Should Be Soldiers

In spite of the shelling, we were able to care for them and send them out on litter jeeps to Collecting during the temporary breaks in the mortar fire. We were lucky in the aid station, since because we were closer to the side of the hill, we had far less mortar come in and hence, fewer casualties as compared to the rest of the area. The Heavy Weapons company soon lost all of their mortars. We had no idea of what was going on beyond our immediate area, but we knew that we were getting into very deep trouble.

Around 0330 the colonel ordered us to retreat back to a little village behind hill masses to our rear, leaving everything behind but what we could carry. The last functioning radio in the CP had been knocked out. The two tanks moved back a little way into the battalion CP area so they could provide cover for the men who were retreating back down the foot paths on both sides of the hill by firing over their heads. Many of those still unhurt seemed almost frightened out of their wits by the horrors they had been facing.

 We had a terrible time getting organized to move out because of all the wounded we were holding. One big problem was that several vehicles wouldn’t start because they were so cold. The tanks became our only defense, which was helped when the Chinese, pursuing the remnants of the company, for some reason chose to form two columns as they pursued the fleeing GIs, one coming down each of the foot paths on the two sides of the hill. The tank’ gunners then had great targets, and the Chinese melted away after many were eliminated. After that, we used the tanks to carry the more severely wounded, which worked out well since on the back decks of the tanks, where the engine radiators were, it was a lot warmer.

We were then able to move back virtually unmolested about a mile to take up our new positions in the little village. We were all too well aware that there would be only a temporary lull since there were a lot more Chinese out there that we knew were ready to come down on us.

Also that night, our regimental CP area was hit, probably by Chinese that had gotten around behind it. Nearby were two artillery outfits, and between their people and those from the CP, they beat off the Chinese, killing over a hundred of them in the process.

We had little information about what the big picture was, but it was painfully evident to every one of us that things were going badly indeed. We all knew that we had only possible escape route, and that was to the east by the road to Kujangdong, no north-south roads being available, and that there were already reports of fighting  near that road. The situation was made much worse by problems with poor parts supply for repairing our vehicles, to the extent that many had to be abandoned because they couldn’t be fixed.  And then, we learned that it was definite that the ROKs had been decisively pushed out of Tokchon, leaving our right flank wide open, and that the Chinese had indeed been pouring through the breech. Indeed, we had now become the right flank of all the army units, and the Chinese threatened to encircle us.

The next morning, we were able to go back to our previous bivouac area, and found our equipment virtually unmolested. The company that had been pushed off the hill in front of us had gathered up as many of its survivors of the previous nights’ fighting as they could, and went back up into their former positions, to find everything pretty much as they left if before they were forced to retreat. However, a hot firefight broke out again that day, and we had to decamp to another location further to the west where our battalion was setting up a blocking position. We were getting in many casualties from our line companies, and knew that our people were systematically being driven back from every position they tried to occupy. We also kept getting scraps of information about other nearby regiments having the same problems and were also being driven back.