`Chosin Few' Recall Frozen Battle Depicted In Memorial

The monument depicts 19 U.S. infantrymen, arrayed for combat. They represent the sweltering stand around Pusan, the amphibious counterattack at Inchon, the carnage at Heartbreak Ridge, Pork Chop Hill and Outposts Tom, Dick and Harry.

But these men are bundled up in cold-weather gear, an icy wind to their backs. And when the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated tomorrow many will remember a cruelly cold place where a savage battle was fought: The Chosin Reservoir. Frozen Chosin. Where the 1st Marine Division fought for 14 days in minus-30 temperatures against 120,000 Chinese.

The 16,000 Marines and 4,000 Army, British Royal Marines and South Korean troops broke out of the deadly Chinese trap between Nov. 27 and Dec. 11, 1950. They killed more than 40,000 Chinese while losing nearly 1,700 dead and 5,000 wounded.

Few battles have been waged under worse conditions. A one-lane dirt road through icy mountains was the only link to seaports 78 miles away. The brittle cold froze blood from wounds before it coagulated and turned guns, tanks, jeeps and food into blocks of ice.

"There were so many Chinese we used their frozen bodies for barricades, like sandbags," said Win Scott, who was a Marine private and now heads The Chosin Few veterans group from Waynesville, N.C.

At Chosin, more medals were awarded than for any modern battle - 17 Medals of Honor and 70 Navy Crosses. Probably never has a large U.S. force been so outnumbered and triumphed.

On Oct. 26, when the Marines and their X Corps allies came ashore in northeast Korea, North Korea's armies were retreating to the Chinese border.

But 300,000 Chinese troops had secretly massed in the mountains. On Nov. 27, they attacked the U.S. 8th Army in west Korea, and slammed the door behind X Corps' advance guard in the east. Surrounded by 120,000 Chinese were:

-- 10,000 5th and 7th Regiment Marines at Yudam-ni west of Chosin.

-- 3,000 Marines in Hagaru at Chosin's south end.

-- 3,000 7th Army Division troops northeast of Hagaru.

LIKE "AN ANTHILL THERE WERE SO MANY OF THEM"

During Nov. 27-28, 60,000 to 80,000 Chinese came out of the hills ringing Yudam-ni, blowing bugles, whistles and duck calls and banging cymbals to direct the assaults.

"They came in wave after wave. They were just going to overpower us with numbers," said retired Gen. Ray Davis of Stockbridge, Ga., who led a battalion.

Added Harold Dawe of suburban Denver, who was a lieutenant with the 5th Marines: "It was like we had kicked over an anthill there were so many of them."

East of the reservoir, the Army troops were overwhelmed and lost more than 1,000 dead, including 400 wounded abandoned in trucks that were hit by grenades and burned by the Chinese.

On 5,000-foot Toktong Pass overlooking the Yudam-ni-to-Hagaru road, Capt. William Barber and his surrounded 237-man company fought it out alone for five days against 3,000 enemy.

"We knew they were going to pay a heavy price," said Barber, of Irving, Calif., who was awarded the Medal of Honor and was wounded in the hip. His Fox Company lost 150 dead and wounded.

"ARMS, LEGS STICKING UP IN GROTESQUE POSITIONS"

Ordered to regroup in Hagaru, the Yudam-ni Marines broke out of the trap, bringing out all of their wounded and most of their dead, lashed to Jeeps and trucks.

About 600 Marines led by Davis relieved Fox Company Dec. 2 after a six-mile, cross-country night march from Yudam-ni. Davis, who won the Medal of Honor for his leadership, drove his men relentlessly, fearing they would freeze in their sweat in the windy 26-below-zero conditions if they stopped.

Exhausted and burdened with 100-pound packs, the Marines foundered in the waist-deep snow and fell asleep on their feet. "Officers and NCOs were walking up and down the line, grabbing Marines, kicking them back in line, forcing them to open and return fire," said Kurt Chew-Een Lee, a lieutenant who guided the march.

The other Yudam-ni Marines reached Toktong Pass later that day. Among them was Scott, tied to a trailer behind a Jeep ambulance. "They put me with the dead guys. Their arms and legs were sticking up in grotesque positions, frozen," he said.

The next day, Davis' bearded, filthy men led the column into Hagaru - marching in step.

The Air Force airlifted 4,312 wounded from Hagaru. Gen. Oliver

Smith, the 1st Marine Division commander, rejected air evacuation for his men; he said they would come out on their own.

About 10,000 Marines left Hagaru Dec. 6 for the coast 64 miles away. The Chinese attacked them from the ridges, but without artillery, air support or fresh supplies, they were destroyed by intensive air and ground fire.

Another 4,000 troops joined the column at Koto-ri Dec. 7, and four days later the breakout officially ended at Chinhung-ni. The Marines later were evacuated from Hungnam with 100,000 civilians.

A Chinese officer surveying the battleground later noticed snowmen scattered in the fields and wondered why they were there. Then he realized they were frozen Chinese soldiers - hundreds, thousands of them.