It is only common sense to say that we cannot hope to build up a true
doctrine of war except from true lessons, and the lessons cannot be true
unless based on true facts, and the facts cannot be true unless we probe
for them in a purely scientific spirit.
|
Basil Henry LIDDELL HART, The Ghost of Napoleon
|
Airborne Attack: Sukchon and Sunchon
When Eighth Army crossed the 38th Parallel and drove on P'yongyang,
General MacArthur held the 187th Airborne Regiment, commanded by Col. Frank
S. Bowen, Jr., in GHQ reserve at Kimpo Airfield near Seoul. He planned
to employ the airborne troops in a drop north of P'yongyang in an attempt
to cut off North Korean officials and enemy troops, and to rescue American
prisoners of war who it was assumed would be evacuated northward when the
fall of the North Korean capital seemed imminent.
After changing the date a time or two, General MacArthur set the airdrop
for the morning of 20 October. There were to be two drop zones 30 air miles
north 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 capital
letter V, each roughly paralleling a rail line. The main highway from P'yongyang
to the Yalu River and the Manchurian border at Sinuiju forms the left-hand
side of the V. Sukch'on on this highway is situated in a wide valley surrounded
by low hills, about 35 road miles north of P'yongyang. The right-hand road
passes 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 0230
in the after-midnight darkness of 20 October. The men ate breakfast and
then went to the airfield where they waited in the downpour for the weather
to improve. Shortly before noon the sky began to clear. The regiment loaded
into 113 planes, C-119's and C-47's of the 314th and 21st Troop Carrier
Squadrons based in Japan. The planes were crowded-a typical C-119 carried
46 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 M1
rifle.
The first aircraft, carrying Colonel Bowen, was airborne at noon. When all the planes had assembled over
the Han River estuary, they turned north along the west coast of Korea.
This flight carried about 2,800 men. Recent intelligence had informed the
airborne force that a trainload of American prisoners, traveling only at
night and then slowly, was on its way north from P'yongyang. Colonel Bowen's
men hoped to intercept this train and rescue the prisoners.
As the troop carriers approached the drop zone, fighter planes preceded
them rocketing and strafing the ground. At approximately 1400 the first
troops began dropping from the lead planes over Sukch'on. There was no
enemy antiaircraft fire and only occasional sniper fire came into the drop
zone. 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, southeast
of Sukch'on. Twenty-five men were injured in this jump. One group landed
a 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 equipment
were dropped with the men. [2]
MASS AIRDROP NEAR SUNCH'ON
After the troop drop came that of the heavy equipment-equipment organic
to an airborne infantry regiment, including jeeps, 90-mm. towed antitank
guns, 105-mm. howitzers, and a mobile radio transmission set equivalent
in weight to a 2 1/2-ton truck. Seven 105-mm. howitzers of the 674th Field
Artillery Battalion and 1,125 rounds of ammunition were in the drop. Six
of the howitzers were recovered in usable condition.
About 90 percent of the shells were undamaged and none exploded. This
was the first time heavy equipment had been dropped in combat, and it was
the first time C-119'S had been used in a combat parachute operation.
The 1st Battalion, against only light resistance, seized Hill 97 east
of Sukch'on, where Colonel Bowen established his command post, and Hill
104 north of the town, cleared the town of Sukch'on itself, and set up
a roadblock north of it.
In the meantime, the 3d Battalion had jumped in the same zone, turned
south, taken up defensive positions on low hills two miles south of the
town, 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 loss
to itself.
ARTILLERY AIRDROP NEAR SUKCH'ON
In the second jump area the 2d Battalion at 1420 began parachuting onto
Drop Zone Easy, two miles southwest of Sunch'on. Twenty men were injured
in this jump. The battalion secured its objective by night against virtually
no resistance. Two companies established roadblocks south and west of Sunch'on.
A third advanced to the town and established contact there with elements
of the ROK 6th Division which had reached Sunch'on from the southeast in
its push toward the Ch'ongch'on River.
During this and succeeding days, a total of approximately 4,000 troops
and more than 600 tons of equipment and supplies were dropped at Sukch'on
and 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, and
584 tons of ammunition, gasoline, water, rations, and other supplies.
On the morning after the airdrop, the 1st Battalion, 187th Airborne
Regiment gained the dominant terrain it needed directly north of Sukch'on
to carry out its mission of blocking the main highway running north. Strong
enemy rear guard forces held the next line of hills northward. That afternoon
elements of the 1st Battalion established
contact with the 2d Battalion at Sunch'on.
General MacArthur, accompanied by Generals Stratemeyer, Wright, and
Whitney, had flown from Japan to watch the airdrop. After seeing the parachute
troops land and assemble successfully, he flew to P'yongyang. There he
commented to reporters that the airborne landing seemed to have been a
complete surprise to the enemy. He estimated that 30,000 North Korean troops,
perhaps half of those remaining in North Korea, were caught in the trap
between the 187th Airborne Regiment on the north and the 1st Cavalry and
ROK 1st Divisions at P'yongyang on the south, and that they would be destroyed
or captured. He termed the airdrop an "expert performance" and
said, "This closes the trap on the enemy." The next day in Tokyo
MacArthur predicted that "the war is very definitely coming to an
end shortly." [3]
General MacArthur's optimism was not supported by the events of succeeding
days. The airborne troops had not cut off any sizable part of the North
Korean forces. The main body of the enemy had already withdrawn north of
Sukch'on and Sunch'on and were either north of the Ch'ongch'on River or
in the act of crossing it. No important North Korean Army or government
officials were cut off and killed or captured. Civilians in P'yongyang
said that the principal North Korean government officials had left P'yongyang
on 12 October for Manp'ojin on the Yalu. The best information indicated,
however, that the North Korean Government had moved to Kanggye in the mountains
twenty air miles southeast of Manp'ojin. Most of the American and South
Korean prisoners had been successfully removed into the remote part of
North Korea. [4]
The Enemy Blocking Force Destroyed
The most important action growing out of the airdrop occurred on 21-22
October 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 position
toward P'yongyang in two combat teams: one (I Company) along the railroad,
the other (K Company) along the highway. Following the railroad, I Company
at 1300 reached Op'a-ri. There an estimated enemy battalion, employing
120-mm. mortars and 40-mm. guns, attacked it. After a battle lasting two
and 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 own
defensive positions on the high ground around Op'a-ri. [5]
Meanwhile, K Company, advancing south along the highway, encountered
an estimated enemy battalion a mile north of Yongyu. After a sharp fight this enemy force withdrew south
and east of the town to defensive positions on high ground, and K Company
continued on into Yongyu and to Hill 163, just north of the town. Yongyu
on the highway and Op'a-ri on the railroad are three miles apart and almost
opposite each other.
The 3-mile gap separating the railroad and the highway here is the greatest
distance between them at any point between P'yongyang and Sukch'on. Extending
on a southwest to a northeast axis, and cutting across both the highway
and railroad at Yongyu and Op'a-ri, is a line of high hills offering the
best defensive ground between P'yongyang and the Ch'ongch'on River. Here,
the N.K. 239th Regiment, about 2,500 strong, had taken up
defensive positions. This regiment had been the last force to leave P'yongyang.
Its mission was to fight a delaying action against U.N. troops expected
to advance north from P'yongyang. Now, suddenly, it found itself attacked
by two separate forces from the rear.
At midnight the N.K. 239th Regiment attempted to break
out to the north. In its first attack a small group got into the K Company
command post. In the close-quarter fight there Capt. Claude K. Josey, K
Company commander, although wounded twice by an enemy burp gun, sprang
on the gunner and wrested the gun from him before collapsing. The company
executive officer was also wounded. Eventually, the enemy soldiers were
either killed or driven off.
In two other attacks after midnight enemy soldiers forced the men at
the 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 L
Company perimeter, and suffered very heavy casualties from direct and enfilading
fire. In spite of these heavy losses the enemy renewed his attack, about
300 men striking L Company and 450 men assaulting Headquarters Company.
At this point the airborne troops sent a radio message describing their
situation 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 advance
northward 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 MacArthur
Line, a line roughly thirty-five miles south of the Yalu River. The 24th
Division, with the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade attached, was to lead
this attack. On the right of the 24th Division three ROK divisions-the
1st, under I Corps, and the 6th and 8th under ROK II Corps, in that order
eastward-were ready to join in the attack northward. [7]
At noon on 21 October, in this general Eighth Army advance, the British
brigade crossed the Taedong River at P'yongyang and headed north on the
main highway running toward Sukch'on, with the immediate mission of reaching
the Ch'ongch'on River. Approaching Yongyu that evening, Brigadier Coad
decided to halt for the night.
The British could hear the heavy night battle taking place a mile or
two north of them. At first light on the 22d, two companies of the Argyll
1st Battalion advanced into Yongyu. There the Australian 3d Battalion passed
through them, with Capt. A. P. Denness and his C Company in the lead riding
tanks of D Company, U.S. 89th Tank Battalion. The tankers had orders not
to fire because of the known proximity of the 187th Airborne troops.
Just north of Yongyu enemy rifle fire suddenly came from an orchard
that spread out on both sides of the road. Captain Denness and his men
jumped 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 who
witnessed it. One American officer present told of seeing a big, red-haired
Australian jump into an enemy trench and come out later, his hands streaming
blood from many cuts and his clothes slashed from head to foot. An inspection
of the trench later revealed eight dead North Koreans there.
Colonel Green deployed a second company to seize high ground on the
right of the road. Soon he had to send a third company to follow the second
as the enemy fired on it from the rear. Then he sent his fourth company
on the left of the road to follow C Company. The enemy was now using mortar
as well as rifle and automatic fire. This action for the Australians was
one of rifle, grenade, and bayonet. After committing all his rifle companies,
Colonel Green moved his small headquarters into the orchard. There he was
immediately attacked by a sizable group of North Koreans. In this fight
his group killed thirty-four enemy soldiers. Among his own wounded were
three men of his personal staff. One platoon of Australians crossed a rice
field, kicked over stacks of straw, and shot the North Korean soldiers
they found hiding in them.
In this hand-to-hand infantry fight the North Koreans lost about 270
killed and more than 200 captured; incredibly, the Australians had only
approximately 7 wounded. Enemy survivors fled westward. The Middlesex 1st
Battalion now passed through the Australians and, with the tanks, joined
the 187th Airborne force at 1100. [8]
The 3d Battalion, 187th Airborne Regiment, reported that it had killed
805 of the enemy and captured 681 prisoners in the Yongyu battle. Caught
between the airborne troops and the British 27th Brigade, the N.K. 239th
Regiment was practically destroyed at Yongyu. That afternoon the
3d Battalion returned to Sukch'on with the British following it. There the British brigade relieved the 187th Airborne
Regiment in its positions.
While the Yongyu battle was in progress, the 2d Battalion, 187th Airborne
Regiment, remained relatively inactive in its drop zone at Sunch'on. The
ROK 6th Division performed most of the work in clearing the town and its
vicinity of enemy stragglers.
The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team returned to P'yongyang on
23 October, traveling by the secondary road through Sunch'on. This left
the main highway free for the movement of the British 27th Brigade and
the 24th Division. Altogether, the 187th Airborne Regiment suffered 46
jump casualties and 65 battle casualties in the Sukch'on-Sunch'on operations.
It captured 3,818 North Korean prisoners in this operation. [9]
Death in the Evening
After the airdrop a new task force, formed around the 1st Battalion,
8th Cavalry Regiment, and a company of tanks, 70th Tank Battalion, started
from 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 American
prisoners who had recently escaped their North Korean captors. At the bridge
just south of Sunch'on a few enemy troops hiding in holes under it opened
fire as Task Force Rodgers came up and killed two men of the 8th Cavalry.
The North Koreans had remained unobserved even though some airborne troops
were on the bridge.
General Gay and Brig. Gen. Frank A. Allen, Jr., from an L-5 plane had
watched Task Force Rodgers successfully establish contact with the airborne
troops. Upon returning to P'yongyang, General Allen climbed into his jeep
and accompanied by his aide, his driver, and two war correspondents (Don
Whitehead 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 Airborne
Regiment, only a short time when a Korean civilian came in and excitedly
told a story of North Koreans murdering about 200 Americans the night before
at a railroad tunnel northwest of the town. Allen determined to run down
this story at once.
His group set out with the Korean civilian and, on the way, stopped
at 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 with
him to a railroad tunnel just beyond the village of Myonguch'am, five air
miles northwest of Sunch'on. They arrived there at 1500. The railroad ran
along a hillside cut and entered the tunnel some distance above the dirt
road the men had followed. While the rest waited on the road, the ROK colonel
climbed the hillside and entered the tunnel. He came back and said he had
found seven dead Americans inside. Allen and the others now climbed to
the tunnel. Inside it near the far end they found the seven emaciated bodies
on 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 by
graves of American soldiers who were
shot down as they waited for their
evening meal.
The ROK colonel had walked on through the tunnel. He reappeared at the
end and called opt that he could see five Americans on the ridge top. Everyone
hurried outside and started down the track. A little distance beyond the
tunnel, a thin, wounded American soldier staggered from the brush. He was
Pfc. Valdor John. Allen placed his coat around the shivering boy, who broke
into tears and protested that he was too dirty to wear it. He then stammered
out, "They are over there," and pointed into the brush. Seventeen
dead Americans, all shot, lay there in a gully. John had escaped by feigning
death. Allen started climbing the ridge to the Americans who could be seen
on top. Whitehead, sickened by the sight he had just seen, walked off alone
across the railroad track into a cornfield on the other side. There he
accidentally stumbled upon a semicircle of fifteen more dead Americans.
They had been shot as they sat on the ground with rice bowls in hand expecting
to receive food. Whitehead turned back to report to Allen; on his way back three American survivors
came from among some bushes to him. Allen brought six more Americans who
had escaped down off the ridge.
These survivors told the story of what had happened. Two trains, each
carrying about 150 American prisoners of war, had left P'yongyang Tuesday
night, 17 October, making frequent stops to repair the tracks, and crawling
north 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 escaped
as the train traveled north. On the afternoon of the 20th, while the parachute
jump was in progress, the second of the two trains stayed in the tunnel
northwest of Sunch'on to escape the air activity in the vicinity. The group
of 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 Seoul
more than a month earlier. That evening, the prisoners had been taken from
the train in three groups to receive their evening meal. They were shot
down as they waited for it. The train and the North Korean guards left
that night.
From this story it appeared that there was another group of murdered
men yet to be found. A search revealed a fresh burial place, and, upon
removal 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 died
during the night, leaving only 21 who survived. A ROK detachment safely
convoyed the rescued Americans and the dead to P'yongyang, where C-54's
carried them to Japan.
The Advance Continues
Even as the airborne troops came to ground at Sukch'on the Eighth Army
G-2 was preparing his estimate that the North Koreans would be incapable
of making more than a token defense of the Ch'ongch'on River barrier, forty-five
air miles north of P'yongyang. He predicted that the enemy withdrawal would
continue 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 Anju
on the Ch'ongch'on through Huich'on to Kanggye deep in the rugged mountains
of central North Korea, twenty-two air miles from the Yalu River; and the
second, the west coastal route, bending left and running northwest from
the Ch'ongch'on River to Sinuiju near the mouth of the Yalu River at the
Manchurian 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's
government had established a new capital at Sinuiju, on the south bank
of the Yalu and opposite the Chinese city of An-tung on the north bank. [12] But the fugitive North Korean capital
soon moved on to Kanggye, and it was there in the mountains that the remnants
of the North Korean Government and military power assembled. The Kanggye-Manp'ojin
area, mountainous in the extreme and heavily wooded, was an ideal area
in which to fight defensive delaying actions. It had been a stronghold
of Korean guerrilla operations during Japanese rule. Many crossings of
the Yalu were near at hand, it was centrally located, and it had lateral
road communications to both northeast and northwest Korea.
On 22 October, C Company, 6th Medium Tank Battalion, designated Task
Force Elephant, started from P'yongyang by way of Sunch'on for Kujang-dong
to block the railroad there. Passing through Sunch'on, the task force arrived
at its objective at 2200 and then turned west to Kunu-ri (Kaech'on on some
maps), twenty miles downstream in the valley of the Ch'ongch'on. The ROK
1st Division followed behind the task force. (Map 21) The
ROK's recovered 40 escaped American prisoners whom they evacuated at once
to 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 the
bodies of 28 American prisoners on the railroad track, and 3 men still
alive, four miles north of Kujang-dong. [13]
On 23 October General Paik led his division from Kunu-ri down the valley
of the Ch'ongch'on. Near Anju, D Company tanks knocked out two T34 tanks
and two self-propelled guns, and captured one tank intact. Just before
noon a platoon of tanks seized the damaged wooden bridge over the Ch'ongch'on
River three miles northeast of Anju. A tank patrol continued downstream
to Sinanju, which it found deserted by the enemy and the bridges there
across 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 cross
on it. During that morning a reconnaissance party found a tank ford three
miles east of the bridge, and the 6th Medium Tank Battalion crossed the
river there. All three regiments of the ROK 1st Division crossed the Ch'ongch'on
on 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 north
of the city the evening of 22 October, and there the division assumed control
of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, the 89th Medium Tank Battalion,
and the 90th Field Artillery Battalion. Meanwhile, the British Brigade
had hurried on northward from Sukch'on. On 23 October it arrived at Sinanju
only 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 time
the 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, has
12-foot tides, and deep mud along its edges. On the 24th the British Middlesex
1st Battalion started crossing in assault boats. The rest of the brigade
and the vehicles crossed that night over the ROK 1st Division bridge at
Anju. The 3d Engineer Combat Battalion now worked to clear the highway
to Sinanju, and to improve it for carrying the main part of Eighth Army's
logistical 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. The
ROK 6th Division turned northeast from Kunu-ri up the Ch'ongch'on River
on 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 days
later. Both the ROK 6th and 8th Divisions (ROK II Corps) were now in exceedingly
mountainous country. Near Kunu-ri the ROK 6th Division captured two trains,
one carrying 8 tanks, and, farther on, near Kujang-dong, it captured 50
boxcars of ammunition. The division had a hard fight with an estimated
regiment of North Koreans south of Huich'on but dispersed this force and
entered Huich'on on the night of the 23d. There it captured 20 T34 tanks
needing 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 was
now far in front of any U.N. division. [17]
On 24 October, when Eighth Army troops crossed the Ch'ongch'on River
and the ROK 6th Division passed through Huich'on and headed for the Yalu,
less than six weeks had passed since that army had battled desperately
to 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 capture
of 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 North
Korea. In doing this it had overrun the enemy's capital and breached the
last 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 way
northward equally far on the east coast to capture Wonsan. And in the closing
days of this period the U.S. X Corps had moved amphibiously around the
length of Korea to appear off Wonsan for an imminent landing and subsequent
operations in that part of Korea. This Eighth Army-ROK-X Corps attack which
moved the front northward more than 300 miles in less than six weeks had
virtually destroyed the North Korean Army.
Notes
[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 1945
22 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.
Causes of the Korean Tragedy ... Failure of Leadership, Intelligence and Preparation