MAY 2009

Book Review

Courage on a Frozen Hilltop

Reviewed by Col Eric L. Chase, USMCR(Ret)

After the brilliant success at Inchon in September 1950, and as part of MacArthur’s plan to demolish Kim Il Sung’s fleeing North Korean Army, the 1st Marine Division (1st MarDiv), commanded by MajGen O.P. Smith, had been advancing toward the Yalu River. By 27 November 1950, their command post (CP) was in Yudam-ni, just west of the Chosin Reservoir. Under Army MG Edward M. Almond, U.S. Army and allied units were deployed along the eastern side of the Chosin. The 1st MarDiv’s units and assets stretched precariously along 65 miles of the unpaved main supply route (MSR). Now, as nightly temperatures dropped to 30 degrees below zero, instead of a defeated, evaporating North Korean foe, Smith’s Marines faced the brunt of China’s massive incursion into North Korea.

Toktong Pass is a bottleneck area, with high ground overlooking the north-south MSR between Yudam-ni, 7 miles to the north and Hagaru-ri to the south. Capt William E. Barber’s Fox Company received the mission on 27 November to proceed from Hagaru-ri to occupy and hold Toktong Pass. It quickly became obvious that holding this critical terrain, and thus keeping the MSR available and open, would determine whether the 8,000 Marines still in or near Yudam-ni—7 miles to the north of the bottleneck—would be able to march southward toward Hagaru-ri and safety or be trapped by the advancing and encircling Chinese Communist Forces (CCF).

Bob Drury and Tom Clavin’s The Last Stand of Fox Company relives the 5-day defense of what came to be known as Fox Hill. It is a story of almost unbounded individual courage and determination; it exemplifies the highest qualities of leadership, especially by Capt Barber, but also by the battalion commander, LtCol (later Gen) Ray Davis, who, with tactical ingenuity, led the relief mission on the final day. Although the battle for Fox Hill has been described in many books and articles (listed in an excellent bibliography), this new publication provides thoroughness, context, realism, and detail that do justice to the mission, its meaning, and its place in history.

From the first day on Fox Hill, Barber’s lone rifle company with attachments, starting with 246 effective Marines and corpsmen, faced seemingly insurmountable odds, in the worst of weather conditions, with no logistical support except from occasional air drops. Drury and Clavin provide painstaking details, moving the narrative chronologically through the fierce nightly close combat between 27 November and 2 December 1950. At the end, fewer than 80 in the company had avoided death or wounds.

The Last Stand makes compelling—and chilling—reading. The style is novelistic, not academic. The authors clearly did their homework; the known historical events are woven seamlessly into the story. Taken as a whole The Last Stand becomes the best single resource on the battle. First, in a fast-paced, story-telling style, it presents the drama and ferocity of what happened, the hour-by-hour, day-by-day rhythms of combat, both on Fox Hill and in 1st Battalion, 7th Marine’s (1/7’s) “Ridge-

running” relief of Fox Company. Second, the defense of Fox Hill is placed in its immediate tactical and strategic perspectives. The loss of this key terrain would have fated over 8,000 Marines to near-certain death or capture—a fact on which Barber focuses. Third, as a place in Marine Corps history, the successful stand, saving a division from destruction (while imposing devastating losses on a much larger force), Fox Hill is and will remain an enduring symbol of Marine Corps tenacity and courage. Fourth, without at all minimizing the valiant roles of hundreds of Marines and the ultimate sacrifices of many who turned desperate circumstances into victory, The Last Stand demonstrates how heroic leadership—especially that of Capt Bill Barber and LtCol Ray Davis—flows from special men who can inspire their people beyond perceived individual limits into combat units that simply refuse to consider defeat. The lessons of Fox Hill are pervasive and permanent, and The Last Stand etches those lessons for any aspiring combat leader.

This narrative also portrays in detail several Marines who play pivotal roles. Their personalities and backgrounds underscore the truth that an assemblage of “ordinary” Americans, including untested boots and reservists, could and did fight as a unit of epic stature. The geography and the weather, as well, become central “characters”; the ever-present harshness of record cold and gale force winds severely tested the human stamina and morale of both friend and foe. Capt Barber’s skill, training, prior combat experience (Iwo), and tenacious natural leadership clearly improved the Marines’ stark odds. No amount of fatigue, pain, danger, anguish, or physical difficulty ever deterred him from his mission focus and his concern for his Marines.

As the Chinese crystallized their plans to destroy the 8,000 Marines to the north of Fox Hill, the small company of Marines on that hill was barely an obstacle. The commander of the CCF allocated a battalion to wipe out the small band of 250 freezing Marines in Taktong Pass in order to allow his 15 divisions to move through and trap the 8,000 Americans on the other side of the pass. When the shooting started, it came in waves of fierce and massive CCF charges, mostly in the dark of night, when the temperatures had sunk to their lowest. Frostbite competed with bullets and grenades to cause and worsen casualties. Wounded Marines were cared for, while dead Chinese soldiers were stacked around foxholes.

For Fox Company, replacements and reinforcement were not possible. Each Marine killed in action or wounded in action was an irreplaceable loss. Each day Capt Barber developed and implemented defensive plans to shrink his company’s defensive perimeter, with fewer and fewer effectives to stand watch and to repel the inevitable next assault. As early as the first day of the battle for Fox Hill, the 7th Marines’ Commanding Officer, Col Homer Litzenberg, contemplated bringing Fox Company off of the hill to fight its way up to the CP in Yudam-ni at the northwestern edge of the Chosin Reservoir:

.?.?.?[Barber] considered the idea impractical in the extreme. He had taken too many casualties to move anywhere, and his ammunition stores had nearly run out.?.?.?. Moreover, his small band of Marines was the only obstacle holding open the back gate from the Chosin. If the Chinese took these heights, there was little chance Litzenberg’s troops would get out alive.

Although completely isolated from friendly ground forces, the Marines of Fox Company could not have survived and prevailed without support from the air and from artillery. Col Litzenberg continued to press Capt Barber about the wisdom of continuing the defense of Fox Hill:
Litzenberg?.?.?.?wondered if holding Fox Hill and keeping Toktong Pass open were becoming a suicide mission. The Colonel asked one more time if Fox Company would—if it could—fulfill its mission. The answer would become seared in the legacy of the U.S. Marine Corps: ‘We will hold, Sir,’ Barber vowed. For both men, there was nothing more to say.

A bullet wound to the leg had slowed, but hardly stopped, Capt Barber. By the fourth day on Fox Hill, the “company was down to surviving, more or less, on guts and nerve.” Barber now had to be carried on a stretcher. He worried that he might lose his faculties. The situation was desperate. It was at this time that the relief battalion, to be led by LtCol Raymond Davis, was preparing for the famous march to Fox Hill. As for the enemy, the nearby CCF commander was baffled and frustrated by the resistance on Fox Hill, and he changed plans accordingly.

The Chinese Communist offense had faired well on the east side of the reservoir against the U.S. Army troops, but not as well in the west. They had underestimated the grit of the U.S. Marines, not least the stubborn stand by Fox Company. It had gone on too long, and Toktong Pass was still open. On the morning of 1 December, the Davis-led 1/7 began its march toward Fox Hill. Although the treacherous and icy ridgeline was infinitely more precarious and slow than the MSR, Davis moved his battalion along the ridgeline, becoming known, for posterity, as ‘the Ridgerunners.’

And Ridgerunners they were. In The Last Stand’s riveting description, the truth of the nightmarish mission accomplishment stretches the imagination. On the morning of 2 December, Davis’ 1/7 and Fox Company linked up, and the Ridgerunners could hardly believe what they saw.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Chinese corpses littered the approach to Fox Hill. Many of the bodies seemed to be merely asleep, half buried under what looked like drifting white wool blankets.

The Fox Hill stand was over. The drama was not quite at an end, however, as the two Marine regiments to the north and those in Fox Company who were not casualties had to march to the south. They did, and they reached relative safety in triumph.

The ragged remains of Fox Company, Second Battalion, Seventh Regiment parade-marched into Hagaru-ri four men abreast, to a drill sergeant’s cadence count. Someone began humming, softly at first, the Marine Corps Hymn. One by one, though their throats were dry and raw, the entire company picked up the tune. Soon each man was singing.

For America’s Military Services, The Last Stand depicts the essence of leadership and more. Combat is neither pretty nor grandiose, yet the actions, the courage, and the inspiration during 5 days on Fox Hill will always be a model for the professional military. Both Capt Barber and LtCol Davis earned the Medal of Honor for the Fox Hill and Ridgerunner epic.

>Col Chase retired in 1998 after more than 30 years of service, Active and Reserve, and practices law in New Jersey.