Marines Fought The Worst Battle Of The Campaign So Far

Wanganui Chronicle, 19 August 1950, Page 5

Marines Fought The Worst Battle Of The Campaign So Far

TOKIO, Aug. 18.—United States Marines grimly counted their dead and wounded last night after a day of bloody fighting which opened the battle of the Naktong bulge.

Marines spearheading the battered 24th Division, attempted twice to take a steep scrub-covered hill covering the bridgehead which the Communists have established on the east bank of the river just south of Pugoononi. Twice they were beaten off with withering blasts of machine-gun fire from Communist foxholes. Then the Marines lay flat on the dusty slopes while Corsair planes screamed in above them. Burst after burst of cannon fire gnashed into the Communist foxholes. Then the dust died down andi the Marines went in again. This time they reached the top—and stayed there. The hill on which the grimy, dustcaked Marines dug themselves in has no name. Army attack maps list it simply as Hill 1. Its total area is no more than a few hundred square yards, but every inch of it was won and paid for in Marine blood. FOUGHT MERCILESSLY'. The battle was the bloodiest action of the Korean campaign. Both sides fought mercilessly. The victory was the key which might open the door for the American troops to get into the Naktong bulge and sweep the hills around in support of the attacking army. The fight started at dawn, when Marines went into action against North Koreans inside the bridgehead on the east bank of the Naktong. The "battle of the bulge” soon became localised into the “battle of hill one.’ The Communists on hill one had over a week to dig themselves in. And they made good use of their time. The first wave of Marines went in behind an artillery barrage. They surged forward across a green valley at the foot of brush-covered slopes.

Still the Communists remained quiet. The first few Marines reached the top of the hill before the Communists showed themselves. They lashed out at the Marines with machine-guns, hand grenades, rifles and pistols. “BLASTED OFF.” In the words of one Marine, “they just blasted us off that hill with everything they had.” As they re-formed, the Marines sent out an urgent call for air support. -Within seconds it seemed that it arrived. A ragged cheer went up from the dusty, bloody men lying in a hollow at the foot of the hill as Corsairs roared in low overhead. Time after time the Corsairs raked the hill with rocket and cannon bursts. It seemed as if even the parched bushes could not survive. Again the Marines went in. It was the same this time. The Marines had become more determined to take the hill. The Communists had become more determined to hold it. For the second time in a few hours the Marines were blasted off the hill. The order went out, “the United States Marines will take Hill One before nightfall.” NO STOPPING THEM. Grim-faced leathernecks cleaned their weapons. The moans of the wounded on the hillside blended with the click of bayonets being rammed on to rifles. This time there was no stopping the Marines, and before darkness fell they had cleaned the Communists from Hill One.

An army liaison officer was the first to find words for it. “It is impossible,” he said. "By all the rules they should not have been able to make it.” The Marines' success was more than just the taking of a little scrubcovered hill, almost a pimple in Korea’s topography. The victory was the key which might open the door to the Naktong bulge.