"Anzio in Reverse"

The concentration of U.S. fire laid down on the enemy around the Hungnam evacuation perimeter dwarfed anything ever seen before in Korea. As the beachhead dwindled to a few square miles, with only rear guards of the 3rd and 7th Divisions fighting ashore, U.S. self-propelled guns, howitzers, heavy mortars and flak wagons put out a tremendous weight of metal per mile of front. Behind them, the Seventh Fleet's warships sent in their own barrage from the battleship Missouri (whose nine 16-in. guns can fire one-ton projectiles more than 20 miles) and from cruisers, destroyers and rocket ships. Overhead were swarms of Air Force planes, and Navy and marine planes from at least five carriers (including the Philippine Sea, the Leyte, the Princeton), scourging the enemy with napalm (jellied gasoline), rockets, bombs and machine guns. The airmen had to quit at night, but all through the hours of darkness the land and naval guns kept up the barrage under the glare of star shells.

A marine officer said the U.S. fire was heavier than at Iwo Jima. A 3rd Division officer called it an "Anzio in reverse"--meaning that the U.S. was handing out the punishment instead of taking it. In one 24-hour period, the combined land, sea and air forces claimed 2,600 Communist casualties. Apparently tired of such losses, the Chinese Communists sent regrouped North Koreans into the fighting, and by week's end the North Koreans were bearing the brunt of the battle.

Almost continuously for eleven hours, North Koreans attacked a ridge position held by a valiant Negro platoon led by Lieut. Harry Sutton of The Bronx, N.Y. Bayonet-wielding Reds reached Sutton's trenches and turned a U.S. machine gun on the Americans. But Sutton's men hung on, and finally, after receiving reinforcements, drove the enemy off.

Thereafter, the enemy's efforts died down to feeble probing attacks. Prisoners said that every time the Communists formed up for an attack in force, they were dispersed by shell fire or air attacks.

The Hungnam evacuation was unhurried. On Christmas Eve, Rear Admiral E. C. Ewen radioed from the carrier Philippine Sea that "the last remnants of the gallant forces of Northeast Korea" had been taken off. The Navy announced that the number evacuated from Hungnam was 215,000, including the First Marine Division, the Army's Third and Seventh Divisions, many South Korean troops and 100,000 civilians.

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