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GySgt Terence D'Alesandro
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Marine Sgt Robert Deeds.
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Contact Info
Home Town eldorado ar.
Last Address robert d deeds 265 pigeon hill lndg. eldorado ar. 71730
Description MacArthur planned an amphibious landing at Inch' on, a port of the Yellow Sea 25 miles west of Seoul, to be followed by an advance to recapture the city and block North Korean troop movements and supply routes there. Concurrently the Eighth Army was to break out of the Pusan Perimeter and move northward, driving the North Koreans into the Inch'on landing forces which would be driving south. Maj. Gen. Edward M. Almond, commander of the newly activated X Corps, was to be in command of the invasion troops.
Early on 15 September a Marine battalion of the let Marine Division (which had loaded in Japan for the Inch'on Landing), covered by strong air strikes and naval gunfire, quickly captured Wolmi Island, just offshore from Inch'on. By afternoon, Marine assault waves rode the high tide into the port itself (UN Offensive-16 September to 2 November 1950). The remainder of the 1st Marine Division disembarked and pressed toward Kimpo Airfield, the Han River, and Seoul. The 7th Infantry Division came ashore; some elements turned southeastward toward Suwon, south of Seoul, while the remainder of the division joined the Marines in the advance toward Seoul. Kimpo Airfield was captured by the 18th, and put in use by the cargo-carrying planes of the Far East Air Forces to augment the stream of supplies being landed by the Navy at Inch'on. The 187th RCT was flown into Kimpo Airfield to strengthen U.N. defenses in that area. After heavy fighting between advancing U.N. forces and the determined North Korean forces, which had resolved to fight for Seoul street by street, MacArthur announced on 26 September that the city was again in friendly hands; but fighting continued there for several days. On 29 September MacArthur returned Seoul to President Rhee in a ceremony held in the blackened capitol building.
The Eighth Army began its offensive northward on 16 September. The ROK I and II Corps were in position on the north side of the perimeter. The U.S. I Corps, composed to the 1st Cavalry Division, the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, the 24th Division, and the 1st ROK Division, was on the Taegu front. The remainder of the Eighth Army, positioned along the Naktong, included the U.S. 2d and 25th Divisions and attached ROK units. Progress was limited at first, but as the portent of the converging attacks became clear to the North Koreans, they fled north with heavy losses in men and materiel. Elements of the 7th Division (X Corps) and the 1st Cavalry Division (Eighth Army) made contact late on 26 September just south of Suwon, thus effecting a juncture of U.N. forces. Organized enemy resistance continued in the Eighth Army sector until the last days of September. Although large numbers of enemy troops escaped through the eastern mountains, more than 100,000 prisoners were captured during this period; by 30 September the North Korean Army had ceased to exist as an organized force below the 38th parallel. However, remnants of the army, fighting as guerrillas, continued to pose a considerable threat to the security of the U.N. forces.
During the latter part of September the Eighth Army was reinforced by a battalion each of Philippine and Australian troops. Early in October the U.S. 3d Division arrived in the Far East.
Meanwhile Walker's ROK I Corps crossed the 38th parallel on 1 October 1950 and advanced up the east coast, capturing Wonsan, North Korea's major seaport, on 10 October. The R0K II Corps also crossed the parallel and advanced northward through central Korea. In the west, Walker's remaining forces relieved the X Corps in the Seoul area and crossed the parallel on 9 October toward P'yongyang. By mid-October the U.N. forces had penetrated about 20 miles into North Korean territory.
In the second half of October 1950 the advance quickened as enemy resistance weakened and thousands of enemy troops surrendered. U.N. objectives were the destruction of the remaining Communist divisions and the capture of important North Korean cities. ROK troops spread through central and east Korea. Some turned north toward the industrial area centering around Hamhung and Hungnam, others west along the Wonsan-P'yongyang road. In the west the 1st Cavalry Division, after fighting through pill box defenses at Kumch'on, a few miles north of the parallel, progressed up the Seoul-P'yongyang railroad. The 24th Division drove to the south bank of the Taedong River in the vicinity of Chinnamp'o, the port for P'yongyang. The 1st Cavalry and 1st ROK Divisions entered P'yongyang on 19 October and secured the city in the next forty-eight hours. On 20 October the 187th Airborne RCT, complete with vehicles and howitzers, dropped on Sukch'on and Sunch'on, about 30 miles above the city of P'yongyang, to trap North Koreans fleeing northward. In northwest Korea a ROK regiment, leading the advance of the Eighth Army, entered the town of Ch'osan on 26 October, thereby becoming the first U.N. element to reach the Yalu River. Farther south additional U.N. forces crossed the Ch'ongch'on River at Sinanju and pushed toward the Manchurian border. For all practical purposes the North Korean Army had dissolved by the last week in October, and had melted away in the mountains adjacent to Manchuria and the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile Almond's X Corps had been withdrawn from combat and prepared for amphibious landings on the east coast of Korea. Since the rapid advance of ROK ground units and the fall of Wonsan made a combat landing there unnecessary, the 1st Marine Division carried out an administrative landing at Wonsan on 26 October, despite the heavily mined harbor which caused a long delay in unloading. On 29 October the 7th Division landed unopposed at Iwon, 80 miles farther north.
General Almond, adding the ROK I Corps to his command, set out to capture the industrial and communications areas, the port installations, and the power and irrigation plants of northeastern Korea. The ROK I Corps moved up the coastline toward Ch'ongjin, 120 miles north of Iwon. The 1st Marine Division moved 50 miles north of Hamhung and its port of Hungnam, then turned inland toward the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir, 45 miles to the northwest. Elements of the 7th Division attacked northwestward toward the Pujon Reservoir and the Yalu River.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
September / 1950
To Month/Year
November / 1950
Last Updated: Mar 12, 2023
Personal Memories
People You Remember bobbie joe wilder, billy heinz, comaccho, cap. charlie mize. blackie cahillcostello
forrest bell
Memories the toughest 18 days of an 85 year life.
this writing is going to be about the things that happened to me in this time
period.the reason for this isthat it is all i know about.everyone in chosin had
about the same experiences that i had or worse. if you could talk to all of them
,i am pretty sure they would say it was about the toughest time in their life
also.when i was a young buck, the cub scouts & boy sc outs of america
,taught me some camping &wilderness survival skills that havehelped me off
&on through the years of my life. for this i am thankful.the greatest combat
organization in the world ,the usmc, taught me combat skills that has let me live to be an oldman. they taught me that if they want a piece of ground,
they are going to be the highest bidder. the primary job of a marine is to kill.. they are probably the best teachers in the world. i cant remember the hills that i have helped to take where the supporting fire kept the enemy at bay& pinned down while our troops were pretty safe getting to a close proximity,
where we could through a smoke grenade to signal them to lift their fire as
we were in a position to over run the hill. also when the word was passed
panels out, weknew that an air strike had been called.one man in each fire team had a one yard square piece of brilliant silk cloth colored red yellow green or orange to be stretched out in front of him & held in place so the
planes could see exactly where our lines were located.this ensured there
would be no mistakes when they gave us close air support.when they say
close they mean close.when our men were on one side of a crest of a hill & the enemy were on the crest on the other side ,our pilots would rocket &
strafe within 50 or 75 feet of us.when they had made their run.we wuold make ours.getting there as quickly as possible while they were still in shock & stunned frof the air attack. they wouldnt know what hit them..
chosin
it was cold when the first marine divisionwent ashore &started our climb to
the chosin resourvoir. we were well over strength.where a squad normaly has three fire teams of four men , i had four full fieteams or 16 men & myself
made 17.we finally got to the chosin reservoir.as far as i know the 5th at least was set up in a basin about a mile long & about a half a mile wide..it had started to snow more and the temp. had dropped to -35 degrees f.out posts were set up all around our major positions.bobbie joe & myself had tried to melt snow in a mortar can to make coffee.we didnt have any luck at that. bob had the first watch & i went to sleephe woke me up hollering that we were being attacked.our tracers are red & theirs are green..every 5th round of a machinegun belt is a tracer.this was the worst fire fight that i had ever seen by many times over..it looked like a christmas tree i mile long & one half milewide with all of the lights turned on.flares were fired & the chinese wereas thick as one flock of black birds after another.i dont think you could fire a rifle without hitting someone.they overrun us & it was combat up close & personal.the ones in our sector was getting the worst of it now and tried to climb the hills that they had attacked down.a big mistake forthem as they were breaking trail for us.we had them .we knew it & they knew it.we killed a lot of them at a range of from 10 feet to 30 or 40 yards.at one point i had to reload my rifle again. the thumb of my right mitten was frozen & i couldnt push the clip down far enough to get it loaded.i took my mitten off & put the new clip in.in the matter of a few minutes,i had to reload again.that is when i realized that i had lost m y right mitten'my thumb was so cold that i couldnt get my rifle loaded. i told the marine next to me to load my rifle for me.he was blackie cahill.,our platoon leader.he loaded it for me & was cussing all of the time it took him.i know he thought he was going to get killed while loading my rifle'when that clip jumped out ,i got leonard coty.,a barman in my squad to reload it for me.before i had emtied that clip we were called back to our company as charlie mize was worried that we might get cut off & allof us killed..when we got back to our company we bunched ourmen to count our losses.i never could account for time in a heavy firefight ,but i dont think it lasted over an hour at most. in that short time , my squad was reduced from 17 men to 4.some of these guys were the best friends that i ever had. the ones that werent killed were wounded so bad thatthey couldnt walk & fight.some of themen on outpost were caught in their sleeping bags &killed.others i was told ran down into the main body of our troops without
their boots on in heavy snow & - 35 degree weather.when daylight came the next morning ,you could see the remnants of the carnage that had taken place just in our areaso many dead peoplethat it would have been impossible to count them as in places they werepiled on top of each other.we went through them asbest we could retrieving all of the dead & wounded marines that we could find & killing what chinese that were still living.Item company suffered so many casualties that they couldnt function as a company anymore.they were split up &filled in other units that had been hit hard.two of them were assigned to m y squad & were killed before i ever knew their
names.toktong pass was the highest point of ground that had to be taken before the final breakout could take place.at o0ne point there was about 2 acres ormore of all kinds of vehicles & equipmentset on fire & burned to keep the chinese from getting any use from, them as we didnt have drivers for them.any one that could walk had to fight including thewounded.the chinese had destroyed a bridge that we had to cross to get back to the sea.where the bridge was destroyed,you could look straight down what i thought was at least 1000feet ,&there was three very large pipes that carried water to generate electricity for northern korea. when you looked up it was a sheerwallfor a long waysup.the next morning flying boxcars dropped sections of treadway bridge sections which the army & marine engineers spannedthe open area where the bridge had been & afterbuilding a ramp so the trucks could get up onthe bridge we crossed the bridge& started taking cround again.my squad was on point& we did not havehave to build the ramp on the far side of the bridge..the chineseattacked us most off the 78 miles to wanson..when we finally did get to the ships that were to transport us downsouth again, i counted the men in our company ,after we had received replacement twice we werenumbered at twenty nine.i am very lucky to be alive.i guess our government thinks that this kind of a life style had very little
stress on someone of my calibre.i draw a whopping 10%disability for ptsd.
i guess i have lost this battle,,but i won the most important ones.
sgt.bob deeds