2RHPZ
07-06-2004, 06:58 PM
Onslaught on the Berlin Outposts: even as the Korean War was winding down, the
Chinese kept up the pressure—by attacking Outposts Berlin and East Berlin in
July 1953. But Marines tenaciously resisted to the war's bitter end - Korean War
As summer was fast approaching the Korean Peninsula, all eyes were turned to the
peace talks being held in Panmunjom. There was talk of a long-awaited armistice
after three years of bloody and savage war between the North Korean and Chinese
and United Nations Forces.
On the night of July 7, 1953, however, CCF (Chinese Communist Forces) assaulted
the all-important COPs (Combat Outposts) East Berlin and Berlin atop the land
mass known as Hill 190, held by elements of the 2nd Bn., 7th Marines. Heavy
shelling erupted on the tiny hilltop as well as all along the MLR (Main Line of
Resistance).
Since returning to the Jamestown Line days earlier, the Marines realized they
were in a precarious position. COPs Vegas, Elko and Carson had fallen to the
enemy in late May.
Marine historians Lt. Col. Pat Meid and Maj. James Yingling wrote in Operations
in West Korea, Volume V: "Some 6,750 yards of intervening MLR--more than four
miles--lay in between, bereft of any protective outposts to screen and alert the
defending line companies to sudden enemy assaults."
Swarming 'Like Ants'
The Chinese wasted no time in taking advantage of this weakened MLR. Under a
thunderous artillery and mortar barrage, enemy soldiers of the 407th Regt., 136th
Div., 46th CCF Army, swarmed over the two positions "like ants."
Nearly a dozen tanks from B Co., 1st Tank Bn., fired hundreds of 90mm shells at
the Chinese hordes. Also, tanks from the 14th Infantry Regiment's Tank Company
assisted them as well. Likewise, howitzers from the 11th Marines, the Army's 25th
Division and Turkish artillery units, added some additional punch to the melee.
Fighting at the Berlins was hand-to-hand. In his book The Final Crucible: U.S.
Marines in Korea, Vol. 2: 1953, author Lee Ballenger interviewed numerous
combatants. One such Marine was Sgt. Vernon Schmidt who miraculously survived
the battle. He described how one of his squad members also had clung to life
during the desperate struggle.
"Pfc. 'Moose' Moran had no water with him and said he drank out of a puddle in a
nearby paddy," Schmidt said. "At daylight, someone saw him and went out to get
him while under fire. He had shrapnel wounds all over and his upper legs looked
like hamburger that was dropped in the mud. One eye was hanging on his cheek ...
When they came to carry him away, he said: 'I'm going back to New York if I have
to crawl.' He was some Irishman."
'Fighting Like Demons'
Despite the heroic struggle, East Berlin fell into enemy hands. Amazingly, two
squads of Leathernecks, augmented by a few Turkish soldiers, had held onto
Berlin. Companies from the 2nd and 3rd battalions, 7th Marines, charged up East
Berlin to retake the hill.
Sgt. David Smith fought up the incline to reach a wounded Marine. When he
finally fell to enemy bullets, his squad became "inspired" by his actions and
raced up the slope to drive the CCF from the crest. (Smith was posthumously
awarded the Navy Cross.)
Ballenger wrote: "The Marines threw Chinese soldiers bodily out of the trenches
and off the hill. Fighting like demons, they killed or routed every defender ...
by 1233, with 20 men left in fighting condition, the exhausted Marines regained
possession of East Berlin."
Unfortunately, their euphoria was soon dashed. The following week saw heavy
monsoon downpours. The surrounding countryside became a sea of mud. Bridges and
roads were washed out and supplies could not reach the MLR or the vital outposts.
Savage Onslaught
During this inclement weather, the Chinese had time to replenish their ranks. On
the night of July 18, several battalions again struck the outposts with a
vengeance. Enemy mortars (reported to be one round per second) slammed into
Marine fortifications. The infantry-men answered with 60mm, 81mm and 4.2-inch
mortars.
Charles Harvey was on his way to OP Berlin with a supply train. "I thought the
world was coming to an end with the thousands of incoming impacting near us," he
said.
For more than four hours, approximately two platoons of Leathernecks withstood
the savage onslaught of some 1,000 CCF soldiers. After-action reports indicated:
"[The Marines] fought with grenades, small arms and machine gun fire until they
were overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers." Both East Berlin and Berlin were
gone.
An Associated Press story later quoted a wounded Marine lieutenant as saying: "As
soon as I saw the attack was on, I called for 'box-me-in-fire.' I got it
immediately, but it was not soon enough. Already they were on us: In our
trenches, throwing hand grenades at the men in the holes, clubbing and shooting
men who were on the machine guns and the BARs (Browning Automatic Rifles)."
With the seizure of the Berlins, the Chinese had control of the strategic hill
mass in front of the MLR. Despite objections from the Marines, the I Corps
commander, Army Lt. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke, ordered that the Berlins be abandoned.
This decision, and the one he had made in May, would later come back to haunt
him.
"This was the same general who had cancelled the Turkish counterattack on
Outpost Vegas in May," Ballenger wrote. "He was now having to live with the
results of that decision. The former Outpost Vegas was used extensively by the
Chinese to stage their attacks on the Berlins.
"Some Allied observers speculated that the Reds took the Berlin outposts in the
belief that no effort would be made to retake them with an armistice apparently
imminent. The observers were correct. The Chinese were better at reading their
enemy's intentions than were the Americans."
Enemy casualties at both Berlin engagements totaled 600 killed and wounded.
During the July 7-9 relief of the Army's 25th Division, the 7th Marines on the
right sector lost 41 KIA and 126 WIA. Between July 19-20, the Marines sustained
50 KIA and 316 WIA.
To make the enemy's tenure on the Berlins a miserable one, air strikes and
tremendous artillery barrages pounded his positions. But the Chinese were there
to stay in spite of the massive shellings.
The month of July would be a disastrous one for the Chinese in terms of
casualties. In all, 72,000 CCF were lost with an estimated 25,000 of these
killed. The price to regain the Berlins and other small outposts had been costly
in human life for the attackers--as well as the defenders.
BATTLE CASUALTIES
Killed in action 91
Wounded in Action 442
Chinese kept up the pressure—by attacking Outposts Berlin and East Berlin in
July 1953. But Marines tenaciously resisted to the war's bitter end - Korean War
As summer was fast approaching the Korean Peninsula, all eyes were turned to the
peace talks being held in Panmunjom. There was talk of a long-awaited armistice
after three years of bloody and savage war between the North Korean and Chinese
and United Nations Forces.
On the night of July 7, 1953, however, CCF (Chinese Communist Forces) assaulted
the all-important COPs (Combat Outposts) East Berlin and Berlin atop the land
mass known as Hill 190, held by elements of the 2nd Bn., 7th Marines. Heavy
shelling erupted on the tiny hilltop as well as all along the MLR (Main Line of
Resistance).
Since returning to the Jamestown Line days earlier, the Marines realized they
were in a precarious position. COPs Vegas, Elko and Carson had fallen to the
enemy in late May.
Marine historians Lt. Col. Pat Meid and Maj. James Yingling wrote in Operations
in West Korea, Volume V: "Some 6,750 yards of intervening MLR--more than four
miles--lay in between, bereft of any protective outposts to screen and alert the
defending line companies to sudden enemy assaults."
Swarming 'Like Ants'
The Chinese wasted no time in taking advantage of this weakened MLR. Under a
thunderous artillery and mortar barrage, enemy soldiers of the 407th Regt., 136th
Div., 46th CCF Army, swarmed over the two positions "like ants."
Nearly a dozen tanks from B Co., 1st Tank Bn., fired hundreds of 90mm shells at
the Chinese hordes. Also, tanks from the 14th Infantry Regiment's Tank Company
assisted them as well. Likewise, howitzers from the 11th Marines, the Army's 25th
Division and Turkish artillery units, added some additional punch to the melee.
Fighting at the Berlins was hand-to-hand. In his book The Final Crucible: U.S.
Marines in Korea, Vol. 2: 1953, author Lee Ballenger interviewed numerous
combatants. One such Marine was Sgt. Vernon Schmidt who miraculously survived
the battle. He described how one of his squad members also had clung to life
during the desperate struggle.
"Pfc. 'Moose' Moran had no water with him and said he drank out of a puddle in a
nearby paddy," Schmidt said. "At daylight, someone saw him and went out to get
him while under fire. He had shrapnel wounds all over and his upper legs looked
like hamburger that was dropped in the mud. One eye was hanging on his cheek ...
When they came to carry him away, he said: 'I'm going back to New York if I have
to crawl.' He was some Irishman."
'Fighting Like Demons'
Despite the heroic struggle, East Berlin fell into enemy hands. Amazingly, two
squads of Leathernecks, augmented by a few Turkish soldiers, had held onto
Berlin. Companies from the 2nd and 3rd battalions, 7th Marines, charged up East
Berlin to retake the hill.
Sgt. David Smith fought up the incline to reach a wounded Marine. When he
finally fell to enemy bullets, his squad became "inspired" by his actions and
raced up the slope to drive the CCF from the crest. (Smith was posthumously
awarded the Navy Cross.)
Ballenger wrote: "The Marines threw Chinese soldiers bodily out of the trenches
and off the hill. Fighting like demons, they killed or routed every defender ...
by 1233, with 20 men left in fighting condition, the exhausted Marines regained
possession of East Berlin."
Unfortunately, their euphoria was soon dashed. The following week saw heavy
monsoon downpours. The surrounding countryside became a sea of mud. Bridges and
roads were washed out and supplies could not reach the MLR or the vital outposts.
Savage Onslaught
During this inclement weather, the Chinese had time to replenish their ranks. On
the night of July 18, several battalions again struck the outposts with a
vengeance. Enemy mortars (reported to be one round per second) slammed into
Marine fortifications. The infantry-men answered with 60mm, 81mm and 4.2-inch
mortars.
Charles Harvey was on his way to OP Berlin with a supply train. "I thought the
world was coming to an end with the thousands of incoming impacting near us," he
said.
For more than four hours, approximately two platoons of Leathernecks withstood
the savage onslaught of some 1,000 CCF soldiers. After-action reports indicated:
"[The Marines] fought with grenades, small arms and machine gun fire until they
were overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers." Both East Berlin and Berlin were
gone.
An Associated Press story later quoted a wounded Marine lieutenant as saying: "As
soon as I saw the attack was on, I called for 'box-me-in-fire.' I got it
immediately, but it was not soon enough. Already they were on us: In our
trenches, throwing hand grenades at the men in the holes, clubbing and shooting
men who were on the machine guns and the BARs (Browning Automatic Rifles)."
With the seizure of the Berlins, the Chinese had control of the strategic hill
mass in front of the MLR. Despite objections from the Marines, the I Corps
commander, Army Lt. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke, ordered that the Berlins be abandoned.
This decision, and the one he had made in May, would later come back to haunt
him.
"This was the same general who had cancelled the Turkish counterattack on
Outpost Vegas in May," Ballenger wrote. "He was now having to live with the
results of that decision. The former Outpost Vegas was used extensively by the
Chinese to stage their attacks on the Berlins.
"Some Allied observers speculated that the Reds took the Berlin outposts in the
belief that no effort would be made to retake them with an armistice apparently
imminent. The observers were correct. The Chinese were better at reading their
enemy's intentions than were the Americans."
Enemy casualties at both Berlin engagements totaled 600 killed and wounded.
During the July 7-9 relief of the Army's 25th Division, the 7th Marines on the
right sector lost 41 KIA and 126 WIA. Between July 19-20, the Marines sustained
50 KIA and 316 WIA.
To make the enemy's tenure on the Berlins a miserable one, air strikes and
tremendous artillery barrages pounded his positions. But the Chinese were there
to stay in spite of the massive shellings.
The month of July would be a disastrous one for the Chinese in terms of
casualties. In all, 72,000 CCF were lost with an estimated 25,000 of these
killed. The price to regain the Berlins and other small outposts had been costly
in human life for the attackers--as well as the defenders.
BATTLE CASUALTIES
Killed in action 91
Wounded in Action 442