Evening star., 1950-12-17

Ak Wlreph0t0S.
infantry. One day they baked 1000
pancakes. The clerks, combat CORE
spondents, post office personnel and truck
drivers joined in the fight for Hagaru
and the road back.
There were also infantrymen who re-
fused evacuation. Like 17-year-old Pfc.
Marvin G. Nigg, of Chicago, who had
frostbitten toes, but refused attempts to
evacuate him as long as he could limp
and fight. He came down with the Ma
rines from Hagaru through the noun
tains.
There were officers like the one In Item
Company remembered only as LIT. FISH
er," whose men said:
"The lieutenant kept letting the Chinks
get closer and closer. He'd talk to them
and we could hear him say, Come on,
you little -, keep on coming'
when they'd get at close range we'd
let go with everything we had. Then he
seemed to know just when they'd break.
He always called for the mortar fire Just
on time, so 1t fell right on their heads
as they were running in the open"
The odds were often more than 10 to /.
How Company of the 1st Marine Regi-
ment counted 500 dead in front of its
position after a single nights action.
Sometimes as many as 10 potato-masher-
type grenades were found on a dead
Chinese. The enemy used some mortar
but little artillery. Mostly it was swarms
of infantry with grenades, rifles and
automatic burp guns.
Hagaru Had to Be Held
Medical corpsmen worked hard under
fire. At least % corpsmen OF the 1st
Marine Division have been reported
killed, wounded or missing.
Hagaru was held. As Maj. Gen. Oliver
P. Smith, the 1st Marine Division COM
mander, told this correspondent at Ha-
garu on one of the last days there:
eve had to hold it. What If these
men had come back and found nothing
here-no airstrip, no supplies-no divi-
sion? We held this place because we
had to-"
The 5th and 7th Marines, along with
some elements of the 7th Army Division
and British Royal Marines coming from
the northeast, got back to Hagaru
The wounded were taken out by plane,
and equipment not needed for the march
was destroyed, and the field was gradually
closed while lead elements began to fight
down to Koto.
With planes blazing away at the enemy
on both fanks, this was a road under
almost constant fire, and infantry COM
panies fought for every ridge line.
Vehicles moved on the road but only
the driver and assistant were IN them,
plus new wounded. Men who normally
ride walked close in with their guns at
the ready to defend the trucks. At Koto
the airfeld was hastily enlarged to evacu
ate more wounded.
Communist Casualties High
They fought to a point beyond Koto,
where the mountain descent begins. Here
every one thought the enemy would make
the road even tougher along the steep
hairpin curves where cliffs rise on one
side and the ground drops hundreds of
feet to the valley on the other. But
resistance was much lighter here In
another few miles the Marines came under
the protection of friendly mortar fire.
1--WE stopped at one blown bridge"
said Marine, "and those boys laid
regular circle of fire protection around
us. It was beautiful"
At 2:40 next afternoon they met the
last Marine battalion coming up from
the point where an Army task force had
relieved them. Army engineers had COM
pleted temporary bridge across one
deep valley where the Chinese had par
TALLY destroyed the existing span, and
the Marines were over the last big
obstacle.
From here to Hamhung it was just
cold ride.
No Marine would let you dare call it
retreat. He had, in the words of one
officer, simply been fighting in another
direction. He had good proof of this, too
From Yudam-Ni south the Marines had
left an estimated $4,000 enemy dead
Their own casualties at this time, in
cluding frostbite, which accounted for
more than so per cent. were estimated
at about 20 per cent.
(sy Special Advancement with Baltimore sunpapersl