
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  Speaker 1: The mission of the Army division was to protect the
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  Speaker 1: left flank of Tencorps and prepare for in advance to
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  Speaker 1: the west. For a time it had appeared that one
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  Speaker 1: to one, which had the responsibility for security in the
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  Speaker 1: Wansan area after its return from Kojo, might be sent
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  Speaker 1: to chong Jin, two hundred and twenty air miles northeast
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  Speaker 1: of wan San. In accordance with ten Corps I thirteen
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  Speaker 1: of twenty five October, this battalion was designated for the
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  Speaker 1: mission in firs MARDV Operation Order ten DASH fifty issued
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  Speaker 1: on five November, but four days later ten Corps canceled
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  Speaker 1: this requirement. Before departing the Wanson area, Polar's headquarters had
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  Speaker 1: another false alarm small craft sighted by air on eight November,
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  Speaker 1: and two mysterious explosions led to the report that five
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  Speaker 1: hundred to one thousand enemy boats were attempting an amphibious
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  Speaker 1: landing ten miles north of Juan San. An armored patrol
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  Speaker 1: of Company C, first Tank Battalion was sent to investigate,
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  Speaker 1: but reported no contact. Ten Corps directed that upon the
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  Speaker 1: relief of the Marines by the third Infantry Division, the
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  Speaker 1: third and fifth KMC Battalions, which had been under the
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  Speaker 1: operational control of RCT IE, would then be attached to
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  Speaker 1: the army unit. After lack of transport imposed a delay
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  Speaker 1: of two days, one to one initiated the northward movement
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  Speaker 1: of RCT one by rail enclosed Chigyon, eight miles southwest
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  Speaker 1: of hamhung by eighteen twenty fourteen November. A motor convoy followed.
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  Speaker 1: Relief of two to one minus, which had been holding
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  Speaker 1: screening and blocking positions on Ambush Alley, was completed on
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  Speaker 1: the fifteenth by the third Battalion of the fifteenth Infantry
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  Speaker 1: Other army elements relieved Dog Company in the rear area
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  Speaker 1: near Wansan on the sixteenth. Two to one moved by
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  Speaker 1: rail to Chigyon, followed by three to one, and the
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  Speaker 1: last elements of RCT won the next day. Thus, the
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  Speaker 1: first Marine Division achieved a relative and temporary degree of concentration.
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  Speaker 1: The farthest distance between components had been reduced from one
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  Speaker 1: hundred thirty to less than sixty miles by the middle
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  Speaker 1: of November, but a new dispersion of units was already
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  Speaker 1: in progress. End of Chapter four, Part two read by
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Bennett,