Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [140]
Higgins lifted the cover to find the belt had twisted. Once again I pulled back the bolt, and this time we were back in business. During the third or fourth ammo box the gun become really hot and with the water running low, steam began to come out the barrel. What little water we had left in our canteens was poured into the gun. We needed more! So, we both urinated in a C-ration can and poured it in the gun.
Due to our hole being small, we couldn’t store our six boxes of ammo in it. With only enough room for four, we stored the other two in a shell hole that was about ten feet away. Now we needed those two boxes. I told Higgins to man the gun while I went for the ammo.
I let Carl know what I was doing, for we were to shoot anything that moved, or stood up. He informed me that he had run out of ammo for his carbine, and he wanted me to throw him the M-1 that was stored in the hole with our boxes of ammo. I tossed the M-1 where I thought Carl was located, but I guess he wasn’t able to find it in the dark. Then I quickly grabbed the ammo boxes and went back to my machine gun.
Soon, the unnerving screams stopped; we could hear the Chinese falling back. Now we could hear the moans of their wounded as they were being taken care of by their medics. Higgins wanted to keep firing, but they were withdrawing and we were running low on ammo. So, we stopped shooting.
I believe it was around 3:00 AM when a sergeant from K Company came by and told us to bring our gun up the hill so we could form a tighter perimeter. There was a crater, about eight feet across, on top of the hill; this is where we set up our gun. Joining the Sarge, Higgins, and myself in the hole were Carl and Chief.
The first thing we wanted to know about was how were “Pete” (Clayton Peterson) and the guys on the other gun. We knew they never fired a shot, so we could only think the worse. I told Carl we needed to say a prayer for them, so we did. Suddenly, we heard someone say, “Hey you guys.” My first reaction was to go help him, but the sergeant said it could be a trap. Even though I was out voted, I called for Pete. We waited and listened; finally, he reached our position. He had been shot in the leg, mid-way above the knee. I took a bandage from my First Aid Kit and wrapped his leg; Carl took him to a bunker on the backside of the hill.
We found out that Werney, our squad leader, Swede, and Chyzy were all around the back in a bunker. Swede had been shot in both knees.
When daylight arrived, medics began to attend to the wounded. Men began to move around and survey the damage. Some guys had cameras and they took pictures of the dead. Lt. Hughes, of K Company, also came to our side of the hill to survey the results of the night. He told me that he was requesting for us to be relieved by Item Company.
I heard that some Korean civilians would be carrying our wounded off the hill, so I went to say goodbye to them. I found Pete, and we talked for a moment; then I went to see Swede. He was lying on a stretcher waiting to be carried off the hill, I could see he was in a lot of pain—neither of us said a word.
I returned to our position, hoping we would be relieved soon. Apparently, the Chinese had regrouped, because heavy mortar shelling started again. As I listened to the incoming rounds, I could tell they were getting closer. Then all the sudden, five rounds were coming my way and it was too late for me to run. All I could do was curl up in a ball and count as they exploded. I knew the last one was going to get me, but it landed several feet away. As soon as the dust settled, I took off running to Carl’s hole.
Finally, around mid-day, we were relieved by Item Company. We moved around to the back of the hill and down to the bottom of a valley. We continued our normal one hour on and one off guard duty. Shortly before midnight someone fired a few rounds; then more guys began firing. Higgins pulled back the bolt and was ready to fire, when I told him not to shoot. We waited, and it