In Mortal Combat: Korea, 1950-1953 by Toland John

Author:Toland, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504025652
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2016-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

4.

On the opposite side of the reservoir, Task Force Faith had spent a relatively quiet November 30th. Soon after dawn Captain Stamford had his Marine planes on station, and there was little sign of enemy activity. Just before noon a helicopter landed at a clearing near the battalion CP. The unexpected visitor was General Barr, the division commander, who had just come from meetings with Almond and Smith. He brusquely passed those greeting him and hurried in to see Faith.

After his return to Hagaru-ri, Barr told General Smith Faith’s greatest problem was 500 wounded he must evacuate before he could try to make a breakout. But Barr believed that Faith could probably do it if he had strong Marine support.

At 2:10 P.M., Almond began a conference with his commanders in pyramidal tents set up on the airstrip. Obviously shaken by the disastrous Task Force Drysdale ambush and the precarious position of the two Marine regiments near Yudam-ni, he told them their situation had changed drastically. He was a far different man from the Almond who had told Faith not to fear a few Chinese laundrymen. X Corps, he said, was going to abandon the Chosin area. The very survival of the corps was at stake, he added, striking a note of alarm. Then came his order to withdraw the two Marine regiments; Almond ordered Barr to prepare a plan and time schedule for withdrawing Task Force Faith the following day, December 1.

The next morning, Colonel Faith prepared his breakout. Just before noon he ordered Captain Robbins to get the trucks warmed up and load the wounded aboard. Moments later a mortar round knocked Robbins sideways. He was hit by fragments in the arm and leg. Stunned, he saw that his carbine had been blown from his hand. Several rounds in the clip had exploded and the slide mechanism wouldn’t work. He was soon bandaged and hoisted aboard a truck along with Private Ed Reeves and other wounded, while artillery gunners dropped phosphorus grenades down the muzzles of guns they would leave behind. Drivers were setting afire those vehicles to be abandoned. Leading the column was the 3rd Platoon of C Company with an M-19, a dual-40 antiaircraft full-track vehicle.

Then came a jeep mounting a .30-caliber machine gun, followed by the command group. Captain Stamford was stationed only twenty yards behind the point. He would control air strikes on Faith’s orders. Major Dick Miller, Faith’s exec, was also up front. Behind came some thirty-five trucks filled with hundreds of wounded. Troops marched on both sides of the truck column.

When the lead platoon passed through A Company’s roadblock, enemy machine-gun and small-arms fire broke out. Although some men were hit, the column kept moving. Faith instructed Stamford to call in an air strike. Corporal John Durham saw a plane drop a napalm tank and watched aghast as it threw up a wall of fire over a group of GIs. It was the most horrible thing he’d ever seen. Men were screaming in

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