BATTLE OF KOREA: Are You Willing to Die?

Hardly were the stand-or-die orders out of General Walker’s mouth (see above) than the U.S. forces began to give more ground. Kochang fell, on the central front, and Kumchon, an important strongpoint on the Taejon-Taegu railroad, was threatened from the southeast. At Chinju on the south coast, after a heavy fight in which Communist dead littered the ground “like confetti,” the defenders pulled back and two Red regiments rushed in. Chinju, 55 miles from Pusan, was the closest Communist approach to the all-important supply port.

There were plenty of U.S. heroes. Heroes were not enough.

Fruit Cocktail. “We were pinned down all the previous day by enemy fire,” said a U.S. infantry corporal. “Our rations were only five feet away, but we couldn’t get to them. When we finally could, we found that some rear-echelon boys had stolen all the cigarettes.

“The attack came at dawn. I had just time to empty four clips of my rifle before they had overrun us. My rifle was jammed and wouldn’t shoot. I picked up another and it was no good. I yelled to the lieutenant and he tossed me a bayonet. The first enemy wave was past. I figured I had to die, so I dug out a can of fruit cocktail and ate it. Then the lieutenant asked: ‘Are you willing to die? If you are, I will call for mortar fire.’ I could see the next wave coming, and I said: ‘It looks like we’re cooked anyway. Go ahead.’ He called for mortar fire. Some of it hit near us, but most of it went over the hill, into our little friends.”

The most alarming event of the week was the North Koreans’ rapid mop-up of the whole southwestern corner of the peninsula and most of the south coast. The U.S. left flank had been dangling somewhere near Chonju (see map); there were not enough men to extend the Allied line to the west coast, and furthermore, the U.S. left had to be pulled back as Korea’s defenders retired to the build-up zone around Pusan. But the North Koreans sped the withdrawal to a dangerous pace. They simply poured around the open flank. At some points they were lightly resisted by small contingents of South Korean constabulary and marines who fired a few shots before clearing out; at other points they encountered no resistance at all.

The Reds took Namwon, Kwangju and Mokpo—then, wheeling east, Posong, Sunchon, Yosu, Hadong, Ponggye. Elements of the Americans’ tired and battered 24th Infantry Division, which needed a rest, and of the ist Cavalry Division, which could ill be spared from the central front, were wheeled 60 miles south to meet the threat. After the fall of Chinju, the next likely enemy objective was Masan—27 miles from Pusan.

“I Shall Attack.” In the center of the curving front, Yongdong was a mass of rubble, leveled by artillery from both armies. From Hwanggan to Yongdok on the east coast, MacArthur’s headquarters estimated that 90,000 North Koreans had been poured in against the Americans and South Koreans. Major General Hobart R. Gay, dashing commander of the ist Cavalry, paraphrased World War I’s Marshal Ferdinand Foch. Said Gay: “Foch said that there comes a time in every battie when both commanders think they are losing. Then the one who attacks, wins. I shall attack.”* General Gay did attack. An artillery barrage of white phosphorus shells caused an estimated 1,600 to 2,000 enemy casualties. Heavy enemy pressure, however, forced his units to fall back ten miles.

* General Gay was probably thinking of Foch’s legendary message to Joffre during the first Battle of the Marne (September 1914), of which one version is this: “My right is exposed, my left is heavily attacked, my center is unable to hold its position. I cannot redistribute my forces. The situation is excellent. I shall attack.”