On page 28: http://www.army.mil/cmh/brochu...../unoff.htm

Somewhere within the “hachure” marks, showing the defensive lines of the 3 battalions, undoubtedly exists the location where the farmer found the eight remains (including young Wood) mentioned in the newspaper article.

The battle description is more detailed in this brochure, it starts at bottom of pg 25 and concludes at bottom of pg 28/top of pg 29.

On the map, you can see the ROK units located across the north/south river valley, to the northeast. To the south, along the east-west river, you can see the key terrain of the one bridge, as described in the narrative (at the “Camel’s Head” bend of the river). Further south of that, you can see the Chinese blocking position (at the “Turtle’s Head” bend of the river), which prevented the sister regiment of the 8th (a battalion of the 5th Cavalry) from breaking through to relieve them.

The Americans were road-bound by their vehicles; the designation of the regiment division as “cavalry” was kept as a honorary tradition, in fact the regiment would have been “mechanized”. Meaning (I think) the use of WWII era halftracks as transport for the infantry at this time. Whether 8th Cav had their full complement of half-tracks would be a matter for further research, could be that they had an insufficient amount and supplemented them with trucks.

You’ll note that the narrative mentions a medium tank battalion, I don’t think this was “organic” to the regiment but not sure, however the tanks were almost certainly Shermans.

Chinese would have been very numerous, carried almost everything on their backs or with porters, so no artillery but you’ll note they made effective use of man-portable mortars, probably every soldier carried a mortar round in addition to his own load of food/ammunition.

They stayed hidden in the nooks and crannies of the high ground, let the road-bound Americans move past them, then they used the numerous cragged ridges to infiltrate around and behind (just as the North Koreans had done in the south, earlier in July-August).

Seems foolish of the Americans in hindsight but the Chinese were extraordinarily disciplined so not readily apparent, these were veterans of the long Civil War in China so they were tough hombres inured to hardship (and death). Subordinate US commanders were being bombarded with directives to get to the Yalu and wind up the war, only way to do that quickly was stay on the roads and keep moving.

The Chinese attacked at night to nullify American advantage of tactical airpower, these would have been propellor-driven WWII aircraft (USAF F-51 Mustangs, maybe P-51 Thunderbolts). Being on the receiving end of any airstrikes during the day would have really pissed them off, probably making them more inclined to “finish off” any American wounded they overran at night, in close-in fighting with hand grenades and “burp guns” (WWII Russian PPsH submachine gun).

Could be this was the fate of young Wood. I hope it was quick and he didn’t suffer a long lingering death, without water/first aid and out in the cold.

ROK units leading the advance had first been in contact with the Chinese around Unsan in late October, causing General Walker (commander UN ground forces) to pull out the 1st Cavalry Division from security duty in Pyongyand and send it north around 27-28 October.

(So it’s likely that Wood spent one of the last nights of his life in/around Pyongyang, a somewhat ominous distinction that puts him ahead of you and me, in one respect anyway. Or at least most of you, perhaps I should assume that there are at least some readers here who can claim the distinction of a more recent visit to Pyongyang).

Anyway, you can find pretty exact details of what happened to the battalions (3 of them) of the 8th Cavalry regiment, of the 1st Cavalry Division, on 1-2 Nov, in at least 3 publications on the official US military history web site.

Two of them are “Korean War Commemoration brochures”, looks like these were recently published (around 2001); they provide summarized versions, based mostly on the third source, the more detailed official history volume which was published back in the 1950’s/60’s.

The best short summary (only a couple of paragraphs) of the overall 8th Cavalry action 1-2 Nov 1950 can be found in the very beginning of the narrative (page 2) in the Korean War commemoration brochure entitled “The Chinese Intervention”
http://www.army.mil/cmh/brochu.....hinter.htm

A large-scale map showing the exact location of Unsan in North korea is just below/between these paragraphs, on page 3. It’s hard to see against the dark background, look for Chongju and Sinanju on the northwest Yellow Sea Coast and then go north.

For Minnesota they list 700 exactly, that’s a “nice” even number for you dlatn:
http://www.archives.gov/resear.....alpha.html

But Wood’s not there, in spite of the title. However, I did find a William E Wood, Army, PFC (E-3) listed as “died while missing”, 2 Nov 1950, under the Arizona state listing (Maricopa AZ).

http://www.archives.gov/resear.....alpha.html

The web site of the US Korean Battle Monument Commission lists CPL — (E-4, so this is probably a posthumous promotion one grade, standard US military practice) — William E Wood, died 2 Nov 1950 as member of 1st Cavalry Division (of which the 8th Cavalry Regiment was a major subordinate command). So I figure that’s gotta be him, maybe he grew up in Moorhead Minnesota but entered the Army from Maricopa AZ for some reason; I know that the “home of record” the Army lists in your personnel file is where you entered the military from, not necessarily where you actually grew up.

I did all this research because I was trying (unsuccessfully) to find which battalion of the 8th Cavalry Regiment Wood was assigned to…

That’s the old tradition but it didn’t happen in the Falklands, and I doubt they’re doing it in Iraq/Afghanistan either.

I remember reading about a UK military graveyard somewhere in Iraq, from WWI era (there was a disastrous campaign up the river system to try to take Bagdad, can’t remember the year offhand (1915?), Bagdad was a jewel of the Ottoman empire so the Turks really summoned their resources to protect it, the expeditionary force was cut off and forced to surrender. I think many of the POWs were brutalized/died in captivity, the Turks were really pissed about the invasion of the Dardanelles/Gallipoli and took it out on the POW’s).

A local unit of American military (I think it was Marines) found the (a?) graveyard and rehabilitated it, soon after the ground invasion phase of March 2003 had ended. As the insurgency began to develop, their efforts were trashed, the place was used as a toilet, etc.

So I don’t think that’s what you guys have in mind. In this case (North Korea), I suspect that literally thousands of the approx 8000 MIA from the Korean War are US/UN ground forces killed in the Chinese counteroffensive of Nov/Dec 1950, like young Wood and the other two mentioned above.

If the NorK’s haven’t “harvested” the remains themselves for ransom, or plowed them into the fields, they’re still buried in unmarked locations. Not by US graves registration but by hasty burial details of Communist troops or more likely later local villagers, because these battle locations were overrun by the Communists and many of the units were literally destroyed before they could conduct an organized retreat.

The one exception was supposedly the USMC axis of advance over in the east (the famous Chosen Reservoir), where the boast is that the USMC brought out all their dead. But in fact probably a few had to be left, also I think there were Army units over there too, some of them ahead of the Marines, so the ones who couldn’t get back to Marine lines were certainly lost.

Oliver Smith was the name of the USMC Division commander, he didn’t trust the orders from higher (MacArthur) to get north to the Yalu rapidly, so he took his time and prepared his retreat, even then it was a real close shave. I don’t think he’s particularly well known, but IMO he ought to be the subject of a toast daily from every Marine (and the Army too).

In light of this, I’m kind of ambivalent about the return of these young men to their families. As a veteran I understand that family concerns for their loved ones are important and that we have a culture of closure in the US that people depend on. But at the same time, these young men died fighting for something, did they not?? Is the freedom of North Korea not something that they found valuable enough to volunteer for and risk their lives for? Did 17 year old Cpl. Connell die so that we could pay for his return and thus enable the North Koreans to continue funding the perpetual slavery of the North Korean people. I say not. We ought to honor their sacrifice by allowing them to lie in peace until the war is finished and the task of freedom is accomplished. I feel for the families of the dead but my duties are only to my own family and the memory of my veteran comrades.

A British Marine that I had the pleasure of working with at the UN Military Armistice Commission told me that in British military tradition the ground where a soldier of the crown falls becomes hallowed British ground. Whatever one may think of the imperialistic tone of that, at least it defers to the fallen the very greatest respect one can. Every dime we give to that Son of Bitch Kim Jeong Il and those that sent our boys to their graves is a dime that betrays the very calling they felt obliged to answer. Let us not pay the enemy his blackmail any longer; let’s spend our money to free North Korea and then bring our boys home, to a victor’s welcome. The war is not over and the fallen still have value in their fight.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/850140.html

So I couldn’t disagree with you more. We should spend whatever it takes to bring them home from these alien lands, even though I fully recognize that many will never be found.

And — no more “forlorn hopes”.

Corporal Edward F. Blazejewski of Elizabeth, N.J., killed near Unsan, North Korea, November 1, 1950. http://www.coalitionoffamilies.....-08-10.pdf

Corporal Henry D. Connell of Springfield, Massachusetts, killed near Unsan in early November, 1950. He was 17 years old.
http://www.coalitionoffamilies.....-05-12.pdf

Here is a detailed listing of what the joint recovery operations have accomplished: http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/korea.....tSheet.pdf

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Gentlemen…

Wood’s remains (along with those of seven others) was returned a while back. But they were only identified recently.