American Experience (1988) s29e02 Episode Script

1
(propeller whirring)
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
In the last days
of November 1950,
12,000 men
of the First Marine Division,
along with a few thousand
Army soldiers,
found themselves trapped high
in the mountains of North Korea
near a reservoir called Chosin.
Their leaders
had been caught off guard
by the sudden entrance of
the People's Republic of China
into the five-month old
Korean War.
The Americans were surrounded,
outnumbered,
and at risk of annihilation.
The two-week battle
that followed
is among the most momentous
in U.S. history.
It helped set the course
of American foreign policy
in the Cold War and beyond,
and it remains
one of the most renowned
in Marine Corps annals.
MAN:
I think all battles
are terrible,
but this one
might well have been
the very worst
in American history.
These were some of the harshest
winter conditions
that American forces
have ever fought in.
MAN:
You were not only
physically frozen,
you were emotionally frozen,
not knowing how much more
you could give,
and yet wanting to survive.
MAN:
The hardest thing
I ever did in my life
was pick up the frozen bodies
of the Marines
that had been killed,
and their arms and legs
were bent in the position
in which they had been killed.
MAN:
I wrote a letter home.
"Dear Mom and Dad,
by the time you get this letter,
"you'll know the Marine Corps
has been annihilated, or
or coming out of here
with some pretty good honors."
MAN:
The Marines marched up
into those mountains,
and when they marched out
of those mountains,
they were different,
the war was different,
America was different,
and, really, the entire world
was different.
(engine roaring)
(planes buzzing)
NARRATOR:
On Thanksgiving Day 1950,
American-led
United Nations troops
were on the march
in North Korea.
The forces of democracy,
according to the New York Times,
were "brushing away
scant resistance."
What remained of North Korea's
communist army
had apparently turned and fled.
U.S. Marine and Air Force pilots
owned the skies,
and proved it
by distributing holiday bounty
up and down the peninsula
even to the men
at the tip of the spear,
near the northern border
of Korea, within sight of China.
MAN:
They made a monumental effort
to put that kind of meal out
under those conditions,
and it was wonderful.
Turkey, mincemeat pie,
pumpkin pie,
cranberries, the whole works.
MAN:
It was cold turkey,
let me tell you.
The cooks did
the best they could.
But it was Thanksgiving,
and we did have optimism
that the war would be over
and maybe that's thanks
in itself.
NARRATOR:
The commander
of the U.N. forces,
General Douglas MacArthur,
flew into Korea the next day
to launch the final offensive
of what was shaping up to be
a short and successful war.
MAN:
MacArthur tells the troops
and his commanders
that the fundamental goal
of the Korean War,
to unify the peninsula
under the control
of the South Korean government,
will soon be accomplished,
and he says to the soldiers,
"I hope you boys will be home
by Christmas."
WOMAN:
The northern boundary
of North Korea
is the Yalu River,
and so his cry became that
he wanted to go to the Yalu
and conquer all of North Korea.
They were just going to go
up the mountain,
just like cutting
through butter,
and they were gonna go
to the Yalu
and it was gonna be great.
MILLS:
I was really excited about it.
I thought, "Boy,
this is what we should do."
And I thought that, you know,
it was in the bag.
I thought we were gonna
pull it off.
MAN:
Everything was just wide open,
"Let's do it" routine
at that point.
We had won the war.
It was over.
It was that blunt.
NARRATOR:
Five months into the Korean War,
American troops and commanders
had reason for confidence.
Split across the middle
at the 38th parallel
in the political settlement
that followed World War II,
the Korean peninsula
had solidified
into two separate states
by 1950.
North Korea had the support
of the Soviet Union
and of Mao Zedong's
new Communist China;
the United States
and other Western democracies
backed the South.
This uneasy balance held
until June 25, 1950.
(artillery fire)
The North Korean army
blasted through
the 38th parallel that day,
scattering South Korean
defenses.
(artillery fire)
It captured Seoul,
the capital of the South,
in less than 72 hours,
and kept going,
making plain its goal
to take the entire peninsula.
MAN:
When the North Koreans invaded,
they had Soviet equipment,
they had Soviet tanks,
they had Soviet advisers.
The American people believed
that what was happening is that
it was Stalin's proxy war
against the United States.
NEWSREEL:
On hearing the grave news,
President Truman flies
to Washington
from his Missouri home.
The president describes
the invasion
as a threat to the peace
which cannot be tolerated.
TRUMAN:
This is a direct challenge
to the efforts of free nations
to build the kind of world
in which men can live
in freedom and peace.
This challenge has been
presented squarely.
We must meet it squarely.
NARRATOR:
Within days of the invasion,
the United Nations
Security Council
resolved to repel
the North Koreans from the South
and to restore peace
and security in the area.
The United States was to lead
a multi-national force
tasked with enforcing
the U.N. resolution.
MAN:
I was 20 years old when the war
broke out.
I knew very little about Korea,
but I knew we were in direct
conflict with the Soviet Union
and that the Soviets were out
to spread communism worldwide.
I knew that.
MAN:
They activated all of
the Marine Reserves at that time
because they needed troops now
Like right now.
(crowd cheering)
MAN:
I just wanted to be a Marine
in the worst way.
I was too young
for World War II.
There were at least 2,000 of us,
all the same thing.
We were kids
just out of high school,
and all wanted to be a Marine,
a gung-ho Marine
Carry a rifle,
shoot at somebody.
MAN:
I remember getting on the train,
and we pulled out.
I remember my mother
waving to us.
But then later on, I realized
that she really wasn't waving;
she was giving us her blessing
as we drove by.
(artillery fire)
NARRATOR:
By the time the first big wave
of reserves arrived,
the North Korean army
had nearly pushed U.S. troops
off the peninsula.
But Douglas MacArthur
remained confident
he could reverse the losses.
He ordered his forces to attack
deep into enemy-held territory,
at the port of Inchon.
GRAY:
MacArthur took the chance
and tried to conduct a landing
there at high tide,
which only had a range
of a few hours
to debark troops there.
And, also, it wasn't
a good beach at all.
There's a seawall there.
But the enemy didn't expect us
to land there,
so it became a tremendous
surprise to the enemy.
And it wasn't very
well defended.
(artillery fire)
(artillery fire)
The success at Inchon was
a bold stroke of genius.
NEWSREEL:
On 16 September,
the 1st Marine Division
moves through Inchon.
This city is recaptured against
relatively light resistance.
Allied casualties are few.
As these men move
through Inchon,
their objective is Seoul.
SHISLER:
The success at Inchon
changed everything.
The North Korean supply line
was cut.
There was a direct route
from Inchon into Seoul,
which was the capital,
and taking it was not only
a military victory,
but also a psychological one
and a political one as well.
MAN:
The goal begins to change now
because what MacArthur
first thought was,
"Well, we'll just disintegrate
the North Korean Army
and we'll reestablish
the borders."
But then he begins to realize,
"Ah, maybe I can pursue
the North Koreans
"into their own country,
into North Korea,
and destroy the last remnants
of that army."
It becomes this idea of taking
the entire country.
And it's not just MacArthur;
it's really all the leaders
in Washington.
There's a glimpse
of total victory.
NARRATOR:
President Harry Truman had
a major reservation:
he was worried that
Communist China
might enter the war to defend
the North Korean regime.
His general waved it off.
SIDES:
MacArthur was very disdainful
of the Chinese
as a fighting force.
They were a peasant army,
they weren't very well armed,
they didn't have an air force
to speak of.
He really was quite scornful
of this notion
that the Chinese posed a threat.
NARRATOR:
MacArthur's instructions
from his bosses
at the Joint Chiefs of Staff
were to proceed with caution
in North Korea.
Only soldiers from South Korea
would be allowed to fight
all the way
to the Chinese border.
But MacArthur believed
he knew best.
Three days
after his men captured
the North Korean capital
of Pyongyang,
the general directed
his commanders to speed forward,
using all available forces.
GRAY:
The troops became
even more jubilant
because here we not only
repulsed an enemy
who was aggressive,
we taught him a lesson.
Now we're taking his territory.
The word of optimism
went around:
"We'll rout these
North Koreans completely
and we'll go all the way
to the Yalu."
NARRATOR:
By the last week in November,
MacArthur had the Yalu
in his sights,
and he had a plan to get there.
His armies on either side
of the Taebaek Mountains
would act as armored pincers.
They would close the divide
between them,
form a solid front,
and then race north
before the long and brutal
Korean winter settled in.
"This should for all practical
purposes end the war,"
MacArthur told the press,
"and restore peace and unity
to Korea."
MAN:
I didn't know
what the orders were.
All I knew is
we were moving out.
It was about seven miles uphill
to where we were going.
REININGER:
We advanced rather slowly
because that's about the only
way you could walk up there.
You had two directions to go
in North Korea,
and that was either straight up
or straight down,
because it was
a very mountainous,
very rugged terrain.
GRAY:
It was real hazardous for us
because that main supply route
was an ox trail.
That's all it was.
Oftentimes,
it was just one lane wide
along a side hill cut
with a big bank on one side
and then a plunging cliff
on the other.
MAN:
We finally got into a village
called Yudam-ni,
and it was just
the most desolate country
you ever wanted to see:
a pile of boulders and rocks,
and of course snow and wind.
Everybody was grumbling
and crabbing,
but that's the Marine Corps.
If you're not crabbing,
you ain't a Marine.
GRAY:
The temperatures
were plunging at night
to as much as 25 below zero,
and the northwest wind
was blowing
15, 20 miles an hour
out of Manchuria.
But still we were cheered up,
thinking with optimism,
"Well, we won't have
to endure this for long.
Maybe they're right
and maybe the war will be over."
NARRATOR:
MacArthur's willingness
to sacrifice caution for speed
had consequences.
On the eve
of its final offensive,
the First Marine Division
was strung out
on a single supply route,
nearly 80 miles long,
leading to the Chosin Reservoir.
3,600 men were making camp
at the bottom of the reservoir
at Hagaru-ri,
where division headquarters
and a much-needed airfield
were taking shape.
Five miles ahead, on the west
side of the reservoir,
was a small contingent
of 400 Marines
defending the high ground
above the road.
The bulk of the forces,
8,000 Marines,
were digging in
near the village of Yudam-ni,
preparing to spearhead
the next day's offensive.
To the east were 2,500
U.S. Army soldiers
and several hundred
South Korean fighters
placed there to protect
the right flank
of the attacking Marines.
As darkness fell on November 27,
the men on both sides
of the reservoir
were settling in
for their last night of sleep
before their big attack
to the Yalu.
HAFFEMAN:
There was one tree
up on that hill,
a fully-grown tree
with pine branches.
And I took my entrenching tool
and knocked some
of those branches off.
And I laid it down,
put my sleeping bag on top,
and I was gonna get
a good night's rest.
And I heard, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
(flares shooting off)
(horns blaring)
BALLEZA:
Blares, like a bugle blowing,
whistles, clangs, screaming.
And illumination flares
being shot up.
And all you could see
ahead of us
was Chinese coming at us,
a lot of 'em.
You know, so we set up
our fields of fire
in defense positions,
braced for the attack.
MAN:
The first sergeant was screaming
for everybody out:
"Get out of our tents
and get on the ground,
and get your rifles out,
because they're coming."
(explosions)
(men shouting)
GRAY:
All of a sudden, here come
a whole bunch of Chinese.
They were in these
quilted uniforms,
coming down inside our perimeter
down the valley toward us.
I shot the one nearest me,
and he just staggered.
I had to shoot him twice
before he went down.
EZELL:
Some Chinese Communist jumps up
about ten yards out in front,
and somebody yelled,
"Duck! He's got a grenade!"
(gunfire, explosions)
MILLS:
It's terrifying.
You know you're gonna die
and you wonder
how it's gonna happen.
(explosion)
PARKINSON:
We used everything we had
Our M-1s, the Carbines,
if you could get it to work,
we had our machine guns,
and it was just one solid field
of fire as they come down.
You didn't have to look
where they were.
They were in back of you,
in front of you, around you,
right in the middle of you.
MAN:
You'd be shooting,
you'd be stabbing,
you're using your rifle
as a club.
Sometimes, they'd be six,
eight feet away from you
before you even knew it,
on that.
And that's when either
the bayonet or your rifle
become a club.
(gunfire)
PARKINSON:
When things got hot and heavy,
my good friend
Sergeant Bob Debbins
got a burp gun right through
the back of his head.
We tried to keep him alive,
but we had nothing to work with.
I took my T-shirt
out of my backpack
I had an extra one
And I tried to stop the blood
with that,
but he bled to death.
We were just hanging
by a thread.
NARRATOR:
When the attack subsided
the next morning,
one of MacArthur's
most trusted subordinates,
General Ned Almond,
choppered into the command post
on the east side
of the reservoir
to buck up the badly shaken
Army unit.
One of the highest-ranking
officers on the ground,
Lieutenant Colonel Donald Faith,
was just then making sense
of what had happened
the night before.
GRAY:
Faith told him, and it should
have been convincing,
"General, we're in deep trouble.
"We captured Chinese soldiers
from two different divisions.
"That indicates
we've got two divisions
"right here in our vicinity.
"What are we doing, General?
"We just barely survived.
We fended them off,
but we need help."
And General Almond, he said,
"What do you mean?
"You're gonna let a few Chinese
laundrymen stop you?
We're gonna continue
the attack."
(cheering)
NARRATOR:
The leader of the People's
Republic of China, Mao Zedong,
had won a long and deadly
civil war a year earlier
and united the country
under his communist flag.
But he was a man-made wary
by a lifetime of fighting.
Chairman Mao was wary
of his foes inside China.
He was wary
of the growing Soviet empire
on his northern border.
And he was especially wary
of Americans,
who had backed his enemy
in the civil war
and whose army was threatening
his border in the fall of 1950.
CUMMINGS:
What Mao had on his hands,
and this is a reverse of what
people thought in the U.S.,
people thought Mao was an evil,
crazy communist dictator
and MacArthur was a great hero
but from Mao's standpoint,
MacArthur was
the irrational one.
He just wanted to plunge ahead.
"What would the U.S. do
"if the Chinese Communist Army
were marching up Mexico,
"talking about rolling back
American capitalism
in the Southwest?"
NARRATOR:
Mao had begun preparations
to enter the war in North Korea
back in October,
around the time
MacArthur's troops
first crossed the 38th parallel.
When MacArthur's army
kept pushing north,
nearing the Chinese border,
Mao set his battle plan
in motion.
WOMAN:
U.S. intelligence knew that
there were troops
that were being amassed
in Manchuria.
We just didn't know what they
were doing there, right?
And of course
what they were doing there
was slowly and quietly
infiltrating into North Korea.
GRAY:
The Chinese used a night cover
to camouflage their movements,
and they were moving away
from the roads,
hidden at night from our
aircraft surveillance,
and also in the daytime
by staying within the forest
under the trees.
FOLSOM:
They moved at night and they
stayed up on the ridgelines.
The U.S. forces, in general,
stayed on the roads
and went hell-bent
for the border.
But meanwhile,
in between the forces,
Chinese were coming quietly
down on foot.
NARRATOR:
Mao knew his military
was far inferior
to the Americans in tanks,
artillery, and airpower.
But he had taken the measure
of MacArthur
and discerned a weakness.
In early November,
Mao sent small cadres of troops
to attack all along
the approaching American front.
Then his men pulled back
in what looked like
a full retreat.
MILLS:
The Chinese hit hard.
Then they just disappeared.
There was nothing
out there anymore.
MacArthur said,
"Full speed ahead" again.
SIDES:
This became part
of the strategy,
which is to lure the Americans
further into North Korea,
have them penetrate deeply
and then ultimately
surround them.
There's a certain shrewdness
about Mao.
He knows who he's dealing with.
He knows that MacArthur
is quite arrogant.
This is a strategy that plays
into that arrogance.
MAN:
We had interrogated
North Korean prisoners,
North Korean civilians,
and even a few Chinese,
and what we learned
from all these interrogations
was that there are large amounts
of Chinese army
on the other side
of the Yalu River,
which is the border between
North Korea and Manchuria.
And we passed the word
to Division,
Division passed it to Corps,
Corps passed it to Army,
which was MacArthur,
and he disbelieved that.
He said, "Nah, they're not
gonna come into Korea."
FOLSOM:
They couldn't seem
to accept that
yes, the Chinese
are coming down.
Even when the first fingers
touched us, it wasn't accepted.
"This doesn't mean anything."
It was that sort of thing
in the headquarters.
(imitates scoffing)
WEINTRAUB:
Mao lured American troops
quite literally to the Yalu,
and they were surrounded
on all sides.
(men shouting, bugles blaring)
NEWSREEL:
United Nations troops
are obliged to fall back
on all fronts in the face
of attacks by Chinese Reds.
This is the bitter fate
of the Allied armies,
who almost had the independence
of Korea a settled question.
In northeast Korea,
the situation is even graver.
Here, thousands of Marines
and other United Nations forces
are trapped.
NARRATOR:
The worst of the Chinese
onslaught
landed on the First
Marine Division,
then under the command
of General Oliver P. Smith.
Soft-spoken and cautious,
Smith had doubted the wisdom
of MacArthur's headlong march
to the Chinese border.
And now the consequences
of MacArthur's boldness
were falling on Smith
and his men.
SIDES:
He realizes that it's
a completely different war now.
The advance to the Yalu,
as far as he's concerned,
is over.
He genuinely feared that
the entire First Marine Division
was in jeopardy,
that it could be wiped out.
His job now was to figure out
a way out of this trap.
NARRATOR:
At least six Chinese divisions,
some 60,000 troops,
were on the attack
against Smith's loosely
consolidated 15,000.
Smith understood that
his own headquarters
at the village of Hagaru
was on critical ground.
Hagaru had not yet
been attacked,
but Smith knew
the Chinese were coming.
The crossroads town
had to be held
if there was to be any hope
of extracting
his endangered men.
SHISLER:
Hagaru was very thinly defended.
There really weren't very many
combat troops there at all.
General Smith had cooks
and bakers and PX people
and he had the engineers
that were building the field.
It was a really motley crew.
NARRATOR:
While American fighter planes
kept the Chinese pinned down,
Smith pushed his engineers
to finish construction
of the airstrip
so pilots could fly in
reinforcements.
And he deployed almost every man
at his disposal
to defend the perimeter
of Hagaru,
many at a spot called East Hill,
the high ground that rose
above the ammunition dump.
MAN:
Ammunitions are coming.
They just drop.
Every hour,
just drop and drop, drop.
It was my job to get the supply
by airdrops.
The Chinese start to fire at us
when we are picking up
the supplies.
NARRATOR:
The vital airdrops ceased
as darkness descended on Hagaru
just before 5:00
on November 28.
The men dug in to hold East Hill
could see the engineers at work
under floodlights,
racing to finish
the airstrip below.
A light snow began to fall
at around 8:00,
and for the next few hours,
all was quiet
but for the scrape and roar
of the bulldozers.
(bulldozers scraping
against earth)
Just after 10:30,
the calm broke.
(artillery fire)
(bugles blaring)
MAN:
The Chinese recognized the fact
that East Hill was the key,
so they really concentrated
on it that night.
(flares shooting off)
We were at the bottom
to halfway up the hill,
and not with infantry.
We had engineers, artillery men,
cooks and bakers,
whoever we could gather.
You have to do it.
You have to hold it.
(explosions)
(rapid gunfire and explosions)
(mortar shell whistling)
MAN:
You hear a mortar shell coming.
(imitates whistling)
And then boom!
And then you'd hear a scream.
Somebody had been hit.
The Chinese were just coming
and coming and coming,
and we were scared.
KENNEDY:
It wasn't typical sorts
of warfare that we had learned
during our training
as young Marines
That there would be enemy
coming at us
in these huge numbers
with very little regard
for their own safety.
(men shouting)
(explosion)
CAREY:
The only way they could
overwhelm us
was with sheer force of numbers.
The first wave
would all have weapons.
The second wave
wouldn't all have weapons.
They would pick up weapons
of the first wave.
And the third wave would be
commissars with burp guns.
Nobody retreats.
(gunfire)
SIDES:
Smith's men were
hugely outnumbered.
The Chinese divisions
were coming in from all sides.
Smith was really doubtful
whether Hagaru
could actually hold.
(gunfire)
NARRATOR:
While the makeshift unit
struggled to hold Hagaru,
their fellow Marines
west of the reservoir
were preparing
for a second night of attack.
MILLS:
I had no idea what was coming.
I knew it'd be bad,
and I hope I
I was just, you know
"I hope I can do
what I was supposed to do
and don't let anybody down."
BALLEZA:
You learn to control
your emotions.
You pledge yourself
to fight for your buddy,
and he has the same
to fight for me.
So he's not gonna leave me there
and I'm not gonna
leave him there either.
MAN:
You reached back and found out
what you're made of.
It's not trying to be heroic
or anything,
but you are out there
to do a job,
and if you don't do it,
it's not only gonna get
you killed,
it's gonna get
your whole outfit killed.
(rapid artillery fire)
PARKINSON:
They really came down on us.
They overrun our position.
Our machine guns were firing
so hot and heavy,
they were burning
the barrels out.
There were a few times
that I actually had to take
the damn machine gun
and turn it all the way around
and fire over the heads
of our own men
that were behind us
because they were
breaking through.
EZELL:
Now they're starting
to move up the hill
and we were shooting at 'em.
And so now I'm firing,
and people are starting
to run through
on the side of the rocks
that way from us,
maybe five, ten yards that way.
(explosion)
So my rifle jams now.
And this guy throws
a hand grenade over.
I took one step
and the hand grenade went off.
(explosions)
I feel myself flying
through the air,
but I don't feel myself
hit the ground.
(rumbling)
REININGER:
I think it was a mortar that hit
right in the hole,
and I flew up in the air
and I landed on the ground.
And I looked around
and I thought,
"Hey, some poor guy's
lost a leg."
And I got up,
I fell flat on my face,
and I looked down,
and there was that leg
laying over there,
and that poor guy was me.
It was my right leg
was gone at the knee.
PARKINSON:
I prayed that night
for the first time in my life.
"God, don't let me die."
(crying)
"Not here,
not this far from home.
"I just wanna see the sun
come up one more time.
Just give me another day."
(faint gunfire)
NARRATOR:
When the first light
of morning rose,
the Chinese retreated back
to their daytime hiding spots.
The Marines still held
all of Hagaru,
as well the crucial hills
around Yudam-ni.
The cost had been dear.
MILLS:
I found this one Marine.
He was on top of the hill.
He was in a hole that
I thought he was dead.
He wasn't nothing
or moving at all,
but you could see
his eyes moving.
His face was all ashen gray,
and we picked him up
and we carried
and drug him down the hill
to the aid station.
PARKINSON:
They had fellas
all over the floor
on straw mats, under blankets,
and doing the best
they could for 'em.
The odds were against trying
to save a guy,
but yet, fellas that had
gutshot wounds
I mean bad, bad gutshot wounds
It was so cold, the blood froze
and these guys managed
to survive.
Guys without a leg
from here down.
It was so cold,
everything congealed
and they managed to live.
They'd lost their leg,
but they were still alive.
WOLF:
Everything was complicated
by exposure to extreme cold.
They had stopped bleeding
because the area froze,
and then when we got them,
we looked at them,
and as they thawed,
they started bleeding
and we discovered four or five
additional bullet holes.
You did the best you could do,
and when you finished,
you moved on
to the next patient.
GRAY:
They tried to cover 'em
with blankets or tents
or anything else they could
against the cold,
but they'd still freeze
to death.
NARRATOR:
That morning's after-battle
reports were sobering.
General O.P. Smith
wasn't sure how much longer
the men at Yudam-ni
could hold on.
There was little word
from the badly outnumbered
Army units
on the east side
of the reservoir.
Even worse, the Chinese had now
driven far south of Hagaru,
cut the main supply road
behind Smith,
and attacked the First Marine
garrison at Koto-ri,
just 11 miles away.
Hagaru was now menaced
on three sides.
SIDES:
Smith was really worried
that Hagaru was going to fall
and that the fighting
at East Hill
was reaching a critical point.
He desperately needed
reinforcements.
CAREY:
We needed more tanks,
more infantry,
we needed people to reinforce.
NARRATOR:
Just before 10:00 on the third
morning of the battle,
at Smith's order, 922 men left
Koto-ri to reinforce Hagaru.
Under the direction
of British Lieutenant Colonel
Douglas Drysdale,
the task force comprised
235 British commandos
with a few attached
American units,
141 supply vehicles,
and 29 tanks.
SIDES:
Smith felt that
if Drysdale didn't make it,
Hagaru would not hold,
and that would lead
to the destruction
of the entire division.
The Chinese knew
what was going on,
and they did not want to let
those guys through.
MAN:
It started out well,
but it took time.
And then we ran into a lot
of machine gun, mortar,
heavy mortar fire,
and we got bogged down.
(faint explosion)
(artillery fire)
You've got wounded
and dead Marines
you're putting on trucks.
Trucks are being blowed up,
they're being shot up.
As each truck stopped,
the men on that truck
had to protect that truck.
That was their war.
You didn't know
what was happening
two trucks in front of you
or two trucks behind you.
(artillery fire)
NARRATOR:
The Chinese cut off
and destroyed the middle
of Drysdale's convoy.
The men at the rear turned
and fought their way back
to Koto-ri.
Drysdale radioed Smith to report
the unfolding disaster.
When Drysdale called
General Smith,
he wanted to know
if he should turn around
and go back to Koto-ri.
General Smith knew that he had
to have these reinforcements.
He told them to come ahead
at all cost.
I told my assistant gunner,
"This doesn't look good, Joe."
NARRATOR:
They were ten hours
behind schedule,
and a little less than half
the men remained.
But Task Force Drysdale,
including 16 of its 29 tanks,
did manage to straggle
into Hagaru.
"To the slender infantry
garrison
were added a tank company
and some 300 seasoned infantry,"
a much relieved
O.P. Smith noted.
He now had the forces
to hold the crucial ground
around East Hill.
HARBULA:
They said, "Put your men
over here in this field
and get some sleep."
You couldn't build fires,
you couldn't dig foxholes.
Everything was frozen
like a rock.
There was some dead
Chinese bodies laying around,
so we stacked some of them up
to keep the wind off of us.
NARRATOR:
The condition of the Army unit
in the mountains
east of the reservoir
was still largely unknown.
General Smith's headquarters
had lost contact
with the commander
now in charge,
Lieutenant Colonel Donald Faith.
The men down on the ground
were growing anxious.
GRAY:
The Chinese forces
were increasing all the time.
We had a throng around us.
It looked like
an entire division,
or a division and a half.
McMlLLlN:
We were running
out of ammunition,
we were running out of gasoline
for the vehicles,
we hadn't had any food really
for a couple days.
The planes came in and dropped
the wrong supplies to us
40-millimeter rounds
for 50-caliber machine guns.
And just we were running
out of everything,
including people,
and we knew it.
MAN:
Somebody was prompting us that,
"Well, the tanks are trying
to break through to you."
And well, after a couple of days
of this, say,
"Well, we've heard
that one before."
Because if we're gonna
we're gonna hear 'em
before we'll ever see 'em
because they make so much noise,
and we don't hear anything.
NARRATOR:
Faith's men were starting
to lose all hope
when a helicopter carrying
the Army's divisional commander
flew into their shrinking
perimeter.
GRAY:
We were exhilarated for a moment
because we thought help
was on its way.
Here was our division commander.
He's showing concern.
Here he was.
That means help
must be on its way.
But that wasn't the message.
McMlLLlN:
The general said,
"You're gonna get no help."
We had to fight our own way out.
NARRATOR:
By the time
General Douglas MacArthur
left his headquarters in Tokyo
to reckon the damage,
he appeared to have lost his
characteristic self-confidence.
SHISLER:
It must have just shaken him
right down to the ground
to have this happen.
It just was not
in his game plan.
I don't think he could
understand it.
NARRATOR:
The Chinese had redrawn
the battle map
in less than 72 hours.
MacArthur's army
in the west of Korea
was in headlong retreat,
having abandoned supplies
and weapons to Mao's forces.
His First Marine Division
at the Chosin Reservoir,
outnumbered in some places
by more than ten to one,
was threatened with extinction.
FOLSOM:
MacArthur came over.
I was there.
I watched him get out
of the airplane.
He was a distraught individual
at that point.
He had been winning a war.
It was over.
And all of a sudden,
he was losing it.
He was to me at that moment
a damaged and distraught
old man.
GRAY:
Every newspaper
and every magazine
was just full of the news.
My wife didn't know anything
about the details of it,
but the headlines
are big and broad:
"31st Infantry Annihilated."
PARKINSON:
My father kept a collection
of newspaper clippings,
and there are stories
that the Marine Corps
has been annihilated,
it's a lost legion,
Marine Corps is trapped,
they're isolated.
The papers had given up on us.
MAN:
My wife had lost a brother
aboard the USS Arizona
at Pearl Harbor,
and she was thinking that
she might lose me.
SHISLER:
My grandmother would have been
listening on the radio
when one of the famous
broadcasters of the time said,
"If anyone has a son
or a husband
"in the First Marine Division,
pray for them.
They may be lost."
NARRATOR:
President Harry Truman's
national security advisers
had been struggling to adjust
themselves to a new reality
in the days since Mao's
spectacular attack.
(flashbulbs popping)
They admitted among themselves
that the United States
lacked the resources
to defeat the Chinese
in a protracted war in Korea.
The best they could hope for
was to draw a line somewhere
on the peninsula, shore it up,
hand it over
to the South Koreans,
and get out with some measure
of honor intact.
But top officials
at the Pentagon
weren't sure they had
enough troops to hold any line.
Press reports filled with talk
of World War III
and of the Soviet Union
rolling into Western Europe
while the U.S. was distracted
in Asia.
Truman even hinted
he was willing to unleash
the atomic bomb
in defense of South Korea.
If aggression is successful
in Korea,
we can expect it to spread
throughout Asia and Europe
and to this hemisphere.
We are fighting in Korea
for our own national security
and survival.
SIDES:
No one really seems to have
the answer,
but Truman is very clear that
he is not gonna give up Korea.
This is a tremendously
significant moment
in American history.
The talk is that
our very civilization
is on the line here.
NARRATOR:
The U.S. commanders
on the ground in Korea
got little direction
from Washington.
The Pentagon did give them leave
to abandon northeast Korea
and to get the First Marines
out to safety,
but this was no simple mission.
General Smith's men
would have to make their way
from the top
of the Chosin Reservoir
through Hagaru, Koto-ri,
and all the way
to the Sea of Japan
78 miles into the teeth
of a subarctic winter,
through tens of thousands
of Chinese soldiers
waiting in the high ground
above the single road out.
SIDES:
Military historians
have always said that
a fighting withdrawal
is the most difficult maneuver
to pull off successfully.
Everything has to be
perfectly timed
with close air support,
with artillery,
with getting the casualties out
at the right moment.
It's a very,
very complex operation.
HAFFEMAN:
The division
was getting geared up.
They were burning
a lot of things,
they were getting rid
of a lot of weapons,
things that weren't usable,
and we were gonna start
our way back south.
NARRATOR:
On December 1,
after four long nights
of fighting off enemy attacks,
the First Marines
on the west side
of the reservoir
began their perilous journey.
CAREY:
You only had one road,
one point of entry and egress
on each side of the reservoir
and up to the reservoir
Dirt road
flanked by hills on either side.
A nightmare,
an absolute nightmare.
SIDES:
Mao thought that
if he could destroy
the First Marine Division,
this would create great fear
and doubt in Washington
and cause the war
to end quickly.
His goal was not just to punish
the First Marine Division
or damage them,
but to completely
annihilate them.
(gunfire)
OVERHOLT:
The regimental train
was on the road
and the rifle companies
were up in the hills
doing the fighting,
and we were moving south.
There was firing going on
up in the mountains
all the time.
HAFFEMAN:
We were going up hills
and down hills
because the enemy
was all around us,
and you could hear firefights
going on all over the place.
(gunfire)
MILLS:
We were taking the high ground
along the way
to try to cover the road
wherever possible.
And we were going up this hill,
and the guy next to me
was from Alabama.
This shell went off
between him and I,
and it knocked me
around and down,
but as I spun around,
he was falling.
He had his hand up like that
and the blood was just gushing.
It looked like his whole face
was torn off.
NARRATOR:
The First Marines had only
one clear advantage
in their fight south:
the United States
still controlled the skies.
Air Force and Marine pilots
from nearby Yonpo airfield
and Navy pilots from carriers
in the Sea of Japan
were quick to answer calls
from spotters on the ground.
MAN:
Our job was just to try
to keep the numbers down
so the Chinese
wouldn't completely overrun
the Marines
just by sheer numbers.
We had multiple missions
almost every day.
You really had to be
on your toes.
Mountain peaks were
all over the place,
plus the fact that we had
some very bad weather.
PARKINSON:
If the sun came out,
it brought the planes.
No sun, no planes.
And when there's no planes,
the Chinese were all over us.
(explosion)
BRADLEY:
That's the big thing about this
Chosin Reservoir operation.
We did so much
close air support,
and close is really close.
OVERHOLT:
Occasionally, they were so low
that you could actually see
the face of the pilot
through the cockpit window,
you know, the glass.
It's amazing,
the courage those guys had
coming down like that.
(engine roaring)
(explosion)
OVERHOLT:
The serious stuff that we saw
was napalm,
That's a jellied gasoline.
(explosion)
(plane engines roaring)
BRADLEY:
Napalm was a new device.
It is very potent stuff.
When that explodes,
it covers a big area,
and it can do
a tremendous amount of damage.
You walked through an area
where the napalm
had hit the enemy
and their bodies were burned.
The skin split,
and you could see
the yellow fat.
And there were smells that
to this day I can't get rid of.
NARRATOR:
The Army units east
of the Chosin Reservoir
were still feeling forsaken.
(gunfire)
They were holding out
against a force of Chinese
that outnumbered them
by as much as ten to one.
(gunfire)
The dead and wounded
were increasing day and night.
Supplies dwindled.
And there had been no word
from General Smith in Hagaru.
VALLOWE:
Lieutenant Colonel Faith,
he said,
"Well, I've got
all these wounded
and I've got no orders
to withdraw."
So he makes up his mind.
"We're gonna pull out of there.
We're gonna try to make a run
for it and go back to Hagaru."
GRAY:
We knew that our tank company
had been at Hudong-ni,
and we'd hoped maybe
if we could join up
with the tanks
with their firepower
that then,
we would be escorted in safely
to the Marines at Hagari.
VALLOWE:
Once we get back to the tanks,
we got it made.
We're home free.
We got supplies back there
and everything.
GRAY:
We had 400 to 450 wounded
that had to be carried by truck,
and the only way
we could load 'em
was to triple deck 'em.
We stacked layers of wounded
in the trucks.
VALLOWE:
The dead you had to leave.
You had to stack 'em on a pile
and we had to leave 'em.
GRAY:
We had to strip the dead
of their clothing
in order to provide some warmth
for those wounded on the trucks.
We also went through the clothes
looking for ammunition,
we were so short of ammunition.
It was grotesque, it really was.
Horrible.
Nightmare.
NARRATOR:
At 1:00 on the afternoon
of December 1,
Faith's soldiers started
the attack south.
They were cheered at first
to hear the roar
of fighter planes overhead.
GRAY:
Marine aircraft came in
to napalm the Chinese
on the road
in front of our
advancing column.
But one of 'em had a malfunction
and it was dropped too early.
(explosion)
And it was dropped
on our advancing troops.
McMlLLlN:
There was this blast of fire,
and a lot of the guys
that were in front of it
didn't get back up.
GRAY:
Our troops were diverted
trying to put out the flames
of soldiers on fire.
It was disconcerting,
to say the least.
VALLOWE:
We moved about a mile
down the road,
and there was a bridge.
The bridge was blown.
Well, we were losing time.
We've only moved
about maybe two miles.
My gut feeling was
there's no way we're gonna
get out of here.
I mean, just no way.
GRAY:
We were trapped
to follow the road
because that's the only way
we could rescue the wounded.
We could have saved ourselves
by abandoning the convoy,
but to me,
that was a coward's approach.
We were morally bound.
McMlLLlN:
We got up to Hill 1221,
and another truck had gone
into the ditch,
and our driver pulled up
behind them, shut the truck off,
got out and disappeared.
Now, I don't know if that truck
was still operable
or why he did that,
but those two trucks were
left there filled with wounded.
That's where I was captured.
GRAY:
All the soldiers there
that were still alive
became prisoners of war.
But the rest of the convoy
got through.
We got down to where we hoped
we'd meet up with the tanks
only to see 'em gone.
Our hopes were dashed.
VALLOWE:
We thought we were
on the goal line.
It's like,
"Here's our goal post."
They said, "Sorry about that,
you're only on the 50 yard line.
You've got four more miles
to go."
So we were totally on our own,
and that's when it all
fell apart.
FOLSOM:
I flew up over the reservoir
on the east side.
I could see every movement
on the ground.
The Chinese were coming down
the ridgeline
and attacking this Army unit
on the road.
And I watched them gradually
being overwhelmed.
I've been in World War II,
I've seen all kinds of battles,
but I'd never seen U.S. forces
being destroyed like that.
GRAY:
We watched one truck on fire
in which the wounded,
their clothing on fire,
screaming in agony.
I never have felt
so desperate in my life,
and that I could do nothing
about it.
VALLOWE:
Most of us have already
calculated the situation,
said, "Well, we've done
everything we can."
It was like every man
for himself at that point.
GRAY:
You would either
become a captive
or you would try to save the men
that were with you
and get across the reservoir.
We had a wild scramble
across the ice.
I lost my helmet in the panic.
I lost my compass
off of my pistol belt,
and I fell down several times.
My wounded thigh
was just killing me.
I told one of the guys,
"Leave me here.
"I can't make it any further.
I'm spent."
WOLF:
We got a call that,
"Doc, clear the deck.
You've got multiple casualties
coming in."
And here come, over a period
of about three days,
several hundred Army casualties.
And many of them
had been out on the ice
for two and three days.
When they came in, these men
were frozen, literally frozen.
McMlLLlN:
Out of that 2,500 guys about
that we had,
I think that they got 385 guys
back to the Marines
that were fit to fight.
That's a pretty high
casualty rate.
GRAY:
When we finally walked in
to Hagari,
we were like walking corpses
from having been neglected
for five days.
NARRATOR:
As the remains of the Army unit
made it into Hagaru,
the withdrawing Marine convoy
west of the reservoir paused
about five miles away.
They rescued what was left
of the single infantry company
that had been holding
the crucial pass above the road
for the previous five days.
Less than half the men
at the pass were battle ready.
Nearly all were suffering
frostbite or gnawing hunger.
Bodies of dead Marines
were stacked, frozen,
between the aid tents.
BOULDEN:
To bring all of our dead
and our wounded that we could,
that was just
a Marine tradition.
As long as we were able,
we'd carry them with us.
OVERHOLT:
Most of the wounded
were able to walk,
and those that couldn't walk
rode on vehicles.
They were piled up on trucks
and on the backs of tanks
and on artillery pieces.
HAFFEMAN:
There was sniper fire,
and walking alongside the convoy
were troops.
And when there wasn't any firing
going on,
they'd come and crowd
around the Jeep,
try to get warm,
and if the convoy continued,
we had to tell 'em, you know,
"You're gonna have
to walk again."
And these poor guys maybe got
ten, 15 minutes' sleep
and then they were
back up again.
CRUMBIE:
We didn't have a chance
to sleep,
so you'd fall asleep walking.
And there was no food, no water.
CORK:
All of us were kind of like
in a daze
because we were just
kind of worn out.
Just completely exhausted.
SIDES:
The Chinese are constantly
throwing up roadblocks:
logs and rocks and boulders.
Anything to slow down the convoy
so they can begin
to attack them.
Every twist and turn
as they work their way south,
they encounter something.
PARKINSON:
We were on the road there,
and the whole column come
to a complete halt.
I says, "Why is the column
standing still?"
He says, "We got prisoners
all over the road."
So I went up further,
and right then and there,
I lost it.
I see these prisoners.
They were done,
they were out of it.
They were shot up
and I didn't realize it.
I took my M-1
by the stacking swivel
and I started swinging at 'em.
"Get off the road,
get off the road,
get out of the way,
get going, move, move!"
And they would roll over,
and these guys had no legs,
no arms,
their bodies were blown apart,
their feet were black
with frost.
And I said to myself,
"Oh my God, what are you doing?
You're a maniac."
You're not the same person.
You're a different person.
You're just something
you never thought you'd be.
NARRATOR:
Men inside the Hagaru garrison
heard the rumble of trucks
just before 7:00
on the evening of December 3,
the end of the first full week
of the battle.
Then they spotted the lights
at the head of the Marine convoy
from Yudam-ni
moving toward the northernmost
checkpoint of the perimeter.
OVERHOLT:
As we got near the lines,
we were aware that we were
getting into Hagaru-ri.
Somebody said,
"Count, cadence, count!"
And people started
getting in step.
You could hear the shoepacks,
first "clumpity-clump-
clump-clumpity,"
and then they were
"clump-clump-clump."
People were getting in step.
We were marching.
CRUMBIE:
We marched into Hagaru,
the sound of feet crunching
in the frozen ice.
Someone watching us said,
"Look at those bastards,
those magnificent bastards."
OVERHOLT:
Somebody started singing
the Marine Corps hymn.
I couldn't believe it.
They were singing
the Marine Corps hymn,
we were coming
through the lines,
and somebody handed me
a canteen cup full of hot coffee
and a box of graham crackers,
and I just sat down in the snow
and had probably the best meal
I ever had in my life.
That night,
I slept in my sleeping bag
on the straw inside a tent.
That was like luxury.
GRAY:
After the Marines' regiments
had gotten back
from west of the reservoir
and consolidated there,
there was a lot
of correspondents there too
Time Magazine, Life.
They said, "General, it's not
like for Marines to retreat."
General Smith told 'em,
"Retreat?
Hell, we're just advancing
to the rear."
(laughing)
SIDES:
Smith bristled at the notion
that this was a withdrawal
or a retreat.
There was no front,
there was no rear.
He was surrounded
in all directions,
and therefore any movement
in any direction
is essentially an attack.
NARRATOR:
When General Smith insisted
his men were not retreating,
but "attacking in another
direction,"
at least one reporter
in the camp
suspected the bravado
was masking a deep concern.
"As I looked at the battered
men," she wrote,
"I wondered if they could
possibly have the strength
to make this final punch."
MILLS:
I cannot remember
having a meal at Hagaru.
We were pretty short
of everything.
The worst part was
the shoepacks, they called them,
those rubber boots that came up
about halfway to your knees,
the bottom portion of 'em
were rubber,
and as long as you were moving,
they worked good.
But climbing those hills,
your socks would get wet
from sweat,
and then you had no way
to change the socks,
so if you laid in the snow
all night long,
your feet would freeze.
CRUMBIE:
The rubber boots
had a felt insole
about a half-inch thick
that was supposed to absorb
perspiration.
Instead, the insole would freeze
and it was like walking on ice.
I was thawing out, I guess,
because they give me
some hot coffee and morphine.
But they took my boots off
and I saw that my toes
were black,
and I sort of lost it.
I wanted to cry.
I didn't, but I wanted to cry.
I said a few curse words.
Somebody come over and says,
"Knock it off.
"You act right.
Act like a Marine."
So I shut up.
CORK:
My boot was frozen,
so they had to chop
the boot off,
and part of my toes had come off
inside the boot.
And when they took the boot off,
all of the toes are gone.
The tip my toes, gone.
That's big toe, little toe,
and all through there.
And two or three of 'em
was found inside of that boot.
HARBULA:
One of the miracles of Hagaru
and the Battle of Chosin
is that they flew out
4,500 wounded on C-47s.
It's almost impossible.
LEE:
A doctor has to certify that
this patient is serious enough
to be flown.
So a doctor's main job
was actually dividing those
who were to be sent
with the airplane
and those who are to be sent
by a truck.
WOLF:
I remember vividly one man
with part of his skull
shot away,
and brain was showing.
Had we been in South Korea
or in other circumstances,
he would've been sent
to a hospital,
and, yes, he would be
terribly injured,
but he would have a chance
of living.
Here's another man who has
a sucking chest wound,
got a bullet hole that's
going through into his chest
and air is coming in and out.
But we knew that this man
would certainly live
if we can get him to Japan,
and he would go.
And this other man
put a dressing on it
and give him morphine for pain
and set him aside.
And it's a morbid thought that
we set him aside to die,
but we did.
That's what we did.
HAFFEMAN:
There must have been 20 of us,
maybe 30 of us on board,
and we flew for about an hour
and a half, maybe two hours
from Hagaru to Japan.
And when I got to Japan,
then I felt,
"Wow, I'm out of the war zone,"
and, you know,
"I'm really gonna be okay."
NARRATOR:
The air evacuation
came to a close
as the Marines prepared
to abandon Hagaru
to the Chinese.
The last flight out
had room enough
to carry letters
from the surrounded Marines
to anxious relatives back home,
and to pack a handful
of frozen corpses in
among the casualties.
But the question remained:
how many of the 10,000 troops
still at Hagaru
would make it out alive?
NARRATOR:
As the Marines at Hagaru
braced for the next battle
in their fight for survival,
their head officer was
in New York City,
laying down a new marker
in America's Cold War strategy.
"Idealism is fine,"
the Marine Commandant told
a defense industry gathering,
"but if we are to assume
leadership in a free world,
"we must have armed forces
to make our will felt
wherever our interest
is threatened."
SIDES:
In the State Department
and in the Department
of Defense,
what they are talking about is
making the United States
essentially in perpetuity
the policeman of the world.
Anywhere where communism
is going to rear its head,
we have to be ready
to attack it.
NARRATOR:
President Truman was preparing
to declare a national state
of emergency
to galvanize the country
in an effort to roll back
what he called
"communist imperialism."
We had to "get strong fast,"
said one of Truman's advisers,
even if it meant giving up
"such things as refrigerators
and television."
CUMMINGS:
What the December 1950
crisis did
was to convince
the American people
that they had to spend
a lot more money
and make a lot more sacrifices
in a cold war
that had turned hot in Korea
and might turn hot
someplace else.
And as a result of that,
you had fundamental changes
in American history.
That built the national
security state,
built military bases abroad,
a large standing army
for the first time
in U.S. history.
And all of that transpired
in December 1950
courtesy of the Chinese
intervention.
NARRATOR:
On the morning of December 7,
as the rearguard dismantled
the camp at Hagaru,
destroying supplies
and equipment
that would not fit
on the trucks,
the lead Marine units
were already running
the next gauntlet.
OVERHOLT:
When we left Hagaru-ri
and we were moving on
toward Koto-ri,
there were Chinese all over
the side of the mountain.
And I was standing up
behind our Jeep trailer,
which was fully loaded,
and standing up there
firing my carbine.
And the guy next to me got hit
and went down.
HARBULA:
One of the worst things of all
is sitting on the lines
and one of your fellow Marines
is shot.
And in his last dying breath,
he's calling for his mother.
And nothing is sadder
or more heart wrenching
than hearing that.
OVERHOLT:
One of the myths
is that men don't cry,
and that is bullshit.
I saw people cry, especially
when their friends got hit.
When you're in pain, you cry.
KENNEDY:
You had a feeling of isolation.
You didn't get too close
to any other Marine
because the death
of a very close buddy
would be devastating.
BOULDEN:
All of a sudden,
there was automatic weapon fire
coming out of this bunker.
And so this other Marine and I
crawled up the side of the hill
to this bunker
and threw in grenades.
(explosion)
One guy, he was sitting in there
with an automatic weapon,
and one grenade had landed
right down in between his legs,
and it blowed his legs
and his stomach was hanging out,
but he was still alive.
And he kept talking to me
in Chinese.
I told the officer
that was behind us,
"We got one left alive."
And he says,
"Well, you know what they did
to us at East Hill."
But as he's talking to me,
was he telling me
about his family?
Was he pleading to me
to dispatch him?
Or was he trying to save me?
But he was gonna die anyway.
He was just all tore to people.
With that, I dispatched him.
I still think about him
at night sometime,
just wishing I could've
understood what he was saying.
It's nothing, nothing
to kill 'em at a distance.
It's when you look a man
in the eye, that's different.
NARRATOR:
The cold had not let up
in the nine days
since the battle began.
Temperatures dropped as low
as 30 below some nights
and rarely rose above zero,
even when the sun was out.
But Mao was still insisting that
his army continue its mission,
no matter the heavy losses
to his troops.
Nearly half
the 60,000 Chinese soldiers
facing the First Marines
were already killed or wounded.
MILLS:
When they're coming at you,
especially at night,
you look at 'em as superhuman.
You feel like there's nothing
you can do to stop 'em, really.
The people who wanted
to surrender,
it's just the opposite.
They looked helpless
and they wanted help,
and they were starving.
JAGER:
The Chinese were sent
into battle
without proper clothing,
without enough ammunition,
without enough food,
many of them.
A lot of them had to just
sort of fend for themselves,
and many of them perished
during the winter.
We're talking about huge numbers
that died
not just of battle casualties,
but by death by freezing.
OVERHOLT:
On their feet,
all they had was sneakers.
You'd see a prisoner,
and his feet were like
a block of ice.
I remember seeing
a prisoner one time,
his ears were swollen up
this big,
like a potato, you know?
It looked like somebody
a potato on each side
of his head
that somebody had nicked
with a knife, you know?
They were bursting
from having been frozen.
They suffered terribly,
a lot worse than we did.
BALLEZA:
I always remembered that
no matter what the conditions
were that I was in,
so were the Chinese.
Up to this day,
if I were to meet
a Chinese soldier
that was there,
I'd hug him like a brother,
because I know he suffered
the same thing I did.
NARRATOR:
By the time the head
of the column reached Koto-ri,
the Chinese were unable to mount
any serious attack on the camp
or to put up more than
scattershot resistance
on the road.
But word was going
through the ranks:
another obstacle lay ahead.
CAREY:
South of Koto-ri several miles
is a pass called Funchilin Pass,
and there's a bridge there,
and the Chinese
had blown the bridge.
We had to have a bridge put in.
We had to have a way
to cross that canyon,
otherwise we wouldn't
have gotten our vehicles out,
we wouldn't have got
our wounded out.
It was a pretty desperate
situation.
PARKINSON:
If memory serves me right,
it was probably about a span
of about 24 feet,
and there we were
with a big hole.
We can't go nowhere.
(wind blowing)
NARRATOR:
While the column sat
waiting for the engineers
to repair the breach,
a front swept in from the north.
Temperatures plummeted.
Men who were there insisted
it was near 50 below zero.
SIDES:
It goes from bad to worse.
They go through everything
they've been through,
and then to now be facing
a blizzard
with this unbelievable cold.
CAREY:
When you're so damn cold,
you really have trouble
breathing, even.
It is that cold.
It was cold.
Man, it was cold.
LEE:
It's so cold that you just
cannot function physically
and mentally, too.
You cannot think
of any complicated thing.
You may not be able
to even count ten.
It really just
brain just doesn't function.
CRUMBIE:
One of the tricks I learned
was to catch a nap
by sitting on my helmet,
which had a round bottom.
And as I'd fall asleep,
I'd fall over and wake up.
But just before I'd fall asleep,
I'd feel warm
and at total peace,
and I think that's
the way it feels
just before you freeze to death.
KENNEDY:
I felt, "How are we ever
gonna get out of here?"
There was a feeling,
you know, I had that,
"Well, this could be it.
I'll never get back
to see my dear wife."
And you just felt that
just a deep sense
of helplessness
and hopelessness.
NARRATOR:
At Koto-ri, the Marine
commanders had to make choices
about what they would be able
to haul out
on the remaining trucks
and what they would have
to leave behind.
OVERHOLT:
They used some explosives
to blast off the top part
of the dirt,
and then they could get
a bulldozer blade in there,
and they made a big hole.
KENNEDY:
They really had a difficult time
because they had to blast
and bulldoze a huge pit.
And then Marines
were dropped in.
(wind blowing)
CRUMBIE:
They buried 117
right behind my howitzer.
It was pretty devastating,
pretty gruesome sight
to look at.
KENNEDY:
One very close buddy,
he was a Detroiter,
and he was killed at Yudam-ni.
And I had the feeling that,
you know,
he and some others that I knew
were being dropped
into that hole.
OVERHOLT:
Regimental Intelligence Officer
Captain Donald France
was one of 'em.
His assistant, Lieutenant
McGuinness, was one of 'em.
And our driver, I think his name
was Lundberg, he was one there.
They all put 'em in this hole
and just covered it up
the best we could do
at that point.
NARRATOR:
The Marines at Koto-ri
were not alone in their misery.
North Korean civilians
had seen their homes destroyed
by American bombers
and artillery
in the previous weeks,
their winter food stores
pillaged
by starving Chinese soldiers.
Scores of thousands
were already fleeing south
in hopes of finding warmth
and safety.
A growing number of refugees
had trailed the column
of retreating Marines
all the way from Yudam-ni.
OVERHOLT:
They presented
quite a challenge.
You know, you can't tell
if this person
who's Asian in appearance
is an enemy or not enemy.
If they come into your lines,
they had to be searched,
you know, to make sure that
there were no weapons and so on.
So it was a challenge
to accept them.
MILLS:
They didn't have food,
and they didn't have
near the gear that we had.
I don't know how they were able
to do it.
I mean, it was heartbreaking,
the kids crying and carrying on,
and there was nothing you could
really do for 'em.
BALLEZA:
What can you do?
There's so many of them.
All you can do is pray to God
that they fare well
and make it through the day
and the night
and the next day and so forth,
and until they get to a place
where they can be safe.
KENNEDY:
I remember seeing old people,
old women, old men,
and there were reports of women
even having babies out there
in this sub-zero, 30 below zero
or 40 below zero.
At night, a moan would come up,
and it was sort of
a collective moan.
The suffering that
they went through
(beeping)
NARRATOR:
The request was urgent
and came from General Smith
himself.
So the Air Force agreed
to undertake an operation
never before attempted.
MAN:
We had to get that bridge in,
and I had a brilliant staff,
and they decided that
we could air drop
different parts of a Treadway
bridge into the perimeter,
bolt them together,
and cantilever 'em over the gap
where the bridge had been
blown up by the Chinese,
and we'd be able to evacuate.
WEINTRAUB:
Every steel girder required
an entire plane to carry it,
a C-119 Boxcar
with two huge parachutes
on both sides to drop it
because they couldn't land.
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
Flying Boxcars head
for the area
where the plight
of the beleaguered troops
has aroused the entire nation.
Bridge sections to replace
a crossing blasted by the Reds
are parachuted to reopen
the only escape route.
This is the first time a bridge
has ever been airdropped.
NARRATOR:
Early on the morning
of December 9,
after nearly three days
sitting at Koto-ri,
the Marines finally
got the order
to make their way toward
the newly repaired bridge.
LEE:
When we are walking,
we feel we are surviving.
So I guess we were able
to resist the cold
with the hope that this is
the only way we can survive.
All we have to do is
just go a little more.
That kind of sort of
unconsciously hits your brain.
Then you'll be able to follow
the guy ahead of you.
KENNEDY:
We came down and walked
along that single-lane road
with Chinese shooting at us,
but we sort of ignored it.
Every once in awhile,
you'd hear somebody yell out
with a scream.
You knew they got hit,
but you just kept putting
one foot ahead of the other.
(sporadic gunfire)
There was nothing
you could do about it.
There was nowhere to go,
nowhere to hide,
nowhere to take cover,
and so you accepted your fate.
(sporadic gunfire)
CRUMBIE:
I've always wondered
how that first driver felt
when he pulled over
on that bridge
if it was gonna hold him or not.
SIDES:
Nothing like this
had ever been tried before.
No one was sure
it was going to work,
and it was a very, very scary
couple of minutes
until the first few vehicles
passed over.
And the men who marched across
could look down through the gap
and see 500 feet,
1,000 feet down into the valley.
CRUMBIE:
As I reached the bridge,
there was a man standing there
saying, "Walk across this side,"
and I knew then that
I was glad it wasn't daylight
because I couldn't see down
what I was going over.
KENNEDY:
I don't have any direct memories
of even walking
across that span.
By that time,
my brain was frozen.
All I knew is, "Don't stop."
(sporadic gunfire)
BALLEZA:
There was this truck
on the side of the road
with some guys on it.
They were wounded.
And he said,
"Can you drive a truck?"
I said, "Sure,
I can drive a truck."
So I actually drove a truck
across that chasm
with these wounded guys
back there
and the Chinese trying
to kill the drivers.
But I thought,
"Once we get across this bridge,
we're home.
We've got it made."
NARRATOR:
It took almost two days to move
the 14,000 surviving troops,
along with trucks, tanks,
and artillery pieces,
over the makeshift bridge.
The last of the Marines
and the attached Army units
made it across late
on December 11, 1950,
two weeks to the day after
the initial Chinese attack.
BALLEZA:
Coming down
into the flatter land
off of them mountains,
it got warmer.
It was 32 degrees
We were taking off clothes.
It was hot for us.
It's a feeling of elation
that you don't have anybody
shooting at you anymore
and you're not shooting back.
Just a total relax,
happy to be alive.
KENNEDY:
When we got to the bottom
of the pass,
our column was halted,
and when we stopped,
we just fell to the side
of the road
and just laid back
and went dead asleep.
We were so exhausted,
we didn't have much left.
We were out of there in time,
just in time.
(bugle playing "Taps")
PARKINSON:
On the 27th of November
at quarter of 10:00,
that's when the Chinese hit us.
And every year
on the 27th of November,
I take a walk up on a hill
and I sit down.
I just thank God
for letting me survive that,
and I pray about the other
fellas that we lost.
(man shouting)
(gunfire)
(man shouting)
(gunfire)
(man shouting)
(gunfire)
CUMMINGS:
It's a testimony to the Marines
that so many of them survived it
and managed to fight
their way out.
But fundamentally
it was a Chinese victory
that was a key battle
in clearing North Korea
of U.N. forces,
and they've never been back.
SIDES:
The Chinese forced the Americans
from the field,
but they suffered
staggering casualties.
Mao threw everything he had
at the Marines
and they eluded his grasp.
HARBULA:
When we got down off the plateau
into the sea coast there,
the Chinese never threatened us.
We were able to get
90,000 civilians out,
North Korean civilians.
The Chinese never stopped 'em,
never made any threat.
BALLEZA:
I still believe that
the sacrifice
not only of the Marines,
but the Army and Navy
and everybody that supported
that engagement
did the right thing.
South Korea is still alive,
and they're proud people,
hardworking people,
and I support 'em to this day.
And I don't begrudge
a second of the time
I spent over there
in their defense.
Not at all.
WOLF:
They used to say that
it's a forgotten war.
I have to say
it's a winning war.
We didn't win it
in the sense of reuniting
North and South Korea.
That didn't happen.
But we were able to maintain
South Korea as a viable country,
and what we were able
to maintain
was worth the fighting,
worth every bit of it,
and I'm proud to have been
part of that.
CORK:
When I talk to people
about the Chosin Reservoir,
I tell people
I'm one of the survivors.
I'm grateful that I was able
to get out there
with no more than a little
arthritis and lost a foot.
I am proud of this
because I was part of history.
KENNEDY:
It was something
that has stayed with me
my entire adult life.
I didn't realize what an impact
that experience would have
on my soul, on my being.
I fought in many other battles
after that,
nothing to compare
with the Battle
of the Chosin Reservoir.