November, 1950, on the road to Chosin Reservoir, Marine Lieutenant James Stemple's Able Company holds a position against the Chinese Communists.* The Chicoms charge.
"We thought they were on drugs, the way they kept coming at us. I shot this one charging soldier four times in the chest and saw the white padding fly out the back of his jacket, but he didn't drop until he had thrown his grenade. Our little carbine didn't have nearly the stopping power of the M-1 rifle. A direct hit with an M-1 round would knock anybody on his ass. Still, four carbine rounds. Kept coming. "
Th lieutenant might be a hard sell for the 5.56 crowd today. I know, the modern service round isn't to be compared to the Mr. Pistol carbine ammunition, but some fellows' experience just makes it hard for them to buy into the zen of less as more.
Lunch time reading, so no link. Russ, Martin. Breakout, The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Penguin, New York, 1999. pp. 40-41.
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*By this time even MacArthur's intelligence section was willing to admit the Chinese were in the war.
2 comments:
Is this the same Martin Russ who wrote "The Last Parallel"?
Same fellow, and I like this work well enough to read more.
He also gave me a personal moment. Russ reports on MOH winner Tom Hudner's exploit in crash landing his Corsair to help a shot-down buddy in the Chosin ampaign. I worked with Hudner for a few months on a Grenada project, a couple years after we ran the Cubans out of the place.
Hudner:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Hudner,_Jr.
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