East of Chosin Read online

  View of Hagaru-ri, at the south end of Chosin Reservoir (upper left), looking northeast. East Hill, on the east side of the remains of Hagaru-ri, shows at top right. The 1st Marine Division had a defense perimeter around the destroyed town. US Marine Corps photograph A 5679.

  The 1916 data maps issued to the troops showed the narrow-gauge railroad ending at the western base of Hill 1221, about 2'h miles north of Hudong-ni. In fact, by 195o it had been built almost to the Fusen Reserv oir, following the drainage of the Pungnyuri-gang upstream to a divide that separated that drainage from another, which fed into the Fusen Reservoir. There the track ended, apparently awaiting the construction of an incline, or a tunnel, to carry it on to the Fusen Reservoir.

  Once troops had been ordered to the Chosin Reservoir area, X Corps assigned the 73rd Engineer Battalion to improve and maintain the main supply road (MSR) from Hamhung to Chinhung-ni; the 185th Engineer Battalion had a similar responsibility for the road from Chinhung-ni to Hagaru-ri.2

  MAP 3. The Chosin Reservoir scene of action.

  Typical terrain in northeast Korea: a narrow dirt road, rice paddies between road and stream, and precipitous mountains rising on either side. Shown here is an American tank-infantry team, interspersed with AAA AW weapons, advancing into enemy-held territory, February, i95i. Photograph courtesy of Maj. James R. McClymont.

  Lieutenant Colonel Edward L. Rowny, the X Corps engineer, was responsible for the work on the MSR from Hamhung to Chosin Reservoir. The most difficult part of the route was Funchilin Pass. A few months after the Chosin operation Rowny summarized what was done:

  The pass was a V-cut in the side of the hill from the coastal plain to the plateau, a climb of 4,000 feet from approximately Soo feet to 4,500 elevation. The road was blocked by snow on only one occasion for a duration of approximately 12 hours. Sand piles were stockpiled, snow stakes placed, plows procured, culverts constructed in order to prevent icing of road, narrow places widened, bridges strengthened and, in some cases, new bridges built. Construction of C-47 strips at Division HQ locations was a standard practice within X Corps, to provide against any type of interruption of the MSR by weather, combat action, land slides, etc. It was also to assist in command, evacuation and resupply. Approximately 15 miles of MSR were widened from one-way to two-way. By-passes were constructed around 20 bridges or defiles in order to make unlikely the blocking of traffic by bridges or defiles being blown by the enemy.;

  Section of the road climbing Funchilin Pass from Chinhung-ni to Koto-ri, a cliff on one side, a chasm on the other, i95o. Photograph courtesy of Brig. Gen. Edward A. Craig, US Marine Corps.

  When the 31st RCT arrived at the reservoir, it found that only one bridge north of Hagaru-ri had been destroyed. It was a modern span across the Paegamni-gang, a tributary to the reservoir from the east about S road miles above Hagaru-ri and just south of Hudong-ni. American planes had bombed the bridge. The Paegamni-gang at that point was a shallow stream during low water. The stream divided into two or more channels at the highway crossing, flowing through a mile-wide low, marshlike valley to the reservoir.

  The village of Sasu-ri lay in this low ground on the south side of the main stream of the Paegamni-gang at the bridge site. The 1st Marine Division sent A Company, 1st Engineers, to Sasu, a sawmill town, to get timbers to rebuild the bridge on the MSR. As a temporary measure the Marine engineers built a good bypass on the west side (downstream) of the blown bridge.4 It was used by all troops and traffic during the Chosin operation. Major Crosby P. Miller remembered the road well:

  While moving up to the new position, I took particular notice of the terrain. The single road running north along the east side of the reservoir was dirt and barely wide enough for two trucks to pass. The ground sloped up steeply from the reservoir and was deeply cut by many stream lines leading to the lake level. The road twisted up and down over these crosscompartments, usually running around the widest inlets but crossing the narrow streams by narrow wooden bridges. The one modern concrete bridge at Sasu-ri (5475) on the entire stretch of road from Hagaru-ri to the battalion position had been blown. However, this stream was fordable by vehicles just below the bridge site. A narrow gauge railroad ran along the edge of the reservoir, at times running parallel to the road and then leaving the road in favor of more level terrain on the shoreline. The railroad crossed streams on its own unfloored wooden trestle. The reservoir itself was frozen over to a sufficient thickness of ice to support foot troops. I have been told since that the temperature was approximately twenty-seven degrees below zero. This was further aggravated by a piercing wind which never ceased.5

  On November 20, General Barr had begun moving the 32nd RCT from the Kujang-ni area to an assembly area nearly 20o road miles to the northeast, behind the 17th Regiment, which was then approaching Hyesanjin and the Yalu River border. At the end of November 21 the 1st Battalion was all alone in "Happy Valley," as the troops called their pleasant bivouac area near Kujang-ni. The battalion was to follow the rest of the regiment to the Yalu as soon as a unit from the 3rd Infantry Division arrived to relieve it in place.

  Meanwhile, 2nd Lt. Robert C. Kingston, a platoon leader of K Company, 32nd Regiment, led the regimental advance on Singpaljin, on the Yalu, west of Hyesanjin. Kingston arrived there on November 28 but barely had time to look at the Yalu River before he was ordered to turn back to Hungnam. Thus the 7th Infantry Division reached the Yalu in two places in November, ig5o, the only American troops ever to reach the Yalu River and the Korean border.

  The 7th Division, with a minor exception, had met no Chinese soldiers, only scattered and retreating North Koreans. The exception occurred when the 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry, encountered some reconnaissance units of the Chinese 376th Regiment of the 126th Division near the Fusen Reservoir between November 8 and 16. After brief exchanges of fire and skirmishing, the Chinese units departed, having learned that the power plant at the Fusen Reservoir had never been completed.6

  Back at "Happy Valley," anticipating that a relief force would arrive on the morning of November 23, Lt. Col. Don C. Faith, Jr., commander of the ist Battalion, sent Maj. Robert E. Jones, the ist Battalion S-i and adjutant, with a quartering party to the battalion's designated new assembly area near Pukchong, the 7th Division's rear CP. During the day the 3rd Division relief battalion arrived.

  By dawn of the 24th the 1st Battalion, of more than i,ooo men-715 Americans and 30o Koreans attached to the US Army (KATUSA)-left "Happy Valley" at Kujang-ni for their day-long 16o-mile road trip to Pukchong.7 Earlier that morning Faith had gone ahead to get his orders from the regimental commander at Pukchong. He had instructed his executive officer, Major Miller, to bring the battalion along behind him.

  About 9:00 A.M. the ist Battalion approached the northern outskirts of Hamhung, where it was met by a 7th Division liaison officer from X Corps, who told Major Miller to halt the battalion and report to the G-3, X Corps Headquarters, for instructions. The liaison officer was supposed to have stopped the battalion commander also, but Faith had already passed through Hamhung. Faith, now out of communication with his battalion, continued on to Pukchong, where he learned of the change in plans.

  After stopping the 1st Battalion in the outskirts of Hamhung, Miller reported to X Corps Headquarters, where he met Generals Almond and Barr. Barr informed Miller that he was to take the battalion north to the area of the 1st Marine Division and to proceed down the east side of the Chosin Reservoir as far as possible. He told Miller that the 1st Battalion was now attached to the 1st Marine Division.8

  While Miller received his new orders at the X Corps CP, Maj. Wesley J. Curtis, the battalion S-3, assembled the battalion in a schoolyard close to the road. Men in the battalion cheered a radio news broadcast from the Far East Command that Eighth Army that morning had launched its offensive to end the war and that it expected some divisions to be back in Japan by Christmas.

  When Miller rejoined him, Curtis learned that the ist Battalion was to relieve the Sth Marine Regiment on the
east side of Chosin Reservoir and wait there for the arrival of other 7th Division units.

  At 11:30 A.M. on November 24, Curtis started north with guides to locate a battalion assembly area for the night. Miller would follow with the battalion in half an hour. Curtis reached the village of Chinhung-ni, at the foot of Funchilin Pass, where the road started its climb to the Koto-ri Plateau. There he found a suitable assembly area. During the evening orders were issued that the battalion movement would continue at 6:30 A.M.'

  Lieutenant Colonel Faith, in the meantime, had driven all the way to Pukchong, and only upon arrival there did he learn that his battalion had been ordered to the Chosin Reservoir. He started back immediately on the lonely road. Half an hour after midnight he arrived at Chinhung-ni and there rejoined his battalion. The night was intensely cold and was noisy from the heavy traffic on the MSR. The troops slept poorly.

  With Faith's arrival the three principal officers of the battalion were together again. All had had experience in World War II. Faith had commanded the battalion for more than a year, ever since the 7th Division had been reorganized in Japan. From Virginia, he had enlisted in the army on June 25, 1941. Eight months later, on February 26, 1942, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry from the Fort Benning Officer Candidate School (OCS). During World War II he served as aide to General Ridgway for more than three years, advancing to lieutenant colonel. After several assignments in the Pacific and in the United States at the end of the war, he served on General Barr's joint military advisory group in China.

  In 1949, Faith was ordered to Japan to command the ist Squadron of the 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. When the 32nd Infantry was organized in Japan, the 1st Squadron became a nucleus of the new regiment, and Barr, now commanding the 7th Infantry Division, named Faith commander of the 32nd's 1st Battalion. On November 24, 195o, Faith, 32 years old, was one day away from Chosin Reservoir, but except for the limited experience in the Inchon Landing in September he had never commanded any kind of military organization in combat.

  Faith was of athletic build, 6 feet tall, and he wore a crew cut on his black hair. His eyes and complexion were dark, reflecting partial Spanish heritage. He was friendly, forceful, and charismatic to his enlisted men and officers alike.b0

  Major Crosby P. Miller, the battalion executive officer, graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, Virginia, in the class of 1940 with a degree in civil engineering. From his ROTC training he obtained a commission as second lieutenant on May 31, 1940 and entered the Army. He served in World War II in Europe as armor officer, tank platoon leader, commander of several different tank companies, and adjutant, S-3, and S-2 for a tank battalion. After the war, in July, 1946, Miller received a commission as first lieutenant in the Regular Army. Immediately after completing the advance course at the Armor School in 1950, he was ordered to the Far East Command. There he was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division, which in turn reassigned him to its 32nd Regiment, and from there he went to its 1st Battalion. Miller was one of hundreds of armor officers who, in Korea, were assigned to infantry vacancies. After Inchon and Seoul, Lieu tenant Colonel Faith felt assured that Miller could function as an infantry officer, and he let him don the crossed rifles as his insignia)!

  Lt. Col. Don C. Faith, Jr., talking over his SCR 300 radio in the summer of 1950 during battalion maneuvers in Japan before going to Korea. Photograph courtesy of Col. Wesley J. Curtis.

  Major Wesley J. Curtis, the battalion S-3, or operations officer, enlisted in I Company, 17th Infantry, in 1938, when he was 20 years old. While he was in that company, he received an appointment as a cadet to West Point. Graduating in the class of January, 1943, Curtis was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant. He was sent to the Pacific Theater and served as an infantry officer for 34 months in the noted "Wolfhound Regiment," the 27th Infantry of the 25th Division. In that period Curtis moved successively through platoon leader, company executive officer, company commander, and regimental S-4. He had just completed the 9-month Infantry School course on battalion tactics at Fort Benning in June, 195o, when he was sent to Japan for assignment in Korea. He ended up in the 7th Infantry Division and was sent to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry. Curtis was 32 years old, the same age as Faith. He was of medium height, modest, a student of military affairs, and a steady

  On the morning of November 25 the traffic officer at the regulating point would not allow the ist Battalion to proceed at once up Funchilin Pass because traffic in some places was one way. He did agree, however, to let a small party start at once, and Faith, Curtis, the operations sergeant, and the sergeant major left Chinhung-ni at 6:0o A.M. in two vehicles. Miller was to bring the battalion up the pass as soon as traffic conditions would allow. He started half an hour later.

  On top of the plateau at Koto-ri, Faith and his party found the road covered with snow and ice. Directional signs began to appear pointing the way to various 1st Marine Division units. Upon reaching Hagaru-ri,1 Y2 miles south of the reservoir, Faith's party took the right-hand road and entered the 5th Marine Regiment's zone of responsibility.13

  About 9:0o A.M., a mile north of Hagaru-ri, Faith met Lt. Col. Raymond L. Murray coming south. Murray told him that his Marine CP was with one of his battalions on the south side of the Pungnyuri-gang, a large inlet stream emptying into the reservoir 8 miles north of Hagaru-ri, and that his lead 3rd Battalion was in a perimeter defense position about 4 miles beyond his CP. Murray assigned an assembly area for Faith's battalion 2 miles south of his own CP. It was on low but dry ground around the village of Twiggae and the lower, southern slope of Hill 1221, immediately north of Twiggae. Part of Murray's 5th Marines had occupied the area and had established defensive positions, bunkers and foxholes, on the hill, facing north. These positions commanded the road below to the north, east, and southeast. Murray instructed Faith to occupy this position with at least defensive outposts.

  Capt. Robert F. Haynes (left) and Maj. (later Col.) Wesley J. Curtis in Japan in August or September, 1950, before the Inchon Landing. Photograph courtesy of Colonel Curtis.

  Murray added that the 1st Battalion had not been attached to the 5th Marines but that he would take control of it in case of an enemy attack. He explained that he had not yet received definite orders for his anticipated movement to the west side of the reservoir but expected to receive them the next morning. He then continued on his way for a reconnaissance of the position he expected to occupy at Yudam-ni.14

  Meanwhile, Miller led the battalion up the twisting and sometimes narrow road of Funchilin Pass. The trucks jolted over the bumpy, frozen, mostly snow-covered road. The mountainsides were almost bare of vegetation; some low spots resembled arctic tundra. If the men, most of them with their heads wrapped in wool scarves under their helmets, glanced northward as they passed through Hagaru-ri and started down the east side of the reservoir, they saw distant mountains standing ever higher over an almost trackless waste, sentinels for one of Korea's most inaccessible areas. It reached into the Yangnim Range, where peaks rose to 8,ooo feet.

  The battalion closed in to its assembly area at Hill 1221 about 3:00 P.M. The CP was established in a Korean hut on the lower slope of the hill. From it there was a clear view westward to the Chosin Reservoir, a mile away. The battalion established a partly closed perimeter, occupying the high ground on both sides of the road. Major Curtis and others described this position as the strongest they saw on the east side of the reservoir.' The weather was cold and threatened more snow, which already covered the ground.

  Second Lieutenant James 0. Mortrude and his 3rd Platoon of C Company relieved a Marine squad still manning a ridgeline position on Hill 1221. Mortrude put his platoon in the foxholes the Marines had vacated and organized his position for night security. He wanted maximum troop rest, but two men in each squad area were to remain awake at all times. Mortrude gave himself the 2:00 A.M. "witching-hour" shift."b

  That evening Faith, Curtis, Major Powell (the S-2), and Capt. Erwin B
. Bigger (commanding D Company, heavy weapons) met Lieutenant Colonel Murray at the latter's CP at the inlet near Sinhung-ni. Murray told them that during the day Lieutenant Colonel Taplett, commanding the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, had sent a platoon-size reconnaissance patrol, including two tanks, from his forward perimeter down the road toward Kalchon-ni, a village near the dam at the lower end of the reservoir. It had encountered and scattered a few small groups of Chinese soldiers, killing five and capturing one, and had destroyed an abandoned 75-mm gun. The patrol, finding no evidence of large-scale enemy activity, had turned back just short of the northern tip of the reservoir. Taplett had made a helicopter reconnaissance over the same area and farther north but had observed no sign of significant enemy activity. Little was known of the enemy situation or of enemy plans for future operations."

  MAP 4. Movement of the 31st RCT to Chosin Reservoir, November 24- 27, 1950.

  After the meeting with Murray, Faith and his staff drove north 4 miles to Taplett's 3rd Battalion at its hill perimeter astride the road. There they made a partial inspection of the Marine position.

  The night of November 25-26 passed quietly on the east side of the reservoir, and Sunday dawned cold and clear. At officers' breakfast mess that morning Lieutenant Mortrude created a small disturbance by reporting to Capt. Dale L. Seever, his C Company commander, on night-security laxness. As Mortrude tells it:

  Awakened 0200. Weather very cold with fresh snow falling. Checked platoon area and found only one man awake. Awakened Platoon Sergeant and required him to organize walking security patrols in each squad area for remainder of night. Visited adjacent platoon areas and found same situation of "no challenge" and only one or two people awake along entire company front. Returned to my platoon area and found guard up and functioning as desired. Got into sleeping bag at 0400 hours and slept remainder of night.