The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 73
However, the reconnaissance reports indicated that the efforts of the Marine Corps so far might be in vain, leaving the entire division in trouble in Gutuli.The Chinese blew up a bridge and cut off a pass in the road to safety - there was no detour there.Crossing the 29-foot-wide chasm was the trickiest part of the 78-mile journey.

General Smith frowned when he heard the news. He knew the bridge well.He passed there on November 11 driving north from Jinheung-ri, and he thought at the time that destroying the bridge would cause great difficulties for his troops.The bridge is located 16 miles south of Gutuli.

"Here," Smith says, "water from the Changjin Reservoir is brought in through tunnels on the side of the mountain and fed into four diversion pipes (big cement pipes) that run down the steep hillside to the turbines at the power plant in the valley below. There is a concrete substation at the intersection of the diversion pipeline and the road. It does not occupy the ground, but is built on the uphill side of the road covering the pipeline. On the downhill side of the substation is a one-way cement bridge. The mountain here The descent is extremely steep and there is no possibility of a detour. It is vital to us that the bridge remains intact and we cannot withdraw our vehicles, tanks and artillery without it."

The Chinese Communist Army found that the bridge was an excellent pass and blew up the bridge twice on December 12st and December 1th.After the first bombing of the bridge, Marine Corps engineers replaced it with a wooden bridge; after the second bombing of the bridge, engineers erected a steel rut bridge.A rut bridge is two long steel bars placed on the tracked vehicle track.Now, the Chinese blew it up for the third time.

Lieutenant Colonel John Partridge, an officer in the Corps of Engineers, decided that the best solution would be to air-drop parts of the rutted bridge into ancient soil and truck them to the broken bridge.But those components weighed 2 pounds, a weight the parachute struggled to carry.He asked the Air Force to make a test drop at an air base in South Korea.The Air Force followed suit, and parts of the bridge were twisted.Another engineer officer, Captain Hesel Blasingame, was quick to suggest an airdrop with two parachutes.This tryout was a success.Partridge informed Smith of his plans during the night of December 500-12, and the general questioned him at length, and found that Partridge foresaw all possible contingencies and remedies. "I could see Partridge was getting angry," Smith said, "and he finally told me in a very positive tone that he got us across the Han River, he built us roads, he built us an airstrip, And to build a bridge for us. I told him to follow his plan."

Early the next morning, Partridge flew to the site of the broken bridge to see exactly what the problem was.It was too cold to take notes, but he estimated the entire span of the fracture to be 16 feet.

As it happens, one of the engineers in Colonel Chesty Puller's Regiment, Lieutenant Charles Ward, was a member of a rut bridge company in Italy during World War II and also took a rut bridge course at the Army Academy of Engineers .Four trucks in Ward's platoon were able to transport the rut bridge, so the bridging operation started off smoothly.The airdrop was scheduled for 12 a.m. on December 7, and Marines in Gutuli were told to leave the drop area to avoid bridge construction parts falling on their heads.

Although only four steel beams were needed, the Air Force dropped eight, one of which fell outside the American positions.In addition, the Air Force dropped some plywood members for placement between two steel rails for the passage of narrow-track vehicles other than tanks and self-propelled guns.The rutted bridge can hold up to 4 tons and the plywood can hold up to 8 tons.Thanks to the use of metal spans and plywood, the bridge will ensure uninterrupted passage of tanks and vehicles.

After that, it took the engineers a day and a half to transport the parts for the bridge to the mountain stream, thwarted by heavy snowfall, constant gunfire and other troubles along the way.But when they reached the broken bridge, they were taken aback. The Chinese army blew up another 10-foot-long bridge deck, as well as the abutment connecting the road to the south of the bridge.This increases the total length of the fracture surface to 29 feet, whereas the existing rutted bridge can only span 24 feet.The sappers didn't stop there, and someone found a pile of old railroad ties under the bridge. Sixty Chinese prisoners of war went to work, dragging the sleepers onto the embankment and filling them with sandbags. At 60 p.m. on December 12, the job was done.Partridge apologized to Smith.He had promised that the bridge would be erected in an hour and a half, but it took three hours.

The restored bridge was opened to traffic, and vehicles rumbled past at 2 miles per hour.Colonel Partridge watched the opening to traffic and couldn't help but feel secretly pleased with his success, and at the same time experienced an unexpected sense of beauty. "It was a very eerie feeling that night. Everything seemed to be glowing, and although there was no light, people seemed to see clearly. The artillery was firing, and there was the sound of a lot of cannon firing. Lots and lots of shoes and vehicles turning the crunchy The snow was creaking. . . . North Korean refugees were walking on one side of the road, and Marines were walking on the other. . . . There was a baby crying now and then. There were some cows on the road. All of this It makes the whole atmosphere more relaxed.…”

About 1 mile south of the bridge is the Huangcaoling Pass overlooking the 1081 highland, which is the last major obstacle.In this battle, the Marines relied on a relatively new unit of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Donald Schmack.Although the battalion conducted forward patrols of the area south of the main supply line, it had not yet engaged in large-scale combat.Therefore, at 12 o'clock in the morning on December 8, when the "No. 2" Battalion of the No. [-] Middle School marched northward through the darkness, against the wind and snow, they were full of energy and fighting spirit.

This time, the Marines took the night advantage from the Chinese.They marched in weather with near-zero visibility, and their snow-covered coats were a good protective color.Although they didn't encounter a single Chinese, it took the Marines six hours to cover the six miles on the slippery road.On Height 6, under the cover of heavy snow, they suddenly attacked hundreds of Chinese in a bunker area, killing or routing all of them.The Chinese were unaware and even discarded the rice they were cooking. (They also left behind so many lice that the Marines decided not to spend the night in those bunkers.)
Although the troops going south were making slow progress, they fought steadily. The Marine Corps fought dozens of battles at the squad, platoon, and company levels.Severe cold, wind and snow are obstacles more difficult to overcome than the Chinese.The most poignant scene takes place on the main supply line just north of a roadblock erected to stop the Chinese from pursuing the Marines heading south.Inevitably, the roadblocks also acted as barriers to the southward movement of hundreds of thousands of homeless refugees, huddled together for warmth in the biting snow.Marines are not hard-hearted, but they have little choice, as North Korean and Chinese soldiers have both masqueraded as civilians in past engagements.A Marine recalled that there was a "low and distressed scream" from the crowd of refugees.On the night of December 12, in sub-zero temperatures, Marine medics climbed over barricades to deliver two women.

Relief, the snow finally stopped on December 12, but the intense firefighting of small troops resumed.Yet two weeks of non-stop fighting began to take its toll on the Chinese as well.Two companies inspected some foxholes a few yards from the road as they crossed the bridge and found 9 Chinese. "They were so frostbitten," said Major Sawyer, "that our men simply took them out of the foxholes and put them on the road." They all joined the ranks of prisoners of war later.

At 12 o'clock in the morning on December 10, the first batch of marines arrived in Zhenxingli one after another.The Chinese still have dying strength.Later that afternoon, North Korean civilians warned that a large number of Chinese had infiltrated Sudong village on the main supply line south of Jinheung-ri the night before.This area is the defense zone of the Army's 3rd Division.They sent out patrols, but found no Chinese.But at midnight, as a column of Marines marched through the water hole, the Chinese swarmed from behind the village's houses, shot and killed several truck drivers with grenades and submachine guns, and set fire to the vehicles.In the first few minutes, the American army was in chaos, and they could not find the Chinese in the flickering fire.At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Page and Private Marvin Watson of the Marine Corps stepped forward to meet the Chinese. They repelled more than 3 Chinese who blocked the vanguard.Page was killed and Watson was wounded in two places by a grenade.After the jeep driver bandaged his wound, he fired three white phosphorous rounds with a 20mm recoilless gun at a Chinese house that was used as a cover. The Chinese who ran outside were knocked down by machine gun fire.Next, Watson stepped forward again, pushing the burning truck loaded with ammunition off the road.After the battle, an Army officer bestowed on Watson a new title: "The Spirit of the American Revolution."

The final Chinese blow was directed at the rear of the marching column of 40 tanks, defended by an understaffed platoon of 28 men led by Lieutenant Ernest Hargett.Thousands of North Korean civilians followed behind, and soldiers from the Chinese Communist Army were also mixed in.Because the road was narrow and slippery, the tank could only advance a few inches at a time, and it was up to the disembarked crew to keep the tank on firm ground.

Shortly after midnight, disaster struck.The brakes of the penultimate tank froze, blocking the rear troops. Thirty-one tanks continued to advance, while others were trapped about 9 yards south of the rutted bridge.Just as the crew got out of the car for repairs, 31 Chinese came from among the refugees.The leaders said in English that they intended to surrender.

Suspicious, Haggert went up to talk, under cover of Corporal George Amiot with his Browning rifle.The leading Chinese suddenly jumped aside, and the Chinese behind picked up their hidden submachine guns.Hargett pulled the trigger of the carbine, but it froze.He rushed forward, swung the gun like a club, and smashed the head of a Chinese.Amiot fired four rounds with his Browning rifle, and the other four Chinese fell to their deaths.

(End of this chapter)