There are two notable inaccuracies in JD’s story:
- The first is that there were about 50 survivors from C company. By the time JD wrote the letter the stragglers from C Company were joining with “F” Company and formed a defensive position further back along the same road to Changnyong at Ponch’o-ri. Even with the freeing of the POWs at Namwon the total number of survivors of Company C would not reach 50.
- The second was “…what was left of our company run off and left us four.” It may have seemed like they were abandoned, but in actuality the forward platoons and the Company Command Post were experiencing the same ‘human wave’ assault that quickly depleted and isolated the pockets of men who survived.
The 8th Army held the Pusan Perimeter until MacArthur could execute the invasion of Inchon by the XX Corps on the opposite side of the Korean peninsula. In conjunction with this action, the under supplied 8th Army proceeded to ‘breakout’ of the Pusan Perimeter at high cost about September 15.
By September 22, the 23rd Regiment had crossed the Naktong River and established a perimeter along Hills 207, 227 and Hill 308. On September 22, JD received the wounds (in the head (from a bullet that creased his helmet) and shoulder (from shrapnel)) that would earn him the first of three Purple Hearts.
source: The East Prairie Eagle: East Prairie, Missouri. “The Armed Forces Roll Call”, September 29, 1950 courtesy of Bertha Littrell~Thurman.
The above information is from: Military Role Call: The Littrell Family of Mississippi County, Missouri, The Littrell Family Journals Volume IV. (click here)
also: Littrell Family Veterans Video
reposted from 2015: 23/60
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