The final fights: July 1953: for the Marines it was Boulder City; the Army: Outposts Dale and Westview

VFW Magazine, June-July, 2003 by Richard K. Kolb

Boulder City: 'A Ghastly' Four Days

"It was arguably the single bloodiest battle of the outpost war," Lee Ballenger wrote in The Final Crucible. "A ghastly four-day affair." Indeed it was for the men of the 1st and 7th Marines, who, mostly one company at a time, fought off thousands of Chinese from July 23 through the 26th.

Boulder City (Hill 111) was some two miles north of the Imjin River. The bridge that crossed the river was at Munsan Ni and Panmunjon--the gateway to Seoul. Hence, the strategic significance of the hill complex.

Ballenger's book is replete with graphic accounts. Cpl. Harvey Dethloff recalled of the opening bombardment: "As it got dark, all hell broke loose. The big stuff came down like raindrops." By the third day, the Marines had inflicted terrible casualties on the enemy. "With the sun came the flies," Sgt. Robert Kreid remembered. "They came buzzing in swarms around the dead ... the stench saturated our nostrils and no one could eat."

Sgt. Robert Guertin vividly summed up the battle: "The smell of rotting bodies and the sight of ground littered with dead Chinese and shattered equipment gave evidence of the ferocious fighting that had occurred there over the past few days."

By all accounts, Hill 111--as Boulder City was dubbed on the map--was a meat grinder for both sides. The 3rd Bn., 1st Marines alone counted 65 KIA. All told, at least 109 Marines died there.

"There is a long story to be told about this hill," feels former Cpl. Joseph C. Martin, who was with H Company. "Artillery and mortar fire was estimated at between 128 and 132 incoming rounds every 90 seconds. This went on for two nights straight.

"Our battalion could have held roll call on the hospital ship in Inchon Harbor because only a few of us were left on the line. When morning came after the relief, H Company was the only one left up there. We lost two companies (G and I) the first night. You wouldn't believe what went on."

As was common, the Chinese attacked at night, mistakenly believing Americans to be more vulnerable then. Pfc. Bob Cormier, then a machine gunner with E Co., 2nd Bn., 1st Regt., 1st Marine Div., remembered the war's last hours all too well.

"Daylight hours of the 25th, 26th and 27th were very limited as far as any action, he recalled. "From dusk to dawn was another story. The enemy probed only in darkness. The night hours became a virtual artillery war, with incoming starting as soon as darkness fell. Our outgoing shells came from our own mortars with 105s and 155s (artillery pieces) from the 11th Marines (artillery regiment) backing us up.

"The firing stopped at 10 p.m. It was a very eerie feeling. Chatter and jubilation followed sudden quiet. When morning came on July 28, we were given three days to police up the lines and bulldoze the trenches and bunkers. We worked during the day caring for our dead; then we removed ammo and weapons."

As usual, heroism was in plentiful supply. On the night of July 25 at a place called Songuch-on near the old Nevada complex, Sgt. Ambrosio Guillen earned the Korean War's last Medal of Honor. Leading the reaction platoon of F Co., 2nd Bn., 7th Marines, down an outpost trench line, he and his men cleared it after 15 minutes of fierce fighting in which Guillen was mortally wounded.

Hellish Outposts: Dale and Westview

"On the Western Front," reported the July 25, 1953, edition of the New York Times, "U.S. 7th Division soldiers early today [July 24] repulsed Chinese Red attacks against Outposts Dale and Westview in the 'Old Baldy' area. Fighting raged on the forward slopes of Westview from early nightfall until long after midnight." But the Times' report to the public only scratched the surface of the combat.

These Chorwan Valley outposts were critical to establishing the demarcation line--the future demilitarized zone. So they were fought over tenaciously. For I, K and L companies of 3rd Bn., 31st Inf. Regt., 7th Div., the war continued right on through the evening of July 26.

Reported the Stars & Stripes: "Frontline observers said the Red Chinese at one point in the fight were advancing up the fingers of Westview, but the Americans hammered back with rifle fire and artillery before the Reds could reach the main positions and crest."

Westview was overrun and retaken, and Dale held by stubborn resistance. But 7th Division and Corps artillery saved the day. "Intelligence reported a Chinese regiment had been preparing to launch a counterattack and was caught in the open by the artillery," wrote then-L Company commander Lt. Robert E. Chisolm. "It was decimated."

Chisolm continued: "The avenues of approach coming off Old Baldy were littered with dead Chinese. Men of L Company, in order to clear the trenches of bodies, threw them off the side of the mountain. Enemy bodies were stacked up like cord wood."

Other veterans had similar memories of the carnage. "When the dead were recovered in M-75 armored personnel carriers they were parked in a holding area just to the rear of the outposts," remembered 31st Infantry vet Buddy Vandiver. "Dead Chinese were not separated from American dead, so I complained until they were. It was a hell of a thing for those who did to die on the last day of that so quickly forgotten war."