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Yeah, Art, that must have been a spooky time. Walking right up to a armed
Japanese soldier at his guard post. You can bet he wasn't one of those who
signed the surrender papers. The day after the North Koreans attacked they
broke out the weapons, and issued them to us in Tokyo. I felt foolish lugging an
M1 rifle down to the post laundry where I worked.
Bob Dove
1st Raider Co. 1950
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 9:56
AM
Subject: Re: Meredith Victory, Hungnam,
etc.
I was not in Korean War but I was in WW2 and was
one of first Americans to go to Taegu,Korea
in Sept. 1945 . The Japanese soldiers were still
there at their guard posts as we occupation force arrived
Art
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 10:12
AM
Subject: Meredith Victory, Hungnam,
etc.
Thanks for the replies to my queries about
Hungnam, refugees, etc. Tom Hickcox, thanks for offering to send the
USAA article. I actually have it, courtesy of J. Robert Lunney, one of
the Meredith Victory officers featured in the story -- well-done, I
thought. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I've interviewed Lunney
and one of his shipmates and they've been quite helpful. I also am
tracking down crewmen from other craft that carried refugees or
soldiers.
Sam Kim asked if I can read Korean. If
only! However, I'm going to need a translator for some Korean-language
materials I've already been promised, so leads to other accounts in Korean
are always welcome. (I expect to find language help at one of the
local universities.)
In hopes of jogging memories,
here are some musings and questions some of you might want to address, or
pass on to fellow vets.
Koreans' survival
There are many references to the persistent refugee tail hindering our
convoys down the Chosin/Changjin MSR and in the 8th Army zone, but few
details. I was wondering about the particulars of how they followed
the troops, and whether their numbers grew as the troops moved south.
Aside from the question of infiltrators, were they a tactical hazard
and why?
How did the refugees survive the cold
and privations? If our boots and snow gear were inadequate, what were
theirs like? When the soldiers rested at night, where were the
Koreans? Our rations were frozen; what were they eating? Was
there any interaction between them and the troops?
Because
the U.S. situation was dire, did we try to drive them away or outrun them?
Did we cover them from enemy fire? Did they use our equipment,
like the bridge at Funchilin? (I guess that bridge was needed
expressly for vehicles, as there was some kind of footpath there
...)
What was left in Korean towns and villages as
we passed through? I haven't yet determined to any degree of
satisfaction whether any villagers remained -- and, if so, how they managed
-- in the towns at the heart of the fighting: Hagaru, Koto,
Chinhung-ni, and so on. From all the accounts of demolition, it sounds
like our policy was "scorched earth," leaving nothing for the Communists but
nothing for the home folks, either. Did the Chinese and NKPA pursue
the same policy? Appleman describes the occasional warm Korean hut
east of Chosin during the Faith fight there -- were they stragglers left
behind after villages had emptied out? What were they living on?
Can you recall any vignettes of civilian
existence up north, on the way to the coast, or elsewhere in Korea during
that period of the war?
A-Frames, Korean food ...
How does an A-frame work? Did UN troops ever adopt this
time-honored Korean device? Did our ROKs or KATUSAs use them?
Did U.S. soldiers ever eat Korean food? Liquor? Anyone
remember any Koreans' encounters with C-rations and other U.S. vittles?
I gather our cigarettes were a valued
commodity.
Shoepacs
Finally, and this
is rather in the way of a "poll," I want to hear opinions of the renowned
Shoepacs. I'm looking into L.L.Bean's role in their possible design
and supply, and the shoes' apparent relation to the famed Bean "duck boots"
which, for reasons never clear to me, were VERY popular in the carpeted
hallways of a prep school I attended in the late '70s in "rugged" central
New Jersey.
George Rasula gives the Shoepac high
marks at Chosin but, of course, he's a Minnesotan descended from Finns and
almost alone in his praise for the singular footwear. Even some army
historians say the rubber bottoms caused the wearer to sweat, and then
allowed the sweat to freeze.
That said, the
alternative -- thin, leather (?) combat boots with rubber overshoes -- may
have been just as sweaty and colder, at least, as Rasula would have it.
Was there a better alternative? What were the warmest boots on
the civilian market at the time? In other words, what would you have
been wearing in the snow at home?
[I don't even want
to think about the glove situation. In D.C. this week, the
temperature dipped unaccustomedly merely to the 20s and every time I stepped
outside in my nice, wool-lined leather mitts and still felt chilled, I
thought about those leather "shells" and other inadequate gloves the men
were stuck with as they marched north toward the Yalu and Siberia. And
the field jackets. And the summer weight pants (cotton? wool?).
And the cold metal of the weapons and equipment ... Do you still
think about it in the cold?]
Thanks, as usual,
for all the good stuff on this exchange.
--Mandy Katz
Tom
Hickcox wrote:
At 22:33 12/11/02, Mandy Katz wrote:
Well, OK, since this list needs some
action, I'll stop lurking and jump in with both feet.
I'm
writing a history for children and another for adults of the evacuation
of Hungnam, December 1950. The children's book will cover the
civilian experience, with particular attention to the semi-miraculous
transport of some 14,000 Korean refugees aboard a single cargo ship, the
Meredith Victory. The adult book will describe the entire
evacuation.
As I live in Washington, DC, just a few subway stops
from the Library of Congress, I've had no trouble finding published
material on my subject. And I've done a fair job (I think) of
scouring the web for related info. For instance, the "kimsoft"
site run by this group's own YSK, is invaluable, as is his memoir.
The Changjin Journal, edited by George Rasula, is another great
source.
Nevertheless, finding details and recollections about the
evacuation itself is a challenge. There's so much out there about
Chosin and the long fight down the MSR that material on the evacuation
seems paltry by comparison. (I've read Cowart, Miracle at
Hungnam.) It seems after the ordeal of the MSR, many survivors
just passed out the minute they hit the safety of a truck or cot in
Hamhung or Hungnam, and remember very little of their time there.
Mandy,
The current issue of USAA Magazine has
an article on the voyage of the Meredith Victory.
USAA,
United Services Automobile Association, is an insurance company that
caters to armed services members. It used to be mainly commissioned
officers, but I think that has changed.
I can mail you the article
if you sent me your snail mail
address.
Tommy
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