Heroes of the Korean War: Colonel Paul Freeman, Part-4

February 15, 1951, Day Break of Victory

The reserve Ranger company and some soldiers from B Company had arrived at day break to relieve the artillerymen holding the front line. Soon after the sound of friendly aircraft could be heard in the air. Throughout the day friendly aircraft pounded the Chinese held ridge line with everything they had while the American infantry men supported by tank and artillery fire fought to take back the hill. Just through sheer man power the Chinese continued to stubbornly hold on to the hill. In fact the reserve force was thrown back off the hill three times by the Chinese throughout the course of the day. Eventually COL Freeman made the call to have his lone tank platoon to drive down the road outside of friendly lines and shoot at the back side of the Chinese held ridge line. While the tanks fired on the flanks of the enemy the reserve force would conduct a frontal assault right up the hill in one last attempt to capture it.

While this battled raged on a relief column was being organized to relieve the besieged 23rd Infantry. Colonel Marcel Crombez the commander of the 5th Cavalry Regiment led a column of 23 tanks, 160 infantry men, and 4 engineers from his unit up the 6 mile road leading to Chipyong-ni. They had no trucks so the infantrymen sat on top of the tanks as they rolled north to Chipyong-ni. The relief column started up the road at 3:45PM on February 15, 1951. During the journey up the road the Chinese attacked the column twice. The Chinese charged the tanks with human waves equipped with explosives to blow up the tanks with. The fighting was absolutely ferocious and casualties were heavy on both sides. By the time Crombez’s tanks reached Chipyong-ni only 23 of the 164 infantrymen and engineers riding on the tanks were alive. Of those 23, 13 were walking wounded, only 10 arrived in Chipyong-ni unscathed.

The view from McGee Hill looking south towards the road that COL Crombez’s relief column would appeared from and begin pouring fire on Mangmisan located towards the left of this picture.

This is what the view from the same hill looked like during the battle in 1951

Meanwhile the attack on McGee Hill continued for the 23rd Infantry. The platoon of four 23IN tanks began to hit the flanks of McGee Hill with tank fire. The Chinese tried to assault the tanks with no success. The fire from the tanks combined with the reserve force charging up the front of McGee Hill was enough to cause the Chinese defenders to begin to crack. As the Chinese began to fall back off of McGee Hill towards their stronghold on Mangmisan Mountain, COL Crombez’s relief column appeared over the horizon and began to pour a tremendous amount of tank fire on their mountain stronghold. The Chinese on Mangmisan were now in full retreat with the arrival of Crombez’s tanks. The retreat of this Chinese unit and the arrival of the additional US tanks was enough to cause the remaining Chinese forces to fall into a mass panic and retreat from Chipyong-ni. It was the reverse of the “bug out” fever that had effected US troops when the war first began and now for the first time during the war, the Chinese were the ones “bugging out”.

By night fall all the Chinese had pulled out of the Chipyong-ni area completely; the allied forces had their first victory over the Chinese Communist Forces in the Korean War. The US 23rd Infantry Regiment and their attached French Battalion consisted of only 4,500 soldiers and yet they had some how defeated a vastly larger force of over 25,000 Chinese. The battle did takes it’s toll on the 23rd Infantry Regiment. 52 men from the regiment died, 259 were wounded, and 42 men were missing in action after the battle. The battle was far more costly for the Chinese. Allied forces over the next few days would count over 5,000 Chinese corpses in the surrounding rice paddies, hills, and valleys around Chipyong-ni. Most importantly for the allies this victory showed the rest of the allied forces that the Chinese despite superior numbers could be defeated when confronted with determined men led by great leaders like Colonel Paul Freeman.

The village of Chipyong-ni as seen today.

Prior Posting: A Bloody Valentine’s Day

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