Stand By An American Battalion Cut Off, Fed By Air Force

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 September 1950, Page 5

Stand By An American Battalion Cut Off, Fed By Air Force

(From Roy Macartney, Reuter correspondent with the 2nd U.S. Division forces on the Changnyong front). TOKIO, Sept. 5 (Recd. 12.10 a.m.) —This is a story of a second “Bastogne”—how a cut off American battalion held for three days west of Changyong against overwhelming odds, fighting in a fight perimeter around its wounded. The battalion’s stand is believed to have turned the tide in the battle of the Naktong bulge Six hundred grimy exhausted men of the Ist Battalion, 23rd Regimen* of this division hurled back incessant North Korean attacks while 61 helpless wounded Americans lay in their midst. Without rations for 36 hours, without water for 18, the desperate defenders were practically down to "throwing rocks” when saved by an air-drop from Air Force Dakotas. Tanks and infantry which tried to battle through to the.beleagured de fenders were repulsed with heavy losses. It is a story of unrivalled heroism—of American officers mangled in frontline trenches by North Korean grenades, left with extra clips of ammunition beside them to take as many as possible of the Communists with them. In three days the battalion lost 300 men. Once the enemy penetrated the perimeter to take' a high knoll with wounded Americans lying in an aid station directly beneath them. A desperate night counter-attack, with bloody hand to hand fighting, hurled them off. Late last Sunday, North Koreans, with 150 bodies littering the perimeter, had enough. A relief column got through to the battalion and a main line of American resistance was established on a position where it stood firm. Tanks immediately escorted out truck-loads of wounded. "It was like Custer's last stand, only more of them came out,’’ commented an American officer. Lieut.-Colonel Clair Hutchin, junior, of St. Petersburg, Florida, unfolded a story of the battalion’s stand: “It was a 72-hour nightmare of yelling, attacking North Koreans —but, supplied from the air, we held and could have gone on holding down to the last man and last round.” Lieutenant-Colonel Hutchin said he learned the true meaning of the phrase “Asiatic hordes.” “We have far superior supporting weapons—guns, planes, and tanks—and better supply, but we came up against the Asiatic’s one advantage. They threw in masses ot men with a complete disregard for loss of life.”

i The battalion’s stand taught two lessons: I (1) The defensibility of a tightly knit perimeter supplied from the air. I (2) The men did not know the capability of human endurance until they came up against a situation like that with which they were confronted. | f “The battalion was so tired they were falling asleep at their posts, with officers constantly on the move to . awaken them—without food for 36 hours and water for 18 hours—they nevertheless 1 were able to lift themselves to counter-attack when a desperate occasion warranted it,” he said. i .