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CHAPTER XXXIIUp To The Chongchon |
The Foundation of Freedom is the Courage of Ordinary PeopleHistory |
| It is only common sense to say that we cannot hope to build up a truedoctrine of war except from true lessons, and the lessons cannot be trueunless based on true facts, and the facts cannot be true unless we probefor them in a purely scientific spirit. |
| Basil Henry LIDDELL HART, The Ghost of Napoleon |
When Eighth Army crossed the 38th Parallel and drove on P'yongyang,General MacArthur held the 187th Airborne Regiment, commanded by Col. FrankS. Bowen, Jr., in GHQ reserve at Kimpo Airfield near Seoul. He plannedto employ the airborne troops in a drop north of P'yongyang in an attemptto cut off North Korean officials and enemy troops, and to rescue Americanprisoners of war who it was assumed would be evacuated northward when thefall of the North Korean capital seemed imminent.
After changing the date a time or two, General MacArthur set the airdropfor the morning of 20 October. There were to be two drop zones 30 air milesnorth of P'yongyang, the principal one at Sukch'on and the other at Sunch'on.[1] Two highways run north from P'yongyang like the sides of a narrow capitalletter V, each roughly paralleling a rail line. The main highway from P'yongyangto the Yalu River and the Manchurian border at Sinuiju forms the left-handside of the V. Sukch'on on this highway is situated in a wide valley surroundedby low hills, about 35 road miles north of P'yongyang. The right-hand roadpasses through rougher terrain to reach Sunch'on on the Taedong River,17 air miles east of Sukch'on. (Map 20)
The airborne regiment turned out in a heavy rain for reveille at 0230in the after-midnight darkness of 20 October. The men ate breakfast andthen went to the airfield where they waited in the downpour for the weatherto improve. Shortly before noon the sky began to clear. The regiment loadedinto 113 planes, C-119's and C-47's of the 314th and 21st Troop CarrierSquadrons based in Japan. The planes were crowded-a typical C-119 carried46 men in 2 sticks of 23 men each, 15 monorail bundles, and 4 door bundles.Each man had a main parachute, a .45-caliber pistol, and a carbine or M1rifle.
The first aircraft, carrying Colonel Bowen, was airborne at noon. When all the planes had assembled overthe Han River estuary, they turned north along the west coast of Korea.This flight carried about 2,800 men. Recent intelligence had informed theairborne force that a trainload of American prisoners, traveling only atnight and then slowly, was on its way north from P'yongyang. Colonel Bowen'smen hoped to intercept this train and rescue the prisoners.
As the troop carriers approached the drop zone, fighter planes precededthem rocketing and strafing the ground. At approximately 1400 the firsttroops began dropping from the lead planes over Sukch'on. There was noenemy antiaircraft fire and only occasional sniper fire came into the dropzone. This first drop put Colonel Bowen and 1,470 men of the 1st Battalion,regimental Headquarters and Headquarters Company, and supporting engineer,medical, and service troops on the ground in Drop Zone William, southeastof Sukch'on. Twenty-five men were injured in this jump. One group landeda mile and a half east of the drop zone and lost one man killed in his parachute by attacking enemy soldiers. Seventy-four tons of equipmentwere dropped with the men. [2]
MASS AIRDROP NEAR SUNCH'ON
After the troop drop came that of the heavy equipment-equipment organicto an airborne infantry regiment, including jeeps, 90-mm. towed antitankguns, 105-mm. howitzers, and a mobile radio transmission set equivalentin weight to a 2 1/2-ton truck. Seven 105-mm. howitzers of the 674th FieldArtillery Battalion and 1,125 rounds of ammunition were in the drop. Sixof the howitzers were recovered in usable condition.
About 90 percent of the shells were undamaged and none exploded. Thiswas the first time heavy equipment had been dropped in combat, and it wasthe first time C-119'S had been used in a combat parachute operation.
The 1st Battalion, against only light resistance, seized Hill 97 eastof Sukch'on, where Colonel Bowen established his command post, and Hill104 north of the town, cleared the town of Sukch'on itself, and set upa roadblock north of it.
In the meantime, the 3d Battalion had jumped in the same zone, turnedsouth, taken up defensive positions on low hills two miles south of thetown, and established roadblocks across the highway and railroad at that point. It seized its objectives by 1700,killing five enemy soldiers and capturing forty-two others without lossto itself.
ARTILLERY AIRDROP NEAR SUKCH'ON
In the second jump area the 2d Battalion at 1420 began parachuting ontoDrop Zone Easy, two miles southwest of Sunch'on. Twenty men were injuredin this jump. The battalion secured its objective by night against virtuallyno resistance. Two companies established roadblocks south and west of Sunch'on.A third advanced to the town and established contact there with elementsof the ROK 6th Division which had reached Sunch'on from the southeast inits push toward the Ch'ongch'on River.
During this and succeeding days, a total of approximately 4,000 troopsand more than 600 tons of equipment and supplies were dropped at Sukch'onand Sunch'on. Included in the equipment were 12 105-mm. howitzers, 39 jeeps,38 1/4-ton trailers, 4 90-mm. antiaircraft guns, 4 3/4-ton trucks, and584 tons of ammunition, gasoline, water, rations, and other supplies.
On the morning after the airdrop, the 1st Battalion, 187th AirborneRegiment gained the dominant terrain it needed directly north of Sukch'onto carry out its mission of blocking the main highway running north. Strongenemy rear guard forces held the next line of hills northward. That afternoon elements of the 1st Battalion establishedcontact with the 2d Battalion at Sunch'on.
General MacArthur, accompanied by Generals Stratemeyer, Wright, andWhitney, had flown from Japan to watch the airdrop. After seeing the parachutetroops land and assemble successfully, he flew to P'yongyang. There hecommented to reporters that the airborne landing seemed to have been acomplete surprise to the enemy. He estimated that 30,000 North Korean troops,perhaps half of those remaining in North Korea, were caught in the trapbetween the 187th Airborne Regiment on the north and the 1st Cavalry andROK 1st Divisions at P'yongyang on the south, and that they would be destroyedor captured. He termed the airdrop an "expert performance" andsaid, "This closes the trap on the enemy." The next day in TokyoMacArthur predicted that "the war is very definitely coming to anend shortly." [3]
General MacArthur's optimism was not supported by the events of succeedingdays. The airborne troops had not cut off any sizable part of the NorthKorean forces. The main body of the enemy had already withdrawn north ofSukch'on and Sunch'on and were either north of the Ch'ongch'on River orin the act of crossing it. No important North Korean Army or governmentofficials were cut off and killed or captured. Civilians in P'yongyangsaid that the principal North Korean government officials had left P'yongyangon 12 October for Manp'ojin on the Yalu. The best information indicated,however, that the North Korean Government had moved to Kanggye in the mountainstwenty air miles southeast of Manp'ojin. Most of the American and SouthKorean prisoners had been successfully removed into the remote part ofNorth Korea. [4]
The most important action growing out of the airdrop occurred on 21-22October in the zone of the 3d Battalion, 187th Regimental Combat Team,about eight miles south of Sukch'on in the vicinity of Op'a-ri. At 0900,21 October, the 3d Battalion started south from its roadblock positiontoward P'yongyang in two combat teams: one (I Company) along the railroad,the other (K Company) along the highway. Following the railroad, I Companyat 1300 reached Op'a-ri. There an estimated enemy battalion, employing120-mm. mortars and 40-mm. guns, attacked it. After a battle lasting twoand a half hours, the North Koreans overran two platoons and forced I Company,with ninety men missing, to withdraw to Hill 281 west of the railroad.The North Koreans did not press their advantage but withdrew to their owndefensive positions on the high ground around Op'a-ri. [5]
Meanwhile, K Company, advancing south along the highway, encounteredan estimated enemy battalion a mile north of Yongyu. After a sharp fight this enemy force withdrew southand east of the town to defensive positions on high ground, and K Companycontinued on into Yongyu and to Hill 163, just north of the town. Yongyuon the highway and Op'a-ri on the railroad are three miles apart and almostopposite each other.
The 3-mile gap separating the railroad and the highway here is the greatestdistance between them at any point between P'yongyang and Sukch'on. Extendingon a southwest to a northeast axis, and cutting across both the highwayand railroad at Yongyu and Op'a-ri, is a line of high hills offering thebest defensive ground between P'yongyang and the Ch'ongch'on River. Here,the N.K. 239th Regiment, about 2,500 strong, had taken updefensive positions. This regiment had been the last force to leave P'yongyang.Its mission was to fight a delaying action against U.N. troops expectedto advance north from P'yongyang. Now, suddenly, it found itself attackedby two separate forces from the rear.
At midnight the N.K. 239th Regiment attempted to breakout to the north. In its first attack a small group got into the K Companycommand post. In the close-quarter fight there Capt. Claude K. Josey, KCompany commander, although wounded twice by an enemy burp gun, sprangon the gunner and wrested the gun from him before collapsing. The companyexecutive officer was also wounded. Eventually, the enemy soldiers wereeither killed or driven off.
In two other attacks after midnight enemy soldiers forced the men atthe roadblock near Hill 163 to withdraw after they had expended their ammunition.Aware of this withdrawal, the North Koreans attacked again at 0400. Then,at 0545, they ran blindly into the 3d Battalion command post and the LCompany perimeter, and suffered very heavy casualties from direct and enfiladingfire. In spite of these heavy losses the enemy renewed his attack, about300 men striking L Company and 450 men assaulting Headquarters Company.At this point the airborne troops sent a radio message describing theirsituation and requesting help. Pfc. Richard G. Wilson, a medical aide,gave his life in heroic action in trying to reach and care for the wounded.[6]
Help was to come from close at hand as a result of a general advancenorthward of the U.S. I Corps. On 20 October, the day P'yongyang was secured,General Milburn had ordered the corps to continue the attack to the MacArthurLine, a line roughly thirty-five miles south of the Yalu River. The 24thDivision, with the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade attached, was to leadthis attack. On the right of the 24th Division three ROK divisions-the1st, under I Corps, and the 6th and 8th under ROK II Corps, in that ordereastward-were ready to join in the attack northward. [7]
At noon on 21 October, in this general Eighth Army advance, the Britishbrigade crossed the Taedong River at P'yongyang and headed north on themain highway running toward Sukch'on, with the immediate mission of reachingthe Ch'ongch'on River. Approaching Yongyu that evening, Brigadier Coaddecided to halt for the night.
The British could hear the heavy night battle taking place a mile ortwo north of them. At first light on the 22d, two companies of the Argyll1st Battalion advanced into Yongyu. There the Australian 3d Battalion passedthrough them, with Capt. A. P. Denness and his C Company in the lead ridingtanks of D Company, U.S. 89th Tank Battalion. The tankers had orders notto fire because of the known proximity of the 187th Airborne troops.
Just north of Yongyu enemy rifle fire suddenly came from an orchardthat spread out on both sides of the road. Captain Denness and his menjumped from the tanks and charged with fixed bayonets into the apple orchard.They went into it with a dash that brought forth admiration from all whowitnessed it. One American officer present told of seeing a big, red-hairedAustralian jump into an enemy trench and come out later, his hands streamingblood from many cuts and his clothes slashed from head to foot. An inspectionof the trench later revealed eight dead North Koreans there.
Colonel Green deployed a second company to seize high ground on theright of the road. Soon he had to send a third company to follow the secondas the enemy fired on it from the rear. Then he sent his fourth companyon the left of the road to follow C Company. The enemy was now using mortaras well as rifle and automatic fire. This action for the Australians wasone of rifle, grenade, and bayonet. After committing all his rifle companies,Colonel Green moved his small headquarters into the orchard. There he wasimmediately attacked by a sizable group of North Koreans. In this fighthis group killed thirty-four enemy soldiers. Among his own wounded werethree men of his personal staff. One platoon of Australians crossed a ricefield, kicked over stacks of straw, and shot the North Korean soldiersthey found hiding in them.
In this hand-to-hand infantry fight the North Koreans lost about 270killed and more than 200 captured; incredibly, the Australians had onlyapproximately 7 wounded. Enemy survivors fled westward. The Middlesex 1stBattalion now passed through the Australians and, with the tanks, joinedthe 187th Airborne force at 1100. [8]
The 3d Battalion, 187th Airborne Regiment, reported that it had killed805 of the enemy and captured 681 prisoners in the Yongyu battle. Caughtbetween the airborne troops and the British 27th Brigade, the N.K. 239thRegiment was practically destroyed at Yongyu. That afternoon the3d Battalion returned to Sukch'on with the British following it. There the British brigade relieved the 187th AirborneRegiment in its positions.
While the Yongyu battle was in progress, the 2d Battalion, 187th AirborneRegiment, remained relatively inactive in its drop zone at Sunch'on. TheROK 6th Division performed most of the work in clearing the town and itsvicinity of enemy stragglers.
The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team returned to P'yongyang on23 October, traveling by the secondary road through Sunch'on. This leftthe main highway free for the movement of the British 27th Brigade andthe 24th Division. Altogether, the 187th Airborne Regiment suffered 46jump casualties and 65 battle casualties in the Sukch'on-Sunch'on operations.It captured 3,818 North Korean prisoners in this operation. [9]
After the airdrop a new task force, formed around the 1st Battalion,8th Cavalry Regiment, and a company of tanks, 70th Tank Battalion, startedfrom P'yongyang to make junction with the airborne troops at Sunch'on.Lt. Col. William M. Rodgers of the tank battalion commanded the task force.It arrived at Sunch'on at 0900 21 October, picking up on the way five Americanprisoners who had recently escaped their North Korean captors. At the bridgejust south of Sunch'on a few enemy troops hiding in holes under it openedfire as Task Force Rodgers came up and killed two men of the 8th Cavalry.The North Koreans had remained unobserved even though some airborne troopswere on the bridge.
General Gay and Brig. Gen. Frank A. Allen, Jr., from an L-5 plane hadwatched Task Force Rodgers successfully establish contact with the airbornetroops. Upon returning to P'yongyang, General Allen climbed into his jeepand accompanied by his aide, his driver, and two war correspondents (DonWhitehead of the Associated Press and Richard Tucker of the Baltimore Sun),started for Sunch'on, arriving there about noon.
Allen had been in the command post of the 2d Battalion, 187th AirborneRegiment, only a short time when a Korean civilian came in and excitedlytold a story of North Koreans murdering about 200 Americans the night beforeat a railroad tunnel northwest of the town. Allen determined to run downthis story at once.
His group set out with the Korean civilian and, on the way, stoppedat the ROK 6th Division command post in Sunch'on. There a ROK colonel,an interpreter, and a driver in a second jeep joined Allen and drove withhim to a railroad tunnel just beyond the village of Myonguch'am, five airmiles northwest of Sunch'on. They arrived there at 1500. The railroad ranalong a hillside cut and entered the tunnel some distance above the dirtroad the men had followed. While the rest waited on the road, the ROK colonelclimbed the hillside and entered the tunnel. He came back and said he hadfound seven dead Americans inside. Allen and the others now climbed tothe tunnel. Inside it near the far end they found the seven emaciated bodieson straw mats beside the rail track. These men had either starved to death or died from disease.Some had old wounds, apparently battle wounds.
NORTH KOREAN ATROCITY SITE is marked bygraves of American soldiers who wereshot down as they waited for theirevening meal.
The ROK colonel had walked on through the tunnel. He reappeared at theend and called opt that he could see five Americans on the ridge top. Everyonehurried outside and started down the track. A little distance beyond thetunnel, a thin, wounded American soldier staggered from the brush. He wasPfc. Valdor John. Allen placed his coat around the shivering boy, who brokeinto tears and protested that he was too dirty to wear it. He then stammeredout, "They are over there," and pointed into the brush. Seventeendead Americans, all shot, lay there in a gully. John had escaped by feigningdeath. Allen started climbing the ridge to the Americans who could be seenon top. Whitehead, sickened by the sight he had just seen, walked off aloneacross the railroad track into a cornfield on the other side. There heaccidentally stumbled upon a semicircle of fifteen more dead Americans.They had been shot as they sat on the ground with rice bowls in hand expectingto receive food. Whitehead turned back to report to Allen; on his way back three American survivorscame from among some bushes to him. Allen brought six more Americans whohad escaped down off the ridge.
These survivors told the story of what had happened. Two trains, eachcarrying about 150 American prisoners of war, had left P'yongyang Tuesdaynight, 17 October, making frequent stops to repair the tracks, and crawlingnorth at a snail's pace. Each day five or six men died of dysentery, starvation,or exposure. Their bodies were removed from the train. A few men escapedas the train traveled north. On the afternoon of the 20th, while the parachutejump was in progress, the second of the two trains stayed in the tunnelnorthwest of Sunch'on to escape the air activity in the vicinity. The groupof 100 prisoners of this train, crowded into open coal gondolas and boxcars,was the remnant of 370 whom the North Koreans had marched north from Seoulmore than a month earlier. That evening, the prisoners had been taken fromthe train in three groups to receive their evening meal. They were shotdown as they waited for it. The train and the North Korean guards leftthat night.
From this story it appeared that there was another group of murderedmen yet to be found. A search revealed a fresh burial place, and, uponremoval of a thin covering of earth, the men discovered 34 more bodies.Altogether there were 66 dead (exclusive of the seven found in the tunnel)and 23 survivors, some of the latter critically wounded. Two of these diedduring the night, leaving only 21 who survived. A ROK detachment safelyconvoyed the rescued Americans and the dead to P'yongyang, where C-54'scarried them to Japan.
Even as the airborne troops came to ground at Sukch'on the Eighth ArmyG-2 was preparing his estimate that the North Koreans would be incapableof making more than a token defense of the Ch'ongch'on River barrier, forty-fiveair miles north of P'yongyang. He predicted that the enemy withdrawal wouldcontinue on to the north along the axes of two rail and highway routes,the first bending to the right and leading northeast from Sinanju and Anjuon the Ch'ongch'on through Huich'on to Kanggye deep in the rugged mountainsof central North Korea, twenty-two air miles from the Yalu River; and thesecond, the west coastal route, bending left and running northwest fromthe Ch'ongch'on River to Sinuiju near the mouth of the Yalu River at theManchurian border. [11]
THE MIDDLESEX 1ST BATTALION starts across the Ch'ongch'on River at Sinanju.
The Communist radio on 21 October announced that Premier Kim Il Sung'sgovernment had established a new capital at Sinuiju, on the south bankof the Yalu and opposite the Chinese city of An-tung on the north bank. [12] But the fugitive North Korean capitalsoon moved on to Kanggye, and it was there in the mountains that the remnantsof the North Korean Government and military power assembled. The Kanggye-Manp'ojinarea, mountainous in the extreme and heavily wooded, was an ideal areain which to fight defensive delaying actions. It had been a strongholdof Korean guerrilla operations during Japanese rule. Many crossings ofthe Yalu were near at hand, it was centrally located, and it had lateralroad communications to both northeast and northwest Korea.
On 22 October, C Company, 6th Medium Tank Battalion, designated TaskForce Elephant, started from P'yongyang by way of Sunch'on for Kujang-dongto block the railroad there. Passing through Sunch'on, the task force arrivedat its objective at 2200 and then turned west to Kunu-ri (Kaech'on on somemaps), twenty miles downstream in the valley of the Ch'ongch'on. The ROK1st Division followed behind the task force. (Map 21) TheROK's recovered 40 escaped American prisoners whom they evacuated at onceto P'yongyang. Two more escaped prisoners came in at Kunu-ri the next morning,23 October. That afternoon, a sergeant of the ROK 6th Division found thebodies of 28 American prisoners on the railroad track, and 3 men stillalive, four miles north of Kujang-dong. [13]
On 23 October General Paik led his division from Kunu-ri down the valleyof the Ch'ongch'on. Near Anju, D Company tanks knocked out two T34 tanksand two self-propelled guns, and captured one tank intact. Just beforenoon a platoon of tanks seized the damaged wooden bridge over the Ch'ongch'onRiver three miles northeast of Anju. A tank patrol continued downstreamto Sinanju, which it found deserted by the enemy and the bridges thereacross the Ch'ongch'on destroyed.
Repair of the Anju bridge began at once and continued through the night.By 0900 24 October wheeled traffic, including 2 1/2-ton trucks, could crosson it. During that morning a reconnaissance party found a tank ford threemiles east of the bridge, and the 6th Medium Tank Battalion crossed theriver there. All three regiments of the ROK 1st Division crossed the Ch'ongch'onon 23-24 October. The division then attacked northeast toward Unsan. [14]
Complying with I Corps' order to continue the advance beyond P'yongyang,advance elements of the 24th Division arrived in an assembly area northof the city the evening of 22 October, and there the division assumed controlof the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, the 89th Medium Tank Battalion,and the 90th Field Artillery Battalion. Meanwhile, the British Brigadehad hurried on northward from Sukch'on. On 23 October it arrived at Sinanjuonly a few hours after the ROK 1st Division tank patrol entered the town.It also secured the airstrip five miles to the southwest. By this timethe 24th Division completed its move to Sunan, twelve miles north of P'yongyang.[15]
The Ch'ongch'on River at Sinanju, not far from the sea, is wide, has12-foot tides, and deep mud along its edges. On the 24th the British Middlesex1st Battalion started crossing in assault boats. The rest of the brigadeand the vehicles crossed that night over the ROK 1st Division bridge atAnju. The 3d Engineer Combat Battalion now worked to clear the highwayto Sinanju, and to improve it for carrying the main part of Eighth Army'slogistical support in the projected drive to the Manchurian border. [16]
While the U.S. I Corps on the U.N. left advanced to the Ch'ongch'on,two divisions of the ROK Army on its right also took up the advance. TheROK 6th Division turned northeast from Kunu-ri up the Ch'ongch'on Riveron the road that led through Huich'on to Kanggye.
East of it the ROK 8th Division reached Tokch'on at midnight of 23 October.There it turned north and struck the Ch'ongch'on at Kujang-dong two dayslater. Both the ROK 6th and 8th Divisions (ROK II Corps) were now in exceedinglymountainous country. Near Kunu-ri the ROK 6th Division captured two trains,one carrying 8 tanks, and, farther on, near Kujang-dong, it captured 50boxcars of ammunition. The division had a hard fight with an estimatedregiment of North Koreans south of Huich'on but dispersed this force andentered Huich'on on the night of the 23d. There it captured 20 T34 tanksneeding only minor repairs. At Huich'on the ROK 6th Division turned west,and later north, its objective being Ch'osan on the Yalu River. It wasnow far in front of any U.N. division. [17]
On 24 October, when Eighth Army troops crossed the Ch'ongch'on Riverand the ROK 6th Division passed through Huich'on and headed for the Yalu,less than six weeks had passed since that army had battled desperatelyto hold its lines 320 air miles to the south along the Pusan Perimeter.The Inch'on landing likewise was less than six weeks in the past. The captureof Seoul was about four weeks in the past. Since then, the Eighth Army,moving up from the south after breaking out of its embattled Perimeter,had penetrated 160 air miles north of Seoul and 130 air miles into NorthKorea. In doing this it had overrun the enemy's capital and breached thelast important river barrier south of the northern border of the country.
At the same time the ROK I Corps under its command had fought its waynorthward equally far on the east coast to capture Wonsan. And in the closingdays of this period the U.S. X Corps had moved amphibiously around thelength of Korea to appear off Wonsan for an imminent landing and subsequentoperations in that part of Korea. This Eighth Army-ROK-X Corps attack whichmoved the front northward more than 300 miles in less than six weeks hadvirtually destroyed the North Korean Army.
[1] 187th Abn RCT Unit Hist, pt. 11, 17-19 Oct 50; I Corps WD, 20 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, 20 Oct 50.
[2] 187th Abn RCT Unit Hist, pts. I and 11, 20 Oct 50.
[3] Stars and Stripes (Pacific), October 21, 1950, p. 1, col. 6; New York Times, October 21, 1950 (including editorial); EUSAK WD, 22 Oct 50, Daily News Bul.
[4] GHQ FEC, History of the N.K. Army, pp. 41, 77-78; ATIS Interrog Rpts (N.K. Forces), Issue 17, p. 1, Rpt 2200, Bak Tong Hyon; Ibid., Issue 19, p. 111, Rpt 2449, Jr Lt Chong Kil Hwan; EUSAK PIR's 99, 100, and 101, 19-21 Oct 50.
[5] 187th Abn RCT Unit Hist, 21 Oct 50.
[6] Department of the Army General Order 36, 4 June 1951, awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation to the 3d Battalion, 187th Airborne Regiment, and the 2d Section, Antitank Gun Platoon, Support Company, for this action. Department of the Army General Order 64, 2 August 1951, awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Pfc. Richard G. Wilson, Medical Company, 187th Airborne Regiment, for action near Op'a-ri, 21 October 1950. Eighth Army General Order 135, 12 March 1951, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to Capt. Claude K. Josey for action near Yongyu.
[7] 4th Div WD, 20 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, 21 Oct and Br for CG, 210001-220800 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, G-3 Jnl, 0700 22 Oct 50.
[8] Linklater, Our Men in Korea, pp. 24-25; Bartlett, With the Australians in Korea, pp. 30-31; Barclay, The First Commonwealth Division, p. 23; 187th Abn RCT Unit Hist, 21-22 Oct 50; Ibid., POR 10, 21 Oct 50; Interv, author with 1st Lt Francis Nordstrom (tk plat ldr, D Co, 89th Tk Bn), 31 Aug 51; Interv, author with Maj James W. Deloach (I Corps liaison off), 28 Jul 51. Both Nordstrom and Deloach witnessed the C Company bayonet attack. GHQ FEC General Order 54, 1 November 1950, awarded the Silver Star to Lt. Col. Charles H. Green.
[9] 187th Abn RCT Unit Hist, 23-24 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, G-3 Jnl, Msg 194522 Oct 50.
[10] Interv, author with Maj Gen Frank A. Allen, Jr., 28 Jan 54; Interv, author with Whitehead, 27 Apr 56; Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 23, 1950 (detailed account by Whitehead, dateline Sunch'on, Korea, 22 Oct 50); Ltr, Lt Col Harry Fleming to author, 9 Mar 54 (Fleming was KMAG adviser with ROK 7th Regt, 6th Div, and joined Allen's party at the tunnel); 187th Abn RCT Unit Rpt, 21 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, G-3 Jnl, Msg 1930 22 Oct 50; Interim Hist Rpt, War Crimes Div, JAG, cumulative to 30 Jun 53. The author has relied principally on interviews with Allen and Whitehead and Whitehead's detailed account written at the time from notes made on the spot.
[11] EUSAK PIR 101, 21 Oct 50.
[12] Ibid.; EUSAK WD, 23 Oct 50, Daily News Bul, dispatch of 21 Oct 50.
[13] 6th Med Tk Bn WD, 22-23 Oct 50; 10th AAA Croup WD, Oct 50; Interv, author with Maj Roy M. Gramling (KMAG adviser with the ROK 6th Div), 17 Feb 54.
[14] 6th Med Tk Bn WD, 22-24 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, G-3 Sec and Br for CG, 24 Oct 50; EUSAK POR's 306 and 307, 22 Oct, and 309, 23 Oct 50.
[15] I Corps WD, 22 Oct 50; 24th Div WD, 22-25 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, G-4 Stf Sec, 22 Oct and G-3 Sec, 23 Oct 50; EUSAK PIR 103, 23 Oct 50. At Sunan staff officers investigated and confirmed a civilian report that General Dean had been held a prisoner in the town before being moved farther north.
[16] 24th Div WD, 23-24 Oct 50; British 27th Brig Unit Rpt, Sitrep 241800-261800 Oct 50; EUSAK WD, G-3 Sec, 24 Oct 50; 3d Engr Bn WD, Narr Summ, 29 Sep-Oct 50.
[17] EUSAK WD, Br for CG, 22-25 Oct 50; Ibid., POR 307 and PIR 102, 22 Oct 50; Gen Paik Sun Yup, MS review comments, 11 Jul 58.
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