이것이 전쟁이다! Dong on the east coast, I had despaired of getting any pictures because the ROKs were sitting tightly in their holes along the dunes while waiting for American naval and air strikes to silence the then few mortars and machine guns which opened fire each time they seemed about to press forward. Fed up, I accepted the excuse that the 3rd was newly reorganized and loaded with green troops. I moved over to the outfit on the 3rd's left flank, the Capital Division with its fabled 17th Regiment. They had been reporting glowing battle successes and only that very day had sent in word that 282 counted enemy dead had fallen before them on the mountainside which they were assaulting! Just before starting up the long south ridge of 626 with Colonel Paris, where we might learn exactly how the attack was progressing, I overheard a report which started all of the old doubts surging through my mind. Apparently, just before I had arrived at the regimental CP, the officer committed to hitting the northern ridge of the Mountain had reported that his men had taken the objective exactly on schedule, even though, in truth, no South Koreans were at that time within a thousand yards of the crest, and still alive. The regimental CO had passed the good news back to division, and division to corps. At that precise moment the U.S. Air Force showed up in answer to urgent appeals from the ROK command. They had fighter-bombers circling the Mountain loaded with high explosives and fire bombs and were asking a casual but terse question, “Where do you want it dropped?” But the ROK command, in order to conceal the filing of a false report and to save face, still radioed up into the blue that the Mountain was theirs . . . the bombs no longer needed! It was mid-morning before Colonel Paris and I, after following the ammo carriers up the south ridge, finally reached the forward positions of the machinegunners who were to provide flanking support for the final assault upon 626. Only a deep but rather wide ravine separated us from the crest of the Mountain and its pillbox. Sprawled among the rocks and undergrowth, while trying to slow our pounding hearts and to escape a little from the terrible heat binding our Ⅲ. Korea 1950 l 39
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