History Pgs.102-141
10/9/06
5:45 PM
Page 115
THE MARINES
Frozen Chosin (North Korea, 1950)
Collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps
Ironically, the Marines’
there were undeniable signs that Red Chinese “volunteers” were crossing the Yalu in force, and there remained sizable NKPA units in the area to engage and defeat. While any redblooded Marine would take pride in being the first to reach the Yalu River, Smith would not permit any unwise “race” north. While Chesty Puller’s [1st Marines] kept the last NKPA fighting units at bay, General Smith sent the main body of the division north along the mountain track that twisted and turned for seventy-eight miles from the port of Hungnam to the western shoreline of the Chosin Reservoir, site of a valuable hydroelectric facility. The one-lane gravel road that wound north among the towering Taebaeks led first through the villages of Sudong-ni and Chinhungni, then threaded through tortuous Funchilin Pass to Koto-ri and Hagaru-ri, the latter on the southern shore of the reservoir. Smith didn’t like anything about this route. While his infantry could, with difficulty, cover the mountainous ridges on both sides, his tanks, artillery, and supply trucks were hopelessly roadbound for most of the way. Enemy destruction of any one of many bridges over otherwise impassable chasms would bottle up the Marine convoy dangerously. Evacuating casualties from that rugged country so far from the sea would be chancy at best. Colonel Homer Litzenberg’s 7th Marines led the way north and almost immediately engaged a Chinese Communist division in a five-day battle around Sudong-ni. Once again Marine Corsairs, these flown by the smart-mouth pilots of MAG-12 out of Wonsan, came slicing out of the clouds to chew up PLA formations with rockets, napalm, and machine guns.
greatest battle occurred during one of the nation’s most bitter military defeats, the routing of American and Allied forces in upper North Korea by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Red China. For the United States, top-level arrogance and an abysmal disregard of strategic intelligence very nearly led to the annihilation of the 1st Marine Division. China’s abrupt entry into the war placed the Old Breed Marines in desperate straits – seventy-eight miles from their sea base, surrounded by seven PLA divisions, and burdened with thousands of wounded and frost-bitten casualties at the onset of the coldest winter ever recorded along the Manchurian border. Many officials in Washington considered the Marines a lost cause – trapped, isolated, doomed. Instead, there ensued a tactical masterpiece, an unlikely epic fighting withdrawal of the stuff of legends, two weeks of extraordinary hardship and valor. No Marines ever had to fight under worse sustained conditions. At first it seemed so easy. MacArthur, having succeeded famously with his celebrated “lefthook” landing at Inchon, decided to use his Marines again for a “righthook” landing at Wonsan, on the east coast of North Korea, creating another hammer-and-anvil scenario against the still-retreating NKPA forces. These were heady days for the United Nations Command. Suggestive phrases like “the race to the Yalu” and “home by Christmas” captured the fancy of correspondents and raised false optimism among some of the troops. Smith suffered none of these delusions. The eastern sector of the Taebaek Mountains was nothing less than forbidding. Winter was coming,
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