An outnumbered group of American soldiers cut off beyond the frontlines on two occasions change the course of the Korean War in “one of the greatest regimental defensive actions in military history.”
Now That Should Be A Movie.
It is called The Battle of Chipyong-ni
It is a War Action Drama.
In the vein of Lone Survivor
It is like We Were Soldiers meets Fury
It follows tenacious but fair-minded General Matthew Ridgway
And cunning yet encouraging Lieutenant James P. Mitchell
As they seek to rebuild the spirits of the US Army and find the position of the Chinese army, and determine its strength, numbers and movements
Problems arise when Mitchell’s company loses its radio and then is cutoff and surrounded by Communist Chinese
Now together Ridgway’s generalship and Mitchell’s leadership will rescue his company at the last minute and find the enemy’s location
The idea came to me when reading in Leo Barron’s High Tide In the Korean War where he writes that the course and events of the battle would make a great movie
My unique approach would be showing every act of valor during the battle that resulted in a medal, cross or star
A set piece would be when Mitchell and his company begin running low on ammunition as casualties mount. Despite American planes dropping bombs and napalm on the Chinese, the enemy continues to attack. Mitchell orders the wounded not to moan or cry out when hit so the enemy cannot determine the company’s undermanned strength. Then an airplane drops a streamer with the message that help is on the way. Mitchell crawls around the perimeter, skinning his knees across the hard, icy surface of the hill, streamer in hand. He goes to each man on the line, tells him the encouraging news, then moves on to the next man to lift his spirits
Target audiences would be military servicemen and women, military veterans, history buffs, South Koreans, Korean War veterans and their families, Korean Americans, fans of video games like Medal of Honor, Battlefield and Call of Duty, fans of Top Gun: Maverick, and men and women (teens to 60s)
Audiences would want to see it in theaters due to the themes of courage, devotion, resilience, and determination during a last stand, the excitement and adventure of battle, and honoring veterans and their fallen comrades of a “forgotten” war
[Note: You Can Read Parts II and III here]
Today’s historical event I would like to pitch as a movie is The Korean War battles of The Twin Tunnels and Chipyong-ni as recorded in High Tide in the Korean War: How an Outnumbered American Regiment Defeated the Chinese at the Battle of Chipyong-ni by Leo Barron from Stackpole Books and Leadership in the Crucible: The Korean War Battles of Twin Tunnels and Chipyong-ni by Kenneth E. Hamburger from Texas A&M University Press.
In January and February 1951, a series of battles were fought in South Korea that turned back the tide of the communist Chinese Army which was poised to drive the United Nations forces back into the Pusan Perimeter. These battles were fought around important crossroads and included the battles of Twin Tunnels, Chipyong-ni, and Wonju. Despite the importance of these battles, there is very little literature on them. Besides the before mentioned books, the only ones I could get my hands on, there is also Chipyong-ni by Office of the Chief Military History, Crossroads in Korea: The Historic Siege of Chipyong-ni by T. R. Fehrenbach, Wonju: The Gettysburg of the Korean War by J. D. Coleman, and The Line: Combat in Korea, January-February 1951 by William T. Bowers. Part 9 of The Coldest Winter: America and The Korean War by David Halberstam has a good summary of the campaign and was where I first heard of these battles.
Of the two books I have, Leadership in the Crucible is more didactic while Hight Tide in the Korean War is more of a play-by-play of the Battle. Hamburger’s book starts with the international issues that led to the war, with a Sparksnotes edition of the conflict up to January 1951 and the back story of the primary members of the U. S. 23rd Infantry Regiment. He follows the 23rd as they land at Pusan, march up the Korean Peninsula, and after a desperate fight at Kunu-ri, escape the Chinese invasion of November 1951, the only regiment still fit for combat in the Indianhead Division. He also uses the actions of good officers like Paul L. Freeman, Jr. and Ralph Monclar, as compared to less-liked officers like Ned Almond, to illustrate lessons on good leadership. Barron’s book is more action-oriented as the majority of its pages are dedicated to the regiment’s actions at Twin Tunnels and Chipyong-ni. By sectioning each chapter with headings containing the military dates and times and the locations of different units, Barron creates an atmosphere that puts us right in the conflict as he cites veterans’ descriptions of the weather, the terrain, the military culture, the heroics of their comrades, the cries of the wounded, the actions of the enemy and the effect of American arms, booby-traps, fire, and air power upon them.
Barron writes that when he first heard of the battles he thought that
The central elements of the story were right out of a Hollywood blockbuster: A single U. S. Army infantry regiment found itself trapped behind enemy lines, facing several Chinese Army Divisions. Despite the long odds, the 23rd Infantry, together with its attached French Battalion, whipped the Chinese divisions and altered the course of the Korean War. The story was tailor-made for a great movie. (page xiii)
Like him, I also ask myself why more people have not heard about the Battle of Chipyong-ni.
The background of the battle is January 1951. The Chinese have forced the United Nations forces back into South Korea, pushing them to within almost a hundred miles of the Pusan Perimeter and recapturing Seoul in the third battle for that city. Having captured so much ground in South Korea so quickly, the Chinese had to stop and allow their supply lines to catch up. While the communists were regrouping, the Americans were also reorganizing as the new commander of the Eight United States Army, General Matthew Ridgway, a replacement for the deceased Walton Walker, instilled fresh confidence in his men. He knew that the Chinese must be stopped quickly before they could launch another offensive. “I don’t want to hear your withdrawal plans – I want to hear your attack plans,” he told his staff. Besides being a fighter who brought order out of chaos, he was also a well-liked commander who watched out for the comfort of the average soldier, making sure they had plenty of hot meals. There is a sharp contrast between his command style and that of X Corp commander Major General Edward M. Almond, who would talk down to the common soldier and was generally disliked by all.
These two commanders oversaw Operation Thunderbolt. The purpose of this operation was to capture the central corridor in northern South Korea to keep the Chinese from launching another offensive. The key to holding this area was the crossroads of Chipyong-ni. Since the Chinese did not move on the roads, the Americans had to send out patrols to probe the area. This assignment fell to the 23rd Infantry Regiment 2nd Infantry Division, commanded by Colonel Paul L. Freeman, Jr. Freemen was popular with his men. They copied him by growing mustaches and wearing scarves and hats instead of helmets.
The prelude to the battle action at Chipyong-ni started on January 29, 1951. Charlie Company of the 23rd Infantry, with soldiers from Dog Company, is sent on a reconnaissance mission in the area south of the Chipyong-ni crossroads. Freeman had many concerns about the patrol. They would have to use the same road entering and leaving the area after fording the Han River, which could easily be blocked. This fear was confirmed when the Chinese did cut the patrol off at the river ford. Almost everything that could go wrong went wrong. The captain, Melvin R. Stai, disappeared with the radio, overcast skies interfered with the visibility of the reconnaissance plane and the leading jeep broke down when hit by enemy fire. According to Barron, “Like a car accident in a tunnel, the entire column screeched to a halt with nowhere to go in the narrow valley.” As the Chinese attacked, the column had to abandon most of their weapons when they rushed to the high ground of a nearby hill. A hill toward which the Communists were also racing.
Despite enemy fire, the Americans won the slippery race for the frozen hill. “There was about a foot of snow on the hill and it was pretty steep” remembered John Hinkle, a captain whose brother, Donald Hinkle, was a private in the same company. “We ran and crawled and climbed up any we could to get up there.” As soon as they had summited the hill, Charlie Company established a defensive position. Six men had already been hit and nine men, green replacements, were missing. They had not heard the command in the confusion and remained in a ditch where, after putting up a desperate fight, seven of them were killed. One was a newlywed who had not finished paying for the wedding ring he wore. There was Private Allen G. Anderson who returned to the column of vehicles to get his rifle. The Chinese rushed him, and he fought them in hand-to-hand combat until he was killed. He would be awarded a posthumous Silver Star. The remaining fifty men on the hill fought bravely against a force that was over a thousand strong.
They fought valiantly, reserving their ammunition until the Chinese were in range, sometimes as close as ten feet, before opening fire. The terrain allowed the Reds on surrounding hills and ridges to pour fire on the hill. Yet, there was a spot on the hill where they could only advance in single file. Here Lieutenant James s P. Mitchell placed a machine-gun team. Seven times he had to replace the gunner and each time he noticed the grunt had a head wound. When the Chinese threw grenades into the perimeter, the Americans threw them back. Private Bill Horton, a rifleman from Texas, braved enemy fire to save his comrades. At one point he rushed through a malestream of bullets to silence an enemy machine gun team. As he returned to his lines, a hidden machine-gun team opened fire, killing him. He would receive a posthumous Silver Star. Corporal Jesus A. Sanchez from Fox Company, 21st Infantry, blunted an assault singlehandedly by killing several communists. A lone soldier from Dog Company, Private First Class Thomas J. Mortimer, charged and used his bayonet to slay the leader of a Communist attack and then chased the rest away. He would receive a Silver Star.
Lieutenant Mitchell ordered his wounded men not to cry out when hit or moan to keep the Chinese from knowing their number of casualties. When an airplane dropped the message that help was on the way, he crawled around the perimeter, telling each man the encouraging news. But even with American planes dropping supplies to them and napalm and bombs on the enemy, the men of Charlie Company had to hold on despite mounting casualties and shrinking ammo supplies.
As word reached the regiment command post at Mokkyedong, Freedmen ordered Fox Company, under the command of Captain Stanley C. Tyrrell, to go to the relief of Charlie Company. Named the Fighting Foxes because of their defense of the so-called Taegu “Bowling Alley,” these men showed bravery equal to that of the companies they were relieving. A radio operator, Private First Class James E. Robinson, ran messages alone in the dark through enemy territory after his radio had been destroyed. He would be awarded the Silver Star. With no radio, the only way Captain Tyrrell knew about the state of Company C was through survivors like Corporal Leroy Gibbsons who had snuck through enemy lines to guide the relief force.
When Captain Tyrrell’s column approached the hilltop, someone shouted, “Who won the Rose Bowl?” Someone in the relief column replied, “Fox Company, Second Infantry, by God!” Charlie Company had been relieved. The survivors of Charlie and Dog company would later present the captain with a banner on which they had described, “When in peril, send for Tyrrell.” For his actions, Tyrrell would receive the Distinguished Service Cross.
Of the sixty men who went out with the patrol, only twelve returned unscathed. Thirteen were dead, five were missing and thirty were wounded. Yet, because of their epic stand the Americans now knew where the enemy was and could attack him.
To Be Continued In Part II
