gray06 Nov-Dec 2009_Gray01_Jan-Feb 2005.qxd.qxd - Korean War ...

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Now Hear This:
All comments concerning, or material for publication,
in The Graybeards should be sent to Art
Sharp, Editor, 895 Ribaut Rd, #13, Beaufort, SC
29902 or emailed to:
sharp_arthur_g @sbcglobal.net
Whatever happened to
mobile forts?
There was an article in the 24 Sept. 1952 issue of Pacific
Stars and Stripes, p. 7, that extolled the virtues of “mobile
forts” in Korea. What ever happened to them?
Here is the story:
New Bunkers Given Baldy Test
Mobile Forts Used Extensively: Attains “A”
Grade Under heavy Fire
By Cpl. Ed Berlin
WITH U.S. 2D DIV. (Pac: S&S) – Old Baldy is the severe
testing ground on which the 2d Division’s radical new assault
bunker will have to prove itself.
Never before has the steel latticed, highly mobile emplacement
been used so extensively under enemy fire to fortify a
newly won position. The first ones were carried up only hours
after 38th Regiment soldiers cleared Baldy of the bugle blowing,
death defying Chinese Sunday morning. More went up
Sunday and soldiers on the crest were still calling for them
Monday.
SINCE THE REDS LOST the outpost, they have not as yet
subjected it to their famous saturation mortar barrages, but
under the sporadic salvos that did come the next two days, the
bunkers passed with an “A” grade, a regimental operations officer
said.
Perfected by the 2d Engineer Construction Battalion, the
bunker is designed to provide fast overhead protection for
advancing forces occupying new positions.
Four panels of welded criss-crossing barbed wire packets
compose the frame around which logs, if available, and sandbags
are placed to make a five-foot square prefabricated room
with a ceiling height of three feet.
AN ENGINEER SPOKESMAN estimated that one such
bunker with its roof can be thrown up in less than 30 minutes.
It takes only one man to carry each panel (75 pounds), he pointed
out, whereas with the conventional bunker two men are
required to lug each of the necessary 30 to 40 logs. The result,
he said, is an emplacement light in weight, relatively small in
size and constructed with the minimum amount of power.
Designed and tested by Capt. Morris Diamond, who since
has returned to the States, the assault bunker in non-battlefield
tryouts withstood many near hits by mortar rounds and up to 20
pounds of explosives on its roof. Initial reaction of 38th
Regiment men on Old Baldy was “It’s great!” And Indianhead
officers, already sold on the bunker, are forecasting that if the
Baldy test is successful in reducing casualties, other Allied
units across the front also will put the new “gadget” to full use.
So, readers: was the bunker a success? Did it reduce casualties?
Was it made available to other Allied units? Please let us
know. Send your comments to The Graybeards, 895 Ribaut
Road, #13, Beaufort, SC 29902. Please make sure you include
the unit number (#13) to make sure it gets to the right mailbox.
21
The Graybeards
November – December 2009