DRIVE NORTH U.S. Marines at the Punchbowl by Colonel Allan R. Millett U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired Marines in the Korean War Commemorative Series About the Author he Raymond E. Mason, Jr., TProfessor of Military History, Ohio State University, Allan R. Millett is a specialist in the history of American military policy and institutions. He is the author of four books: The Politics of THIS PAMPHLET HISTORY, one in a series devoted to U.S. Marines in Interven-tion: The Military the Korean War era, is published for the education and training of Occupation of Cuba, 1906-1909 Marines by the History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., as part of the U.S. Department of Defense (1968); The General: Robert L. observance of the 50th anniversary of that war. Editorial costs have been Bullard and Officership in the defrayed in part by contributions from members of the Marine Corps United States Army, 1881-1925 Heritage Foundation. (1975); Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps (1980, revised edition, 1991); and In Many a KOREAN WAR COMMEMORATIVE SERIES Strife: General Gerald C. Thomas and the U.S. Marine Corps, DIRECTOR OF MARINE CORPS HISTORY AND MUSEUMS 1917-1956 (1993). His most recent book, co-authored with Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC (RET) Williamson Murray, is A War to be Won: Fighting the Second GENERAL EDITOR, World War (2000). He also co-authored and co-edited sev- KOREAN WAR COMMEMORATIVE SERIES eral other works on military affairs and has contributed orig- Charles R. Smith inal essays to 25 books and numerous journals on American EDITING AND DESIGN SECTION, HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISION historiography, foreign and defense policy, and military his- W. Stephen Hill, Visual Information Specialist Catherine A. Kerns, Visual Information Specialist tory. A noted lecturer and officeholder in many prestigious military history societies, Dr. Millett is now president of the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center U.S. Commission on Military History. 1254 Charles Morris Street SE A graduate of DePauw University and Ohio State Washington Navy Yard DC 20374-5040 University, Dr. Millett served on both active and reserve 2001 duty, retiring in 1990 with a rank of colonel in the U.S. PCN 190 00319 500 Marine Corps Reserve. the platoon commanders of 1st Marine The official histories of the 1951 cam- University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Division in 1951. Their contribution paign for the Marine Corps and Army Alabama. Allan R. Millett, “Korea, 1950- began with an interview with Captain are much used and often-cited, but 1953,” in Benjamin F. Cooling, ed., Case Frederick F. Brower, USMC (Ret) in 1998 should not be used as scripture: Lynn Studies in the Development of Close Air and went on to access Lieutenant Montross, Major Hubard D. Kuokka, Support (Washington, DC: Office of Air General Charles G. Cooper, USMC (Ret) USMC, and Major Norman Hicks, USMC, Force History, 1990) covers the issues “Blood and Tears,” an unpublished The East-Central Front, Vol. IV, U.S. and the source material in detail. Lynn memoir; Mr. John E. Nolan, “Korea Marine Operations in Korea, 1950-1953 Montross, Cavalry of the Sky: The Story Comments,” 11 December 1999; and (Washington, DC: Historical Branch, G- of U.S. Marine Combat Helicopters (New interviews at the 50th Reunion of the 7th 3, Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, York: Harper & Bros., 1954) is a popu- Basic Class (4-7 May 2000) with Colonel 1962) and Billy C. Mossman, Ebb and lar account of HMR-161’s Korean War Earl T. Roth, USMC (Ret), Mr. Harold Flow: November 1950-July 1951 in U.S. service. A more conventional official Arutinian, and Colonel David J. Hytrek, Army in the Korean War, five volumes account is Lieutenant Colonel Eugene USMC (Ret). to date (Washington, DC: Office of the W. Rawlins, USMC, Marines and For sardonic views of the campaign Chief of Military History, U.S. Army, Helicopters, 1946-1962 (Washington, of 1951, see Paul N. McCloskey, Jr., The 1990) and Walter G. Hermes, Truce Tent DC: History and Museums Division, Taking of Hill 610 (Woodside, CA: and Fighting Front (1966), another vol- HQMC, 1976). Eaglet Books, 1992); Lieutenant Colonel ume in the same series. The Air Force I visited most of the battle sites Gerald P. Averill, USMC (Ret), Mustang: official history is Robert F. Futrell, The described in this study in 1994 and 1998, A Combat Marine (Novato, CA: Presidio United States Air Force in Korea, 1950- and I have profited from the advice of Press, 1987); [Private First Class] Burton 1953, rev. ed., (Washington, DC: Office Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, F. Anderson, We Claim the Title (Aptos, of Air Force History, 1983). The docu- USMC (Ret) and Colonel Franklin B. CA: Tracy Publishing, 1994); and mentation for the close air support con- Nihart, USMC (Ret), both veterans of the [Sergeant] A. Andy Andow, Letters to Big troversy may be found collected in campaign in infantry battalions. Jim Regarding Narrul Purigo, Subject File K239-04291-1, “Close Air Gunnery Sergeant Leo J. Daugherty III, Cashinum Iman (New York: Vantage, Support,” Research Archives, Air Power USMCR, provided valuable research 1994). Historical Research Center, Air Force assistance. DRIVE NORTH U.S. Marines at the Punchbowl by Colonel Allan R. Millett, USMCR (Ret) he rumble of Ame- not want to turn over command in General Thomas arrived in rican field artillery the middle of a battle. On the other Korea to face an entirely new war. through the morning hand, General Van Fleet wanted The October 1950 dream of unify- mists in the valley of Thomas to take command of the ing Korea under the sponsorship the Soyang River division as soon as possible, some- of the United Nations (U.N.) had gave a sense of urgency to the thing Thomas had not planned to swirled away with the Chinese change-of-command ceremony do since his formal orders from the winter intervention. The war still inside the headquarters tent of the Commandant, General Clifton B. hung in the balance as the United 1st Marine Division. Four days of Cates, designated 1 May 1951 as Nations Command attempted to hard fighting in the withdrawal turn-over day. Thomas had drive the Communist invaders out from the Hwachon Reservoir had planned to spend the intervening of the Republic of Korea (ROK) for brought the division safely to the week on a familiarization tour of the second time in less than a year. river on 25 April 1951. The trek Korea and the major elements of The U.S. Eighth Army and its away from the Chinese 39th and the Eighth Army. He had thought Korean counterpart, the Hanguk 40th Armies had not yet, however, his call on Van Fleet the day before Gun (South Korean Armed Forces) brought the division to the No had been simply a courtesy visit, had rallied in January and February Name Line, the final defensive but instead he found himself 1951, under the forceful leadership position 15 miles south of the river caught in a delicate matter of com- of Lieutenant General Matthew B. designated by Lieutenant General mand relations. Ridgway, USA. United Nations James A. Van Fleet, commanding the U.S. Eighth Army. In a simple MajGen Gerald C. Thomas, right, meets with MajGen Oliver P. Smith prior to the rite that included only the reading spartan change-of-command ceremony witnessed by a handful of participants drawn from the 1st Marine Division’s staff. of the change-of-command orders Gen Oliver P. Smith Collection, Marine Corps Research Center and the passing of the division col- ors, Major General Gerald C. Thomas relieved Major General Oliver P. “O. P.” Smith and took command of a division locked in a battle to stop the Chinese Fifth Offensive. The ceremony dramatized the uncertainty of the Marines in the second year of the Korean War. Understandably, General Smith did ON THE COVER: Two Marine machine gunners “keep the gun hot” in their pursuit of fleeing Communist troops. National Archives Photo (USMC) 127- N-A8866 AT LEFT: Marines quickly demolish enemy bunkers with grenades and planted charges before moving north. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A8504 1 valley and the corridors to Seoul while at the same time recapturing the territory south of the Soyang River, which opened an alternative corridor south to Hongchon. When General Thomas called on General Van Fleet on 24 April, the Eighth Army commander, a combative 59-year-old Floridian with a World War II record of suc- cessful command from regiment to corps in Europe, felt confident that his forces had blunted the four- day-old Communist offensive. However, he had an organizational problem, which was that the 1st Marine Division should be shifted back to X Corps and redeployed to the No Name Line under the com- mand of Lieutenant General Edward M. Almond, USA, the divi- sion’s corps commander through- out 1950. The relationship be- tween O. P. Smith and Almond, however, had become so ven- omous that Ridgway assigned the Marine division to IX Corps in January 1951 and promised Smith that he would not have to cope with Almond, whose style and sub- stance of command angered Smith and his staff. Van Fleet had hon- ored Ridgway’s commitment, but the operational situation dictated that the Almond-Smith feud could not take precedence. Van Fleet explained the plan to shift the 1st Marine Division back to X Corps to Thomas without going into the Almond-Smith prob- lem. Van Fleet did not give Thomas a direct order to proceed immedi- Command had then driven back offensive.