The Graybeards - KWVA - Korean War Veterans Association

At Hadong King company’s commander,
Capt. Donohue, had also fallen. 1st Lt
Walter Bodman again took over the company
but his tenure was a short one as he
was shot through calf of the leg and evacuated.
He turned over command of the 40
odd men to Lt Forrest E. Asher. 5
The enemy force had proved to be larger
than had been estimated and the rest of
the B Company tanks were added to protect.
the right flank of the 3rd Battalion
and the artillery along the MSR.
The P-51s and Marine Corsairs joined
the fray and with their help, the battered
and bleeding 29th was on top of “Engineer
Hill” at the end of the day. But the gooks
were worse off as the defeats on this day
forever removed their slim chance of taking
Masan. What a difference the air support
made from that terrible time at
Hadong!
September 4 - In the morning, Item and
King companies struck early and fast. In
Item company’s assault, they surprised
NK in their holes eating bowls, of rice.
With no shots fired by the surprised
gooks, they wiped 20 with none escaping.
The riflemen, tanks, artillery and mortars
poured it on the NK pocket and forced
them out of their dug in positions and now
the isolated and cutoff enemy was savagely
and repeatedly struck with napalm and
strafing from the air. The survivors began
to flee back to their home base by 1030. It
was an organized and controlled retreat
but they had to pass through the gap
between the 35th and the 27th ‘s B
Company. Less than 300 made it back to
their lines. (This was the group previously
described in this chapter.) 6
The .3rd Battalion stood on the hill
overlooking Koman ni and the crossroads
town of Sago. With the help of the
Engineer company, the rifle companies
composed of only 40 to 70 riflemen had
defeated 6th NK Division units totaling
well over 1000 men. They had their
revenge two times over.
The heroic attack on the 2nd and the
stand during the night of the 2/3rd by Capt
Jung and the B Company men had sealed
the doom for this penetration by preventing
a following column from joining
them. With the unexpected entry of the
27th Battalions, Gen Pang was not only
out gunned he was also far out manned.
The retreat of the enemy battalion did
not mean the Haman area was clear of
enemy. The 3rd Battalion turned their
attack southward and secured the north
south ridgeline overlooking the Haman
valley from the east.
The 3rd Battalion of the 29th Regiment
officially became the 3rd Bn of the 27th
Wolfhound Regiment. The event was
unknown by the tired riflemen and made
no difference in their minds.
September 5 - The Battalion was in
Division reserve east of Haman and
cleared the grounds against light resistance.
Cecil Clemons was on a patrol that was
sent down into the Hainan valley in search
of a 24th Regiment eight man patrol that
had not returned. They found their bodies
grouped together at the base of the hill
near Engineer Road. Each had been shot
through the head. For both sides, this early
September was the most brutal of times. 7
September 7 - With the available 3rd
Battalion, it was decided to turn them
loose on, “Old Baldy” Hill 665 which was
also called Battle Mountain or Bloody
Knob. It was the northernmost of the very
tall peaks which included Pilbong (743
meters) and Sobuk (738). This point had
good observation east, west and north. Old
Baldy was fought over about twenty times
by the 24th Regiment and the 27th didn’t
do any better in their three day try. 8
The Blue Battalion (3rd) began ten
days of fighting while the Red and White
Battalions (Except for Able Company)
were on a comparatively easy street. For
the next week and a half, the combat scale
tilted heavily toward “old Blue”.
The 24th Regiment’s 3rd Battalion had
abandoned the Old Baldy slopes and now
the 24th ‘s King and Baker companies
were to follow the Wolfhound Battalion to
occupy the peak upon its capture. The
attack did not start until 1500 which was
too late to expect to reach the peak against
enemy resistance. It was about a four hour
trip from the base to the top with no fighting.
The battalion ran into resistance on
the steep slopes and had to stop for darkness
part way up the mountain. 9
September 8 - The attack resumed with
the Engineer Company C again participating
in the assault. The terrain and the
enemy prevented a successful conclusion
and Blue dug in 1000 yards short of the
objective.
After eating the rations brought up by
the choggi train, Cecil Clemmons and others
from I Company placed rocks in empty
C ration cans and strung them on wires
about 50 feet in front of their perimeter. A
torrential rain had begun to fall on the battlefield
and Cecil Clemons and his buddy
stretched a poncho over their foxhole. The
man on guard would stick his head thru
the poncho opening while the other tried
to grab some shut eye in the muddy hole.
At about 2130, the alarm cans jangled
and Cecil’s squad cut loose with rifle and
grenades. Their shots were answered by
the intruders and a full scale fight developed
on the ridgeline. Artillery gave close
in support and within an hour, the surprise
attack had shot its wad and the rain had let
up. 10
September 9 - In the morning enemy
bodies were found near the alarm cans and
over 20 bodies were counted as they
moved up the hill. On a 1 KIA to 4 WIA
ratio, it appeared they had inflicted about
100 casualties on the enemy in their aborted
attack.
Capt Lewis B. Mitchell (the former Bn.
S2 officer) led Item Company toward the
peak of Hill 655 where they were joined
by Love Company and they closed to
within 5 yards of the enemy lair. The
peak was honeycombed with dug in
positions among the huge boulders and
crevices. The enemy came out of their
hiding places and drove the two companies
back from the crest. 11
In the afternoon, the 3rd Battalion
backed down the ridges to the previous
night position, while artillery, mortars and
air struck the peak. The enemy counter
attacked with small scale probes, mortar
and artillery; but Blue hung on. 12
Item Company had four KIA and 21
reported WIA’s including Capt. Mitchell.
One of the KIA’s was the supply sergeant.
Sgt. Bilodeau. Adrian Bilodeau had been
given the supply job because of his age,
but the company was so shorthanded that
Sgt. Bilodeau was leading the choqqi train
onto Old Baldy. At about the same time,
EM who were over 35 were withdrawn
from the line companies and sent to rear
jobs. (Sgt. Bilodeau was the one who had
led the ambush party at Hadong.)
All of the munitions expended in the
last three weeks on Hill 655 had torn the
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