The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 36 The Last Stand (2)
The level of training in each unit also varies greatly.The most important figures appear to be the "cultural instructors" who conduct "political education" at the company level.An Army intelligence review said North Korean soldiers lacked "thought and action agency" and that they were "uninformed and obeying orders because ... they are afraid of their officers."But cultural instructors instilled "a belief that they must fight for the common good and that individualism is a secondary and unpopular factor".Signals of any political ideology are "so slight that they are almost imperceptible".

But when North Korean infantry fighters went to war, they could not count on the comforts of American supply depots, such as paperback books and cans of beer.Army intelligence reports say:
North Korean infantrymen... all rough and strong, used to the daily hardships of life.Its equipment is simple and light: only a military uniform, a hand-held weapon, some ammunition and a small amount of personal items in the pockets.They wear light canvas rubber shoes, which are easy to pass through complex terrain (mountains and rice fields, etc.) quickly and persistently, which are better than soldiers equipped by our army.They survive on a relatively small amount of food, mostly foraged.When they are tired, they rest in the nearest shelter or in the wilderness, and a mat of grass is the bed.

Even when their units were disbanded due to casualties and losses, North Korean soldiers would discard their uniforms, wear whatever they could find from nearby civilian houses, and continue fighting either as individual soldiers or as impromptu guerrillas.

In late July, General Walker expressed frank displeasure at the inability of the 7st and 1th Cavalry Divisions to stop the North Koreans.They often retreated "under seemingly unnecessary circumstances" and "with panicked and broken troops".

Walker realized the need to establish a beachhead, and he also realized that his army was in danger of being flanked and sacrificed a lot.The North Koreans also now understand that they don't need to engage U.S. forces head-on, they just need to go around the flanks and attack from behind.

"Stay where you are!" - Walker

On July 7, Walker decided to try to withdraw his troops to a "preparation position", where he could hold out until the US and South Korean forces launched a counterattack; the time of withdrawal will be determined later.That same day, Walker called MacArthur's Far East Command and spoke with General Edward Almond, chief of staff of Far East Forces.The content of the conversation was revealed only from Almond's side, because Walker was killed six months later, but the result of the conversation left the two generals with each other.

Almond later told Army historian Roy Appleman that Walker requested approval to move his Eighth Army headquarters from Taegu to Pusan, and immediately.He is worried that the communication equipment will be damaged, and if it is destroyed or seized, it will be an irreparable loss.He believes that the North Koreans have already approached the city of Daegu, and these equipment are at stake.The 8th Army will enter the "retreat as planned" position and deploy defenses along the Nakdong River.

Two of Walker's senior officers denied that he had said anything about it.Eighth Army staff officers and their communications were not informed of the retreat plan until almost a month later, and the new headquarters was at Ulsan on the eastern coast, not Pusan.Even when these communications equipment was at risk in late August, "the head of the Eighth Army's staff ... no one proposed to transfer the headquarters to Pusan."

Almond said he would convey the request to MacArthur, but he believed "personally" that the transfer to Pusan ​​would have serious consequences for Eighth Army and South Korean forces.The retreat would lead South Korean forces to believe that the Eighth Army did not intend to stay in North Korea and "could be the harbinger of a total rout."

After speaking with Walker, Almond told MacArthur that the situation in North Korea was "precarious" and required his personal attention.He urged MacArthur to go to North Korea "immediately" to meet with Walker.Almond strongly hinted that he thought Walker's confidence had been shaken and that he needed the Supreme Commander's personal pep talk—or an ultimatum.So the next morning, MacArthur flew to Daegu with Almond and had a secret talk with Walker for 90 minutes.

According to Almond's recollection, MacArthur did not mention a word of Walker's request the day before, nor did he directly criticize his field commander.He just said that the 8th Army must stop retreating and hold its ground.There must be no "Dunkirk of North Korea" happening.

MacArthur's own memoirs did not mention this crucial meeting between him and Walker.However, despite MacArthur's careful words, he conveyed the message to Walker: the Eighth Army can be lost, no matter how many people are lost, and under any circumstances, the Eighth Army must stay on the spot—or live and die with the position .Army veteran Walker knows that well.Two days later, he explained his (and MacArthur's) intentions to General Keene and the 8th Division staff officers:
We are engaged in a war for time.No more retreats, retreats, or repositionings, or whatever else you want to say.We have no way out.

The units must fight back, leaving the enemy in disarray.There can be no reprint of Dunkirk, and no reprint of Bataan.Falling back to Pusan ​​would make it one of the greatest slaughterhouses in history.

We must fight to the end, and it is better to die than to be captured by those people.We are fighting as a team, and we will live and die together.

Whoever loses his position will be responsible for the death of thousands of comrades in arms.

I ask you to convey this order to everyone in the division.I want everyone to understand that we will stand our ground this time.We must win.

Walker's ultimatum-like order was communicated to every soldier on the battlefield, but the interpretation of the order was varied.One field officer said his men had been told the order meant "hold your ground and fight to the death"—an unfair order in a fight where there were no friendly troops to protect the flank.But one regiment commander said he and his men had "a great sense of relief" when they received the order.As the officer put it, when his troops dug their entrenchments, "every shovel dug a great deal of earth."

A few days later, Hanson Baldwin, a military commentator for The New York Times, wrote that "Walker's order to 'hold it in place'" was "a fitting rebuke to the Pentagon, which has been too zealous since the war broke out to exudes a reassurance of cheerfulness, light-heartedness and optimism."

历次战争的统计数字更加突显了沃克的困境。在第一次世界大战西欧的平原战场上，拥有1.2万至1.3万人的美军师坚守1.15万至1.85万码的防御正面。但是在朝鲜，韩国和美军师的兵力只及1918年师的一半，防御正面竟令人难以置信地达到10.36万码。（这是1950年8月第1师面对倭馆的情况。）
An internal review of Far East Command stated: "The front line is too long to defend or hold, even to be monitored by patrols. In terms of troop density, there are only one or two guards at an average distance of 10 yards, and there is nothing behind. Of course, there is no such loose deployment of rubber bands in actual combat. The gap that the North Koreans can penetrate is several miles wide...." Walker can only toss back and forth "his exhausted reserves, dealing with one after another a crisis".

the arrival of the marines

But in August 1950, General Walton Walker's line of defense showed a lifeline-the 8st Marine Brigade performed well, it was the advance unit sent by the 1st Marine Division to North Korea.The Marines have several inherent advantages over the Army: they are combat-trained in the U.S.; "Companies" are just that); they insist on dominating their own air support forces and have years of experience working together.In addition, the Marines arrived in North Korea in much stronger conditions than Army units because the Corps emphasized that soldiers had to go through tough quality training no matter what mission they performed.

The task that Walker gave to the Marine Corps was to stick to the left flank of the Pusan ​​defense circle, that is, the Jinju and Masan areas due west of Busan.The front of the brigade was the formidable North Korean 6th Infantry Division.The division played a major role in the capture of Seoul, after which it swept south along the west coast with little loss (only 8 casualties out of 000 men).The division commander, Major General Wei Fang, had every reason to be full of confidence when he told the troops on July 400: "Comrades, the morale of the enemy has plummeted. ... Our mission is ... to wipe out the remnants of the enemy ... to liberate Jinzhou and Masan. It is the last battle to cut the enemy's throat...Soldiers of the 7th Division, we must destroy the enemy and strive for meritorious service."

But the Marine Brigade brought the North Korean offensive to a screeching halt, with which they fought fiercely for some unnamed high ground, named only by the number of meters of their height.To the west of Zhendongli, there is a hill called Highland 342, which was compared by an officer to a molar on the flat ground. The Marine Corps first entered the battle on the hillside of this highland.In the blazing heat of late summer, hitting the summit required an unusually tenacious perseverance.The soldiers staggered and panted, "all exhausted and struggling to climb the steep hillside".The soldiers climbed a few steps and then slipped and fell back, cursing a few times.Some passed out and fell down the trail; others were hunched over, nauseated.But the sergeants and soldiers still maintained their formation and kept advancing.When they reached the summit they were fired upon, and the North Koreans and U.S. Marines exchanged fire.

Over the next few weeks, the Marines fought single-handedly with the North Koreans on the left flank of the Pusan ​​perimeter—probing their positions, retreating and charging.In the first few days, the Marine Corps even advanced, captured the two small cities of Goseong and Sacheon, and achieved the first major victory of the US military since the war began-"Goseong Turkey Shooting Battle".The battle went as follows:
Boldly breaking through barricades and ambushes, the Marines broke into the small town of Goseong, throwing the North Korean defenders into disarray.A convoy fled in a hurry and was chased by artillery fire from the Marine Corps.

Due to the speed of the vehicles and the time it took for the Marines' artillery to reload and re-aim, the North Korean convoy could have escaped.Coincidentally, a group of attack aircraft that had just taken off from the USS "Badong Strait" aircraft carrier was performing a search and attack mission. They were looking for targets over the area north of Goseong.The commander, Major Arnold Lund, and his pilots spotted a long list of tantalizing targets and swooped down.It was a North Korean motorized regiment of more than 100 vehicles, including jeeps, motorcycles and troop trucks.

Corsairs roared over the long convoy from low altitude, sweeping with rockets and machine guns.The North Koreans scattered and took cover in a hurry, vehicles smashed into each other or slid into ditches.After the convoy stopped moving forward, the Corsair planes calmly and repeatedly attacked the convoy and fired violently at the vehicles, causing thick smoke to be emitted from more than 40 vehicles.

A few hours later, when the attack was over, the spearhead of the Marines arrived at the site of the attack on the convoy.The soldiers tried out these beautiful black Soviet-made military jeeps and bucket motorcycles, most of which were still brand new, and the officers and non-commissioned officers just pretended not to see them.When the Marines opened the hood, they found that the Jeep's engine was a familiar Ford Motor Company product—apparently leftovers from the U.S. Lend-Lease aid to the Soviets during World War II.

For a few days, the Marines enjoyed a brief moment of joy.They deftly used close air support and took their time to push back the North Koreans.In close combat on the ground, their discipline and superior firepower have given them frequent victories.The North Koreans suffered heavy losses, as just one example: an observation post spotted a group of North Koreans climbing a high ground near Sacheon.A squad led by Tech Sergeant Lichesky laid an ambush on the ridge and waited until the North Koreans were within 75 feet of them before opening fire.Seconds later, all but one of the 39 North Koreans had been wiped out.The only survivor was an officer, who succumbed to his wounds before being taken to the command post.

However, just before the Marine Corps took advantage of the momentum to expand its results, an order to withdraw to the south came.The North Koreans had breached the Nakdong River, the last natural hurdle to protect the Pusan ​​perimeter, requiring a counterattack by the Marines.

cruelty on the battlefield
The North Koreans broke through the Nakdong River on the opposite side of Dogok Fortress. The Nakdong River made a sharp turn westward here, then flowed southward, and then turned back into a horseshoe shape, forming a small piece of flat land like an inverted U. It is about 5 miles long and 3 miles wide, with rolling ridges winding through it.

The terrain opposite the Marine position was the towering Five Peaks Ridge, which, according to Marine Corps historian Lynn Montrose, looked like "some sort of prehistoric reptile," with its head overlooking Bean Valley and its body extending 2 meters to the southeast. More than a yard, and then disappeared among the swamp and mountains.The ridge is dotted with hillocks, which are divided by jagged branches and deep gullies that pour into the rice fields.In order to drive the North Koreans back to the Nakdong River, the Marines first had to drive them out of this small area.

(End of this chapter)