Attacking in a New Direction

In November 1950 the 1st Marine Division pushed north into the mountains of North Korea on one narrow road, under orders to reach the Chinese border. Its commander, Maj. Gen. O.P. Smith, did not trust the quiet and prepared for the worst. On the night of 27 November, about 120,000 Chinese troops sprang a trap around the Chosin Reservoir. Smith’s answer was to attack, toward the sea.

1. 15–26 November · Hagaru-ri

   The careful general

   The division is ordered north toward the Yalu on a single mountain road. Smith slows down. He writes the Commandant that he does not like stringing out a Marine division along one road for 120 air miles. He stocks ammunition and rations at Hagaru-ri and puts his engineers to work around the clock, under floodlights, carving an airstrip out of the frozen ground.

2. 27 November · 22:00

   The trap springs

   The 5th and 7th Marines are at Yudam-ni, 14 miles past Hagaru-ri, and the temperature is falling to 20 below. At about 22:00 the Chinese 89th and 79th Divisions hit the ridges around the village with submachine guns, grenades and mortars. A third division, the 59th, swings south to cut the road behind them. Rifle companies lose hilltops and win some back hand to hand. At dawn the Marines still hold Yudam-ni.

3. 28 November · 02:30

   Fox Hill

   On Toktong Pass, between Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri, Capt. William Barber’s Fox Company, 7th Marines, about 240 men, holds a hill. At 02:30 a Chinese regiment hits it. Pvt. Hector Cafferata, his fire team down around him and his boots lost in the dark, fights on alone, kills fifteen of the enemy and throws a live grenade out of a trench full of wounded Marines. Fox Company has 20 dead and 54 wounded by daylight. It does not move.

4. 27 November – 1 December · East of the reservoir

   Task Force Faith

   Across the reservoir, about 2,500 soldiers of the Army’s 31st Regimental Combat Team hold out against Chinese attacks for four days and nights. On 1 December Lt. Col. Don Faith leads them south with hundreds of wounded on the trucks, pistol in hand at the roadblocks, until a grenade kills him. He earns the Medal of Honor. Survivors walk across the ice to Hagaru-ri, and Marine Lt. Col. Olin Beall drives out onto the ice and brings in 319 more.

5. 1 December · 14:30

   The airstrip

   After twelve days of work, the Hagaru-ri strip is 2,900 feet long and only 40 percent finished, well short of what the manuals demand at 4,000 feet of altitude. Smith uses it anyway. At 14:30 the first Air Force C-47 touches down on the frozen snow and lifts off half an hour later with 24 wounded. In five days, transports fly out 4,312 Marines, soldiers and Royal Marines, and fly in 537 replacements.

6. 1–4 December · Yudam-ni to Hagaru-ri

   The Ridgerunners

   The two regiments come out of Yudam-ni with their wounded on the trucks. Only drivers and the badly hurt ride. Lt. Col. Ray Davis takes his 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, off the road and over the mountains at night, through knee-deep snow. Just before noon on 2 December they reach Fox Hill, held for five days and six nights. On the evening of 3 December, Davis’s battalion marches into Hagaru-ri singing the Marines’ Hymn.

7. 5–7 December · Hagaru-ri to Koto-ri

   A new direction

   When a British correspondent at Hagaru-ri calls the move a retreat, Smith corrects him. A surrounded division has no rear, so it cannot retreat. It can only attack in a new direction. At 06:30 on 6 December the 7th Marines lead out for Koto-ri, 11 miles south. The Chinese hit the column all night. Artillerymen fire their howitzers point-blank and the division band mans machine guns. By 17:00 on 7 December the 7th Marines are in Koto-ri.

   Smith’s answer, as the newspapers printed itRetreat, hell! We’re just attacking in a new direction.
8. 7–10 December · Funchilin Pass

   Sixteen feet

   Col. Chesty Puller’s 1st Marines have held Koto-ri since the trap closed. Three and a half miles south, the Chinese have blown the bridge over the power-plant penstocks, leaving a 16-foot gap between a cliff and a sheer drop. On 7 December Air Force C-119s parachute eight 2,500-pound Treadway bridge sections into Koto-ri. On 9 December engineers lay the span in about three hours, with two inches to spare for the tanks. Puller’s regiment comes down last.

   

   Col. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller to his 1st Marines, December 1950Don’t you forget that you’re Marines — First Marines! Not all the communists in hell can overrun you!
9. 11–15 December · Hungnam

   To the sea

   At 13:00 on 11 December the last units pass through Chinhung-ni. By 21:00 most of the division is in its assembly areas around Hamhung and Hungnam, where a tent camp and hot chow are waiting. On 13 December Smith joins his Marines at the division cemetery for a memorial service, with volleys and taps, then moves his command post aboard the transport Bayfield. She sails on 15 December.