Besting Basilone KW (id:#64096)

(Fight For Seoul ID: FT S2)   [next]   [previous]

Seoul, South Korea 1950-09-25 (6 others)

Overview:

By late afternoon on the 25th, the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines had been halted by a roadblock and associated defensive positions located near a high walled school complex, which also happened to be a KPA ordnance and ammunition depot. The companies dug in for the night, with I Company on the slopes of hill of to the east, G Company across the way on a smaller hill and H Company filling in behind. Major Simmons, in command of the Battalion's Weapons Company, was in charge of the frontline positions. He ordered a hasty roadblock of his own thrown up. He positioned two of his beloved heavy machine guns to cover it as well as a pair of recoilless rifles, which he commandeered from the regimental antitank company. Further up a nearby small hill, where he had his CP, he sighted in several more heavy machineguns. He positioned his 81mm mortars to his right rear only some 150 yards behind his CP. In addition, he pre-registered the artillery that was on call from the 1st Marines, whose 4 firing batteries were located to his south across the Han River. All of these were wise precautions. Towards midnight, 1st Marines ordered Simmons to send out a patrol to link-up with 5th Marines whose position was only some 1,000 yards away, but nonetheless a 1,000 yards of Indian country. Not long after the patrol left Simmons' lines, at 0045, automatic weapon fire broke the silence. The patrol soon came scampering back into Simmons' lines, less the corporal who had lead it out,

Defender: American (USMC) (G and H Companies with Weapons Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division)  

Errata (source)