This scrapbook covers a part of my life that I've not talked about much. Partly
because I figured no one would be interested in the memories of someone who
participated in a non-event war and partly because of the difficulty of
talking about an uncommon experience with people who haven't shared it. I'm
hoping that maybe, with the supporting pictures, it will make some sense to
readers.
As I looked at these slides again during the digitizing process, I
was doing to do so from the perspective of 50 years. That helped. The troubled, gut-wrenching dreams about
the last couple of weeks in Korea before I rotated home had long since dimmed.
When the Chinese started their offensive just before the end
of the Korean war, I had accumulated enough points to go home, I had a replacement,
and was waiting in the rear for a ride home. I was delayed leaving
because all of the troop ships leaving Korea were being used to ferry wounded
back to Japan for major medical help. My replacement was killed (click here for his picture)
during one of the first Chinese assaults on outpost Harry as were as many as 9 out of 10 people
who were on the oupost during an attack. My old company
had moved from its position on the left flank to
a position supporting outpost Harry (see
map) while I was in reserve waiting for a boat. An instant shortage of people had
been created. I was pulled out of reserve and returned to the MLR (Main
Line of Resistance) to do whatever was needed. My memory is that the
Chinese offensive only lasted for a week or so.
I took some photos during that time. Most of the furious fighting
happened at night as the
Chinese tried to gain ground using massive assaults with hordes of people. The nights
were lit by the eerie, shadowless light from star shells shining through the
low night-time clouds punctuated with muzzle flashes, mortar and artillery rounds
exploding, and the usual noisy chaos of combat.
During those intense times, our battalion would put a company on outpost
Harry (as in
Tom, Dick, and Harry - each outpost's code name) each night as
had the battalion we had replaced. That company would be assaulted during the
night by massive Chinese
attacks. Sometimes only a handful of people would be found alive the next
morning. The
Chinese were throwing armies against the company on the hill with most of
the attacking Chinese slaughtered by mortar, artillery, meat-choppers, (quad
50 caliber
anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on a half-track used as an anti-personnel
weapons) infantry machine guns, rifle fire and, finally, hand-to-hand
combat in the trenches on the outpost. The Chinese never took control
of outpost Harry while leaving behind thousands of dead and
dying Chinese on the battlefield. Sort of a replay of the worst
of WWI-style trench warfare.
The next morning the surviving defenders of outpost Harry would be relieved with
fresh replacements. That night the
process would repeat. Click here for a description of the
defense of OP Harry.
I took no pictures of those nights except for those floating around in my
head. The pictures and their descriptions shown here are mostly a record of the endless hours
of tedium that is the hallmark of the military.
I've tried, using a scrapbook format, to breathe some life back into
events that happened 50 years ago. My hope is to share some of what it was
like to be in that place at that time.
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