It is called Chipyong-ni
It is an Epic War Drama
In the vein of The Siege of Jadotville
It is like Top Gun: Maverick meets 12 Strong
It follows populist career officer Paul L. Freeman, Jr
And sixty-year-old French socialist Ralph Monclar
As they seek to stop the Communist Chinese advance into South Korea and lift the spirits of their army
Problems arise when Freeman and Monclar are surrounded by the Chinese, outnumbered three to one, and begin running out of ammo during attacks as dark skies deny them air cover
Now together their leadership, teamwork, and care for their men will help them stand their ground until help arrives
The idea came to me when I read that Freeman later said that the moment the clouds parted, allowing airplanes to zoom out of a clear sky and provide covering fire at the very last moment was too unbelievable even for a Hollywood movie
My unique approach would be the juxtaposition of conflicts in high command over orders with every act of valor of foot soldiers on the frontline that results in a medal, ribbon, cross, or star
A set piece would be when the overcast skies darken with black clouds, denying the Americans and French air cover as well as supply drops. Because the constant human wave attacks force the U.N. troops to keep firing their weapons, their ammunition supply quickly begins to runout. Freeman knows that with dwindling supplies there is no way his men can last until night falls. He begins to realize how Custer must have felt at The Little Big Horn. Freeman and Monclar gather all the ammunition they can fine and prepare to make a final last stand. Then a patch of blue appears in the sky above them, and in an unbelievable moment, Air Force jets and Marine Corsairs fly through the breaks in the cloud cover. Heedless of unseen mountain tops, the planes zip down and drop 500-pound bombs into the closely packed human waves of the Communists and mow them down with machine guns and rockets. A wave of excitement fills the U.N. position. The Chinese know that the panels the infantry have placed outside their lines single the aircraft where to direct their fire and rush to capture them, but the Americans hold them off, firing flares into their ranks, giving the pilots clear targets. The jets and Corsairs fly, sail, swoop, and sweep through the air as they decimate the Communists, who flee. The GJ Joes and Frenchmen stand up and cheer as the area surrounding their base is turned into a ring of exploding bombs
Target audiences would be servicemen and servicewomen, military veterans, Korean War veterans and their families, South Koreans, Korean Americans, gamers who play Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and Battleground, fans of Top Gun: Maverick, and men and women (teens to sixties)
People would want to see it in theaters due to its themes of brotherhood, courage, bravery, and valor in battle, excitement, and adventure of war, thrills of aerial action on the big screen, and honoring the veterans and fallen of a “forgotten war”
[Note: You Can Read Part I here and Park III here.]
The assignment of clearing the area of Communists fell to Paul J. Freeman and the 23rd Regiment, who moved out on January 31st, 1951. Freeman was unhappy with General Almonds’ order to advance ten miles beyond the front lines and out of the range of artillery support. His orders were to occupy the high ground north of Twin Tunnels. Perhaps if he knew Matthew Ridgeway’s psychological reasons for the operation, he might have been less irritated.
The talk among the U.N. command of falling back to the Pusan Perimeter did not sit well with the former paratrooper commander in the 82nd Airborne and Normandy veteran. Ridgeway believed that a spirit of defeatism prevailed in such an operation and that a victory over the Communists would convince U.N. forces that the Reds were beatable. Of course, he did not know that Commissar Peng Dehuai was also trying to destroy the U.N. forces and that a major part of his Fourth Offensive was holding the location at Twin Tunnels.
Joining Freeman was the 37th Field Artillery Battalion, minus one battery. For general support, he had the M16 half-tracks from the 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion. According to Leo Barron, “the U. N. forces had little to fear from the Chinese Air Force, so the regiment planned to utilize the quad .50-caliber machine guns on the M16s in a direct fire role.”
Also joining Freeman was the French Battalion, led by Ralph Monclar, also known as Raoul Charles Magrin-Vernerey. Monclar had seen service in the French Army during World War I, in the Foreign Legion in the Middle East and North Africa, and with the Free French Forces during World War II. At the age of sixty, instead of retiring, he volunteered to lead the French in Korea. Although he held the equivalent of an American lieutenant general, according the Kenneth E Hamburger, he offered to wear a lieutenant colonel’s insignia “to avoid problems of rank.”
The men in the Battalion still called him The General. These men had joined for a variety of reasons. Even though many of the post-World War II French army were left-leaning, the volunteers saw themselves as professional soldiers and were fiercely anti-communist. They greatly respected the U. S. military for its role in liberating their homeland from the Nazis and viewed Korea as an opportunity to thank the Americans and restore national honor. Hamburger quotes a Saturday Evening Post article from May 1950 by Harold H. Martin entitled “Who Says the French Won’t Fight.” A Frenchman says he and his comrades volunteered “to fight for the freedom of a country that we didn’t even know, Korea, following the example of the young Americans who came to fight for us during the two World Wars.”
Knowing how the Chinese attacked columns on the road and at night, Freeman made the wise decision, and one that was backed up by Ridgway, to have his men march along the ridges and then fortify hills and other high ground before moving onward. His progress was too slow for Almond, who, in a rage, ordered Brigadier General George C. Stewart, an assistant division commander traveling the 23rd to get to know the commanders, to fire on the village of Chipyong-ni. Stewart found the order of firing on a village filled with noncombatants strange reluctantly fired a few rounds over and around the village. Freeman was angry at Almond, not just for this breach of the chain of command but also because it would alert the Chinese to his presence. If Freeman had known that he was smack-dab right in front of the advance of three Chinese regiments, about eight thousand strong, outnumbering him three to one, he would have been even more furious. That night his men watched the small lights and white phosphorus flicker in the dark hills surrounding them.
The Chinese attacked the next day, February 1st, at four thirty AM. “Knew this was going to happen,” Freeman said to Stewart. “What do you want me to do now?” Stewart replied that the only thing they could do was stay put and kill as many Chinese as possible. White phosphorous lights flicked in the morning fog and the sounds of bugles and whistles marked the enemy’s arrival. Some U. S. soldiers were hesitant to fire since some Chinese wore American uniforms or marched like refugees to confuse them. Due to the morning mist, the soldiers appeared like ghosts, the shaking of pine trees and bushes as well as the cracking and snapping of twigs and branches gave the dogfaces their only targets. Some outlying posts were wiped out by the enemy fusillade of .51- and .30- machine-gun fire. In some places gravity aided the enemy, allowing avalanches of potato mashers to roll downhill into American foxholes, transforming them into deathtraps which forced the GIs to jump out.
By 0700 hours the Chinese had infiltrated the American lines and achieved breakthroughs, resulting in the Americans fighting in hand-to-hand combat in some places and falling back in others. The two sides were so close that they tossed grenades just as often as they fired their rifles. Chinese mocked the Americans by shouting “Hey, Joe” in English. Men call down artillery fire on their own positions. Machine gunners had to use pistols and rifles to keep their positions from being overrun.
The French Battalion also had a rough fight. Lieutenant Louis Leroux sustained an abdominal wound but kept fighting for the next thirteen hours. Machine gunners used their fists as their positions were overrun. First Sergeant Paul Amban led thirteen men in a fierce counterattack led by Lieutenant Claude L. Jaupart and was seriously injured.
By midday, the Chinese were so close to the regimental command post that Freeman’s staff clerks had to dash through ricocheting and errant bullets while passing papers. Stewart received a call from Major General Clark Ruffner, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, asking for updates every thirty minutes. When Stewart told him of their deteriorating situation, Ruffner expressed skepticism. Standing in a pool of blood belonging to the radio operator who had just been killed, Stewart held the phone out the door so Ruffner could hear the fighting.
The enemy had taken important hills and Freeman was ordering counterattacks to retake them. Americans would throw grenades and then charge with the bayonet, frightening the Chinese off. Because the constant human wave attacks forced the U. N. forces to keep firing their weapons, the ammunition supply quickly began to shorten. An even worse development occurred. The skies were now overcast with black clouds, denying the Americans and French air cover as well as supply drops. Freeman knew that with dwindling supplies, there was no way his men could last until night fall. He began to realize how Custer must have felt at The Little Big Horn.
By midafternoon Freeman, Steward and Monclar gathered all the ammunition they could fine and prepared to make a final last stand. Then a patch of blue in appeared above them, and in an moment that Freemen later said was too unbelievable even for a Hollywood movie, flights of Air Force jets and Marine Corsairs zoomed through the breaks in the cloud cover. Heedless of unseen mountain tops, they dropped 500-pound bombs into the closely packed human waves of the communists and mowed them down with machine guns and rockets. A wave of excitement filled the U. N. position like the part in a western when the cavalry arrives. The Chinese knew that the panels the infantry had place out singled the aircraft to fire and tried to capture them, but the Americans held them off and fired flares into the enemy ranks, giving the pilots clear targets. Demoralized, the enemy fled, leaving behind thirty-six hundred of the eight thousand who had attacked. Freeman’s much smaller force had sustained two hundred twenty five killed, wounded and missing.
There were many examples of bravery throughout the fight at Twin Tunnels. 3rd Battalion and the French Battalion would receive Presidential Unit Citations. A lone forward observer in Item Company, Thomas C. Harris, continued his duty of calling down fire missions despite being hit in the foot. Sergeant William A. Sandford followed orders and rushed through enemy fire to find a comrade. Despite being wounded in the arm, he crawled up a hill and killed two Chinese with burp guns who had infiltrated the line. He would receive the Silver Star. Private First-Class George R. Van Sciver the Third would also receive the Silver Star for carrying wounded men from the battle field and killing several of the enemy with a bayonet. A Hawaiian, Private First-Class Arthur Kenolio, covered his men’s retreat as he tossed grenades at the surging communists. He would receive a posthumous Silver Star. When Sergeant Hubbert L. Lee’s platoon leader was killed, he took charge and five times led charges to retake positions from the enemy. Despite being hit with two blasts from grenades which left fragments in his injured leg and being struck with small arms fire, Lee continued firing from his knees until his comrades had retaken the hill. He would receive the Medal of Honor. His citation reads…
M/Sgt. Lee, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When his platoon was forced from its position by a numerically superior enemy force, and his platoon leader wounded, M/Sgt. Lee assumed command, regrouped the remnants of his unit, and led them in repeated assaults to regain the position. Within 25 yards of his objective he received a leg wound from grenade fragments, but refused assistance and continued the attack. Although forced to withdraw 5 times, each time he regrouped his remaining men and renewed the assault. Moving forward at the head of his small group in the fifth attempt, he was struck by an exploding grenade, knocked to the ground, and seriously wounded in both legs. Still refusing assistance, he advanced by crawling, rising to his knees to fire, and urging his men to follow. While thus directing the final assault he was wounded a third time, by small-arms fire. Persistently continuing to crawl forward, he directed his men in a final and successful attack which regained the vital objective. His intrepid leadership and determination led to the destruction of 83 of the enemy and withdrawal of the remainder, and was a vital factor in stopping the enemy attack. M/Sgt. Lee’s indomitable courage, consummate valor, and outstanding leadership reflect the highest credit upon himself and are in keeping with the finest traditions of the infantry and the U.S. Army.
A comrade remembered Lee hobbling around with a piece of tree limb as a walking stick. When a stretcher was offered, he waved it off, saying, “There’s people who need that stretcher worse than I do.”
After the battle, the Chinese were now the hunted. The American half-tracks gun them down as they tried to flee to the mountains. The French captured a prisoner and after interrogating him, learned that the Twin Tunnels-Chipyong-ni area was such a crucial piece of real estate for the Chinese operation that they had committed forces in broad daylight, the opposite of their common nighttime attacks, prematurely to hold the vital spot.
But the work for Freeman, the 23rd, and the French was not done. They were ordered to advance to Chipyong-ni and hold the transportation hub to protect the flank of the 10th Corps as it launched its offensive, Operation Roundup. What the Americans did not know was that the Chinese were also planning an offensive and would repeat the Battle of Twin Tunnels on a much larger scale.
To Be Continued In Part III
