The Last Stand of Fox Company Essay Example

as the Chinese passed through the gaps in the American lines during the first night of the attack. “Two enemy riflemen reached the lip of their hole; Cafferata clubbed them with his shovel. One of them dropped a Thompson submachine gun. Cafferata picked it up and emptied it into another approaching squad” (86). He and his foxhole buddy retreated back to a slit trench they had identified earlier, to join two other Marines shoulder-to-shoulder to shoot upon a sea of enemy that overran a machine gun emplacement next to them. Withstanding two concussion grenades, three out of the four Marines in the trench provided supporting cover fire to repel the Chinese assault as the enemy focused their charges on the machine gun emplacements, leaving fire team after fire team dead in their wake. The other Marines mowed down the attacking enemy but were still overcome through the sheer number of attacking forces and the inevitable depletion of ammo, often taking a few more of the enemy with them in bayonet and hand-to-hand combat before the fighting Marine’s eventual deaths.

This left Cafferata and his newfound foxhole mates alone as an island in a sea of advancing Chinese soldiers. But the next wave of Chinese found a prepared and ready band of Marines firing into their right flank. “Twice Cafferata caught potato mashers in midair and tossed them back into the advancing throng” (106). Emptying his M1 he used his e-tool like a baseball bat knocking a thrown grenade back to the enemy. “Another grenade landed on the lip of the fox hole connected to the trench. Cafferata lunged backward for it and heaved, but

it exploded as it left his hand. The big man cursed. His left hand was bloody and gashed, the fingers shredded. His reaction was simply to reload and continue firing” (106). His buddy, blinded by a grenade, took to reloading Hector Cafferata’s M1, handing him a fresh weapon after every emptied clip. Cafferata’s foxhole was the only thing that prevented the Chinese from splitting the defensive line of the hill, with Cafferata being credited with killing almost 40 enemy soldiers during that first night.

When nominated for the Medal of Honor immediately after the conflict his commanding officer stated that Cafferata had probably killed more than 100 enemy soldiers that night, but he didn’t think anyone would believe him, so he quoted the official number at 36. Hector Cafferata would receive the Medal of Honor at the cost of his shooting right hand that was hit by a sniper’s bullet. He would never use that hand again, but learned how to shoot with his left hand leading a long life of fishing and hunting hobbies thereafter.

This is just one man’s story of a week of fighting that nobody should have to suffer through, but that would make heroes out of many. The conflict at Fox Hill lasted seven days followed by a grueling march of wounded back to base, a temporary safe spot that would also be taken by the Chinese shortly after. Their retreat, or Major General Oliver Smith’s popularly quoted “attack in a different direction!” (1), was escorted by the Ridgerunners of the tattered remnants of 1st Battalion’s Abel, Baker, and Charlie companies who came down from the Chosin Reservoir

and had to fight through the Chinese that surrounded Fox Hill in what was often knee deep snow in pathless mountain terrain covered by night. By the time the Ridgerunners arrived it was joked that from the looks of the arriving Marines you could not tell who was rescuing whom. At 01:30 on December 4, 1950, eight days after the near continual assault of fighting began, the broken companies marched parade style into their base singing the Marine Corps Hymn. It was said that their stand on Fox Hill had saved the lives of over 9,000 Americans from the advancing Chinese.