On November 25, the CCF struck the whole of the Eighth Army in the western Chongchong River. Runners tell the same story over and over: much fighting, day and night. Moving out; God alone knows where.
November 26-December 4. Got the hell kicked out of us. No idea what “the folks back home” have been told, but we of the 2nd Division have been battered hard. All of the Eighth Army came under attack, and it must’ve been by a CCF main force which has been hiding, playing cat-and-mouse, and giving everyone fits while we drove on and on in this horrible, horrible place. A good part of the 25th Division was hit and belted around like an over-the-hill fighter.
Admitting it is better; we can start to work and get over the shock sooner. Like having a scab, Lt Vitetoe said; he then said we’d been defeated in this battle, but not in the whole war.
Five days of hard fighting; five straight days of retreat. Scariest days of the war so far. Beats anything I’ve seen here since June. No idea what happened along the entire line. I know only what I saw here, and that was bad enough.
To begin with, Capt Chandler was killed by sniper fire. Stepping out of his tent after a runner brought in a written message. Only casualty of the first day. Lt Vitetoe, as Exec, took over.
Reason for my mix-up regarding our position on River Chongchong is that we were on both sides, and the whole of the 2nd Division was too.
But everyone is isolated here. A thousand hills; hills running into hills, the place looks like an accordion on its side. And ridge after ridge too. Engnrs had a hell of a time finding a spot for us, until the Air Force spotted a flat surface, and Engnrs went there and got to work.
As part of Divarty, we set up an entire battalion of 105s. A Bn of artillery is hell on earth if you are on the opposite end of the gun barrels.
The Chongchong is shallow in our sector but very, very cold and frozen in most spots. Must cross it by vehicles, otherwise you freeze and you stay here in frozen Chosen.
To our east (and a bit north), a mud hut village called Kunu-ri; the village has two roads, north to south, and is considered important. A village called Suichon lies up ahead. West of Kunu-ri, the Yellow Sea; to the east, mountains.
Later learned of two ROK Divisions positioned to our right. Our old friends from the Pusan Perimeter, the 25th Division, were holding the line. But it was the mountains: the units were bunched up here and there but there was no direct communication. Relied on runners who were in danger of freezing to death, catching pneumonia, getting shot at by us, by CCF, etc. From our gun emplacements, we could see the Chinese gathering strength and moving out of harm’s way under a ridge, a hill, something. But they were there all right, hundreds of them.
We were directly behind two rifle regiments of the 2nd and providing support for them; the closest village to us after Kunu-ri was another mud hut place: Kujangdong.
Hills, hills, hills. Ridge, ridge, ridge. Phone wires couldn’t reach due to distances, and day after day each unit remained in isolation.
The CCF hit us the day after Thanksgiving. No pull backs by CCF this time. No fading away. Instead, they stormed, swarmed, slashed across Inf and of course they set up a rock-solid roadblock behind our lines. But I’m not telling this right. (I made no notes during the last five/six days.)
Here is the result of the last five/six days: Our 2nd Division was defeated in detail. CCF punched a hole. I don’t know how wide yet, but it was said to be six miles deep. CCF took the hills and ridges, and they then set up their roadblocks.
We heard heavy firing all through the night of Thanksgiving plus one. I saw NK and CCF green tracers crossing our red and pink ones, some of the tracers were in front of us and others to our right and left, but all at a distance.
Our unit was not in a firing position, so we were told to stay alert and wait.
We waited as told. Fighting went on all night. At dawn, both sides were still at it. We were ordered to move onto a road in a march convoy to give support fire to Inf units. Spent hours inside trucks with guns hitched so there’d be no loss of time if order came to move out that night.
The order did come, and we slept in the trucks as they moved to form part of another convoy; best sleep any of us was to have that week.
When it began to lighten up, the trucks stopped all of a sudden. We stopped to pick up stragglers from the 2nd Division (9th Infantry Regiment). No helmets, some no ammo, no grenades, no canteens. Just like early fighting in June/July. Running like crazy men and abandoning their wounded. Hat and I picked up some of the wounded and were helped in this by an old Gen. He asked for Col Keith, and Hat led the Gen part of the way, then came back to finish getting the wounded into the trucks.
Don’t know how many wounded we piled inside the six-bys; some guys not wounded but in no condition to fight anyway: Wild-eyed. Shaking. Shivering from the cold and crying. Others ready to fight, though. Caught up with Company K, and Company L guys and Os all mixed up; there was no unit integrity and the Os tried in vain to sort each other out. The men didn’t know their Os and vice versa.
I almost gave up. I slipped and fell on the ice, face down, helmet came off, and I would have stayed there and frozen to death, but Hat tapped me on the sole of the boots and said, handing me my helmet, “Here, you may need this.”
Nice way to put it, but I was tired and just didn’t care to go on anymore. (Alas, I am so faint I may not stand; My limbs under me doth fold).
While the truck stopped to pick up two wounded guys and then got ready to move, we received direct rifle fire. We scrambled out to fire carbines and M-ls. All of a sudden, the Chinese stopped firing and Lt Vitetoe sent Inf guards to patrol hills to left and right. We waited by the trucks, but there was no repeat of fire by Chinese.
An hour later, the Inf either cleared the hills of CCF or the CCF moved on, and once again we mounted up and proceded. Our patrols had skirmished some but returned okay. We then met with the 2nd Bn; these guys had not been hit at all. They had been separated by those hills, so the Bn was intact as a fighting unit. They joined the march.
Dawn. Cold and clear but no Air Force despite the blue skies. Suddenly there was a fog cover, just like that, and we got in the middle of a hellacious fire fight. Ordered not to stop and to drive by the fire fight so we could stop to pick up wounded just ahead.
This is crazy, but I remember that all of a sudden, out of nowhere, on the side of the road, there were thirty Chinese POWs, dressed in white winter uniforms, marching under GI guard. Lt Vitetoe told guard to check CCF for weapons and found none, then gave order to Sgt in charge to release the Chinese right then. The sergeant pointed to a hill and up the Chinese scampered, and this new Inf unit joined our group.
Other strange things. I saw stragglers here and there and then, I’d see a disciplined unit in good marching order following a convoy of passing trucks. At one point, the Battle Police rounded up some stragglers and put them in marching order with the Inf passing by.
Our convoy then drove to a side road, drove up a hill, we unhitched the guns (there was firing all around, and all over the place, but here we were, as if on practice fire, unhitching the guns and waiting for orders) when Frazier and Dumas ran up to us and pointed to a Chinese unit out in the open. Bam! Bam! Bam! And that was the end of them as a unit. Our troops on the road deployed and waited for us to drive back onto the road.
Back on the road, the firing picked up as we drove forward, and then it got quiet again. People having private wars, it looked like. Then, more stragglers, etc. And GIs coming out of hills onto the road firing as they ran and not turning their backs on the Chinese.
Then we stopped. Two Inf guys ran up to see what was what and returned to report: Two trucks were on fire up ahead holding up convoy. Some Inf guys got off the trucks and, we with them, pushed the trucks off the road and down a hillside. Then, back to our trucks.
Confusing scenes. We moved out slowly and saw Inf guys leading tanks. We moved to the side of the road to let the tanks and the Inf go. by. (Had to be the 2nd Division since this was our sector.) Saw more Chinese POWs left on the side of the road by our Inf. CCF already disarmed and they sat there amid all the noise, yelling and fire. Ahead of us, two GIs, stragglers, said they’d been captured by Chinese and then led out to main road by CCF officer and squad of CCF enlisted men; they were disarmed but the CCF let them keep their cigarettes, wallets, etc.
Back on the trucks once more and got to the bank of the Chongchong again. Water freezing, and the troops on opposite bank using M-16s, the Quad 50 caliber M-gun vehicles, and tanks, plus any available carrier to ferry stranded GIs. We got off the trucks, stood by, sat and waited for them to be ferried while some of our prime movers were also used to bring the troops across.
We unhitched five of the guns, turned two of them to the hills behind us and three ahead, across the river. When the first trucks got back, we were then ordered to rehitch all of the guns. Firing not too heavy here at first. Some Inf GIs impatient and attempted to cross on their own: freezing water, and they became casualties immediately.
Sporadic sniper fire from ridge. All of a sudden, the Quad 50 crossing the river to get Inf back, stopped, pointed its four 50-caliber M-guns and fired for two minutes straight. That quieted the snipers.
With all guns hitched again, we drove to the northern bank and enjoyed fire support the whole time. We unhitched the guns one more time and stood at the ready.
Got dark; fighting got confused, so both sides had to stop. At the same time, the Inf guys were still being ferried over. I then saw 10-12 Inf guys who jumped into Chongchong; not deep, but they too became frozen casualties and unfit to fight once they crossed.
Saw also two of our tanks destroyed while ferrying troops, and still another group, 20-30 Gis, sitting on the side of road, disarmed and released by Chinese. They wandered into our area and Lt Fleming told them he’d try to contact their CO.
Their Old Guy hobbled with a wound, lined his troops and waited for Lt Fleming’s orders. We then got some abandoned M-ls from our trucks and passed them out to those guys.
I think we went without sleep for twenty-six hours this time.
Woke up next to my gun, given coffee by Dumas, who said, “Keep down; sniper time, pass the word.”
I also remember from yesterday that some Infantry guys tried to get on tanks while the tanks were moving. Can’t be done—maybe in Hollywood, but not here. Also, saw at least two tanks traverse tubes and knock wounded GIs off tank unintentionally. And that’s “goodbye, Johnny,” ’cause tanks kept going.
Riding tanks is dangerous anyway. Looks good, like parachute troops and Rangers look good, but most of the guys we met from those outfits were misfits, weird types.
Turkish Brigade. It was abandoned in confusion but it kept fighting. One big mix-up by Turks: they shot at ROK thinking them Chinese. Most of the Turkish Brigade in heavy combat; no idea how many, if any, survived. From somewhere, Hat got a Turkish long knife to open M-l ammo crates and the Turks helped themselves.
Don’t think anyone knew what was going on. There were Chinese units to the left and right of us; we’d broken through one roadblock just south of us, and when we looked up front, runners came running by to say CCF were also coming right toward us from the north.
Lt Vitetoe gave the order: “Infantry guard, deploy; gun crews, stand by.” Meanwhile, guys were still being ferried across from this part of the Chongchong.
Hat and Frazier and Dumas pointed to the Inf, and some fifteen of them began unloading the shell crates from the weapons carrier behind us.
We fired. Nothing to it. Loaded up, fired; moved guns to side, wheeled around as needed, and fired again. Guns kept jumping up and down since they were not dug in, but we just fired like crazy until Dumas ran up and told us we’d run out shells at that rate.
But despite noise and confusion, etc., Inf is always in the worst position.
Stopped the fire, rehitched the guns and got to the edge of the river again. Ordered to move, this time to give supporting fire south of the Chongchong again; we set up and fired for two hours straight.
Hitched the guns again and ordered to recross the river to north side, once again to give supporting fire for Inf being ferried to south side. Good sized Inf unit in good marching order passed through us, going to rejoin some bigger Inf unit.
Then, three gasoline trucks were standing on the north side and our prime movers crossed the river and gassed up. More magic: 105mm ammo in trucks parked and waiting for us on side of road. Ate some pork and beans and given hot coffee. (Had put cans of pork and beans on empty shells and this kept the cans from freezing altogether.)
After this, hitched guns again and recrossed river. Since we were next to last in the order of retreat, we stayed on the side of the road and unhitched and stood by guns ready to give either supporting or direct fire as needed.
Then, what looked like the whole 2nd Division appeared on our side of the river. We hitched the guns one more time, crossed the river again and were then re-issued the order of withdrawal by units. We were seventh of eight in the marching order, with the Engineers in eighth place. (Engineers probably last so they would blow up bridges, mine the roads to slow up the CCF, etc.)
As soon as the first unit began to cross, we started to fire. The first to go was the Infantry to cover the hillsides and ridges. Then a Recon outfit was the second in the marching order, with 2nd Division HQ after that in third place. We were firing during all of this and the CCF was firing back; there was no slacking by either side.
Sounds crazy now, but the convoys were on regular march order: one, two, three, etc. (Good discipline shown by EM and Os and units on the whole; I’ve talked with over fifty guys since this, and everyone admitted being scared to death. I was too, and I don’t see/understand how any of us survived.)
The Recon outfit then followed but were preceded by Battle Police. The two ammo trucks were with us with the Engineers right behind us. Our two batteries, Joey’s, and Charlie’s and mine, were attached to the 23rd Regt Combat Team (made up of 2nd units), and we were then joined by a tank unit and one AAA battery which had been idling on a side road waiting for us.
The Pass was a narrow road, and up ahead, we could see the arty gun fire against the dark sky: pink, red, orange, yellow, bluish green. On signal, we turned our guns around and began to serve as rear guard.
The road we marched on was the MSR, the Main Supply Road. The 1st and 2nd Bns of the 38th Infantry Regiment were then sent to clear ridges west of the MSR. The 3rd Bn had the same duty but east of us.
These are tough jobs: the flanking patrols which clear ridges. Without them, we go nowhere.
Sat and waited; slept some and then got up in a hurry. Roadblocks up ahead and they were stopping the units ahead of us.
Tank on fire. This time, one tank blocked the entire convoy. Then, the prime movers took over and pushed the tank over the side. Firing fierce by both sides, but guys on prime movers kept at job and pushed the tank down the embankment. Firing on all sides. Vehicles whizzing by. Firing by CCF from both sides of road. Convoy had to slow down. We were way, way back of the convoy and watched all of this like a movie.
Suddenly Lt Brodkey calls for direct fire. The Old Guys and Lt Vitetoe gave the orders and went to work. (Brodkey’s voice calm as always: “We’ve got pre-selected sites here. See chart four.”)
This takes two seconds and bam! bam! bam! there we go again. Seemed like we fired for hours.
We were in that same damned narrow Pass that Frazier pointed out in Oct and Nov. Supposed to go through it. Firing; tanks afire, blocking road; trucks stop. Little forward movement. Chinks firing, a madhouse. Some GIs fighting like madmen; others ducking the fight and hiding behind bushes. The convoy stalls, lurches and moves on, over and over and over.
Morning. Blue skies. The Air Force shows up and helps, but can’t do it all. CCF all around, hundreds of them. Air Force concentrates on CCF behind us.
Some Infantry had no unit of command; guys in trucks from different units and Os continued to have a hell of a time with troops they didn’t know. Os tried to rally guys, but some guys wouldn’t get off the trucks.
We could see this through binocs, and then some GIs trying to board trucks were being kicked off by other GIs. Then, five Old Guys armed with 45 automatics began pushing GIs around, assembled them into a group, set up a skirmish line and forced these guys to fire at the hills. This quieted the Chinese fire for a while; some of the guys got their spirit back, and then, out of the trucks, more GIs scrambled off and began to fire; but there were still more guys inside the trucks than out.
At the same time the Inf guys up ahead stopped to fire at the hills on both sides of the road. Lt Vitetoe got us together. “Hitch the guns and grab M-ls, carbines, whatever. Fire and run, fire and run.”
So, with the guns hitched and secured, we began to run and fire, etc. The Engineers started moving out and they too were firing up both sides of the road toward hills and ridges. When we got to the point where Lt Vitetoe wanted us to go, our other trucks stood in place waiting for us while the Inf stragglers unloaded the ammo; then, just like that, two runners rushed out of the side of the road with new orders for us: “Fire all of the ammo you’ve got on the ground. All of it.”
Vitetoe asked who gave the order and one of the runners said: “Col Keith himself, sir.”
In the middle of all of this, a little liaison plane had spotted CCF, and we couldn’t miss. The runners disappeared, but we had our orders and Lts Vitetoe, Brodkey and Fleming gave the orders to make ready. Dumas and Frazier waited for Hat and when Hat gave the word, the cooks, clerks and the Engineers next to us started opening the shell crates, and the stragglers formed three Unes from the ammo trucks to our batteries.
Took no time to do this, and we were ready. Fire for effect, and there we went. I forgot about the troops trying to make it out of the Pass and concentrated on the firing job at hand.
Frazier kept count: in twenty minutes we fired over 3200 rounds of 105mm at the advancing Chinese. Forward observers right with us on top of tanks, trucks, and jeeps directing fire and readjusting. Two clicks down, fire! Up three clicks, C battery. Fire!
Ichabod and Crazy were the closest to us. Two gun, left, fire; three gun, right, hold it; three gun, fire. And we fired. And we fired.
Thirty-two hundred rounds in twenty minutes! Paint burned and peeled off guns. Breech blocks were blackened by the heat. All of us yelling, shouting—more ammo—let’s go! Clerks, cooks and Engineers, shaking their tails and feeding us ammo. Fire, fire, fire. Forward obs yelling, “Forget the clicks, just fire. Fire! You’ll hit them from here.” All of a sudden the ammo was gone, and Brodkey was looking through the binocs and standing on the hood of our truck. He said, “The Chinese have stopped their advance.” (Just like that.)
Part of our Regimental Combat Team acting as Infantry guards were yelling at us, like a game. We saved the RCT, but we saved ourselves too. And the Chinese stopped advancing. It was great. The CCF must’ve thought we were counterattacking.
The Engineers followed close behind, and eight hours later, when this part of the Pass was cleared of burning trucks, disabled tanks, etc, the Inf then mounted up and rode away. The Chinese had stopped, and since they had no trucks to chase Inf with, it was a matter of driving away and leaving them far behind.
The 25th Div’s 24th Inf Regt was reorganized somehow, and it was placed to serve as our Inf escort in the rear guard. With the Engineers behind us, the Regt firing right and left made a sleeve for us to go through, and we headed toward the Pass again.
The Eighth Army was shot to hell from what we could see, but it did not disengage; most units kept fighting.
Checked my watch and found it stopped at 0100; asked for the time: 0220. We, of the 219th Field, were the last element to come through this part of the gauntlet with Kunu-ri and Kujangdong behind us but with some Chinese roadblocks still ahead. Got some sleep inside the trucks despite the lurching and stopping and moving on.
The hardest jobs for us:
1. moving,
2. trying to give supporting fire, and
3. defending guns at the same time.
Other CCF elements engaged us on the hills and ridges, but a big chunk of advancing Chinese units was stopped by our 3200 rounds on the ground. The remaining ammo in the trucks was untouched, and we made ready to move, since our arty column was then ordered through the Pass.
What a mess. The Engineers with us picked up a dozen new stragglers, but these guys were full of fight and lucky for us, since we were caught in another fire fight.
There were two more roadblocks, but we also had the abandoned M-ls and carbines for small arms fire.
We moved out around 0245. Marched in the dark, under fire. Saw more tanks and trucks on fire and these too were pushed down the hills. We made it out of the Pass; the two roadblocks were bloody affairs but we broke through and rode away dead on our feet.
Our 17th day arty was in good shape; the 37th arty kost ten guns; other arty outfits in so-so shape.
Then once out of the Pass, we discovered that we’d removed the blocks and sights from our guns and placed them inside the trucks, covers and all. We did it automaticaly, like the Old Guys and Os said we would.
We fired the 3200 rounds on the ground, and as crazy and tired as we were, we had stopped to remove the blocks and the sights. We also thermited three of ten barrels, but I don’t remember any of this.
Blanked out and blocked that out too, but guns were secured and that’s what counts. Guns were well served is what the Old Guys and Os told us at the assembly area.
Morning. Blue skies. The Air Force shows up and helps, but can’t do it all. CCF all around, hundreds of them. Air Force concentrates on CCF behind us.
Some Inf had no unit of command; guys in trucks from different units, and Os continued to have a hell of a time with troops they didn’t know. Os tried to rally guys, but some guys wouldn’t get off the trucks.
We could see this through binocs and then some GIs trying to board trucks were being kicked off by other GIs. Then, five Old Guys armed with 45 automatics began pushing GIs around, assembled them into a group, set up a skirmish line and forced these guys to fire at the hills. This quieted the Chinese fire for awhile; some of the guys got their spirit back, and then, out of the trucks, more GIs scrambled off and began to fire; but there were still more guys inside the trucks than out.
At the same time the Inf guys up ahead stopped to fire at the hills on both sides of the road; Lt Vitetoe got us together. “Hitch the guns and grab M-ls, carbines, whatever. Fire and run, fire and run.”
So, with the guns hitched and secured, we began to run and fire, etc. The Engineers started moving out and they too were firing up both sides of road toward hills and ridges. When we got to the point where Lt Vitetoe wanted us to go, our other trucks stood in place waiting for us while the Inf stragglers unloaded the ammo; then, just like that, two runners rushed out of the side of the road with new orders for us: “Fire all of the ammo you’ve got on the ground. All of it.”
Vitetoe asked who gave the order and one of the runners said: “Col Keith himself, sir.”
In the middle of all of this, a little liaison plane had spotted CCF, and we couldn’t miss. The runners disappeared, but we had our orders and Lts Vitetoe, Brodkey and Fleming gave the orders to make ready. Dumas and Frazier waited for Hat, and when Hat gave the word, the cooks, clerks and the Engineers next to us started opening the shell crates, and the stragglers formed three lines from the ammo trucks to our batteries.
Took no time to do this, and we were ready: Fire for effect and there we went. I forgot about the troops trying to make it out of the Pass and concentrated on the firing job at hand.
Frazier kept count: in twenty minutes, we fired over 3200 rounds of 105mm at the advancing Chinese. Forward observers right with us on top of tanks, trucks and jeeps directing fire and readjusting: two clicks down, fire! Up three clicks, C battery. Fire!
Ichabod and Crazy were the closest to us: Two gun, left, fire; three gun, right, hold it; three gun, fire. And we fired. And we fired.
Thirty-two hundred rounds in twenty minutes! Paint burned and peeled off guns. Breech blocks were blackened by the heat. All of us yelling, shouting—more ammo—let’s go! Clerks, cooks and Engineers, shaking their tails and feeding us ammo. Fire, fire, fire. Forward obs yelling, “Forget the clicks, just fire. Fire! You’ll hit them from here.” All of a sudden the ammo was gone and Brodkey was looking through the binocs and standing on the hood of our truck. He said, “The Chinese have stopped their advance.” (Just like that).
No idea of date or time of much of the above. Have decided to set down the followng now before I blank it out.
Shits who kicked wounded GIs off trucks; GIs fighting until last round was fired; Os getting blown away off tanks, trucks, and roads, and getting up to fight again. Old Guys taking over from dead Os. Some Infantry running away. Others sticking with unit and firing as they fought their way through the Pass. Much yelling at times; silence at others but continuous roar of noise from tanks, trucks, arty rifle and mortar fire. The CCF pitched in with its bugles and whistles, day and night. Cymbals, too, I think, but bugles and whistles, for sure.
Am now sitting here on the British lines. This is where we wound up, but all according to the plan of retreat, say Old Guys. British unit called the 27th Bridgade. Gave us hot food and coffee. They too were separated coming through the Pass and stopped here to reorganize.
A British Old Guy just came over; wanted to know if I were a reporter. Gave me his name, Alfie Cosgriff, Irish he says, but born and raised in England; in Yorkshire, a place called Huddersfield where James Madison, the actor, comes from, he says. He asked if we were the guys that caused the earth to shake the night before. Said that was the best exhibition of firing he’s ever seen since Africa.
Will stop here; I think I’ve had sixteen hours of sleep in five days. Hand beginning to shake. Hit the Irishman for a cigarette; sloshed coffee on my gloves, my hand was shaking so.
I don’t think I mentioned the brutal cold once in this entry, “but Lord how these weathers are cold! And, I’m ill-wrapped.”
Our unit is going south to consolidate. A big retreat; most likely a catastrophe, a disaster, and the war is not over.
The Eighth Army did suffer a big defeat. Still, a hell of a test, and Os and Old Guys say we make the grade. No heroes; just men in combat.