Red Cloud, Part Four

Behind the startling successes that summer were the repatriated Korean cadres and the logistic support of the USSR. However, by August, these repatriated Koreans had suffered the loss of two-thirds of their number, and their units had lost about a third of their effective strength. Still, they pushed on. They were tired, worn, and breathing hard, but they were still a formidable foe. MacArthur referred to the NKPA as some of the toughest soldiers he had ever faced. The US and ROK troops were now safely behind the Pusan Perimeter, a 140-mile long line arcing north and east and defining an area that measured about 100 miles north and south and about 50 miles east and west of the port of Pusan. The Naktong River formed its western boundary and the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan formed its southern boundary. US troops defended its western side and the ROK troops defended its northern and eastern sides.

Arrayed along the edges of the Pusan perimeter were the NKPA divisions that had invaded South Korea. They were about 70,000 strong and deployed in 15 divisions. On the inside and looking out were about 140,000 men of the US and ROK divisions. It was a lop-sided affair and the NKPA had a tiger by the tail, as they were about to find out. EUSAK[i] was the overall command of US troops in the perimeter. It was commanded by an old and tried World War II warrior, Major General Walton Walker. It was made up of the 1st US Cavalry Division, the 2nd, 24th, and 25th US Infantry Divisions, and was bolstered by the 5th and 29th Regimental Combat Teams, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade and the UK’s 27th Infantry Brigade. Empty spots in the US divisions were filled by about 8,000 ROK conscripts. The ROK formations consisted of the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, and Capitol Divisions. US and ROK troop strengths were each about 70,000 men. US troops outnumbered their antagonists by a two-to-one ratio.

MacArthur, the canny old soldier, was biding his time. He knew that the further they were from their supply bases and the longer were their supply lines, the more vulnerable would be the NKPA. He waited while the NKPA supply lines stretched to the breaking point and his forces built their strength from the sea. NKPA supply lines were about 250 miles long as the crow flies. But crows cannot carry a lot of supplies. The state of Korea’s roads was primitive. A gravel road, 22-feet wide was a super highway by modern US or European standards. Korea’s road net was built for ox carts, not tanks and trucks.

While the NKPA tried to breach the Pusan perimeter, ships carrying replacement troops, equipment, tanks, trucks, artillery, ammunition, and medical supplies were arriving daily at Pusan and disgorging the impedimenta of war onto the wharves of Korea’s most modern seaport. Slowly, the tools of war built up and slowly, too, NKPA was losing men and equipment it could not replace. After a Herculean effort, the NKPA 4th and 6th Divisions managed to establish a bridgehead across the Naktong River to form a salient projecting into the Pusan perimeter. The 24th Division, whose sector the salient was in, managed to reduce it to the point where it was no longer a threat.

Operation Chromite

When MacArthur judged the situation ripe, he launched Operation Chromite, the old warrior’s boldest gamble. He felt that the NKPA would be vulnerable to an attack from its rear the further south it was and while it was concentrated along the Pusan perimeter, 250 miles from its base at the end of a very long and very inefficient supply line. On September 15th, MacArthur threw the dice and hurled the First Marine Division and the Seventh US Infantry Division ashore at Inchon, 180 miles or so, as the crow flies, from the nearest point on the Pusan perimeter. These two divisions, blooded in World War II, comprised X Corps. 261 vessels from seven nations threaded their way up Flying Fish Channel and “landed the landing force.” The operation was a brilliant success, and the 30,000 or 40,000 In Min Gun defenders of the beachhead were overcome, scattered, and sent reeling back. The way south was now open for X Corps to execute the classic turning movement long a favorite of Hannibal, Napoleon, and, more recently, Robert E. Lee.

MacArthur ordered General Walker to wait a day for the news of the landing to reach his besiegers (and hopefully demoralize them) before breaking out of the Pusan perimeter. On September 16th, Walker, ever the good soldier, obeyed his superior and launched a series of concerted attacks against the NKPA. X Corps was the hammer and EUSAK was the anvil and between them, they destroyed the NKPA in a matter of days. By September 23rd, there was no sign of the NKPA anywhere near Pusan. The In Min Gun had ceased to exist as a fighting force. Its men, or what was left of them, were dead, wounded, or captured. Its Russian supplied armor was destroyed or abandoned and its once disciplined formations were now in total disarray, fleeing in panic northward.

Now it was North Korea’s turn to taste invasion. For the rest of September and well into October, UN troops raced northward on the heels of the fleeing NKPA. Of the 70,000 or so NKPA troops once facing the Pusan perimeter, only 25,000 managed to flee north to what they thought was the safety of North Korea. Some managed to stay behind in South Korea and harass the pursuing troops as guerillas, but most did not. MacArthur halted the advance at the 38th parallel and permitted only ROK troops to push further north. But he changed his mind and ordered his troops to cross into North Korea under the old hot pursuit theory used by lawmen chasing escaping criminals. By the end of October, both US and ROK troops were a few miles from the Yalu River, the boundary between China’s Manchurian region and North Korea. Manchuria was one of those border regions destined by history to be always a bone of contention. It had been for many years under Chinese control, and then it fell under Japanese influence, and was later coveted by the Russians. CCF forces won it from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists in 1948. Manchuria was solidly in China and Mao-Tse-tung was nervous and apprehensive about all those armed men encamped on his doorstep. He ordered his Foreign Minister, Chou-En-lai, to use whatever diplomatic channels were at his disposal to warn the West that China would not stand by while her security was threatened. The warnings went unheeded as North Korea filled up with troops from UN member states that had pledged assistance.

China Enters the Fray

Deciding to act like a prudent chief of state, Mao quietly moved about a quarter of a million of his troops into positions near the Yalu River and waited for the West to get the message. The troop movement went undetected and the implied message went unheeded. Mao decided to make his feelings known in an unmistakable way. In the closing days of October 1950, elements of the CCF’s 38th and 40th Route Armies infiltrated unseen and unheard into North Korea. They attacked the ROK 1st Division 40 miles south of the Yalu River. X Corps began to pick up CCF deserters and prisoners near Hamhung. Still the signs went unheeded. A few days later, in early November, a Marine battalion, a ROK division, and the 8th Cavalry Regiment all were engaged in separate fierce battles with what were later identified as five different divisions from the CCF 38th and 40th Route Armies.

When word reached Washington of China’s direct intervention, President Truman ordered a complete reappraisal of the situation. In G1 parlance, the situation was getting hairy. The first days of November 1950 were days of confusion and freezing cold. A bitter wind blew off the Yalu chilling the UN forces. No one knew what to expect from the Chinese except that they were there, apparently in force, and face to face with UN troops. Plans were made to withdraw the UN troops in North Korea below the Chongchon River. The bridgehead across the river had to be protected just in case the order should come down to resume the offensive at some future time. But now, the tank fords and bridges across the Chongchon were vital to the UN withdrawal and General Walton ‘Johnnie” Walker deployed his troops to protect the bridgehead.

The 19th Infantry was one of the units Walker assigned to the protection of the bridgehead. The 27th British Commonwealth Brigade was another. A five- mile wide gap separated the two. Theoretically it was supposed to be patrolled constantly to prevent the Chinese from using it to flank these two units. But, the Chinese evaded the patrols and moved freely through the gap. On the extreme left of the 19th Infantry, at the very edge of the gap, the Second Battalion was dug in on a small elevation called Hill 123. The position overlooked a valley near the tiny hamlet of  Chonghyon, about five miles from the Chongchon River itself.

Red Cloud and the Medal of Honor

Quietly, an attack force of Chinese troops from the CCF’s 355th Regiment, numbering about a thousand, infiltrated between the positions of the 2nd Battalion and the 27th Commonwealth Brigade. E and G Companies were their targets. They surrounded E Company and waited for the signal to attack. Meanwhile G Company came under attack about midnight. Captain Walter E. Conway, E Company’s CO had set his listening posts forward of his perimeter and to its sides. He and his men had formed a strong respect for the CCF’s infiltration skills and their effective use of darkness. On a ridge commanding the approaches to his Command Post, Conway posted Red Cloud in a fortified foxhole with his BAR, an old and familiar weapon that Red Cloud knew inside out. He had used it on Guadalcanal and in Korea, and he was a dead shot with it. Conway trusted Red Cloud for his coolness under fire and his sixth sense for spotting enemy activity. In case the CCF was out there that night, Conway wanted plenty of protection for his men, and he relied on Red Cloud’s unflappability. Conway spotted his recoilless rifles and machine guns on his perimeter.

The CCF, ever fearful of American air cover during the day, liked to attack at night, and, this night, they were quite busy. E Company had been in continuous contact with the CCF for the two previous days and had acquitted themselves well. They were tired, cold, and hungry when they dug into Hill 123 the evening of 4 November 1950. They opened C rations and devoured them, cleaned their weapons, had a last smoke, and settled into their blankets for a few hours sleep before getting up to man sentry posts on the perimeter. Tomorrow was another day, and who knew, maybe they would get a few days in a rear area. Visions of hot food, hot showers, and clean clothes danced in their heads. For some, those would be the last visions they would know.

As they slept upon the frozen earth of North Korea, the CCF was about to meet them again. Nearby, G Company was under constant attack by the CCF. The Chinese broke off contact about midnight, and the sector quieted down furthering the lull in the state of preparedness in both companies. The night grew quieter and the penetrating cold numbed the fingers of the troops. Metal butt plates grew painful to touch and bare skin froze to metal surfaces. Breath turned to white clouds and drifted away. Slowly, the Chinese tightened the noose. A roadblock was set up behind the 2nd Battalion’s positions by the Chinese to cut off any escape when the attack came.

The assault came about 0320 hours on 5 November under a nearly full moon and a sky full of stars. First came the whistles and bugles announcing the attack. The CCF attacked in a manner that no other army in the world did. The first wave of Chinese was unarmed ammunition bearers. They ran forward with pans and clips for the burp guns and rifles of the second wave that were the actual assault troops. The ammo bearers hung their ammo on poles they carried, stuck them in the ground, and then ran for their lives. As was expected they were cut down in droves. Red Cloud was the first to spot the second wave. A small group of Chinese soldiers charged his position from a clump of bushes less than 100 feet away. Red Cloud shouted a warning to the troops and then cut loose with his BAR at point-blank range. He emptied magazine after magazine into the charging men and watched as they crumpled and fell before him. His action stopped the attack on the CP and gave Captain Conway time to call in illuminating rounds before organizing his defense. Red Cloud was hit twice in the chest and his assistant BAR man was killed outright. The Second Platoon medic, Perry Woodley, rushed to Red Cloud’s foxhole and applied field dressings to his wounds.

Woodley, nicknamed ‘Country Doc’ for his Alabama origins, went off to tend to others on the hill that had been wounded. He remembered that he could hear the distinctive bark of the BAR behind him as he left Red Cloud. The CCF had almost achieved the element of surprise except for Red Cloud’s alertness and his shouted warning. Red Cloud was hit again and called for aid. Woodley rushed to him a second time to find him badly wounded. Woodley told Red Cloud that they had to get off the hill, or else... Red Cloud refused all further medical attention and told Woodley to get as many of the wounded off the hill as he could. The last Woodley saw of Red Cloud, he was standing upright, behind a tree. Wrapping an arm around one of its branches and cradling the BAR in the tree’s crotch, Red Cloud steeled himself and kept up a withering volume of fire into the attackers. Bleeding and shocked, Red Cloud continued his fusillade, emptying one magazine after the other into the slight, cotton-clad CCF troops.

The fighting raged on as tracers arced and ricocheted into the blackness lit now and again by the harsh light of illumination rounds, muzzle flashes, and the red sunbursts of exploding grenades. Shadowy figures danced a macabre jig on this surreal landscape, firing at other shadows and hoping the screams they heard were those of the enemy. It was hand-to-hand combat, primitive, brutal, and to the finish. Rifle butts and bayonets, entrenching tools and even bare knuckles. The Marquess of Queensberry would have been shocked at the mayhem. But, as fierce as it was, it was going downhill for the GI’s. They were outnumbered and out-gunned. As Red Cloud covered them, they began a retreat off the hill to fortified positions about 1,000 yards south of Hill 123. Those who could leave left, and those who could not died from shock, blood loss, or hypothermia.

The dead sold their lives dearly. E Company was near full strength when the fight began, about 225 men. When the final tally was made, 85 of those men were listed as Killed In Action (KIA). When the Second Battalion returned to Hill 123 two days later to recover their dead, they found the dead bodies of 474 Chinese and evidence that more had been hastily buried nearby. It was now abundantly clear that the CCF was in the fight for keeps.

In April of 1951, Red Cloud’s mother, Lillian, and her only surviving son, Merlin, journeyed to Washington, DC. to receive the Medal of Honor from the hand of General of the Army, Omar N. Bradley. In 1955, Red Cloud’s remains were returned from the UN Cemetery in North Korea to Wisconsin for final burial. There, according to the custom of his ancestors, Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr. was laid to rest in the sacred soil that had nurtured his people since the dawn of time.

Epilogue

On 7 August 1999, USNS RED CLOUD (T-AKR-313) slid down the ways of National Steel and Shipbuilding’s yards in San Diego. At 950 feet in length, she was the largest ship ever launched down a sliding way in the United States. She is the fourth in a class of seven ships, the WATSON Class. Called a large, medium speed, roll on/roll off ship, she is designed to carry wheeled and tracked vehicles, artillery, and helicopters to troops fighting ashore. With eight decks and over 300,000 square feet of deck space, she is indeed formidable. Powered by a GE model LM 2500 gas turbine engine, she handles easily, though with more than her share of freeboard, is highly automated and crewed by about 30 civilians and supervised by five officers. She can crank out a respectable 24 knots and draws a hefty 34 feet. Owned by the Military Sealift Command and leased to the Maersk Line, she is an integral part of our defense posture.

The great ship is the most recent memorial to Red Cloud. In 1983, he was inducted into the American Indian Hall of Fame. Other memorials include: a US Army Camp in South Korea, a park in La Crosse, Wisconsin, a rifle range in Fort Benning, and numerous plaques and proclamations.

Acknowledgments

 Special thanks to the “Keeper of The Flame,” retired Major of Marines J.J.C.Beau, who shared with me many of the details of Red Cloud’s service in the Raiders; to Brian Quirk, late of the Second Raider Battalion, whose tidbits of Raider lore livened the article as only an insider’s information can; to John Freeling, Dan and Louie Marsh, Wilbur Gehrke, Bob Everett, Ashley “Bill” Fisher, Ray Schlinder, the mysterious ‘tulagi42’ for their priceless insight on Raider operations: to Perry (Country Doc) Woodley, Ken Bradshaw, Jim Cooper, Darryl Miller, and Ed Svach for their eye witness accounts of the fight on Hill 123; and to Ted Barker for doing such a good job with the Korean War Project’s home page where those who want to connect with lost buddies and those relatives who lost loved ones in that war can post messages. Civilian employees of the Army: William McKale, Walter Meeks III, and Lou Ann Mittelstaedt also added their knowledge to this effort. My thanks, too, to Bob Rawlins for ironing out the rough spots in the manuscript.

Bibliography

Appleman, Roy E. South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, Center of Military History, US Army, Washington. D.C. CMH Pub. 20-2-1

Manchester, Wm. American Caesar, Dell Publishing Co., New York 1978.

Murphy, Edward F. Korean War Heroes, publisher unknown.

Unit Report 117, Headquarters, 19th Regimental Combat Team 6 Nov 50.

Unit Report 119, Headquarters, 19th Regimental Combat Team 8 Nov 50.

A Brief History of the 19th Infantry Regiment. Military History Section, HQ, US Army Forces in the Far East.

Haydock, M.D. America’s Other Korean War, Military Advantage, Inc, web site, http://www.military.com; copywrite 2001.

Leary, W.M., Jr Our Other War in Korea, US Naval Institute Proceedings, 94 No. 6, 1968, pp 46-53.

Castle, A. and Andrew C. Nahm, Our Little War With the Heathen, American Heritage magazine 19, No. 3 (1968), pp 18-23 and 72-75.

Carlson of the Raider Marines web site, http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/ carlson.html USMC Raiders-WWII Fact Sheet, Marine Corps Historical Center

World War II United States Marine Corps Raiders Official Web Site, http://www.usmarineraiders.org

Military Sealift Command web site, http://www.msc.navy.mil/cgi-bin/ships.p1

USNS RED CLOUD web site. http://www.csulb.edu

American Maritime Officer web site, http://www.amo-union.org

The Triad, Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin, Red Cloud Among MOH Recipients Honored, Dec. 19, 1999

Milwaukee Sentinel, June 11, 1998, American Indian War Hero’s Mother Felt Both Pain and Pride, Dennis McCann

The Medal of Honor, Sharp & Dunnigan Publications, Forest Ranch, 1984

Dan Marsh’s Marine Raider Page, http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/3805

End Notes

[1] “According to the customs of our ancestors”

[1] TO&E is an Army acronym that stands for “Table of Organization and Equipment” which list all the billets in the unit with the appropriate Military occupation Specialty and the name, grade and serial number of the GI in that job. There is a separate listing of the organization’s equipment

[11] EUSAK stands for “Eighth US Army, Korea,” Walton Walker’s Command