12/2/1950 - China comes in! Just after Thanksgiving, during General Douglas MacArthur push through Northern Korea to the Yalu River, one of the greatest battles in United States Marine Corps history begins ... a winter epic of outnumbered, surrounded Americans enduring days and nights of attacks in sub-zero weather begins on a small pass guarding the one road providing access into and out of the Chosin Reservoir region (an artificial lake created by the damming of the Changjin River) called Toktong (a 4,000 foot elevated spot on maps that will soon become Fox Hill in Marine Corps lore ... and be called many other things by the Marines that fight there, Cold Ass Heights being the least profane).
Part of X Corps that has successfully come ashore at Inchon, North Korea and turned the war around, the 246 Marines of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines are part of the 1st Marine Division (23,608 warriors strong, the force also includes Navy corpsmen and the support of the 1st Marine Air Wing) making its way north towards where Korea becomes communist China in what the big shots back in Japan believe is just a mop-up of the enemy. Their commander though, Major General O. (Oliver) P. (Prince) "The Professor" Smith (a 1916 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley), a fighter up through the ranks from 2nd lieutenant to general with a combat resume that includes WWII Pacific battles of Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Peleliu, and Okinawa, before guiding his men ashore at Inchon, doesn't care for the situation he and his men have been placed in ... advancing in horrendous winter conditions (snow and temperatures of -30 to -40 degrees below zero (it will turn out to be the coldest winter for the region in 100 years), so cold that carbines freeze solid, gun oil turns to glue, and men urinate on their weapons to thaw them before use) along a single mountain road 78 miles from the sea (in some places a single one lane gravel trail), with both his left and right flanks grounded on a seemingly empty frozen nothingness of snow covered hills, trees, and brush, in a locale where nightfall comes early and the darkness lasts 16 hours. With rumors of China entering the war echoing in his mind, General Smith moves his men forward as slowly as is possible without being brought up on insubordination charges (his immediate superior is U.S. Army General and MacArthur crony, Edward Mallory "Ned" Almond, a man Smith loathes), establishing supply points along the way north and having an airfield built at small village of Hagaru-ri. Assigned to protect the road and one of its major choke points midway between the 14 miles separating Marine forces at Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri is the Fox Company command of recently arrived Captain William E. Barber (a former teacher and experienced Marine twice wounded on Iwo Jima winning two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star for advancing into enemy territory and rescuing two wounded Marines). Barber's orders are to hold the pass at all costs and he has his three platoons of men form a defensive perimeter in the shape of a wide horseshoe on a hill overlooking the pass with the lines' ends anchored to the road near a pair of abandoned shacks (Barber places his command post, aid station, and mortar section nearby).
Smith
Barber
Hiding by day in caves, mine shafts, draws, and huts and advancing by night, waiting to attack the Marines are 120,000 soldiers of the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) of China, under the command of 43-year-old General Song Shilun, a veteran of Mao Zedong's Long March and resisting the Japanese during WWII, known for his bravery and bad temper, a leader of men since he joined the army at the age of 17. Outfitted in heavy quilted cotton, mustard colored uniforms (reversed they are white and blend in with the snow) over their summer dress, carrying rifles, bayonets, grenades, mortars, and five days of food wrapped in a cloth roll looped over the shoulder, wearing thick cotton caps with large earflaps and a neckpiece, clad in rubber or canvas sneakers worn over layers of cotton socks, a mix of rookie teenagers and veterans that have fought war lords, Chinese nationalists of Chiang Kai-Shek, and Imperial Japanese troops, their orders are brutally simple ... encircle and annihilate the 1st Marine Division of the United States of America.
Shilun
Attacking Chinese
At the ready as darkness falls (50% of the men are awake and on watch, while the other half of the men try to sleep), at around 2:00 in the evening, just after a deer runs into the Marines' perimeter, to the sound of bugles, whistles, cymbals and chants of "Marines you die," dressed in white, the Chinese hit the Marines defending Toktong Pass (earlier, at around 10:00 in the evening Yudam-ni is hit by the Chinese for the first time), and the men of Fox Company answer with bullets from pistols, rifles, BARs, and machine guns, along with exploding mortar rounds. One of the men sleeping (while his friend and fox hole partner, PFC Ken Benson, is on watch) right in the path of the PVA is the 6'4" giant son of a Peruvian migrant and a New Jersey wife, 20-year-old former semi-pro football player, PFC Hector Albert Cafferata Jr., a recently arrived Fox Company replacement. Awake in an instant and out of his sleeping bag, Cafferata displays the marksmanship skills he developed as a nine-year-old putting food on the table for his Depression poor family in New Jersey, dropping PVA soldiers to his front, left, right, and then behind his position (as Benson curses at his jammed BAR while trying to clear. Confronted by the giant, the Chinese turn on Cafferata, allowing other Marines to blunt the first assault on their position, but the attacks keep coming ... for over four hours. Weapons empty or non-functioning, as Barber pulls back his CP and mortars, Cafferata and Benson jump into a trench full of dead or wounded Marines, and grab new weapons and begin firing again, all the while also battling grenades and satchel charges that come at their position (Cafferata will have his pinkie finger wounded by an exploding grenade and Benso will be blinded when a live grenade he has picked up and thrown back at the Chinese explodes at it leaves his hand). Making routine out of chaos, Benson loads rifles by touch and hands them to his buddy for firing, and when movement is necessary he follows Cafferata by holding on to the Marines' foot. Standing in full view again, Cafferata fires at the enemy using the three rifles Benson supplies, and also knocks at least a dozen grenades out of the air using an entrenching tool (he will later confess to not being a very good batter until his night on Toktong Pass). Attacks tapering off as dawn approaches, Cafferata's memorable fight comes to an end just after he kills a wounded PVA soldier feigning death who throws a grenade at the young PFC (by this time Benson has been moved to the hospital tent). Turning to return to his line, Cafferata is struck in the right arm by a round from a Chinese machine gun that severs a nerve. Dropping to the ground, Cafferata waves off a Marine who begins to come out of his foxhole to retrieve his wounded comrade, makes a sling for his arm out of a bandoleer using his teeth, and stumbles back into the Marine perimeter and is taken to the hospital tent ... where it is discovered that almost entirely by himself, he has blunted the PVA's attempts to take the center of the Fox Company line (there are over 125 dead Chinese scattered about in front of the line Cafferata was protecting) without his coat on and in his bare feet, which have turned blue (he will survive being shot in the arm and chest, his grenade wounds, and the frostbite, but will need hospitalization for eighteen months, and will endure surgeries in Japan, Hawaii, California, Texas, and New York ... he will never be able to eat or write with his right hand, but he does teach himself how to pull the trigger on a gun and after the war enjoys years of fishing and hunting ... for his actions on Fox Hill he is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by Harry Truman on November 24, 1952 ... until the end of his life at 86 in 2016, he also tries to have the Silver Star Benson wins for his help in the fight, upgraded to a Medal of Honor).
Cafferata With Medal Of Honor
Benson With Glasses
Defending The Line
Morning brings the protection of aerial operations over the threatened pass (the air support is commanded by Major General Field Harris of the First Marine Air Wing ... on 11/28 there are rockets and napalm dropped on the Chinese from upgraded WWII Corsairs, machine guns, cannon fire and rockets from four Australian piloted P-51 Mustangs, and parachute supply drops of ammo, grenades, and fresh batteries for the company's radios), along with artillery shells sent on to the hills around Toktong by batteries at the 1st Division's headquarters in Hagaru-ri. And also protection in the leadership displayed by Captain Barber who moves his men about on Fox Hill, shoring up weak spots on the line and changing the positioning on the location of machine guns and mortars that the Chinese might have mapped the previous evening. While the men change socks where possible and chow down on Tootsie-Roll candies (the sweets become a favorite of the Marines that fight in Korea), Barber also allows his Marines the ability to improvise in relation to their defenses ... noticing the enemy stop to shoot up spots where Marines are sleeping during previous attacks, Fox Company fills unused bags with snow and forms them into circles thirty yards down the hill, circles that are covered by Marine guns ready to fire on any PVA troops taking the time to fire on the sleeping bags and then rifle the corpses they find inside (which is exactly what happens when the next PVA assault is launched, the idea comes by way of wounded PFC Benson, who having regained his sight, is back in the fight), frozen dead Chinese bodies are stacked into protective walls, tracers are removed from the ammo to not give away Marine positions, captured Chinese whistles are used to route the PVA into strong points, use supply drop silk parachutes for camouflage (they are white) and warmth, and because of the cold, to insure their viability as explosives, the Marines don't pull the pin and then throw, but instead manually open the arming mechanism and wait a moment before launching them at the Chinese. And unknown to the men at Toktong, they receive protection in the form of a leader willing to challenge orders of men not on the scene. Receiving orders to bring his men off the hill to go to the relief of the hard hit Cook Company (also protecting the road from the mountains overlooking Yudam-ni), knowing he will be unable to bring out his dead (20 thus far, while the Chinese have lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 soldiers) and wounded (54 after the first night), and that exposed, his men might be slaughtered, Barber convinces Colonel Homer Laurence "Blitzin' Litzen" Litzenberg Jr. (in command of the Seventh Regiment at Yudam-ni, a veteran of actions during WWII at Roi-Namur and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, at the battles for Saipan and Tinian, and in the Korea War, the Marine landings at Inchon) that his men will be better off if they stay in their positions and continue their defense of Fox Hill. As the area is dumped on by two more feet of snow, the Marines wait in their holes for the next round of assaults in a defensive perimeter that now resembles a squashed football losing its air, with one can of sterno issued to each foxhole for the evening's festivities (they each have a maximum life of thirty minutes).
Harris
Pounding The Chinese
Litzenberg
Somewhat of a repeat of the attacks of the first night, lots of whistles, cymbals, bugles, and chanting Chinese (once again on the theme of all the Americans they are going to massacre) swarming the Marine lines, on the second night of combat the Marine fighting efficiency is improved by the illumination shells from Hagaru-ri that have been air dropped to PFC Lloyd O'Leary, in charge of Fox Company's mortar section after Lieutenant Joe Brady and Gunnery Sergeant Philips both become casualties on night one of the battle (along with two other mortarmen being killed and two others also being wounded). Moving about the perimeter again as he did on the first night, Barber is finally found by Chinese bullet that take out his leg and lodges in his pelvis ... but does not stop the captain. Receiving a minimum of medical attention, refusing morphine, in considerable pain, Barber limps about his command either leaning on a fellow Marine or using an improvised crutch (later in the battle, he will be carried from hot spot to hot spot on a stretcher ... when he finally comes off Fox Hill, he will spend three months hospitalized for his injuries). Another long evening of varied assaults, when the light of dawn breaks on Tuesday, despite Fox Company having another 5 men killed and 29 more wounded Leathernecks for the corpsmen to deal with (not helping matters, the blood plasma supply at the hospital tent becomes frozen and morphine syrettes have to be thawed out in medical personnel's mouths before they can be injected into the wounded), Fox Hill, guarding Toktong Pass still belongs to members of the U.S. Marine Corps ... barely.
Air Support
Elements of the X Corps surrounded at Yudam-ni, Sinhung-ni, Hagaru-ri, and Koto-ri,
the U.S. Eighth Army retreating from northwest Korea after the Chinese victory at the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River, the decision is made to withdraw the 1st Marines from the Chosin Reservoir ... a decision that will force the isolated elements of the command to come together, move down the single supply road out of the mountains, and board U.N. ships at the port of Hungnam so that the Marines might fight again once the division has been refitted with replacement grunts and new equipment (thought impossible at the time, the division already thought lost back in the states, the movement will be compared to the epic march to the sea of Xenophon's 10,000 surrounded Greeks in 401 BC, while General Smith will state when questioned by newspapermen about the Marines have never before retreated, "Retreat Hell. We're just attacking in another direction." Asked by a newsman what he wants for Christmas, one Marine will give an answer for himself and all his companions, "Just give me tomorrow."). For the plan to have any kind of a chance at succeeding though, Toktong Pass must be held, a dicey proposition considering two attempts to reach the men on Fox Hill from Yudam-ni fail, the area remains full of Chinese, and Barber is now down to about ninety effectives. Daylight and supplies are dropped on the Marine position again, the defensive perimeter is reinforced, and individual fights between Marines and Chinese snipers take place until night comes again. Assaulted again repeatedly through the dark hours, the Marines hunker down in their fox holes and trenches, and fire on anything moving above ground, and by their fingernails, hold on to Fox Hill.
Xenophon And His Men Make The Sea
Daylight operations at Fox Hill conclude on the fourth day of battle with a small Marine observation plane dropping grenades on the Chinese before it flies away to Hagaru-ri. Prepping for their evening operations, from a ridge to the west of the Marines, four Chinese machine guns open up on Barber's men, prompting his artillery observer, Lt. Don Campbell, to contact How Battery in Hagaru-ri and request suppressive fire on the targets (as PFC O'Leary fires illumination mortars so the fire result can be evaluated). Coordinates sent, "Fire!" Campbell shouts over the phone and four shells head off for Toktong Pass ... and in the dark of night, from seven miles away, the rounds score a direct hit, silencing all four machine guns. A demoralizing hit, with the exception of dueling with a handful of restless snipers, the Marines spend the last night of November in relative quiet.
Observation Plane
Marine Artillery
The fighting withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir begins on the first day of December, 1950, with another attempt to break through to Fox Company ... this time by the Marines of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, commanded by 35-year-old Naval Cross WWII veteran (for actions during the invasion of Peleliu), Lt. Colonel Raymond Gilbert "Ray" Davis. Seeking to surprise the Chinese by not moving along the road up to the Toktong Pass, after dusk and a full day of fighting near Yudam-ni, Davis' command sets off at 8:00 in the evening on a cross-country, single file slog (with flankers twenty yards to either side of the column) that has them climb and descend over five miles of peaks and ridges in a cold dark that will register 24 degrees below zero before morning arrives, breaking trail in knee deep snow, while carrying two heavy mortars, six machine guns, and litters for the ammunition ... along with their regular gear, each man of the relief force also hauls over one hundred pounds of other necessities that include an extra mortar round and extra bandoleer of ammunition, four days of rations (mostly in the form of cans of fruit), and sleeping bags. Keeping his men headed in the right direction (it is a battle all the way to keep the men moving and not have them collapse into the snow), Davis breaks frequently to consult his compass by flashlight under a poncho, and once spends an hour moving to the head of the column (his radio is not working and it is so cold and the men are so tired that the change direction message becomes gibberish or is forgotten after being passed on by only a few men) to prevent his men from marching into an area where they can come under friendly fire. And there are Chinese to battle too, especially a group of warriors trying to block the high ground of Hill 1520 as the command sets up a perimeter there at 3:00 in the morning to wait until dawn to make its final 3,000 yard push to Fox Hill (screaming at the depth of the ordeal they have endured, two men will go insane while waiting for daybreak, both men will die from exposure to the elements). An hour after dawn, replenished minimally with a couple hours of sleep and a breakfast of fruit and dry biscuits, the column attacks east up the rocky lower knobs of Hill 1653, throwing the Chinese from its heights. Fox Hill finally in view only 600 yards away, Davis keeps goading his men forward and is rewarded with cries that Fox Company has been contacted, with Captain Barber asking if he should send help out to bring Davis' command into the Fox Hill perimeter (for his leadership during the overland march, Davis will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor) ... the rescued offering to help the rescuer. No help needed, while Corsairs overhead provide support, the Ridgerunners (the unit will become proudly known by that moniker after their epic winter walk) move over a saddle leading to Fox Hill that is covered with hundreds of Chinese corpses, and arrive at Fox Hill at 11:25 on the morning of December 2, 1950 (two hours later the entire command is within Captain Barber's perimeter). Captain Barber and his gritty Marines have carried out their orders and Toktong Pass has been held (at a cost of 26 killed, 3 missing, and 89 wounded, about half of the company, the Marines of Fox Hill destroy almost an entire regiment of Chinese, more than 3,000 soldiers out of a command of 5,000 over five nights of combat)!
Davis Wearing His Medal
Chosin Marine
Off The Hill
But the ordeal of Fox Company is not quite over, for along with the other soldiers of the 1st Marine Division, Barber's command must now march to the sea for extraction from northern Korea (only 82 men will be able to walk off Fox Hill under their own power). Staying in their foxholes while Davis' men push the Chinese off the ridges surrounding Toktong Pass, the two units come down out of the hills and become part of the march out of Chosin (appropriately, Cafferata is the last man off the mountain, carried down to a road on a stretcher). First stop Hagaru-ri (14 miles from Yudam-ni), the Marines enter the village singing the Marine Corps Anthem, just so the Chinese know they might be leaving, but have not been defeated (the last flight out of Hagaru-ri carries the much wounded PFC Benson to medical attention at Hungnam ... it takes the men from Yudam-ni 79 hours to make Hararu-ri). Attacking up ridges, assaulting manned road blocks, calling in air strikes, fighting Chinese and the freezing weather, the 1st Marine Division battles south, passing through "Hell Fire Valley," the village of Koto-ri, (11 miles down the road), tear into the PVA attempting to block Funchilin Pass, take a strategic blocking position called "The Big Hill," have bridge materials dropped from the sky and then replace the blown portion of the road at a high pumping station for waters of the Chosin three miles from Koto-ri (never done before, eight separate 18-foot pieces of bridge weighing 2,900 pounds each are dropped to the Marines using eight C-119 Flying Boxcars and 48-foot parachutes). Finally out of the mountains of northern Korea, all the while growing stronger as more and more units fold into the withdrawal, General Smith's men make Chinghung-ni, fight off a last Chinese ambush at Sudong, and enter the port of Hungnam on December 11, 1950 from which they will be evacuated (called the "Miracle of Christmas" by some historians, the exodus from the port uses a 193-ship armada that carries out the U.N. troops of X Corps (105,000 men) and its equipment (over 173 vehicles), that also rescues 86,000 refugees ... the last ship leaving the area as the port facilities are blown on Christmas Eve.).
Chosin Withdrawal
Goodbye
Extracted to fight again, the epic 17-day battle of the 1st Marine Division (many historians consider it the most brutal battle in modern warfare) against 120,00 Chinese nets the men of X Corps seventeen Congressional Medals of Honor (and 78 Service Cross medals, along with all the members of the division receiving a Presidential Unit Citation ... as of 2020, the second most honors for American arms awarded since the 1944 Battle of the Bulge) at a cost of 10,495 casualties (4,385 are Marines, and the number is 17,833 when frostbite cases are included). But it also cements the U.N. warriors into a lasting place of military honor for all-time ... attacking in a different direction in a horrific winter against soldiers that outnumber them 10-1, the "Chosin Few" have so decimated the ten to twelve divisions of PVA 9th Army that it is put out of action until March of 1951, leaving almost 50,000 of General Shilun's soldiers casualties of their encounter with the United States Marines. And out of action, General Shilun's troops can not help eliminate the 8th Army to the west ... and so the Korean War enter a new phase of back-and-forth battles that maintain a stalemate that will not end until July of 1953.
Chosin - Winter Of 1950
Marine
Over The Span
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