When Baker/Tanks drew close to the main convoy after dark, the road ahead was totally blocked by wrecked and burning vehicles. There was no way for the tanks to bypass the carnage–and at that point heavy mortar fire began falling perilously close to the tank company’s fuel and ammunition trucks.

It was clear that advancing would only accomplish the destruction of Baker/Tanks. The armored unit, no longer on the move, was forced to defend itself through the night against massed Chinese infantry assaults. Several tankers were killed or injured and several soft vehicles were lost, but the company was destined to survive.

Of about 1,100 U.S. Army soldier and Marines and Royal Marines–plus a few South Koreans–who had started out from Koto-ri on the morning of November 29, only about 250 had arrived at Hagaru-ri by midnight. The rest were scattered along several miles of the road in at least six separate groupments, isolated by Chinese strongpoints and impassible snarls of wrecked and burning vehicles of every description.

The northernmost enclave was manned by about 200 Royal Marines under Drysdale. In spite of his painful wounds, Drysdale oversaw a spirited defense, forbidding the Chinese to fragment his bloodied unit. Casualties were very heavy, particularly among the officers, but the Royal Marines inched steadily along toward Hagaru-ri. The bulk of them, including many wounded, passed through the outer U.S. Marine roadblock a dew hours after midnight. When they counted noses, the Royal Marines found that fully one-half of their original complement of 250 was killed, wounded, or missing.

That left some 500 Americans, British and South Koreans trapped in five major trapped enclaves along several hundred yards of roadway running through the defile just south of Pusong-ni, about halfway between Koto-ri and Hagaru-ri. The northernmost group in the ‘Hell Fire Valley’ was under the command of the 1st Marine Division’s logistics officer, Lt. Col. Arthur Chidester, until he was shot through both legs as he directed traffic in a vain attempt to turn back. Command fell to Major John McLaughlin, who found that he had about 135 men under his direct command, including Peckham and the remnants of a Baker/31 platoon. McLaughlin also counted a U.S. Marine military police section under Warrant Officer Lloyd Dirst, a score of Royal Marines, assorted headquarters personnel and a growing contingent of wounded.

About 200 yards south of McLaughlin’s position, two understrength platoons of Baker/31 and several Marine stragglers were holed up in a roadside ditch. Thirty yards south of them were about 95 Marine staff officers, clerks and technicians under Captain Michael Capraro, a Marine public information officer.

A short distance south of Capraro’s force was a group of about 45 Marines under the 1st Marine Division motor transport officer, Major Henry ‘Pop’ Seeley. A fifth, very small group under the Marine division’s personnel officer, Colonel Harvey Walseth, turned itself around after dark and slowly fought its way toward Koto-ri. When Walseth’s vehicles were blocked by Baker/Tanks, which was stopped on the roadway, he and his troops dismounted and walked the rest of the way to Koto-ri.

Captain Peckham commanded the only viable infantry increment in the northernmost enclave, but he was not particularly enthused by the quality of the troops, many of them panic-stricken South Korean conscripts who used up the bulk of their ammunition firing at phantoms.

Dirst, the MP section leader, strode up and down the road, pipe in hand, barking curt commands, leaving steady, organized soldiers and Marines in his wake. When he heard troops firing too much precious ammunition, he gently admonished the offenders, telling them that they had only to fight through to daybreak to draw the awesome support of Marine warplanes and hopefully, ground reinforcements. In the end, however, Dirst was shot through the head and had to be placed in a roadside ditch to await treatment.Another steady hand was McLaughlin, who left no doubt as to who was in command or how the defense was to be conducted. As ammunition supplies dwindled, McLaughlin personally collected rounds from the dead and wounded and distributed them to the men who seemed most composed. Sometime after midnight, the remnants of the two Baker/31 platoons that had been trapped south of the McLaughlin enclave managed to work their way into the larger perimeter, a welcome reinforcement despite the panicked condition of the troops and the limited supplies of ammunition they brought.

There was a brief lull for Capraro’s embattled force when voices from the dark called upon Capraro to surrender his men in return for good treatment. After a few insults had been exchanged, the Chinese mentioned that three PLA regiments were deployed on the heights and that continued resistance was pointless. Capraro roared back a curt ‘Hell no!’ and prepared to meet renewed assaults.

Peckham, in McLaughlin’s enclave, was reduced to handing out rifle bullets two and three at a time. Many of Peckham’s South Korean infantrymen had drifted away totally. In time, he counted less than a dozen effectives under his command.

A Chinese political officer who spoke good English asked a number of captives being held on the ridgeline overlooking the MSR if one of their number would act as an intermediary carrying a surrender offer. Sergeant Guillermo Tovar, an MP, asked Major James Eagen, the wounded 1st Marine Division assistant supply officer, if he should do so. Eagen assented and Tovar stood up to be led to the roadway.

The Chinese fire nearly ceased as Tovar passed through the American line and explained his mission to McLaughlin. The two climbed the railway embankment and met three Chinese who were standing on the tracks, ready to make a deal. If McLaughlin surrendered, the Chinese promised, the wounded would be returned to friendly lines. McLaughlin asked for time to discuss the offer with his officers, to which the Chinese agreed.

While McLaughlin was on the railway embankment, a PLA officer, accompanied by an American soldier who had been captured earlier, approached Peckham. The Chinese told Peckham that he would be well treated if he surrendered. Peckham gave the man a pack of cigarettes and suggested he take it to his superior–if the Chinese commander gave up, Peckham audaciously vowed, he would see that the PLA troops were fed and well treated.

McLaughlin returned to the roadside ditch to find the wounded Chidester. They discussed the Chinese terms, then Chidester reluctantly urged McLaughlin to accept them.While Chidester and McLaughlin were reaching their decision, the PLA officer who had taken Peckham’s cigarettes returned with a message from his superior: if the Americans did not lay down their arms within 15 minutes, a full regiment would mount an assault. Peckham asked for time to get word to all his troops, then set all hands at destroying their weapons.

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