part0067

Here’s the bit I can remember about some of the weapons you asked about. Fortunately, I still have some of my old field manuals. When I went back to the Fifth Marines in 1967 for Vietnam I became Weapons Platoon Commander for Captain Gene Bowers of Hotel 2/5. I soon was wishing for the tough, dependable 3.5” rocket launcher over the light, expedient, throw-away Light Anti-tank Assault Weapon (LAW) which was nearly trash, in my humble opinion. It was similar in penetrating ability to the old 3.5 rocket. The LAW was fairly easily damage and the electrical magneto system was often defective for closing the circuit which activated the charge. The LAW was more dangerous than the 3.5 in handling misfires. The problem was built into the LAW with the 66-mm. round already in the tube compared to the 3.5, which had the round separate until loaded by the assistant gunner. The fact that a team of two was generally needed for the 3.5 compared to a single gunner for the LAW was considered a short-coming. Not so in reality. Corporal Stephen Raider had to moisten his fingertips, reach back, and hold the contact points in order for it to fire one day during a critical assault during Operation Swift. I never experienced this happening with the 3.5 launcher in Korea. I qualified on the 2.36” and 3.5” launchers at Camp Lejeune. We fired at various distances on both stationary and mobile targets. The mobile one was of a wrecked car on some kind of track that moved it back and forth. It was great fun! We were trained to judge distance, angle of fire, and target priorities. Angle of fire has to do with the maximum angle at which the internal shaped charge of the rocket head would detonate. The maximum strike angle on a hard surface was 30 degrees. Anything greater would skip off unless the skip put the flight path into a secondary point of impact such as initially hitting armor plate below the turret of a tank then skipping off and up to detonate against the turret of the main gun. The fuses are the point initiating, base-detonating, non-delay type, detonating on impact if struck hard enough, thus the critical angle of impact of nothing more than 30 degrees. New weapons came with a factory grease film to protect the electrical contact points. This film had to be removed before the weapon would fire.

The M-1 Garand .30 rifle was introduced during WW II and became a favorite of all who used it. It was a shoulder-fired, semi-automatic, gas-operated rifle weighing 9.5 lbs. with a peep sight adjustable for elevation and left or right windage. It is top loaded with an eight-round cIip. It had a bayonet lug for attaching the bayonet. It was fixed with an open, oblong ring called a stacking swivel just in front of the wooden front hand guard. The stacking swivel made it possible to interlock a tripod of rifles for holding up other rifles leaned against this tripod stack. The stacking swivel had other purposes as well since the drill instructors in boot camp were always threatening to grab us by our stacking swivels if we didn’t get squared away, and fast! The M-1 was extremely accurate and hard hitting anywhere from 200 to 500 yards in the hands of the average marine. The butt contained two wells, covered by a butt cap, for housing an oil tube and thong (cleaning string) and combination tool for cleaning and maintenance of the weapon. One end of the combination tool had a slot for holding a patch for cleaning the chamber. A few of us were fortunate enough to be issued an M-1 made by Winchester. I had one. Maybe there wasn’t any difference in quality between a Garand and a Winchester, but to me there was. My Winchester, rifle number 3100886, felt tighter when being fired and maybe a hair heavier. I knew the feel of my rifle, even in the dark. The weapons were always left outside to prevent condensation forming on the metal when we took our turn in the warm-up bunker. The condensation would freeze immediately when taken back outside if they were brought inside. This could cause a malfunction. Sometimes in an incoming rush at night to grab our weapons and get back to our positions someone would mistakenly pick up my rifle. I knew instantly that the M-1 in my hands was not mine. A search would be made and rifles exchanged! When we were hit by a company of Chinese on Outpost Dagmar around 24 July 1953 I lost my treasured Winchester to 76-mm. incoming. The M-1 was noted for being able to take abuse of grime and dirt and still fire. Just like any weapon, however, it had to be cleaned properly and regularly to perform well. During rain and snow storms I would cradle my rifle under my field jacket or parka to protect it as best I could. The only problem I ever saw was when someone rammed the muzzle into the mud when hitting the deck and split the barrel when they fired it later. Any rifle would have done that.

These weapons were 6.5-lb., shoulder-fired, gas-operated, and fired a 30 caliber round from a box magazine. The box magazines were of two designs. One carried 20 rounds and the other 30 rounds. The M-1 Carbine was semi-automatic. The M2 was semi-automatic or could be switched to full automatic with the change lever. They both had a bayonet lug. The maximum rate of fire was 750 rounds a minute. The lightness of the rifle made it a logical weapon for staff positions wanting something in addition to their issued TO (Table of Organization) .45 pistol. Some machine gunners and corpsmen carried a carbine. The general report was the carbine was easily jammed from grime and abuse. The bolt would sometimes refuse to feed a round into the chamber if there was the least bit of sand or grime on the round. It was effective out to 300 yards but didn’t have much stopping power. Lieutenant Murray once loaned me his M2 to take on a raid. I was pleased to take his weapon, yet a bit hesitant, because I did not know the weapon. Perhaps 30 yards into the assault up the ridge towards Chinese positions and it jammed! I threw it down and grabbed a stretcher someone had dropped and continued up the ridge with the stretcher until I could retrieve a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) from a dead marine. Generally those who carried a carbine double-magged it. That is, they taped two magazines together so when one was emptied they released it, and turned it over to insert the ready magazine. This looked pretty salty and maybe some could do it, but I tried it on my Thompson and found it was too easy to get grime and crud into the open top of the second magazine. It also put extra weight on the magazine catch of the weapon which might, in time, weaken it so the magazine fit too loosely. Then the forward flight of the bolt might not pick the round up. The carbine was primarily noted for one thing; it jammed easily. Consequently most of hem were allocated to the Korean Service Corps (KSC) officers and staff and the Republic of South Korea Army (ROKS).

The Thompson is a .45-caliber, shoulder-fired, recoil-operated personal weapon weighing 11 pounds. The box magazines came in two types, a 20 round and a 30 round capacity. The 20 and 30 round magazines were heavy enough with the .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) 230 grain bullet with a 5-grain charge. The rate of fire was 600-725 rounds per minute with an effective range of 50 to 60 yards. The rate of fire could be selected for semi or fully automatic with a change lever. The weapon was developed by John T. Thompson who had also helped develop the M1903 Springfield rifle and the M1911 .45 caliber pistol. Most of my use with the Thompson was in the trenches of UnGok, The Yoke, and Outpost Vegas, with the range being 20 yards or less. The stock was taken off when we planned to go into enemy trenches to prevent the weapon from getting caught cross-wise between the walls, which had happened. Marines try to live long enough to learn from mistakes of others. With the stock off, the weapon was easily carried with the sling around the shoulders and the magazine resting in the field jacket pocket. It could be fired from the hip in this manner. I practiced for night firing at muzzle flashes with it by firing at a lighted candle at the end of a 60 foot tunnel behind the MLR. We would hang a blanket over the mouth of the tunnel to shut out light. Generally within 5 semi-automatic rounds we’d put the candle light out. The main draw-back I found with the weapon was in refilling the magazines. It was a slow, thumb-loading process, particularly when the hands were cold and numb. The Thompson was a very forgiving weapon in that it would still fire in spite of grime and dirt. Its replacement was the M3 & M3A1 grease gun which, according to the tankers and recon marines, was even more forgiving than the Thompson. It was said that the Thompson tended to climb when fired on full automatic. This was particularly true if the gunner tried to empty the magazine in one long burst. However, by letting its weight become balanced with the rate and duration of burst, the weapon could easily be maintained in a definite pattern. Mine would cover a pattern of approximately 12 inches by holding bursts to 4 or 5 rounds and initiate the next burst when the barrel resumed its original firing position. A definite fast rhythm could be attained in this manner. Single shots or semi-automatic fire saved on ammunition. Later, in Vietnam 1967, I found a Seabee who had a Thompson. He wanted $50 for it. I was going to buy it and hang my worthless M16 up, but we jumped-off on a Double Eagle to help First Battalion, Fifth Marines who were getting hit hard and I never made it back.

“The semi-automatic pistols, caliber .45, M1911 and M1911A1, are recoil operated, magazine fed, self-loading hand weapons. The pistol is a comparatively short-range weapon. The M1911A1 pistol is a modification of the M1911 pistol. The operation of both models is exactly the same. The M1911A1 pistol has the following changes:

Although most of us qualified with the .45 we found it a bit difficult due to the weight of the weapon and the amount of kickback when fired. Leave it to a bunch of marines to come up with innovative ways to use the pistol. The “quick draw” technique was practiced by some machine gunners when things were quiet on the MLR. It was worth a court martial if caught doing it. The common reply to such a query was, “What can they do? Send me to Korea?” The technique was to slip the safety lock off, shove the pistol into the holster with pressure against the slide so it moved to the rear as well as the hammer. This kept it in the cocked and ready position. The quick-draw artist would then shove the pistol all the way into the holster and with the safety grip depressed quickly draw the pistol with the finger on the trigger. There were great peals of laughter when the pistol discharged before clearing the holster, and a smoking holster gave testimony that the quick draw wasn’t quite fast enough. A few near flesh wounds made us seek other avenues of improving our military skills. Some marines were a notch above expert in shooting the pistol. One was Corporal Wilcox from Connecticut, a salty machine gunner, light .30, with Weapons Company, 3rd.Bn. 5th Marines. Wilcox was so good with a pistol that there was no way any of us would dare let him shoot at us under a hundred yards! When that slug left the muzzle of his pistol it went where he wanted it to! He fired it and his air-cooled .30 machine gun with equal vengeance. He was good enough that he was taken out of combat to be flown to Japan to participate in the all-service pistol matches. He helped place the Marine Corps team in the top bracket. He left quite an impression on all who watched him shoot, especially the U. S. Army M.P.s who tried to stop him with their jeeps while he was on a bit of rousing liberty. Who wouldn’t be slightly annoyed to have a spot light shone in their face? Wilcox was. He shot out the spot light and their headlights as well. The shooting match was over for Wilcox. The seven MPs rousted him out of the rice paddy holding a quart bottle of Japanese Asshie beer in one hand, his faithful .45 in the other, and dripping of paddy honey! What a sight to behold! His anger turned to astonishment and wonder when he learned that two of the Army MPs were master sergeants with a combined time in the army of 18 months! Such experience surely exudes confidence in the troops who have to take orders from them! Wilcox was a salty four-year Corporal about to become a salty private first class. We were so happy to have him back with us on Outpost Dagmire! He indeed was our hero!

There should be a song of merit and praise written about the wonderful BAR! It made its debut in World War I and was mass produced for use in World War II. It became a favorite of all who used it. When fired, one round at a time with a light and quick trigger finger, on slow fire it sang a special song, and when hammering away on rapid fire it became a beautiful chorus. It was a reassuring sound except for those on the receiving end. “The BAR, caliber .30, M1918A2, is an air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine fed, shoulder-fired weapon with a bipod.

The BAR man had to pay attention to his sustained fire and length of bursts in order not to burn out the barrel. The barrel could not be changed like a machine gun barrel. The actuator and buffer spring in the stock helped reduce the kick when fired and thus help maintain the accuracy as well as the endurance of the BAR man’s shoulder. The 2.38-pound, folding bipod was generally removed but sometimes retained when setup in a defensive position. The flash hider with bipod bearing were always replaced and left on after removing the clumsy bipod. The flash hider, contrary to what some say, is not to hide the flash from the enemy but to shield the gunners eyes from the flash at night. It is very difficult to maintain any degree of night vision during night-time combat with all the flares swinging and bursts of incoming so any help the flash hider can render is valuable. The muzzle flash on a .50 caliber machine gun for example is like a 3-foot tongue of fire and highly visible to all. The Chinese and North Koreans learned to respect the BAR the hard way; many were killed by it. The BAR in the hands of a skilled marine called “Ski” in Easy 2/5 during the final nights of the battle to retake and hold Outpost Vegas in March 1953 cut a wide swath in the attacking Chinese. If any of the enemy escaped his accurate and controlled fire that night they indeed have a lot to tell their grandkids! I was dug in just to the right of him with my faithful M-1 Winchester and Thompson. In spite of the incessant roar and crackle of the battle I could hear that steady, rhythmic, “chong, chong” of his BAR. The barrel turned various hues of white and red, but he nursed it by varying the rate of fire and kept it in action. Some of the Chinese got close enough in trying to throw grenades that the steady stream of lead from his BAR set their cotton uniforms to smoking. There was a large shell crater just a few yards forward of our positions. The ground was chewed so fine from all the incoming that the Chinese who came directly at us through this crater slipped a little coming up out of it. “Ski” tore them up in that moment of their floundering. There was a “Shwakh!” crack like sound when the slugs hit bone, sometimes knocking an arm and shoulder from the body, a sick “shu-whump” when the rounds just hit flesh. Unforgettable sounds. Mixed with it was the sound of our whoops as the fear and excitement welled up together like one fountain with too much pressure to hold in! We even sang our number-one hit song, The Marine Corps Hymn. No words could describe the feeling. The wounded Chinese were all mixed with the dead, and at times it appeared in the flare light that it was a sea of slow, continuous movement as they struggled. A mirage of sorts. The steady fall of incoming soon eliminated the wounded. The Chinese coming along their route from Outpost Reno seemed to try and swerve around his BAR position. It didn’t help them much as someone else hammered them for their effort. The BAR could take a lot of abuse and still respond. The dirt and grime had to be pretty bad to cause a malfunction. Those who designed the weapon had great foresight and made various size gas ports in the gas cylinder. The weapon was initially adjusted for the smallest port that would give smooth and efficient blow-back of the bolt. They knew that it was impossible to break the weapon down in the middle of a fire fight to clean the gas cylinder and tube properly. They accounted for this by making other, larger ports that the cylinder could be turned to and accommodate more grime. Marines had one BAR for each of the three fire-teams in a squad as compared to just one BAR per squad in the U.S. Army. A real difference in fire power.

The grease gun is a fully automatic, recoil-operated, shoulder-fired personal weapon.

The M3 is what I saw in Korea. It was machined stamped with “Sub Mach. Gun” on the left side of the bolt housing. The word “Guide” was stamped just below it on the receiver shaft for the magazine. Just below the word “Guide” was stamped a small helm with which to guide a ship. It was the weapon of choice of our Reconnaissance (Recon) and Tank units according to Sergeant Lee Ballenger of First Recon and First Tanks in Korea. We of Weapons Platoon 3/5 “salvaged” an M3 grease gun that fell from an Able Company Tank one night when it was hauling tracks after a firing mission. The M3 had a more simple blow-back system and less parts than the Thompson. The rate of fire was slower than the Thompson, and thus, for some, easier to hold on target. Single shots, with a light trigger finger, could be maintained as well. The only draw back I could see was the cover shield that lifted up to let the bolt operate freely. If it happened to get knocked back down it stopped the bolts forward flight for engaging the next live round. When screwing the barrel/receiver group back in the head space had to be adjusted to give efficient blow-back. A flexible metal retaining tab clicked with each threaded turn of the barrel for adjusting the head space. The retractable rod stock of the M3 had threaded holes in the forward end of each shaft for taking a bore brush or slotted patch holder to clean the barrel. The modified M3A1 had a threaded hole and an open slot to hold the patch. The grease gun was still the weapon of choice of First Tanks in Vietnam. The M3A1 that I saw in Vietnam also had another very functional improvement over the old M3. It was the oil reservoir and applicator contained in the butt of the stock grip. The M3A1 had another key improvement over the M3 and the Thompson in that there was an L-shaped piece of metal welded to the butt of the retractable stock for holding the magazine while refilling it. Pfc’s Frank Medina and John “Pecos” Reeves traded their M3 “tank gun” back and forth between them. Each claimed to be the best shot with it; of course. It was with them on Outpost Dagmire’s listening post (LP) the night the two of them got trapped and cut-off by Chinese troops on their way to assault the outpost. The two marines couldn’t beat a hasty return to the outpost when they first saw the enemy coming because Reeves’ legs had gone to sleep while crouched in the shallow, wet depression. Frank Medina’s legs were all right, but he couldn’t carry Reeves, and he wouldn’t leave him. So there they were, just hunkered down and letting the Chinese flow around them, only a step away at times. Lieutenant Quinn had just held a special prayer service with us on the reverse slope of Dagmire when a hail of .76 mm. and 82s hit us. The LP had not returned! They were my marines. I got out to them just as the Chinese were hitting our wire, and Medina and I, each under an arm of Reeves, made our way back with him right through the enemy troops. They must have thought we were Chinese as they never really looked at us. A moonless night really helped, and our flares hadn’t arrived yet. The M3 grease gun that Medina was packing hung free and ready with the short web sling around his neck in case we were detected. We were more afraid of our Light .30 machine gun which was firing from the entry gate position than we were of our garlic-reeking companions. Lt. Quinn surely must have had a direct line with God that night, as none of us were killed, and we held the outpost.

Mr. Browning made a lasting contribution to the automatic weapons of modern warfare. His was the first water-cooled machine gun mounted inside a tank during World War! It took up too much space so he developed a lighter version with a perforated metal jacket in lieu of the water-cooled jacket. By the time World War II came he had the M1919A4, air-cooled, LMG ready for ground troops.

The air-cooled guns, A4s and A6s, were much easier to move and lighter to carry than the water-cooled .30 or air-cooled .50 caliber. I missed out on the early, mobile part of the war. Gunnery Sergeant Lynch, our Weapons Company Gunny, Third Battalion, Fifth marines, said the stable, accurate fire of the water-cooled .30 augmented with the A4 and A6 plus the .50 cal during the early part of the war made a lasting impression on the North Koreans. The water-cooled gun could maintain its maximum useable rate of fire of 250 rounds per minute with a careful gunner on the trigger as long as the water lasted in the jacket. He said that due to the below-zero degree weather in the frozen Taktong Pass there was no way to keep water in it. They did not, as was available later, have anti-freeze to put in the jacket. Maybe the U.S. Army did at that time. Gunny said it was standard marine Corps anti-freeze when Jarheads filed by to urinate in the can which was in turn poured into the water jacket. He said the evaporation catch-can was hopefully down wind when the gun began to fire and heated up the liquid contents of the jacket! He said the aroma was worse than taking a leak on a campfire to put it out! After the MLR was established along the 38 parallel machine gun positions became fairly stable in that once the fields of fire were established and the guns were registered and laid on targets they stayed that way. Relieving units just traded tripods, leaving the one already sand-bagged in and ready for the replacement gun. Guns were moved, of course, when incoming moved them or forced a machine gun crew to relocate. They generally had an alternate position for such times. The Chinese also had light and heavy machine guns. During the last year and a half of the war they too laid their guns with a high degree of accuracy. They also generally had the high ground and could pour plunging fire down into our trench lines that happened to line up with their guns. We dug zig-zag trenches to off set their accuracy, but it was still a thrill to get a burst thrown at you while running down the trench. Their Heavy Maxim machine guns dug in on the Arrowhead, Hill 67, seemed to start out slow and then steadily get faster the longer they fired until they sounded like sewing machines. It was fascinating to hear.

Corporals Mosely and Patten of Tennessee and West Virginia manned a .50 caliber gun that they could mount a scope on. The steady “chung, chung” of their gun provided the bass to the chorus of baritones of the BARs and the altos of the M1s when a sector of the MLR began its song in response to the Chinese. The .50 of Mosely and Patten was key in helping to hold the line during the enemy assaults on Outposts Berlin and East Berlin as well as Outpost Vegas. On a lighter side, Corporal Williams once responded to a “Lonely Hearts” magazine ad. In no time he was getting all the mail at mail-call! One of his ploys, which brought him profound words of concern from his lovelies, was to tell them that he was writing his letter by the light of the belching flame from his buddies’ .50 caliber machine gun! They never thought to ask him why he didn’t write during daylight. The .50 with the scope was a wicked sniper weapon. Mosely and Patten would register the gun on a section of enemy trail or trench line and then wait until a spotter gave a call on their land-line phone that an enemy soldier just stepped into their line of fire. Then “chung!” that bolt went home on the .50 and a Chinese soldier was either dead, wounded, or scared half to death. The .50 could be fired on semi-automatic or fully automatic. A light-fingered gunner could tap out single shots with the butterfly trigger. The effective range of the 710 grain bullet was 2500 yards. Mosely and Patten, with the scope mounted .50, used every bit of that 2500 yards. Just a show of a shoulder or arm was enough of a target for them. They hit more than they missed.

The rifle grenades were designed to be fired from both the M-1 Garand and the M-1 & M2 Carbines. A special launcher was attached to the end of the barrel in which the rifle grenade was inserted. Special cartridges were needed to propel the grenade. If the regular ball ammunition were accidentally used it would detonate the grenade in the launcher. I never saw that happen but there was always the possibility. There was a special sight that could be attached to the side of the rifle with a leveling bubble to provide more accuracy. This was rarely used. The grenade was usually fired at bunkers and trench lines within 50 yards using Kentucky Windage with the butt of the rifle anchored against the ground. There were smoke, pyrotechnic, fragmentation and anti-tank type of rifle grenades. The anti-tank grenades contained a shaped charge just like the rockets in the 3.5 inch launchers. The objective was the same, deep penetration with shrapnel splayed inside the target, either tank or fortified position. There was an auxiliary cartridge, the M7, to give greater range to the projectile which was inserted in the end of the launcher. This was an arm buster and never to be fired from the shoulder! Because the rifle grenades were not all that accurate the 3.5 rocket launcher was the preferred weapon for taking fortified positions.

The grenades that we used were of three categories: 1) fragmentation 2) offensive 3) chemical. The serrated fragmentation grenade with a 4-5 second delay was said to have 48 segments, like a pineapple, and to break into that many fragments when detonated. I counted the segments on several and never found them to have 48! Even though Corporals O’Dell, Johnson and Manning had to be the toughest and best of all drill instructors we wondered how many times they had collected fragments to verify such a claim even if they had survived the Frozen Chosin! We didn’t dare ask, fearing we would have to do it! The grenade was armed by a twisting pull of the safety ring which pulled the pin from the safety lever or spoon. The spoon, held firmly in place after the pin was pulled, kept the striker from making its forward rotation to strike and ignite the primer and fuse. The fuse burned for 4-5 seconds, down into the detonator and TNT charge. No one pulled them with their teeth as depicted in some movies. A sure way to break teeth! The fragmentation grenade was both an offensive and defensive weapon. Grenades were our first response to a Chinese probe or assault. If the probe was light then an encounter with our grenades was usually enough to deter them without giving away our positions by firing in the dark of night. It seemed that one Chinese soldier’s assignment was to wander up and down No-Man’s-Land, occasionally firing his burp gun to see if he could draw fire. The 60-mm. mortars answered him. If any rifleman on line answered him a 76-mm. gun was sure to reply with its screaming round. We did, however, experiment with a faster and quieter way to arm our grenades. I can’t remember who should get credit for this one. We would slip the blade of our bayonet or KBar knife over the top of the primer cap, pull the safety pin, let the spoon release the striker, and the blade would stop the striker from activating the primer and fuse. Then, very gently, we would ease the blade out from under the striker and let it rest on the primer cap. By striking two grenades tops together the strikers were driven home, and we could toss them without the give-away “spong” of the spoon flying off, which was the standard way. What an ingenious technique! We would neatly line these ever-ready grenades up on the earthen shelf in our fighting holes and wait for the Chinese. We soon learned that when the incoming started rearranging our position the grenades ended up in the bottom of the trench with us. We didn’t know if the strikers had been hit hard enough to start the detonating process or not! The result was a panic, tossing of grenades over the side! Some had indeed been ready to detonate and others lay out front until incoming detonated them. The loss of that technique wasn’t all that disappointing to us. Someone soon figured out another way to increase the distance we could throw our grenades. Most of us were country boys raised making sling-shots for hunting frogs and such. An idle tire innertube was liberated from the back of a 6By truck hauling sandbags to the MLR. It soon became unrecognizable in the form of long strips anchored to two tall poles we embedded in the wall of the trench line. The pocket for holding the grenade was an orphaned helmet liner. Grenades were a precious item so we had to wait until we test fired our weapons in the afternoon to test our system.

The offensive or concussion grenade contained a charge of TNT with a 4-5-second fuse delay. It was designed to stun. It was used in raids and ambushes with the hopes of stunning the enemy in order to get a prisoner. I don’t know of it working to that end, as we never got any prisoners on any of the raids or combat patrols I was on. The few prisoners I saw gave up on their own after everything and everybody was blown away from incoming and over whelming fire-power. The Chinese also had a concussion grenade with a yellow wooden handle and pull ring on a string. They used them a lot. Some of their grenadiers had the grenades held in pockets sewn along the front of their uniforms with the rings fastened into the uniform. They could flip two grenades at a time with the grenade arming as it reached the end of the string fastened to them. It must have taken a lot of practice to perfect. The Chinese brought cases of them with them when they hit Outposts Carson, Reno and Vegas.

The chemical grenades varied from smoke for signaling or screening, white phosphorus for assault and defense, tear gas, and the thermite for melting and fusing metal. There was another one we called the “light bulb” or illuminating grenade. It didn’t give out all that much light and it didn’t burn long enough to really do any good except mark a target or your position. We learned one very valuable use for it: the ignition of raw flame-thrower fuel. During the last week of the war when the Chinese were trying to push us off our hills my anti-tank assault section was part of the 16 marines holding Outpost Dagmire. The Chinese jumped off on us just after dark. The .76-mm. and grazing machine gun fire was like rain coming horizontally. Shrapnel tore through the aperture of Wilcox’s light .30 bunker, ripping the perforated jacket half off, burying the gun, and blowing him out into the trench. The first assault line of the enemy made it into our forward trench just north of Wilcox’s position. We held the rest of the outpost through the night and into early morning. It was suicide to try and open up with the flame thrower. Our trench line positions were slowly being eaten away by the incoming. I grabbed one of our two flame throwers and crawled forward, dragging it, until I knew the gelatin napalm fuel could reach the enemy-held trench section. I opened the fuel valve, and by laying on my side I shot the raw fuel over onto the enemy. They must have thought we had screwed up, and the matches of the flame thrower wouldn’t ignite. What a surprise was coming! Wilcox tossed the light bulb right behind the fuel, and that part of the world lit up! Marines seem to come up with just the right thing if we’re mashed hard enough. They withdrew, and we went back to repairing our positions.

Satchel charges are explosives contained in a canvas haversack (bag) with a short, looped carrying strap. The explosives are usually of three kinds: TNT in half pound or one pound blocks, Tetrytol in eight-inch prima cord connecting blocks of 2 ½ pounds each, or composition 3 (C3) in 2 ½ pound blocks. C3, with the fastest exploding rate of 26,000 feet a second followed by Tetrytol at 23,000 feet per second, and lastly TNT at 21,000 feet per second. Prima cord or detonating cord has the same rate as TNT. Each full satchel charge bag weighs 22 pounds. We usually broke them down to half size, which made it easier to sling into a bunker or trench line. We rigged or primed the satchel charge with two detonating sources. One, with the blasting cap inserted into the explosive having a longer fuse, say 10 inches long, would protrude from the bag. A 12-inch fuse would generally burn 30 to 45 seconds. The exterior fuse was readily visible. The second primer was hidden inside the bag with a slightly shorter fuse, the reason being that an enemy saw the longer fuse burning and spent time yanking it out to keep the explosive while all the time the shorter one reached its point of detonation. Sometimes enemy would just grab the charge and toss it back at you. There was no time to grab it and throw it back. This was avoided by tying the satchel charge to a pole long enough to reach the target and then held in place until it detonated. Our demolition training included how to lay close to such an explosion and suffer the least consequences. This was done by resting on the arms folded under us with helmet towards the charge. Most of an explosion goes up and out. If one is flat on the ground and very near to such an explosion it can force body fluids out. C3 and TNT are fairly safe combat explosives: that is they can sustain a direct hit without exploding until they are primed with blasting cap and fuse. Improvised charges are just that, an explosive charge made up of whatever is handy that, under explosive force, can kill or maim an enemy. A good one is to roll barbed wire around a ball of C3 plastic explosive and rig it to a firing board to detonate when the enemy approaches. We mixed the dry, flaked gelatin for napalm with gasoline in five-gallon jerry cans rigged with C3 that was wired back to a master firing board on the MLR or outpost. Each of the two wires coming from the charge are attached to a nail driven into the master board. When the enemy comes a battery wire closes the circuit of the nails and detonates the charge. The explosion ignites the napalm, and the approaching Chinese reap the results. These master firing boards go by the wayside if incoming cuts the wire which happened more times than not. When standard demolition explosives were not available we begged black powder increment bags from the artillerymen. Black powder has a major drawback for assault purposes. If it gets the least amount of oxygen it burns very well, instead of exploding! Sgt. Allen Kelley and I drew the task of blowing up the newly dug bunkers of the Chinese on a hill called the Yoke. A rifle fire team, Kelley and I slipped through our gun gate and headed across no-man’s-land separating the Chinese lines from our MLR. The fall rain made quiet movement easy. The fire team set up just off the trail leading into the Chinese positions. Kelley and I loaded with two 155 shell casings stuffed with artillery black powder and prima cord around C3 eased our way into the Chinese trenches. All was quiet. The trench was about 9 feet deep and getting deeper towards the first bunker. Tools and empty cloth sacks littered the trench deck. The trench was getting too tight for Kelley’s frame. We finally got to the first bunker and laid our canisters. We had test packed other canister charges of black powder to see if they would detonate. They did. We yanked the fuse lighters, all four of them, with a one-minute time, which would give us time to get back out of the trench. The fuses ignited as they were supposed to. Just as we got to the first sharp turn in the trench both canisters erupted into a skyward-seeking torch of flame and smoke! No explosion. The whole world lit up, and Chinese came running out of holes not believing their eyes. We heard a lot of hollering, but not one round was fired at us as we joined the fire team and hauled it for home! Their 82s started whispering in on us as we dove into our trench line. The jarring in packing the canisters out to the Yoke must have broken the mud seal we had filled the end of the canisters with. We now thought it best to wait for a re-supply of C3.