Excerpt from The Yearbook: "The ground was so frozen that digging a foxhole was futile. The men stacked in front of their perimeters the bodies of enemies’ forces as sandbags, for cover. The bodies were in grotesque positions, as each man’s arms and legs froze in the moment of their death. The Marines had no choice but to break some of the arms and legs to form a good stack. They placed their dead at the rear of their position. To fall asleep for more than an hour meant instant death. Men who disregarded this peril died, frozen in the last position of their sleep. "Corporal Lancelot Beck and his men could not call for air support from the First Marine Air Wing stationed nearby at Yonpo Airfield, or from the US Navy Task Force 77 on the high sea. Ground support was out of the question. Their AN/PRC-6 radio was not made to function in such severe weather. Nor could they leave their positions to seek help—their orders were to hold the ground. A bad radio was the least of their concern. Encircling their positions were elements of the 20th, 26th, and 27th Corps, Communist Army of the People’s Republic of China. To the ordinary Chinese Soldier, his order was simple: overwhelm, encircle, and destroy the Americans northeast of the Korean peninsula."
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:43:14 +0000
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