r**********1
发帖数: 221 | 1 MH: Would you talk about some of the experiences the Marines underwent
during that campaign?
Bergee: I could fill up your notebook with experiences. One of my gunnery
sergeant friends distinguished himself one night by daringly exposing
himself to intense machine-gun, mortar, grenade and small-arms fire to lead
12 men against overwhelming odds (they were facing approximately two
battalions of Chinese) to reach and aid men of his command. He was awarded
the Navy Cross for that act of heroism. Inside the perimeter at Hagaru-ri,
the Marines prepared for the anticipated night attack. Every man became a
rifleman–clerk-typists, cooks, truck drivers, communications men, supply
personnel and engineers. The perimeter flares revealed wave after wave of
Chinese advancing across the snow-covered ground. Hand grenades were lobbed
at the onrushing enemy, machine guns opened up and the mortars began firing
with devastating effect. Finally, our men met the enemy head-on, with
bayonets. Temporarily, the Chinese had been beaten off by so-called rear
echelon troops–but the Chinese had not figured on their opponents being
Marines. I have often thought what the Chosin area must have looked like
when spring arrived that following year. There must have been dead bodies
all over the place. It has been said that the 1st Marine Division killed 40
Chinese to every dead Marine. It seems possible to me, since I saw the
bodies of Chinese soldiers stacked like cordwood at daybreak after that
battle.
MH: It was certainly a grim business, wasn't it?
Bergee: I recall seeing one Marine sitting behind the wheel of a jeep, a
bullet through his forehead. He had been hit as he tried to make a run for
Hagaru-ri; his jeep had veered off the road, jumped over an embankment and
landed near the edge of a creek. The Chinese had stripped him of his helmet,
weapon and winter clothing, leaving him clad in only his winter underwear.
MH: There have been numerous stories of close calls at Chosin. Did you
witness any personally?
Bergee: The helmet of one of my men was spun around on his head as a bullet
passed in and out through the side. I remember seeing a Marine smoking a
cigarette one morning, and a bullet knocked the cigarette right out of his
mouth. I felt my left shoepac suddenly become untied. A bullet had severed
the shoelace, and as I bent over to look at it, my canteen was shot off my
belt. I had just gotten out of my sleeping bag one dark night, took two
steps, and a burp gun cut loose and sent about 20 rounds into my bag. The
down feathers really flew!
MH: What about the Chinese? Were they good fighters?
Bergee: Compared to the Japanese, they were not. They would try to overwhelm
you with sheer manpower. No, I personally don't believe they were good
soldiers, but they were extremely disciplined and tough. We killed so many
of the Chinese who attacked us that they were finished as a fighting unit.
That unit never again entered into combat during the Korean War. It is
ironic–they had orders to annihilate the 1st Marine Division, but we
annihilated them. Of course, there were individual acts of heroism by
Chinese soldiers, but generally they depended on overwhelming strength in
numbers. I shall never forget the many nights of massed attacks by the
enemy. The damn bugles blaring in the cold night air, the yelling of the
Chinese as they swarmed toward our positions wave upon wave–those sights
and
sounds will always remain in my memory. Everywhere you looked, there were
charging Chinese. It reminded me of knocking over an anthill and watching
the ants scamper to and fro.
MH: Most of the heavy fighting took place at night, didn't it?
Bergee: Yes. During the day our column continued down the road, and we could
see that the hillsides on both sides of us were swarming with Chinese
soldiers. Every now and then a sniper would kill a Marine and we would blast
away at the hillside, but most of the time the enemy would wait until dark
to launch an attack against our column. The Chinese had a way of appearing
suddenly at night, during the coldest, darkest part. They would attack in
great numbers and would yell and charge our lines. In the hills all around
us we would hear a bugle, then off to our right another, and then to the
left another. It was really frightening! One dark, moonless night, one of my
men hollered, 'Sarge, the gooks are here!' I knew that, unless we received
an airdrop, we would soon be completely out of ammunition. I yelled back:
'If you run out of ammo, throw snowballs at the SOBs–but be sure and put a
damn rock inside them!'
MH: Did daybreak bring any relief from the continuous onslaught?
Bergee: No. With the coming of morning, just before the dawn, I heard bugles
and knew another big attack was on. The human sea came charging toward us,
their padded, mustard-colored uniforms dark against the snow. My face was
covered with frost, my beard had tiny ice balls interwoven in it, and
although I had on mittens, my fingers hurt from the cold. My parka was dirty
and blood-stained. A day like all of the other days. That is how it was at
Chosin.
MH: Did you ever personally engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy?
Bergee: Oh my, yes! I vividly remember the time a Chinese soldier hit me
with his fist right in my frozen nose. Well, that really made me mad, and I
grabbed him and bit off his ear. Yep, I really did. I bit his ear off, then
killed him.
MH: Was there really much hand-to-hand fighting?
Bergee: God, yes! The Chinese would attack in waves, and we couldn't kill
them all. They would overrun various positions, and we had to fight them man
to man. It was war at its worst, believe me. We battled desperately night
and day in the face of almost insurmountable odds throughout a period of two
weeks. There were 11 Medals of Honor earned in 11 days. That should show you
the intensity of the battle. For a Marine, the Medal of Honor is an
extremely difficult decoration to win. I don't mean that other service
branches get the Medal of Honor the easy way, but for a Marine to be awarded
the Medal of Honor is truly difficult.
MH: How was your air support?
Bergee: When it snowed, which was most of the time, there was no air cover.
The Corsairs did a magnificent job whenever the weather cleared. They
strafed and bombed enemy positions and then would make another run, dropping
their deadly napalm. Some of the Corsairs flew so low during their strafing
runs that I imagined they arrived back at their carriers and the airfield
with snow in their undercarriages. I remember once staring down at a dead
Chinese soldier who had been strafed by one of our planes. I could see the
evenly spaced bullet holes in the snow going out across the field. His
jacket bulged with two cartons of Chesterfield cigarettes and a brand-new
pair of U.S. Marine Corps-issue gloves. I wondered what dead Marine that
joker had stripped to steal those items. As I passed him, I gave his stiff
body a kick.
MH: Was it possible for you to be supplied by air?
Bergee: The U.S. Air Force used their Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars to drop
us much-needed supplies, including the huge parts needed to rebuilda
destroyed bridge south of Koto-ri. The enemy had blown up that bridge
astride the only road out, and it was necessary for the equipment to be
airdropped at Koto-ri. After that, the engineers worked under enemy fire to
rebuild it. If that bridge had not been repaired, the column would not have
been able to get out a single vehicle loaded with wounded, dead and
equipment. It lay astride the road over a deep ravine. On one side was a
sheer drop of thousands of feet, and on the other was a steep embankment,
hundreds of feet high, that towered above the road. The airdrops were a
godsend. It was also possible to evacuate seriously wounded and frostbite
cases by air at Hagaru-ri and Koto-ri when the sky was clear enough for the
planes to land and take off. Almost everyone had a colored scarf made from
the silk of the supply chutes.
MH: Do the memories of that campaign haunt you at any time?
Bergee: Not really, but the memories are always there. As they say, one sign
of age is a tendency to live in the past. I now understand why. It is only
after a life filled with living and sharing love with someone you cherish
and adore that you can savor the meaning and importance of an experience
such as the Chosin Few shared. The bad memories I can live with, and the
good memories I treasure. I recall one Marine had an eye shot out–it was
hanging down his cheek–and yet he led a counterattack against the enemy.
That sort of bravery was common during the Chosin campaign. I have come to
believe that I have an obligation to the future, to give young people the
chance to have a meaningful understanding of the past and the glory that
was, though only in retrospect. It is important, not to me, but to the
future.
MH: One of these days all of you will be only a memory. Do you hope that the
younger generation will know and remember what all of you went through at
Chosin?
Bergee: Yes, definitely! I don't want the younger generation to forget what
their fathers and grandfathers went through in North Korea. Not so much to
make us out as heroes, but to know that a band of brothers stood side by
side against overwhelming odds and terrible weather, and came out of Chosin
as a fighting unit. The Chinese had orders to annihilate the 1st Marine
Division. But they failed. And they failed because we were a team–a first-
class team–and we had something deep inside that they did not have, and
that
something was esprit de corps!
MH: Does this interview awaken your memories? Would you rather I not go into
some of the details?
Bergee: No! I don't mind. That was a time when the Marine Corps was once
again put to the test. We did what was considered impossible and came
through with our colors intact, with most of our dead and wounded and, most
important, came through as a fighting outfit ready to do battle again! | w*******g
发帖数: 9932 | 2 败军之将 说的挺容易的. 吹牛谁不会
lead
【在 r**********1 的大作中提到】
: MH: Would you talk about some of the experiences the Marines underwent
: during that campaign?
: Bergee: I could fill up your notebook with experiences. One of my gunnery
: sergeant friends distinguished himself one night by daringly exposing
: himself to intense machine-gun, mortar, grenade and small-arms fire to lead
: 12 men against overwhelming odds (they were facing approximately two
: battalions of Chinese) to reach and aid men of his command. He was awarded
: the Navy Cross for that act of heroism. Inside the perimeter at Hagaru-ri,
: the Marines prepared for the anticipated night attack. Every man became a
: rifleman–clerk-typists, cooks, truck drivers, communications men, supply
| D********y
发帖数: 4948 | | m********r
发帖数: 2895 | 4 Thanks for sharing
lead
【在 r**********1 的大作中提到】
: MH: Would you talk about some of the experiences the Marines underwent
: during that campaign?
: Bergee: I could fill up your notebook with experiences. One of my gunnery
: sergeant friends distinguished himself one night by daringly exposing
: himself to intense machine-gun, mortar, grenade and small-arms fire to lead
: 12 men against overwhelming odds (they were facing approximately two
: battalions of Chinese) to reach and aid men of his command. He was awarded
: the Navy Cross for that act of heroism. Inside the perimeter at Hagaru-ri,
: the Marines prepared for the anticipated night attack. Every man became a
: rifleman–clerk-typists, cooks, truck drivers, communications men, supply
| s**********e
发帖数: 33562 | 5 无聊
【在 r**********1 的大作中提到】
: MH: Would you talk about some of the experiences the Marines underwent
: during that campaign?
: Bergee: I could fill up your notebook with experiences. One of my gunnery
: sergeant friends distinguished himself one night by daringly exposing
: himself to intense machine-gun, mortar, grenade and small-arms fire to lead
: 12 men against overwhelming odds (they were facing approximately two
: battalions of Chinese) to reach and aid men of his command. He was awarded
: the Navy Cross for that act of heroism. Inside the perimeter at Hagaru-ri,
: the Marines prepared for the anticipated night attack. Every man became a
: rifleman–clerk-typists, cooks, truck drivers, communications men, supply
| l*******u
发帖数: 2496 | 6 bodega 哪里去了?
他的采访不知道怎么样了. 倒引来好几个转贴子的.
问一下, 这个是原创还是转贴? | l*******u
发帖数: 2496 | 7 95年的烂文.
【在 l*******u 的大作中提到】
: bodega 哪里去了?
: 他的采访不知道怎么样了. 倒引来好几个转贴子的.
: 问一下, 这个是原创还是转贴?
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