Nov 51 Kumwah North Korea

 

                                                                              JMJ
Kumwah,North Korea
"L" Co.5th RCT 24th Div.
Nov/Dec 1951
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret
                                                                      Chinese Snipers
 It was during the time it had snowed a little, It was causing a problem on a part of the hill .Keep in mind
This path was right in line with the enemy positions.It took a long way before you were out of sight.So one day the Platoon Lt. Say to a couple of us that we were to dig steps on the ridge line to make it easier for soldiers to go back and forth,So the three of us got out our shovels and went to that part of the hill.We were
about to start digging when we heard the bullets fly by our heads.It made a buzzing sound.We shouted to the Lt. A sniper is shooting at us" He says "Keep on digging the steps"..In that moment I and the rest made a decision.We took our shovels put them back on our belt as we moved down the hill..The Lt tried one more time to tell us to stay there but we kept on walking back to our positions..We did not get punished for disobeying him,,,
On the other hand ,,I watch as a soldier would build a small fire on the side of the hill.Then he would tell us to get away from it and wait for a sniper to fire at it,,
                                                                 Thanksgiving
That bunker where the mortars fell all night.Thats where I was thanksgiving day,It was around noon and I was sitting on some sand bags,,A soldier stop by my bunker and he handed me a sandwich.A turkey sandwich,The cooks had baked bread and cooked turkey,I drank water with my sandwich,It was the most delicious meal I had eaten in a long time..
I heard later that a soldier volunteered to help bring up sandwiches but as he came out of his bunker a mortar came in and killed him,,...However I cannot verify this story ,,,,I heard it from a good source,,
Later we got off the hill and got a regular thanksgiving dinner..
                                                                    The Airplane
One time when we were off the hill.I was in on e of those  deep holes we dug.It was getting late when I heard an airplane flying over our positions.As I listened to it I sensed some thing was wrong.It just did not sound like on of ours.Soon the sound of the airplane was gone and I went to sleep.Thenext morning I found out that a Chinese airplane had flown over our positions but did not see us and hit the company in the next area. After that incident we carried along with us a 50 caliber machine gun..
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.

MASH Hospital Nov 51`

Dear readers,,this is the story that is hard to write,,but its the truth,,One second pull the trigger,,a whole different story//phillip

                                                                           JMJ
Kumwah,North Korea
"L" Co. 5th RCT 24th Div.
S/sgt Ret...Nov 1951
                                                                     MASH Hospital
 When was it exactly somewhere in November,,We were off the hill. A small tent had been put up the side of the hill.Our platoon had been told to go in the tent probably to get some information from our platoon officer. I went in the opening and found a place to sit on the ground.There were many small rocks on the ground where we were sitting,Then a black soldier came in by the doorway to the tent.He picked up rocks and started to throw them at us.After awhile I thought I am getting out of here before I get hurt,I got up and started for the doorway.As I approached the Black man.Thats the last thing I remmeber.I woke up on a stretcher at the bottom of a hill,A medic said I am going to give you morphine and I worried about that,My face felt funny and it hurt,Then I was in an ambulance that took me to a Mash hospital,They put me on an operating table right away,It was obvious what the Black man had done.The Doctor apologized that all he had was a small 60 watt bulb above my head to operate on.The black man had crushed my nose..I was put in a tent with many wounded soldiers at the end near another tent,I found out by listening that that tent was for autopsies and they would find out what Chinese soldiers had been eating,,,(One of the use of that tent)
The medic in charge of me would tell me pull down my pajama,,he would slap my butt and give me a shot,
The slap helped.When I was able to get up I went outside and ate getting in line with other soldiers.Then the day to leave.I said how do I get back to the front lines.He said get out on the road and he pointed North.I got a ride on a truck and there was my company at the bottom of the hill.The day I arrived a truck was pulling a 105 Howzter cannon over the hill.The cannon flipped and some Korean soldiers went with it.From the top of the hill to where I was standing the bodies of Korean soldiers hit by the cannon as it rolled over lined the hill. Then we went on the front lines.I got to the top of the hill and crossing the ridge line,There was that black psalter took my M1 Rifle and loaded it,I took aim at him./He was not that far away in a fox hole.
To fire or not to fire at him,,Of course I did not,,,It took many years and surgery to forgive him.Years later in France surgery but it never got my nose correct........,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret....

Nov 51..Grenade/Mortars

Dear Readers,,,,In basic trainning I hit a soldier on his helmet with a fake grenade when I had to throw it..The mortar attack unusall how many mortars and how long it lasted..Phillip meyer S/sgt Ret.

JMJ
Kumwah,North Korea                                 
"L" Co,5th RCT 24th Div.
Nov 1951 Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret
                                                                        The Grenade
 As time went on we would change positions.Now a bunker another day a fox hole..One day I was assigned to this fox hole.The advantage was I could see all the way down the hill.I did not have trees to obstruct my view,Even the brush in front of the fox hole had been cut so we had a clear view to our front.One day a soldier came to our fox hole.He gave us two hand grenades each.Up to that point we did not have grenades.
I looked at them on the sand bag in front of our fox hole.I thought ,,Now if I had to throw one it would be a problem the pin in the position it was in would be hard to pull out.So before the sun set.I took each one of the grenades and fix the pin so it would come out very easy..Then it got dark and .I kept looking down in the valley.I put my rifle down and picked up a grenade with my right hand. My other hand close to the grenade,
Then down in the valley a white flare. That meant the enemy had tripped a flare,It was very bright and as it came down.I looked at my right hand and just before the flare went out I saw the pin on the grenade was missing..Somehow when my left hand got near the grenade and the flare going up I had pulled out the pin.
The maximum 2 seconds passed.My buddy was asleep in the fox hole.I had been squeezing the handle on the grenade.I looked to my front where the brush had been cut and threw it high and straight heard a sound as the grenade hit the ground and the explosion.The next thing I heard from another fox hole.was"Who threw that grenade"?? When morning came I put the pins back the way they were and gave my grenades to other soldiers...I do not have to say what would have happened if I had made one small mistake.
                                                                       The mortar attack
 This time I was in a bunker on the other side of the hill.What made it so unusall was instead of the hill going down on a slant this hill went out about 50 feet before it started to go down.So from our bunker we could not see down the hill.I got on guard as the sun went down..When I heard the familiar sound of a mortar but this time around four mortars were coming in all at once.I looked to my front as they exploded
in a straight line, A few minutes later more in the same area...They just kept coming in.My buddy got on guard and I told him about the mortars.I slept ,,on guard again,My buddy said they are still at it.Then more mortars came on us..The night passed with no let up on the mortars.It had snowed a little,When the sun came up I got out of my bunker and looked around .Everywhere I looked there were the holes made by the Mortars..In that very small area hundreds of mortars had fallen on us during the night.Anywhere from 5 to 600.The miracle no one got wounded....It seemed for us the mortars stayed just the right distance from our fox hole...
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.
                                                                    

The sniper, the bunker

Dear readers.so many little incidents happenned on that hill..I am writing them not in order but as I rememeber them,,..Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret

                                                                             JMJ
Kumwah,North Korea
"L" Co, 5th RCT 24th Div.
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.
 November 1951
                                                                   The Sniper
 So many things happened on that hill,,Maybe not as they happened but as I remember them.One day I was standing by a bunker close to that big boulder,An officer came with a couple other soldiers with a 50 cal machine gun,a large telescope,,He had the machine gun set up and put the telescope on it,Then he told us he was going to get one..(One = an enemy soldier).He aimed the 50 cal which had been fixed to fire on shot just one bullet in the chamber/,The officer kept looking through the telescope.Then he pulled the trigger and said "I got one"with that the machine gun was taken apart and his men took it down the hill.,The next day he came up again and repeated the process,,,When you think that from where we stood looking straight ahead we could actually see the Chinese soldiers going through the trenches thats how close we were.
                                                                 
                                                                   The Bunker
The bunker I slept in I found out had a tragic story,As I came out the opening on the right side of te bunker
there to my right was that huge boulder.Before we had occupied this bunker, the company before us on this listening post all of them were asleep,The Chinese climbed on top the big boulder no one fired at them.then they went in the bunkers and fox holes killing as they went.To the front a soldier saw the chinese on the boulders and knew something was happening then the fire fight began but it was to late for many of the soldiers. So I was sleeping in a bunker where soldiers had been killed..
                                                                       The Bunker 2
One day in that bunker with nothing happening I found a weapon I had never fired before.A shot gun..I do not remember the gauge but I put a couple of rounds in it and went to the end of the bunker and pointed it out at some brush and fired away just to get the feel of the weapon,,However that did not make much happen until one day.My buddy and I wanted to warm up some C-rations,So at the end of the bunker we built a small fire and started to heat up the rations,The smoke from the fire going out the bunker window,Soon we hear explosions near our bunker. We thought some soldier throwing a grenade,,So we shouted "Stop throwing the grenades" but the response was."The smoke from your fire is drawing mortar fire from the Chinese" So we quickly put out the fire and the mortar attack stopped...
More later Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.

November hill 1951

 

                                                                       JMJ
Kumwah,North Korea
Nov 1951
"L" Co, 5th RCT 24th Div.
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.
                                                             Wake up call
   On the other side of the valley where we had dug holes to live in during the winter was the enemy controlled hills.I don't remember exactly when but a day came we were going up the hill early in the morning had got about half way up the hill..When I felt (I truly felt) I just could not go on no more,
I could not get up.Then the best thing ever to happen to me happenned.The platoon Lt, came up behind
me and gave me a swift kick directly in the middle of my bottom,And he said get to the top of the hill.
Amazing in a couple of seconds I was awake full of energy and passing all the rest of the soldiers,Except for my bottom that hurt a little,.That was the best kick I ever got in my life..
                                                              Hill description
    Imagine a horse shoe That would have been the chinese.We were in the middle of the horse shoe,They had positions on our right and left and the front, I was on a listnnening post,That is we would go as far as we could with out making contact with the enemy,Our objective should we see them coming or come under attack was to let the rest of the company know what was going on or fall back and hold with the rest,It was a very strange position. When we reached as far as we could go there in the middle of the path was a huge boulder that separated our lines from the Cynoscion each side of the boulder were bunkers,...on the right of the boulders were sand bags around four high then the bunker on the right.On the left behind a small bunker was an extra long bunker. The fox holes and bunkers until the hill got a little higher.If you looked to the front of the boulder the ridge line got very narrow and anyone walking it would have to be very careful then
it widened by the Chinese positions, To our front we could see the Chinese positions and the trench that went across the hill.Looking carefully you could actually see them walking back an forth in the trench,That is how close we were. The hills to the left and righ were filled with trees and brush so it was hard to see anything on them,,We stayed on that hill a couple of months and many things happened.
                                                                   My new bayonet,
 So one day a soldier came around and said we were being issued new bayonets,The reason may have been we did not even have bayonets for our weapons,.There it was my new bayonet,It was beautiful,Leather handle,,,sharp blade brand spanking new, I had put it down on the sand bags to my front when I hear a mortar coming in.I dived for a bunker as an officer dived into it to,My hands were shaking and the officer says "Are you cold?" Ahh officers..No I knew how close this mortar had come. So I went outside to get my bayonet,It was not on the sand bag I looked and there it was the mortar had hit it my brand new bayonet had been destroyed, The leather cut by the shrapnel,,,But if I had stayed by the sand bags it would have hit me directly,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Hint just as we could see them they could see us,,,Phillip Meyer S/sgt.ret