On 15 July 1950, the 15th Field Artillery (FA) Battalion (Bn) landed at Pusan, Korea, as an integral part of the 2nd Infantry Division (ID). The first artillery round fired in support of combat actions of the 2nd ID was fired by A Battery, 15th FA Bn, on 6 August 1950. On the morning of 14 February 1951, 1LT Hartell was flying in a Liaison Plane as an Air Observer, when he noticed thousands of men and pack animals moving down from the north. It turned out that two Chinese Divisions were massing for an assault on the Wonju-Yogu Main Supply Route. 1LT Hartell caught them as they were assembling and fired several Battalions onto the target area for more than three straight hours. This became known famously as the great Wonju Shoot, and resulted in nearly 3,500 enemy casualties.
By 26 August 1951, 1LT Hartell was on the ground as a Forward Observer with B Company, 9th Infantry Regiment at the base of Hill 700 near Kobanson-ni. Hill 700 was attacked and taken by B Company that day. But the Chinese mounted a major counterattack at 0400 hours. 1LT Hartell walked the artillery fire right up the hill on top of the charging enemy. Although many of the enemy were cut down, they just kept coming. Although wounded, 1LT Hartell kept calling in artillery fire onto his hilltop. Finally at 0630 hours, 1LT Hartell was hit in the chest by a bullet and his phone went dead. For his heroic actions, 1LT Hartell was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (Posthumously). One of the main roads at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, was renamed Hartell Boulevard in his honor.
Additionally, MSG Jimmie Holloway, A Battery, 15th FA Bn, distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy near Changboag-ni, Korea, on 12 February 1951. He braved 150 yards of open ground, while under heavy enemy fire, and dragged a wounded member of his Battery to safety. He again exposed himself to enemy fire and uncoupled a howitzer and swung it into firing position to place devastating fire on an enemy fortified hill that threatened A Battery’s position. After the Battery XO was wounded, MSG Holloway exposed himself to heavy enemy mortar fire and directed artillery onto the opposing forces. Later that night, he was last seen leading a combat patrol towards the enemy. For his heroic actions MSG Holloway was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously).
From 15 July 1950 to 27 July 1953, the 15th FA Bn established two records unequaled by any other artillery unit during the Korean War. In one 24-hour period during the battle for Bloody Ridge, the 15th FA Bn fired 14,425 rounds. Additionally, from 26 August through 2 September 1951, in support of the 2nd ID during the battle of Heartbreak Ridge, the 15th FA Bn fired 69,956 rounds.
For its actions during its three continuous years in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, the 15th FA Bn was awarded 10 campaign streamers including the: UN Defensive; UN Offensive; Chinese Communist Forces Intervention; First UN Counteroffensive; Chinese Communist Forces Spring Offensive; UN Summer-Fall Offensive; Second Korean Winter; Korea, Summer-Fall 1952; Third Korean Winter; and Korea, Summer 1953. Additionally, the 15th FA Bn was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (Army), streamer embroidered HONGCHON; the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, streamer embroidered NAKTONG RIVER LINE; and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, streamer embroidered KOREA.
And once again, the Indianheads of the Fighting Fifteenth had more than paid their dues - in blood!
Written by: Dan Gillotti (15th Historian)
Written by Gary Turbak from the February 1981 VFW Magazine
The grisly scene, horrible almost beyond belief, shocked even the toughest men of the 7th Marine Regiment. Some averted their eyes. Others broke off their macho banter to talk in hushed, church-like tones.
It was death that spooked them -- death that hung like an eerie cloud over the narrow valley north of Hoengsong, Korea, that cold, quiet day in 1951.
In early February, with the Chinese offensive stalled, U.N. commanders prepared a counter assault across the center of the Korean peninsula. This time, however, Republic of Korea (ROK) troops were to do the bulk of the fighting -- with elements of various U.S. infantry, artillery and other units supporting them. The notion of Americans supporting ROK troops was very much an experiment -- one U.S. military leaders later regretted.
What U.N. commanders didn't know was that Communist forces also were launching a major offensive and had moved four Chinese and two North Korean divisions into the area north of the village of Hoengsong. On Feb. 11, ROKs tangled with Communist forces, quickly disintegrating the planned South Korean offensive.
At one point, GIs of the supporting 15th Field Artillery (FA) Battalion (2nd Division) encamped for the night, relying on ROK infantry for protection. When the Chinese attacked in the dark, the South Koreans fled. The enemy swarmed over the U.S. position. Some 204 artillerymen ultimately died, resulting in one of the most concentrated losses of American lives in the entire war, according to Joseph Gould in "Korea: The Untold Story."
Retreating ROKs streamed south past U.S. support forces, allowing the Chinese to flank American positions. Soon, the Chinese owned the narrow, twisting valley north of Hoengsong and the road that ran through it -- the only escape route.
Steep hills rose up on both sides of the road, turning the valley into a shooting gallery. The Chinese relentlessly rained mortar fire down on the withdrawing and vastly outnumbered GIs. Later came the hand-to-hand fighting. "At times," said one battalion commander, "U.N. troops lined up on one side of the road and tossed grenades at the enemy attacking from the other side of the road."
During one withdrawal, forward observer (for the mortar platoon) Sgt. Charles Long of M Co., 38th Inf. Regt., 2nd Div., chose to remain at his position atop Hill 300. It was rapidly being overrun, so he wanted to better direct mortar fire on the Chinese. For a while, he held off the enemy with rifle fire and grenades, but his last radio message reported that he was out of ammo. He used his last words to call for 40 rounds of high explosive fire on his own position, by that time swarming with enemy soldiers. For his bravery, Long posthumously received the Medal of Honor.
American rescue forces fought their way north from Hoengsong to the besieged units only to find that a river of Chinese soldiers poured in behind them. Points secured just an hour or so earlier reverted quickly to enemy hands.
U.S. infantrymen tried to clear an escape route for the howitzers, supply trucks and other vehicles, but Chinese soldiers were everywhere. U.S. artillery fired point blank into ranks of attacking enemy, but it did little good.
As soon as the withdrawing GIs pushed through one Chinese strongpoint, they would run smack into another -- while enemy forces reformed behind them. Some 2,000 Chinese troops manned one enormous roadblock. But the route south was the only way out. So the Americans continued to run this meat grinder of a gauntlet toward Hoengsong, taking heavy losses all the way.
Finally, the column of weary survivors reached Hoengsong. GIs who made it to the village joined a more general and less hazardous retreat farther south and lived to fight another day. Yet in the little valley to the north there was only death.
On March 7th, the 7th Marines re-entered the area north of Hoengsong for the first time since the rout three weeks earlier. Frozen in time -- and frozen literally -- the battle scene remained eerily preserved.
"Everyone looked into the valley and saw the smoke twisting toward the sky," wrote Marine Bill Merrick in his book Tan Vat. "The smoke came from overturned trucks and jeeps. They had burned so long only the frames remained. The area looked like an enormous graveyard with the bodies buried. The troops lay in the road, in the rice paddies, and in the cabs of the trucks that had not caught on fire."
Hundreds of GI bodies remained where they had fallen. "We had to push arms, legs, and heads to the side of the road so vehicles behind us would not run over dead soldiers," wrote Marine Rod Bennett. Some GIs had been stripped naked by enemy soldiers. One naked, dead soldier lay across the barrel of an anti-tank gun. In many trucks, dead Americans lay behind the wheel or hung out the doors. One truck contained two lifeless GIs and two dead Chinese soldiers.
"The road was blocked by a Sherman tank with one set of tracks blown off," wrote Merrick. "The hatch was open and the tank commander was hanging out of it. His jacket was full of holes, and blood made a big design on his back. Two GIs with their hands tied behind them had been shot in the back of the head. There were powder burns on the back of the caps they wore."
Marines, sickened by the sight, erected a sign along the body-strewn road. It read: "Massacre Valley, Scene of Harry S Truman's Police Action. Nice Going, Harry!"
U.S. units suffering losses in the Hoengsong debacle included elements of the 38th and 17th Infantry; 15th, 503rd, 49th, 96th and674th FA battalions; 82nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Bn.; and the 187th Airborne RCT.
Several outfits incurred severe battle deaths. Korean War vet Dick Ecker, using the Army's Adjutant General's Korean War Casualty File, determined the following breakdown by unit:
* 15th FA Bn. -- 208 (106 KIA & 102 in captivity)
* 503rd FA Bn. -- 56 (27 KIA & 29 in captivity
* 38th Inf. Regt. -- 462 (328 KIA & 134 perished in captivity).
Among the 15th's dead was its commander, Lt. Col. John Keith, and Master Sgt. Jimmie Holloway, both of whom died after being taken prisoner. "Holloway was recommended for the Medal of Honor, but it was downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross," according to the 15th's historian, Dan Gillotti.
Ecker summed it up succinctly: "It was, of course, the nature of the fatalities in this action that was the real tragedy -- many of them MIA, never found and declared dead or captured and died in captivity."
Because military authorities tried to hide the extent of the disaster, casualty figures regarding the Hoengsong massacre are extremely jumbled. But according to a Time war correspondent, "It was part of the most horribly concentrated display of American dead since the Korean War began."