The Imjin and Kapyong Battles, Korea, 1951

8 KAPYONG: THE FINAL DAY

183 Kapyong:The FinalDay If the 118th CPV Division renewed its vigorous attacks on Hill 677 in the hours after dawn, then the chances of survival for the Patricias would be lower than they had been after midnight. “By that time our Mortar Platoon was almost completely out of mortar bombs,” Private Mike Czuboka remembered. “The rifle companies were also down to a few rounds of ammunition. Our food and water was almost gone.”3 Some of the badly wounded, to be sure, could now be evacuated by two American helicopters, but ground fire from the Chinese as the machinesflewinwasareminderthattheenemystillsurroundedthebattalion and could close in again.4 After a night of sometimes quite vicious hand-to-hand fighting one or two soldiers found they were unable to switchofftheirbloodlust.DecadeslaterPPCLI veteranscouldclaimthat theyhadfeltnohatredfortheenemy,butearlyWednesdaymorningafter the fighting had died down two Patricias, discovering a pair of wounded Chinese forward of their position, first rummaged through their possessions and then deliberately picked them up and threw them to their deaths down a steep slope.5 Other soldiers maintained a remarkable sang-froid in the face of imminent danger. “I responded to the desperate situation as soldiers are wont to do when they can’t do anything about it,” Corporal John Bishop of 2 Platoon later wrote. “I got my head down and fell into a comfortable doze.”6 But there was no doubt in the mind of the CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Stone, that if the enemy kept pushing, “in all probability the 2 PPCLI would have been annihilated.”7 Or as an unidentified Patricia reflected a quarter century later, “what happened eight 184 The Imjin and Kapyong Battles, Korea, 1951 totheGloucesterscouldeasilyhavehappenedtous.”8Thatitdidnotwas due to the actions of both friends and enemies. The situation of those atop Hill 677 improved considerably after 10:30am whentheairdropofsuppliesStonehadrequestedsixhoursearlier occurred. A flight of C-119 Flying Boxcars from Japan roared in low overhead and unloaded multiple parachute-retarded pallets on which food, water, and ammunition were stored. Luckily nobody below was hit—the pallets came down “really fast” recalled Harry Welsh, who was only three feet from where one bounced on impact9—and only four landed too far outside the perimeter to be retrieved. The small-arms ammunition delivered was all .30 or .50 caliber and the mortar bombs all 81-mm in size, but as the vehicles and weapons of the mortar platoon were American—as were the carbines and submachine-guns many men had unofficially acquired—this was still, as a member of the platoon put it, a “big help” to the battalion. “A minor miracle” had taken place, one of hisbuddiesarguedmorefeelingly.U.S.grenadespresentednoproblems, and enough .303 ammunition was redistributed to keep the exhausted rifle companies going. Bishop, rudely awoken from his catnap by the cargo planes thundering in, immediately saw that “the battalion would be able to hold on.”10 What the enemy was up to was initially not entirely clear. Lieutenant Peter McKenzie, the 2PPCLI Intelligence Officer who had suggested the air drop to Stone, worried that the Chinese were pausing only long enough to mass enough forces for a really big push.11 Yet at about 9 am, a platoon from C Company was able to retrieve one of the Vickers guns belonging to D Company that had been brought over the night before against minimal opposition.12 Throughout the morning the men of C and D companies, particularly those in 10 Platoon, came under occasional grenade and rifle fire, and while some jeeps ran the gauntlet and successfully evacuated more wounded through the enemy cordon to the south the effort was not without cost in the form of further casualties.13 But neither in the northwest nor anywhere else around Hill 677 did a Chinese assault develop.14 No soldier likes to be in a state of ignorance concerning the enemy, and even before the air drop a certain amount of patrolling was taking place. Unfortunately, and without enemy intervention, the first patrol Kapyong: The Final Day 185 sent out by B Company suffered a tragedy. Before the Chinese attack began on Tuesday night, the Pioneer Platoon had laid grenade booby trapstohelpprotectthecompany’sposition.Shortlyafter8am aplatoon sergeant leading the patrol moved away from the safe path and into a booby-trapped area. A soldier tripped a grenade in a tin with the pin removed and it went off, killing him and seriously wounding another man. Guessingwhathadhappened,SergeantRedPennelandLance-Corporal SmileyDouglasofthePioneerPlatoonracedtothescene,onlytowitness another...