The 2d Battalion moved out of the Sinhung Valley on 13 and 14 November to relieve the 7th Marines of the responsibility for defending Koto-ri and thus free Colonel Litzenberg’s regiment for the advance to Hagaru and the north. Lieutenant Colonel Roise’s battalion had completed its mission without firing more than a few shots and with a total prisoner bag of 12 North Koreans and one Chinese.[302]
[302] 5thMar SAR, 12; 5thMar URpt 4.
Although the new enemy had seemingly evaporated from the path of the 1st Marine Division, there was good reason to believe that he was not forsaking his aggressive designs in North Korea. For in addition to the ominous but questionable predictions of Chinese POWs, eyewitness accounts of pilots of VMF(N)-542 provided G-2 officers with information of the gravest portent in early November. The Marine airmen made nightly strikes from the 1st to the 9th against Sinuiju at the mouth of the Yalu, and they repeatedly reported a steady stream of trucks moving into northwest Korea from Antung, Manchuria. Time after time they blasted Sinuiju with bombs, rockets, and 20mm shells, and though parts of the city were continuously aflame, it still seethed with activity. They described southward bound traffic as “heavy,” “very heavy,” and even “tremendous,” and at least one convoy was reported to be “gigantic.”[303]
[303] 1stMAW SAR, annex K, appendix I (hereafter VMF(N)-542 SAR), 1–8.
CHAPTER VII
Advance To The Chosin Reservoir
Attacks on Wonsan-Hungnam MSR—Appraisals of the New Enemy—The Turning Point of 15 November—Changes in X Corps Mission—Marine Preparations for Trouble—Supplies Trucked to Hagaru—Confidence of UN Command—Marine Concentration on MSR
On 4 November, while RCT-7 was at the height of its fight with the Chinese, the Division CP displaced from Wonsan to Hungnam. General Craig, the ADC, who inspected the area on the 2d, recommended the abandoned Engineering College on the western outskirts as the best location. During his visit he was shown a knoll outside the city where the bodies of some 200 Korean civilians were laid out in a perfect row. All had been victims of the retreating NKPA forces.[304]
[304] LtGen E. A. Craig, ltr, 20 Feb 56.
A location in Hamhung would have been preferred, but available sites were already taken by X Corps. General Smith flew to Hungnam by helicopter and opened the new CP at 1100 on the morning of the 4th. That evening a train carrying 160 officers and men of Headquarters Battalion and the Division staff arrived at 2130 from Wonsan. En route it had been fired on by guerrillas but no casualties resulted.[305]