Heroes of the Korean War: Colonel Paul Freeman, Part-3

February 14, 1951, A Bloody Valentine’s Day

On Valentine’s Day of 1951, Air Force spotter planes flew over the surrounding high hills of Chipyong-ni trying to detect the Chinese positions and attack them with rockets and napalm. As usual the Chinese were masters at hiding during the day from allied air attack and little attrition of the Chinese forces was caused by the Air Force planes. Despite the air cover the Chinese mortar men were still able to launch an occasional mortar towards the 23INF’s positions. One of these mortars landed in the vicinity of the regimental command post killing one staff officer and wounding COL Freeman in the leg. Lieutenant General Almond the X Corps commander ordered COL Freeman to leave Chipyong-ni to have his wound treated and sent his operations officer COL Chiles to relieve Freeman. Freeman refused this order because he knew the battle had not been won yet and would not abandon his men.

The Air Force planes that buzzed overhead did allow the 23INF’s forces to take a breather from heavy Chinese attack and the allied soldiers used this time to continuing to fortify their positions and restock their ammunition. COL Freeman limping on one good leg walked around the frontlines and inspected the positions and encourage his soldiers. While he was doing this air drops of resupplies were also being parachuted into Chipyong-ni. However some key ammunition such as mortar rounds were not air dropped. Also the rifle ammunition that was air dropped was individual rounds that were not clipped, which meant somebody would have to clip all those thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Something extraordinary that happened that day was that General Ridgeway helicoptered into Chipyong-ni to encourage the soldiers and review defensive plans with COL Freeman:

The fact that the commanding 8th Army general risked flying into a city besieged by four Chinese division should have been enough of an indicator to the 23INF’s soldiers how important the Battle of Chipyong-ni had become. The highlight of the day however for the soldiers would not be General Ridgeway’s visit, but that the soldiers of the 23INF would have a chance to eat hot chow that day. Nothing motivates a soldier more than their stomachs. For many it would be the last meal they would ever eat.

23IN Soldiers take a break during the day of 13FEB51, Left: William C. Scott, he would die the next night in hand to hand combat, Center: Charles Buttimo, wounded for the 5th time during the battle and sent home, Right: William Johnson, one of the few soldiers to survive the battle without a scratch; was later taken prisoner by the Chinese in May, 1951.

It was so peaceful that day, that rumors began to spread that the Chinese had withdrawn. However, all these rumor were dispelled once night fell over Chipyong-ni on February 14. It was Valentine’s Day, but the Chinese had no intention of showing any love for the 23INF’s forces. The Chinese attack began with signal flares shooting across the sky and bugles sounding off in the distance followed by a ferocious artillery barrage. Once the artillery barrage ended the Chinese began their assault on sides of the 23INF’s defensive perimeter. G Company like the night before was pounded with waves of Chinese attackers that surged down the spur of land that ran from Mangmisan mountain. Other Chinese attacks were occurring simultaneously around the entire regimental perimeter, but clearly the spur of land running from Mangmisan mountain had been chosen as the avenue of approach for the Chinese main effort of this battle. The effectiveness of the prior nights probing attacks had been successful enough for the Chinese generals to believe that an overwhelming commitment of troops to charge the G Company lines would be enough to penetrate the 23INF’s defenses.

To the left you can see the hill held by G Company and Mangmisan mountain in the background.

1LT Heath received word from his third platoon leader, LT McGee, that his platoon located on what would become known as McGee Hill, was receiving heavy casualties from the Chinese assault and could not hold out much longer. 1LT Heath ran down the hill to the nearby artillery position to ask the B/503FA battery commander to provide him some soldiers to help shore up his frontlines. The field artillery commander gave 1LT Heath 15 men to help plug the hole in his line. As he led them up the hill the Chinese were on top of the hill firing down on them. The field artillerymen ran away. 1LT Heath charged after the artillerymen and reformed them and commanded that they charge the hill and fight. It is during this time that 1LT Heath uttered these famous words from the battle:

Goddamit, get back up on that hill! You’ll die down here anyway, you might as well go up on the hill and die there!

It was now about 0100 at night and the artillerymen continued to hide and refused to fight. This was clearly not the finest hour for US artillerymen during the Korean War. However, help did eventually come, Captain Elledge an artillery liaison officer overhead 1LT Heath’s yelling. CPT Elledge was one of those guys that liked a good fight and ran to the sounds of the guns. Elledge rounded up ten artillerymen and charged up McGee Hill in order to plug the hole in G Company lines. Elledge and his men climbed the hill on it’s left flank and found dead soldiers in the fox hills, but oddly enough no Chinese. He had the bodies removed from the holes and he emplaced his artillerymen in them. Elledge even ran back down the hill to carry up a .50 cal machine gun for the artillerymen to defend the position with. Despite CPT Elledge’s actions G Company continued to crumble on the hill.

COL Freeman was well aware of the breach of the regiment’s line in the G Company sector but was hesitant to commit his regimental reserve which consisted of one Ranger company to shore up the line because of a severe enemy thrust in the 3rd Battalion lines. He compromised and sent one Ranger platoon and a tank from his reserve to help 1LT Heath. It was about 0300 and the Chinese infantry were now firing down the hill into the artillery positions located at the bottom of the hill.

Picture of Chipyong-ni from Hal Barker’s collection

The 2nd Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Edwards had assigned a platoon from F Company along with a few artillerymen and the few remaining men from G company to form a counterattack force to retake the hill. The total counterattack force was composed of 36 men from the Ranger platoon, 28 men from F Company, 7 artillerymen, 2 machine gunners, and the 5 men left from G Company. LT Curtis was the platoon leader from the F Company platoon and LTC Edwards assigned him to lead the counterattack, however the Ranger Company commander had accompanied his platoon to the G Company lines and refused to allow his platoon to be commanded by LT Curtis. Rangers back then had big ego just like they do now and he didn’t want a regular infantry officer commanding his Ranger platoon and thus said that only COL Freeman could order his platoon into battle. LTC Edwards solved the command problem by sending one of his staff officers Captain John Ramsburg to command the counterattack force who outranked everyone from the Ranger Company. With the command situation resolved CPT Ramsburg began to organize his force. As he organized his force he called in a mortar strike in order to prep the hill for the counterattack. The mortar strike lasted only 2-3 minutes before the mortar men ran out of ammunition. Remember that mortar rounds were not included in the ammunition resupply air drop that day.

In response to the mortar attack the Chinese began firing mortars back at the counterattack force at the bottom of the hill. The Ranger company commander began issuing orders to his men that interfered with the orders that CPT Ramsburg was giving. Ramsburg ordered the Ranger commander to evacuate his wounded from the mortar strike. As the Ranger commander evacuated his wounded, Ramsburg used this opportunity to launch his counterattack at about 0345. The Ranger platoon lead the way up the hill followed by F company and the other soldiers of the counterattacking force. The Rangers yelled as they charged up the hill, but it drew the attention of French machine gunners on a nearby hill that mistook the Rangers as Chinese. Two French machine guns opened up on the hill. LT Curtis who Ramsburg had sent to warn the nearby tank about the counterattack saw the French machine guns firing at the hill and figured the Chinese had mounted an attack down the hill and ordered the American tank to fire at the hill as well. The counterattack force was being pummeled by both Chinese, American, and French fire.

Ramsburg ran towards Curtis and told him to stop the tank firing. 1LT Curtis stopped the tank from firing and then proceeded to get the French machine gunners to stop firing as well. Despite all of this some of the Ranger platoon were able to reach the top of the hill and shouted for more men to climb the hill to join them. CPT Ramsburg began leading more men up McGee Hill when he was wounded by a grenade breaking his ankle. 1LT Heath who saw Ramsburg go down offered to lead the attack up the hill for him. Ramsburg agreed and Heath continued the attack back up the hill. Ramsburg then slowly began limping his way up the hill when he saw soldiers dragging a body back down the hill; it was 1LT Heath, he had been shot through the chest. Heath had been shot through the chest and the Ranger Platoon leader was killed when they crested the hill by Chinese fire. Heath was seriously wounded, but would survive the battle. As Ramsburg continued to limp up the hill more bodies began rolling down the hill. Finally a small group of soldiers ran down the hill towards Ramsburg and told him the Chinese had counterattacked and recaptured the hill, there was nobody left. The counterattack ended.

Ramsburg went down the hill and consolidated the handful of men left from the counterattack force, the walking wounded, and the artillerymen at the bottom of the hill to form a final defensive line to shoot any Chinese coming down the hill. As Ramsburg formed the defensive line, LT Curtis in the darkness quietly snuck up the hill multiple times to pull down more wounded US soldiers. The battalion commander LTC Edwards on the other hand was able to persuade COL Freeman to commit the rest of the Ranger Company to the fight in his battalion’s sector. Ramsburg’s hodgepodge of men just needed to hold on long enough until the rest of the Ranger Company arrived. However, Ramsburg’s hodgepodge could not hold the Chinese very long because every single man he had left was wounded. CPT Ramsburg gave the order to fall back to lower hill behind the artillery positions and to evacuate the seriously wounded back to Chipyong-ni. The infantrymen were falling back because there was simply none of them combat capable anymore and the artillerymen who had fled the fight on the hill were now the last hope to hold the line against the Chinese attack.

Quad .50 cal machine gun

While all of this was going on the artillery liaison officer, CPT Elledge and his small group of men, who had been also driven off the ridge by the Chinese, were working hard trying to recover a tracked quad .50 cal that had sunk in a rice paddy near the artillery positions. He had just gotten it pulled out of the rice paddy by using the lone tank that had come with the Ranger platoon. Elledge had just gotten the quad .50 cal powered up when he saw CPT Ramsburg’s men falling back. Elledge yelled at Ramsburg if any Americans were left on the hill. Ramsburg told there wasn’t any left and to fire away. The bullets from the four .50 cals on the track smashed into the hills claiming many Chinese lives. American soldiers would later describe the quad .50 cals at hitting the hill almost like a vacuum cleaner. Like I said, Elledge liked a good fight. By this time the first rays of light from the coming morning were visible which allowed the tank commander Master Sergeant Andrew Reyna to spot sixteen wounded men from the counterattack force lying at the bottom of the hill; pinned down by the Chinese fire. As Elledge continued to vacuum the hill with his quad .50 cal, MSG Reyna and his crew drove their tank towards the base of the hill and threw the wounded on the tank and drove off to evacuate them.

By this time three more American tanks had pulled up to help CPT Elledge hold the defensive line. The tanks poured more fire into the ridge line, while Elledge ordered the artillerymen to point their 155mm howitzers at the ridge line and fire. The sounds of the howitzers firing and the rounds instantly smashing into the ridge line had to be absolutely thunderous. By this time the sun was clearly up and the US soldiers felt some sense of relief because the Chinese soldiers usually withdrew at the first sign of day light because of they feared strafing by the US planes. However, this morning the Chinese decided to stay and fight. It would be a fateful mistake.

Next Posting: Day Break of Victory

Prior Posting: Preparing for Battle 

After reading about the heroism of these men, I have never thought of Valentine’s Day in the same way.