This sudden outbreak of firing in front of the 1st Platoon left the 3rd Platoon uncertain and confused as to its source. They held their fire, while their platoon leader, 1st Lt. Clinton Jackson, ran toward the artillery observation post to find out what was happening. King told Jackson that Chinese had arrived in front of him. Jackson replied that he would go back to bring up a machine gun, place automatic fire from it on the enemy in front of King, and then King and his group were to withdraw from it to the company line in their rear. By now enemy fire from another direction, on the other side of the hill, fell in the I. Company CP.
In this envelopment of L Company, there had been no blowing of whistles, bugles, or shepherd's horns and no firing of flares or similar communication signals and orders that often accompanied an impending Chinese attack at night. There was no need for them here. The squad fires had given the Chinese all the intelligence of the position they needed. The Chinese had by then just about surrounded it and were looking for the easiest gradient approach to the top. They found it-a long but gradual incline from the southwest.
Before any attack took place, Lieutenant Takahashi of the 2nd Platoon had returned to his platoon after talking with Vail. He started to extinguish the warming fires. He passed the word from platoon to platoon to do this at once. In carrying out this order, several times men moved directly into their glare. For the moment the Chinese held their fire at these individual targets. They had other plans. But one big fire could not be extinguished because of heavy enemy fire from Chinese when anyone was silhouetted by the firelight.
Takahashi's 2nd Platoon position at the southwest end of the company position was in the path of the easy gradient to the top. There the main enemy attack occurred. Takahashi went along the foxholes to examine them, and at the last, foremost one, he stood listening. He heard nothing. Suddenly, from only a few yards away a voice called out, "Hey there!" Takahashi answered, "Are you from K Company? If you don't answer, I will fire." An enemy burp gun from only a few yards away fired at him-and missed. Takahashi hit the ground. His men behind him opened fire. From a distance of about 200 yards, enemy rifle and automatic fire opened on the hill along a line of perhaps 400 yards long-the enemy had formed a curved line clear around the left flank of the hill and into the rear of the 2nd Platoon. The initial Chinese fire went high and did no damage. After a short time, Chinese soldiers in this line got to their fcct and started toward the ridge, firing as they came. In the meantime, the group in the artillery observation outpost, covered by the machine gun that Lieutenant Jackson brought forward, successfully pulled back to the main defense line just as the Chinese started up the hill.
Takahashi, seeing the strong enemy force heading for his platoon, asked for reinforcement from the 1st Platoon. By now Vail's CP was receiving fire from below it on the reverse slope, and he moved some of the 1st Platoon to help defend it. Takahashi did not receive the reinforcements he had requested. The advancing Chinese skirmishers were now within 100 yards of Takahashi's line. At this point, Takahashi learned that his forward machine-gun crew was nearly wiped out and that the gun was nearly out of ammunition. He ordered Sergeant Cross, on the gun, and others in the front holes near it to fall back on him. This order started a withdrawal from the western knob of the ridge. The Chinese then quickened their advance on it, and Cross and others with him became intermingled with some of the leading Chinese riflemen. A melee occurred in which rifle butts and rocks were used against these Chinese. A few members of the 2nd Platoon grouped around Takahashi, and they momentarily succeeded in stopping the foremost Chinese skirmishers, now about 20 feet away, where they took cover among rocks.
Suddenly and for no apparent reason, the local enemy commander decided on different tactics. Two purple flares lit the sky, apparently a signal for the submachine gunners and riflemen to pull back and to let grenade throwers take the lead. A grenade attack now hit L Company. That company did not have a single grenade with which to counter this enemy attack, and it had to waste a diminishing supply of small-arms ammunition to reply at all. Several Chinese got to within ten feet of Takahashi's small party and lobbed grenades into it, wounding two men. Just moments after this grenade strike, everyone on the hill heard a shout from Vail's CP area, "The captain's hit!" Two bullets had struck him in the shoulder and arm. Lieutenant Jackson, with the 3rd Platoon on the east end of the line, had also been wounded.
Takahashi was now being pushed back on this platoon, where about 20 men remained. The Chinese had virtually overrun the hill, partly because American survivors on the east end had taken off with or without orders, singly or in groups of two or three.
The Chinese now let loose with a great blowing of whistles, and everywhere, it seemed, Chinese soldiers rose to their feet and walked toward the crest. The shouts of Vail, Jackson, and Takahashi did no good-the surviving men ran off seeking individual safety. Many of them were killed or captured as they tried to escape. L Company was finished as a fighting force. Some survivors escaped to friendly lines at the Chongchon Rivers
Lieutenant Takahashi, the American Nisei who had led and directed most of the fighting in L Company, was captured on the hill. Eight Chinese soldiers seized him. His captors took him to a Chinese battalion CP. After some discussion there among the Chinese, Takahashi and another prisoner, First Sergeant Sims, were led off by two Chinese burp gunners who received instructions from a Chinese officer. Both men felt they were going to be shot. Some distance down the trail they were following, they made a break. Bullets from the guard behind him ripped Takahashi's sleeve as he went into a roll over the hillside. He escaped to tell his story.
I Company of the 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry, was untouched during the night. It held a position just inside the western side of the 2nd Division boundary on the extreme left of the 9th Infantry sector, about one and a half air miles due west of L Company's position. Such was the topography of jumbled hills and ravines and its distance south of Dry Creek that it escaped all contact with Chinese that night.
Companies F, G, and H of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry, were due west of Sinhung-dong, on the opposite (west) side of the Chongchon River during the night of 25 November. They had crossed to the west side of the river during the morning at a ford just north of Sinhung-dong. They went into positions on the south slope of big, round Hill 180, about a mile from the river and about the same distance north of the mouth of Dry Creek. A platoon of tanks and two quad-50s accompanied them. F Company was on the southeast base of Hill 180, nearest the river and their crossing point; G Company was on the southwest base of the hill; and H Company was south of the other two, centered between them. The tanks and the quad-50s were near the river east of H Company and could fire up and down both the river and the dry creek bed.
The big Chinese column that dogtrotted down the dry creek bed on the evening of 25 November did not know of their presence. Nor did the 2nd Battalion troops on and below Hill 180 know that this large Chinese force had passed just south of them.
During the day of 25 November, the 2nd Battalion on Hill 180 and at its base, west of the Chongchon, had been disturbed only by some enemy mortar fire from Hill 219 across the river and another enemy-occupied hill east of Hill 219. This fire fell on the Chongchon River ford leading to the 2nd Battalion position. To some degree it harassed, and in some instances stopped, supply vehicles from reaching the 2nd Battalion. Also, some of the mortar shells fell in F Company's position and killed two men during the day.
Maj. Cesibes V. Barberis, commander of the 2nd Battalion, did not accompany the bulk of his battalion to Hill 180 on the west side of the river on the morning of 25 November. He remained with his CP and E Company of his battalion on the cast side of the Chongchon. His CP was just south of Hill 329, Chinaman's Hat. E Company stopped behind B Company of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry. When B Company attacked Hill 219 that morning, where it fought fruitlessly all day, E Company was on a hill southeast of it, less than a mile away. But during daylight of 25 November it was not engaged wi
th the enemy.
Lieutenant Colonel Wolff, commander of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, was not seriously concerned during 25 November when his B Company failed to secure Hill 219. But Col. Charles C. Sloane, the 9th Infantry Regimental commander, did not share his battalion commander's complacency. He insisted that the 1st Battalion's other companies, A, C, and D, be brought up behind B Company and faced to the northeast. Sloane thought this might be the place a heavy battle could begin. During the day, however, only B Company of his regiment was heavily engaged.
Prisoner information collected later indicates that all three regiments of the CCF 120th Division crossed the Chongchon River after dark of 25 November. At least one regiment crossed at or near the mouth of Dry Creek; another crossed below it and between Chinaman's Hat and Kujang-dong. Upon departing from its Unsan assembly areas, the entire division followed trails that led to Dry Creek some miles from the Chongchon and then followed the dry bed of that stream the rest of the way to the river, crossed it, and large parts of the division subsequently drove straight on to the southeast. At least one regiment fought a series of disjointed battles in the Hill 219, Sinhung-dong, and Chinaman's Hat areas during the night of 25-26 November. One of the enemy groups overran the 2nd Battalion's CP just south of Chinaman's Hat about midnight. Two or three hours later a strong Chinese attack struck south in the Hill 219 area, engaging the surviving parts of B Company and striking E Company, 2nd Battalion, on its hill position nearby on the north side of the Paengnyong-gang.
At dark on the evening of 25 November, remnants of B Company had con solidated for the night at the middle knob of Hill 219 and at the mortar position of the Weapons Company platoon near the southern end of the ridge. As the hours passed, everything there remained quiet. Fourteen men were in the mortar position. Some watched heavy tracer fire crossing the Chongchon River south of them. It grew in volume after midnight. This was all to their rear, and it worried them. They knew nothing, however, of the Chinese forces that had reached the river at the dry creek after destroying K and L companies of the 3rd Battalion.
Cpl. Walter K. Crawford, a 17-year-old squad leader of the mortar platoon, watched the tracer fire intently. He was fully alert. It was about 4 A.M. Pvt. John Howard was dozing in his foxhole a few feet away. Moonlight gave fair visibility. As if an apparition had suddenly intruded, Crawford saw a man standing by Howard's foxhole. Then he heard a low voice say, "Don't shoot. South Korean GI. Enemy come-many, many!" M. Sgt. Herbert Seegar saw the figure at the same time. He jumped to his feet, yelling, "He's Gook!" and fired his rifle in the man's face. The shot shattered it.
Everyone in the mortar position now was on his feet. Someone called out, "Bring your weapons; get back to the knoll." The men responded at once. They left the mortars and scrambled for the bit of high ground, carrying boxes of grenades and belts of ammunition. On the 16-foot-wide and 6-foot-high knoll, the 14 Americans made their stand. The knoll was dished on top and had a rock rim. This made it a small fortress and gave the group from the 4th Platoon, B Company, a chance. The battle was a close one-grenades and submachinegun fire from the Chinese, who closed to within 25 feet; grenades, rifle fire, and sometimes rocks from the mortar men.
At the middle knob of Hill 219, survivors of the 1st and 2nd platoons on its northern slope became tense as a shepherd's horn repeated its two-note signal repeatedly from the bottom of the west side of the hill, toward the river. They could soon make out a skirmish line approaching the base of the slope from a cornfield below. Some of the Chinese in this line ran; others walked forward. The shepherd's horn continued its blasts. The Chinese now fired as they came forward-burp guns and rifles. As the men of Lt. Ellison C. Wynn's 1st and 2nd platoons hit the ground to escape this enemy fire, they caught faint sounds of the battle south of them in the 4th Platoon's position. The two actions were entirely separate. At this juncture, the 3rd Platoon on the south side of the big knoll of Hill 219 came under fire from machine guns below them. The entire company was now under attack in three separate places and surrounded in detail.
On the west slope, below the middle knob of Hill 219, the advance Chinese skirmishers were soon within 30 to 40 feet of the 1st and 2nd platoons. American fire stopped them at that point, and the Chinese survivors sought cover. The distance was just a little too far for the Chinese to reach with their grenades. But bullets began causing casualties in the 40-man force on top the middle knob. After an hour of this close fight, Chinese occupied the foxholes Americans had held when the fight began, and the American survivors were in a closepacked defense among the rocks on the ridge.
South of Wynn's group, the 14 men of the mortar platoon had a desperate time. Chinese got into foxholes at the mortar position, only 20 to 25 feet below them and within Chinese grenade range. The grenades that soon exploded in their position caused several casualties. But two men played Russian roulette with most of the grenades. Cpls. Walter K. Crawford and James C. Curcio, Jr., both still in their teens and very active, grabbed the grenades when they fell and threw them back. Others kicked hard at grenades that fell near their feet. In one hour the grenades came in at the rate of about one a minute. The men in the 16-foot saucer of ground estimated they threw back about 40 of the 60 grenades that landed among them.
The close-in Chinese had to be spurred to continue their attack. From time to time a whistle blast below the mortar position sounded, and each time a few Chinese would rise to their feet and try to rush the elevated depression. Grenades stopped them each time. When the clipped carbine ammunition was all used, four men who had been firing .45 Colts stopped that and concentrated on loading carbine magazines from a box of loose shells. But this supply finally was spent.
Seventeen-year-old Crawford now crawled from the position and got up the slope to where Wynn's group still held out-by this time from a better rampart than earlier. Chinese occupied all their earlier holes, but Chinese dead also lay in piles around them. When Crawford reached Wynn's group, he found it had three boxes of grenades left. Wynn gave Crawford one box, and Crawford with a few extra in his pockets crawled back to his own group. Grenades were passed to each man still able to pull a pin and throw.
Dawn was beginning to break. With it came another blast of enemy whistles and still another charge on the position. A shower of the recently acquired grenades dropped the Chinese. An enemy bugle sounded recall, repeated several times. The Chinese grenadiers started leaving their holes in the mortar position. Americans in the saucer position above jumped to their feet and fired carbines at the running Chinese. In their excitement they missed most of their shots. They hit only five Chinese.
On top the middle knoll, things were different with Wynn's group of men from the 1st and 2nd platoons. Their machine gun had stopped firing, BAR ammunition was gone, grenades were gone, and half or more of the men were casualties. They could no longer stop the Chinese who pressed in from the sides. Lieutenant Weathered from the mortar platoon shouted up to Wynn to bring his men down to his position-it was safer there. Wynn told his survivors to get ready to run and that he would cover them. Wynn had no weapon. He picked up rocks and several cans of C rations. Then as his men took off, he stood on the rim of their position and threw the rocks and cans at Chinese only ten yards away. Private First Class Frost stood beside him, ready to use his rifle as a club.
In the getaway, a Chinese with a tommy gun killed one man, already blinded, with a shot through the heart. An American named Smith carried a badly wounded man over his shoulder down the slope. All had left now except Wynn and Frost. As Wynn turned to go, a Chinese tried to rush him. Frost threw his empty rifle at the Chinese soldier. A grenade exploded and ripped the side of Wynn's face. He staggered down the slope bleeding badly, with Frost at his side.
Just as soon as the Chinese below the mortar position had withdrawn, some of the men rushed back to their mortars. Although the Chinese had possessed them for several hours, they had not tried to use them or to destroy them. There were ten rounds of high explosives and three
of white phosphorus left. Since so few rounds remained, the group decided to use only one mortar and to fire it only for a specific purpose. This was to keep the Chinese from emplacing a machine gun on the middle knob above them just vacated by Wynn's group. If a machine gun could be emplaced and operated from there, it could kill or cripple every man below in the mortar position. The second round fired from the mortar landed squarely among a group of Chinese who milled around on the knob. Many of them fell; the others dropped down behind the crest. The mortar was now zeroed in on its target. Lieutenant Weathered posted seven riflemen to keep their eyes glued on the knob and shoot at any Chinese heads that showed. In this manner the B Company group kept the Chinese above them at bay. At 9:30 A.M. on 26 November an air strike came in on Hill 219 with napalm, rockets, and strafing. But the Chinese still tried to get a machine gun on the knob, and the fight went on. Wynn, although badly wounded by the grenade explosion, refused to leave his men, and he also refused bandaging and morphine, saying that others needed it more than he did.
Shortly after noon of 26 November, Wynn's group was all but out of ammunition. Corporal Crawford again volunteered for a necessary mission. He said he would try to get through to D Company's position south of Hill 219 and get ammunition and litters for wounded. Crawford took with him a wounded man who could walk but needed medical aid. They got through to D Company. There Captain Evers loaded several Korean bearers with ammunition and started them uphill to Wynn's position. In the meantime, Lieutenant Wynn had passed out from loss of blood and was carried down the hill to D Company.
After Captain Evers realized, from Crawford's account of the situation on Hill 219, that B Company survivors must be brought down, he succeeded in reaching the 9th Regimental CP by radio. He explained the situation and received instructions that B Company should withdraw to D Company and then that both of them should cross the Chongchon River and join the 2nd Battalion there. M. Sgt. Herbert Seegar with a squad covered the withdrawal of B Company survivors to D Company.
Disaster in Korea Page 26
