A Piece of cake
Piece of Cake, Lt
“Hey Benny, we got a piece a cake, take a patrol up on baldy and get those spread eagled American bodies.”
“Aw shit, Lieutenant Smith.” snarled Sgt Benny Grole. “Ain’t that great. The whole fuckin’ Chinese Army is waiting for some stupid assholes like us to try to do that.”
I wasn’t happy about another tour of Baldy but it had to be done. The American bodies on the top of Old Baldy were in full view of the major force of Americans on the MLR, a series of ridges called 466.The American positions were named for the elevation of the ridges, 466 feet. Old Baldy was lower, perhaps two hundred feet in elevation, and about a half mile away. The American soldiers manning the defensive positions saw the bodies every day. It created a real morale problem. Old Baldy had changed between American and Chinese hands a number of times. Each time it was a bloody event that cost many lives. It was currently held by the Chinese and served as a forward outpost for their main position on the Alligator. The Alligator was a series of ridges several miles long stretching across a no mans land valley that separated the American and Chinese main lines. Old Baldy was at the open jaws of the Alligator along with a hill called Pork Chop. Porkchop had also been the seen of vicious fighting and changed hands a number of times. They were both currently Chinese outposts. In the close proximity, there were also two small American outposts, called Snook and Arsenal, perched on the very tip of each of the Alligators jaws. They were very close to the Chinese positions on the Alligator, within a few feet. It was from one of these, Arsenal, that we would launch our patrol.
“I suppose you gonna’ pick the next full moon so everyone can watch us. Lieutenant, we are all gonna’ die on that fuckin’ pile of dirt and body parts. You remember the last time? We damned near got skinned alive.”
“Sgt Grole, you could get the Distinguished Service Cross for this.” I replied.
‘I got two of them fuckin’ things and they still bust me to Private and send me to the guardhouse every time I get back to the states.”
‘Nobody realized what a nice boy you are. You wanna’ go along.”
“You ain’t goin’ without me.”
“Thanks a lot Bennie. Let’s go take a look. At least it ain.t Porkchop.”
Sgt Grole just groaned.
Grole and I stood in the trenches 300 feet higher and about a half mile away from the top of Old baldy where the three captured American Gi’s were killed and spreadeagled in full view of thousands of American GI’s manning the MLR {main line of resistance} trenches. It was a tough scene. The memories of the combat on Old Baldy were vivid in mind We had just been kicked off by the Chinese and we were trying to retake it. The operation failed and it remained in Chinese hands.
Sgt Grole was a good man. He knew small unit tactics well. He also knew that wih a mission as dangerous as this, the men must be the best most experienced possible. He and I talked about how to get it done. Who would be the best people to bring along. How to get up and down. The key was to get up the hill through the concertina wire and enemy positions with no noise and getting no attention. American searchlights would normally be illuminating the hill. They would be turned off or directed at locations away from our patrol to give us a chance to get up the hill, get the GI’s in body bags and get back down the hill.
That night, our patrol rode across no man’s land in an Armored Personal Carrier to the outpost Arsenal. We were a six man patrol.
Milking and feeding the cows, feeding the horses and the hogs, shoveling the manure, putting fresh hay and sawdust on the floor. Then a big breakfast and walk a mile or so to school.
I thought of those cold winter mornings sludging through the snow, fighting the wind, toward the barn. I grew up on a small farm. We were a large family. We were not poor. My father was a high school teacher. The farm was not big by any standard, but it provided food: milk, meat, vegetables, fruits, for the long winter minths. He needed the farm to help feed his family. And he loved faming. Not so me. I knew that I had to be somewhere else the day after graduating from high school. Well, I’m somewhere else. I guess you really never know what your asking for.
Arsensal was so dangerous it was possible to be killed just getting out of the vehicles. There was a small firefight just on the other side of Arsenal a few hundred feet away. That was good. Maybe that would attract the attention of some of the Chinese we would be trying to slip by. We got out quickly and assembled. We were not noticed on the way up. But it was a very difficult ascent. We slipped by hundreds of Chinese soldiers, in fox holes, bunkers and trenches. We could hear them talking, smell the food, especially the garlic, a Chinese specialty. I was next to Grole on the way up. We were very close to the point man, Sammy. He was one of our best men and the very best at point. That meant that he had warrior instinct. He was always alert, had a keen sense of hearing and smell and a sixth sense that told him that there was danger ahead. As he rounded some concertina wire a Chinese soldier appeared. They were both taken by surprise. Sammy grabbed him with his hand tightly over the Chinese soldiers mouth. Grole reached out and cut his throat.
It was real cat and mouse all the way up. But these guys were good. As we approached the small clearing at the top, the stench of decaying flesh was overwhelming. It helped us locate the bodies quickly. Getting the bodies into the bags was difficult. They were highly decayed and fell apart easily. Gole grabbed a leg and tried to lift it. The leg came loose and hit me in the face. I started to retch. I was worried about the noise I was making. Finally, the bodies were in the bags and we started down. Grole stopped and pointed. There were fleeting shadows on the other side of the clearing. Enemy soldiers.
“We gotta get out of here.” whispered Grole.
I was still vomiting.
We did not know if they had seen us or not but we moved quickly to get down the hill. The trip down was sheer bedlam. We had been discovered. We would have to fight our way down through a maze of enemy soldiers. The fact that we were a small cohesive unit was to our advantage. Having to maneuver with three heavy body bags was a disadvantage. The Chinese were shooting at every thing that moved and thankfully that included many of their fellow soldiers. It was simultaneous screaming, explosions, shooting and hand to hand fighting. About halfway down I called for artillery on the hill and had the searchlight turned on everywhere. It created confusion with the Chinese.
Three Chinese soldiers appeared directly in front of us. They seemed dazed. They were close enough to seize. One was quickly killed by a burst from a carbine.
I shouted “take them prisoner.”
Corporal Draff tackled one of the Chinese. They were grappling on the ground. Several GI’s went in to help. He was quickly bound. The third enemy soldier had been killed with a bayonet. We continued down the hill with our prisoner and the body bags..
A few minutes later we got back to the Arasenal outpost
I was standing alongside Tom, a friend of mine. He was an interpreter and an interrogator and was questioning an enemy soldier that had been captured earlier. He was very small and looked very fightened. Sgt Grole brought our prisoner into the bunker. Our prisoner, by contrast, was a tall heavy set man. He was very defiant. He was still struggling against the restraint of two GI.s who were jostling him along.
Tommy came over and greeted him in Chinese with a big smile. He also pointed to the smaller prisoner who had been there for a while. An American soldieSr had wrapped a piece of wire around the man’s neck and held the ends so that he could tighten it at any moment.
Our guy quieted down right away.. He sat on some sandbags and waited, with two American GI’s standing next to him.
Sgt Grole looked at the the size of the prisoner being questioned and then at our man..
“Lieutenant, I been telling you, they always save the big guys for us.”
Tommy came up to me as I was leaving.
He put his arm around me and said “one of those guys you brought down tonight was one of my best friends. I will write the family. They will appreciate what you have done. I know that most of what you guys do is taken for granted. I want to thank you for a doing a tremendously courageous thing ”
I choked up and said “thanks a lot Tommy”
On the way out to the Armored Personal Carrier and home, we could hear the faint sound of what was, as we later found out, the American troops on the hills. They could see with the searchlights that the bodies were gone. I was still retching.
“Piece of cake” Grole said grimly as he loaded the last body bag into the vehicle.
