Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [63]
As the column moved out things looked a lot brighter; the engineers in Hagaru-ri were using floodlights, as they were building an airstrip. When this scene came into our view, it raised the troop’s spirits. However, as George Company neared the perimeter, it came under fire from tents that had been left by the 10th Engineer Battalion. Dressed in captured helmets and parkas, the Chinese opened fire on us. After a short firefight they scattered into the hills. We suffered unnecessary casualties, and loss of equipment.
One of the casualties was First Sergeant Rocco Zullo, a veteran of Guadalcanal and other World War II battles. In the summer of 1950, he helped form and train George Company at Camp Pendleton. There are very few men that are totally fearless in combat—he appeared to be one of them.
Zullo was cut down by enemy machine gun fire. The attending corpsman said he was dead, placing him in the tent with the other dead. An empty feeling came over his men. Many of his men—including myself—would not learn for another forty years what happened to him.
Another corpsman had gone into the dead tent and heard a cough. After investigating, he found Zullo—alive. Apparently the extreme cold had stopped his bleeding. Due to the number of casualties, and the chaos, around the hospital, word was never sent back to his company. He spent a year in the hospital and later retired from the Corps as a Captain.
Hagaru-ri had its reinforcements; sixteen tanks and 100 men from Company D, 1st Tank BN and A Company 5th Marines, less than 100 British Royal Marines, and 157 men from George Company. However, over half of the task force didn’t make it to Hagaru-ri. The total loss was 321 men, 74 vehicles, and one tank. George Company suffered 23 percent casualties, the Commandos had 26 percent, and the Army’s Baker Company had 63 percent.
It was around 1900 hours, and the men were frozen and exhausted. We had no hot shower, hot food, or warm beds waiting for us, only more ice and snow. Our drinking water and rations had frozen a long time ago. Our meal was going to be the same as it had been for days—Tootsie Rolls. We kept them inside our clothes to keep them from freezing.
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With the Royal Marines in reserve, at 0800 hours on the 30th of November, George Company began its attack on the deeply entrenched enemy on East Hill—at Hagaru-ri. Due to previous traffic, the hillside was nothing but a sheet of ice. Using our trenching tools, and bayonets, we chopped away at the frozen earth hoping to get better footing. It seemed for every two steps forward, we slid back one.
As we neared the top we were showered with an airburst of deadly shrapnel; my assistant, PFC Joe Rice, died in my arms. He had been hit in the back of his head; I doubt he ever knew what hit him.
Exhausted, we set up our defenses for the night and a counterattack we knew would come. The first platoon was in the middle, with the second platoon over the crest to the right, and strung out down the hill on the left was the third platoon. Most of the men in George Company were unable to dig foxholes due to the ground being frozen. So, they either had to lie on top of the ground, or use dead Chinese for protection. During the wait, every man in the company shivered as the temperature reached thirty degrees below zero. A Chinese attack was a blessing, as it got our adrenaline pumping and our minds off the cold.
Captain Sitter moved among the young men to steady their nerves for the upcoming battle. He told them they were going to fight, and they must fight to survive. Fight they did!
Sometime during the night, thousands of Chinese came screaming, blowing their bugles and whistles, and shooting off their multicolored flares. Then suddenly, they set the hill ablaze with mortar, machine gun, and automatic