The Fight for the Cemetery

The Eighth Army wasn't letting the enemy have any rest. Having taken the Communist blow in central Korea and then thrown it back with bloody losses, General Matthew Ridgway's men last week waded in after the retreating foe.

The U.N. offensive began at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. The IX Corps led the way on the western flank and the X Corps on the eastern flank of a 60-mile front twisting across the mountains between Yangpyong and Pyongchang. Right from the start the going was sticky and slow. Enemy resistance was light at first, but rain fell heavily, turning frozen paddy fields into treacherous brown slime. Drenched men and vehicles slithered through deep mud.

By week's end the advance had bagged Pyongchang and Pangnim, some 20 miles from the jumping-off place. The enemy was losing up to 2,100 casualties a day. His resistance had changed from light to "moderate" to "stiff." On the west flank, where the Han River bends south from the Seoul flatlands, he held stubbornly.

Cautious Combat. Typical of the sporadic fighting was the action on Hill 166, about four miles south of Hoengsong. A characterless little hump extending from the Wonju-Hoengsong road into barren stony mountains whose crevices gleam with snow, Hill 166 is distinguished only by a thin ruff of slender trees along the western slope, a high-tension wire standard on its crest, and a cluster of high Korean grave mounds on its southern slope.

Among the graves the Chinese had built a few mounds of their own to hide light machine guns and sharpshooters.

Major Walter Gall's reconnaissance force drew first fire from 166, answered defiantly, then pulled back. Planes and artillery took over the assault. Then Captain Robert P. Wray led his Charlie Company on the double across a sandy cotton field to a nameless ridge facing Hill 166.

The path across the cotton field was under fire from the guns in the grave mounds.

Several men were hit. Wray pushed his company to the crest of the ridge planted his light machine guns, spaced out his men. Sprawled clumsily in their parkas, they began pecking away at the Reds.

The Chinese were tenacious, so Wray called for artillery and air support. High explosive shells dug dark geysers out of Hill 166, air bursts twinkled brightly above it, and mortar shells dropped in with their smashing slam. During the barrage, the Americans scanned Hill 166. When the shelling lifted, they went back to their small arms. Sergeant Thomas Toolen pointed to a Red pillbox nestled close by the graves. "See it?" he asked then "Hey, Graham, give him a couple of rounds!" Pfc. Donald Graham fired a short burst from his BAR across the shallow valley into the Communist emplacements. A man started from the pillboxes and dived into a nearby hole.

Warmer Weather. The Americans howled with anger as their rifle bullets fell short of him, then they quickly dropped flat again as a Red sniper peppered away at them. One American rolled over quietly with a wound in his head. Then four Marine Corsairs flew in with napalm and fused bombs. Hill 166 flared and flickered with fire. Still the Communists held out.

Captain Wray gave "dig in" orders shortly before dusk. His men scraped through wet sand and mud to frozen hardpan in which they hacked out foxholes.

A rifleman shivering in his parka complained: "If only the weather would warm up we would tear those guys apart."

It didn't warm up that night, but it die slightly the next morning. Before noon, the Americans were on Hill 166.

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