Chipyong-ni, 13–15 February 1951

The battle, stage by stage

1. 3–13 February 1951

   The perimeter at the crossroads

   After beating off a Chinese attack at the Twin Tunnels on 1 February, Col. Paul L. Freeman's 23d Regimental Combat Team — the 23d Infantry, the attached French Battalion, the 1st Ranger Company, the 37th Field Artillery Battalion, Battery B of the 503d Field Artillery (155 mm), Battery B of the 82d AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion and Company B, 2d Engineers — has held the road and rail junction at Chipyong-ni since 3 February. Eight hills ring the town, but holding them would need a perimeter three or four miles across, so Freeman draws a tight ring about a mile in diameter on the low hills close in: the 1st Battalion on the north, the 3d on the east, the 2d on the south, the French on the west, with Company B and the Rangers in reserve. Gaps are mined, wired and covered by fire, and artillery and mortar fire is registered all around. On 11–13 February the Chinese offensive breaks X Corps units at Hoengsong to the east; Ridgway overrides a proposal to pull out, and the combat team, about 4,500 men by U.S. accounts, is surrounded.

2. 13–14 February 1951, 10 PM–7:30 AM

   The first night

   About 10 PM mortar and machine-gun fire hits Company C astride Route 24 on the north, then shells fall on the artillery, the heavy mortars and the regimental command post. About 11:30, to whistles, horns and bugles, Chinese infantry attack Company C, then Company G on the south, two points in the French sector on the west and the center of the 3d Battalion on the east. The Chinese break into Company G's line; men of Company F and the regimental tank company seal the gap. A strong attack on the 3d Battalion fails about 6:30 AM, and a last attack on the French an hour later; by one French account the French met an earlier charge with grenades and the bayonet. The Chinese pull back to the hills. About 100 Americans are casualties by daybreak, and Freeman is wounded in the leg by a mortar fragment but refuses to be evacuated.

3. 14 February 1951, daylight

   Supplied from the air

   The Chinese hold the surrounding heights by day. About 3 PM two dozen C-119s of the Combat Cargo Command begin dropping ammunition and supplies inside the perimeter and keep it up for about three hours. X Corps' commander, Maj. Gen. Edward Almond, sends his G-3, Col. John H. Chiles, to take over; Freeman stays in command until he is evacuated at midmorning on the 15th. To the south, Col. Marcel G. Crombez's 5th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division crosses the Han and starts up the road from Yoju, halting near midnight at a destroyed bridge at Hup'o-ri, about halfway to Chipyong-ni.

4. 14–15 February 1951, 10 PM–3 AM

   Company G's hill falls

   The first attacks on Company G come about 10 PM. Near midnight an hour-long barrage hits the command post and the gun lines. Hard attacks follow off Hill 397 against Company G, then against Companies A and C on the north and I and K on the east. Company I loses a position for a time; by one account a counterattack with Company L and Company M machine gunners restores the line. SFC William S. Sitman of Company M, with Company I, is awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for throwing himself on a grenade on the night of 14 February, saving five men. On the south the pressure never stops: Chinese assault teams with pole charges take the saddle of Company G's U-shaped hill, a squad sent from Company F is overrun, and about 3 AM Company G gives up the hill and falls back to a rise behind Battery B's 155 mm howitzers, which are left between the lines.

5. 15 February 1951, about 4 AM to daylight

   The dawn counterattack

   Lt. Col. James W. Edwards, commanding the 2d Battalion, scrapes together a counterattack: the support platoon of Company F (28 men) and a platoon of the Ranger company (36), with a few men of Company G, a tank and mortar fire. Before first light the Rangers go for the old 1st Platoon ground on the right and the Company F platoon for McGee's hill on the left. They regain part of the ridge but are caught by fire from the crest and from the old 2d Platoon area, and some by friendly fire; they are driven back with heavy losses. The French on the left could not help. At daylight Company G and Battery B hold a low ridge about a quarter-mile behind the lost position.

6. 15 February 1951, 8 AM–4:30 PM

   Company B retakes the ridge

   About 8 AM Freeman releases Company B and the rest of the Rangers. Company B attacks at 10 behind mortar fire with tanks and antiaircraft vehicles in support, but fire from the southern slopes keeps it off the crest. Air strikes requested by Edwards begin at noon, napalm among them by several accounts, and Edwards sends tanks and Rangers south down Route 24A to fire into the slopes from the flank. Between about 2 and 4:30 PM Company B has the ridge. Meanwhile, south of Koksu-ri, the 5th Cavalry clears Hill 143 easily but takes Hill 152 only in mid-afternoon, and Crombez forms an armored column to break through: 23 tanks, with about 160 men of Company L riding on the decks because there are no personnel carriers.

7. 15 February 1951, 3:45–5:15 PM

   Crombez's run

   The column leaves at 3:45 PM after artillery and air strikes on the Koksu-ri heights. Fire from the hills forces two halts at Koksu-ri; Crombez keeps the tanks moving, and about 90 of the riflemen are left behind — some killed or wounded, others stranded. About a mile below Chipyong-ni the road runs through a cut some 150 yards long under Hill 397, and Chinese on both banks fire rockets and throw satchel charges. The lead tank is hit; the fourth, carrying Capt. Johnnie M. Hiers of Company D, 6th Tank Battalion, is struck and its ammunition explodes, killing Hiers and the crew in the fighting compartment, though the badly burned driver takes it through the cut. At the north end the column meets Edwards's tanks. The Chinese on Hill 397 break and run as the column appears, and it enters the perimeter about 5:15 PM (sources give 5:00–5:25); only 23 of the riders are still aboard.

8. 15–16 February 1951

   The Chinese withdraw

   Emergency airdrops on zones marked by truck headlights bring in small-arms and mortar ammunition between 9:30 PM and midnight; Edwards's rifle companies have no more than six 60 mm rounds apiece. During the night the Chinese pull away from Chipyong-ni and Koksu-ri, and patrols find them gone after daylight on the 16th. The 23d RCT reports 52 killed, 259 wounded and 42 missing; Company L of the 5th Cavalry has lost 12 killed, 40 wounded and 19 missing. The combat team counts and estimates 4,946 Chinese losses and takes 79 prisoners. Prisoners identified five divisions of three Chinese armies; six regiments made the attacks (Mossman). Coming with the stand at Wonju, the defense of Chipyong-ni showed that the Chinese could be held, and the Eighth Army soon went back over to the offensive.