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00:00I never did make my mind to give up.
00:25Somehow or another I was going to survive it.
00:26Reality starts setting in that this is not like the John Wayne movie.
00:36You could see the shots going up the road because it was like a beehive.
00:44We knew it was a bad situation.
00:47We was only living more or less minute by minute.
00:55We were trying to get to Hageroo to save them and it looked like we needed the rescue.
01:02You're fighting for the guy alongside you.
01:08You protect him, he protects you.
01:14Throughout American history there are crucial points where a few men make the difference
01:19between victory and defeat.
01:21That's the men of Bloody George.
01:25This is the summer of 1950 when America was on top.
01:50It was the arsenal of democracy and the last thing on its mind was war.
01:54I joined the reserve when I was in high school, as soon as I turned 17 years of age.
02:02World War II having just been over just a few years, you know, who would have thought
02:06there'd be another war all of a sudden?
02:10A lot of us people, including myself, didn't think there would ever be another war and
02:16that was largely due to the fact that the United States had perfected the atomic bomb.
02:23So in 1949, when I was a senior in high school, I joined the Marine Corps Reserve.
02:29But in 49 I had no expectations of ever facing the enemy.
02:33There was no enemy and they were talking about the atomic bomb era.
02:36There was no need for soldiers anymore.
02:42The United States went from 12 million men under arms to less than 1 million.
02:47The Marine Corps was cut to the bone.
02:48There were only a couple hundred thousand men in the Marine Corps at this time.
02:53And it was this sort of desperation that America found itself in, in the summer of 1950.
02:59Everything is kind of at a hair trigger and America was unprepared for war.
03:08June 25th, 1950, it came as a total shock and surprise when North Koreans stormed across
03:14the border and Seoul was taken within a matter of days.
03:19A shocked and infuriated President Harry Truman, believing the communist takeover to be a direct
03:43threat to the security of the United States, rallies the UN to send forces.
03:49He's careful to use the term police action rather than war, so as not to an alarm in
03:54America still healing from the wounds of the Second World War.
04:12On September 8th, 1950, with the American forces trapped in the Pusan perimeter, the
04:43an American armada sails secretly north for an amphibious invasion to rescue the embattled
04:48troops at Pusan.
04:53On board the transports are 50,000 U.S. soldiers, Republic of Korea troops, and the U.S. Marines.
05:02Among the 1st Marine Division are the young men of George Company, a mix of new recruits
05:07and reservists with little or no training.
05:11You could imagine that this rough bunch of tenderfoots would emerge as legends in a war
05:16that would soon turn into a nightmare.
05:20I was 19 at the time.
05:23Most of the guys that were in George Company were all young men except for the NCOs.
05:31The NCOs and officers looked for us like we were little children, because we had never
05:38been in combat before.
05:41And that's the way it's done.
05:43If you don't take care of your own, nobody else is going to take care of you.
05:54Led by World War II veteran 1st Sergeant Rocco Zullo, George Company had just a few weeks
06:00to prepare for war.
06:04Many of these men were reservists that didn't have any training at all, didn't even know
06:07how to fire a rifle, their M1 Garands, or throw a grenade.
06:11We were heading up to Inchon, but as we entered the LSC, we got hit by a typhoon.
06:24We were supposed to learn the machine gun on the ship going over to Korea, but that
06:29didn't work out so good because for the first five, six days out, we were just on the, thrown
06:36up over the side of the ship.
06:39Marines like George Company had zero training for this amphibious assault or time to plan
06:45it.
06:48Leading the attack is America's old God of War, Commanding General Douglas MacArthur.
06:54To smash the North Korean Army and save his forces pinned against the sea at the Busan
06:58perimeter, MacArthur pulls a play right out of his glorious World War II playbook.
07:07The outrageously dangerous plan will land his troops amphibiously and seize the occupied
07:12port of Inchon with the 1st Marine Division at the point.
07:17They will then fight their way through the enemy-held capital of Seoul.
07:21If he can block this critical road and rail junction, he will cut off the North Korean
07:26forces besieging Busan and force them into a headlong retreat.
07:35Aboard the slow-moving transports, time is the enemy as the young men of George Company
07:41are left to find their own way to deal with the anxieties of the approaching battle.
07:49We had a showing of the John Wayne movie, Sansa Iwo Jima.
08:09And after watching John Wayne six times in two days, I told my buddy, this is what I
08:17need, a war.
08:21You saw so many of these newsreels from the Second World War, it was like being at a movie,
08:40and here you were, in it.
08:46None of us, to speak of, had ever seen combat.
08:50Beat by surprise, fire now pouring in.
08:57As we went in, climbed up the seawall, I saw the first Marine killed in my life.
09:05The reality starts setting in, that this is not like the John Wayne movie.
09:35The landing at Incheon is a strategic masterpiece, using surprise to quickly overwhelm the North
09:48Korean forces.
09:51It is a confidence-building baptism into fire for George Company, a good way to begin a
09:57war for a group of boys who are at the beginning of a nightmare.
10:13Here George Company makes one of its first epic stands, and it's their first real test
10:21in battle.
10:32They really encounter combat in a face-to-face manner, it's close-up combat.
10:46You could almost stand on the side of the road and see the shots going up the road,
10:53because it was like a beehive.
11:15You're not fighting for Mother Apple Pie or the flag or anything, you're fighting for
11:22the guy alongside you.
11:25You protect him, he protects you.
11:29Your buddies are the most important thing in your life.
11:49North Koreans mount a night attack.
11:55They hit the Marines with several tanks and self-propelled guns.
12:08George Company, with just bazookas, grenades, and their rifles, basically stops this Korean
12:14onslaught.
12:18It's a different world when you're 19 years old and you have to fight a war.
12:27I lost so many men, I do not remember too many names.
12:33Maybe it's good that it's blocked out of my mind.
12:39It was after the fighting in Seoul that George Company gets its nickname or moniker, Bloody
12:46George, because of the casualties that it had sustained.
12:53With his enemy in full retreat, a confident MacArthur strikes quickly.
12:57Ignoring the growing agitation of North Korea's biggest ally, China, and disturbing intelligence
13:04reports of 260,000 Chinese troops massing in Manchuria, he sends his men racing after
13:11the fleeing North Koreans.
13:15That will be the greatest single mistake of his brilliant career.
13:23For the diminishing group of Bloody George men, it will be a mistake that brings an especially
13:29cruel destiny.
13:32Unfolding events will turn the tables of war and thrust Bloody George into the pivotal
13:37heart of a battle against crushing odds that will forge an unbreakable brotherhood that
13:42will turn the tide of the Korean War.
14:08By late November, Bloody George, as part of MacArthur's invasion force, is in pursuit
14:13of the fleeing North Koreans.
14:17Confident in quick victory, MacArthur continues to ignore reports of massive Chinese troop
14:22buildups along the border and the grumblings of their potential intervention to help their
14:27North Korean ally.
14:35At that time, General MacArthur was talking about the end of the war.
14:39He was telling everyone that the troops will be home by Christmas.
14:42We wanted to get a taste of combat, come back and be able to wear a ribbon, and it looked
14:49like the Marines were doing so well that it might be over before we got there.
14:54Being a replacement, we hadn't seen any combat at this time.
14:59We were like the young fellows.
15:01It was quite an adventure for us.
15:08MacArthur, looking to deliver a final blow to his enemy, makes a fateful decision.
15:17Convinced China will not enter the war, MacArthur splits his powerful force, sending his army
15:22and the 1st Marine Division in separate pursuits of the fleeing North Koreans.
15:28China, unwilling to see their ally defeated, has laid a trap for the onrushing Americans.
15:35Over 120,000 Chinese are waiting.
15:48On Thanksgiving Day, they sent the whole 1st Marine Regiment up into the Chosin Reservoir,
15:53but they held George Company 3-1 back on account they didn't have enough trucks to haul us.
15:59Spent the night there, and woke up the next morning under two-and-a-half inches of snow.
16:10I think MacArthur kind of had his horse blinders on and was completely obsessed with victory
16:18and ignored all the threats, including the largest threat, which was the threat of China.
16:32All up and down the Chosin Reservoir, the Chinese army attacks in strength.
16:44The Chinese attack MacArthur's separated units, sending his army into a full retreat south.
16:51They trap the 5th and 7th Marine Regiments a dozen miles north of the 1st Marine Division
16:56headquarters at Haga Ruri.
16:58The critical transportation hub and main supply depot, along with an unfinished airfield,
17:03is now surrounded by 3,000 Chinese, hell-bent on annihilating the 1st Marine Division.
17:16Haga Ruri is now crucial to the survival of the 1st Marine Division.
17:21If the separated 5th and 7th Marines can fight their way in, the Marines can consolidate
17:27to begin a fighting withdrawal out of the Chosin Trap.
17:31Haga Ruri's unfinished airfield, now the only means of getting out the growing number
17:35of wounded, must be completed and made operational.
17:44The only garrison with any hope of reaching Haga Ruri in time is 11 miles to the south
17:49at Kota Rui, where an understrength George Company, a few hundred Royal Marines and divisional
17:55staff are located.
18:00So on the morning of November 29th, Lt. Col. Brysdale of the Royal Marines was given the
18:06job of getting as many troops to Haga Ruri as he could, and he was told again, they've
18:12got to be there, we're not sure we can keep Haga Ruri out of enemy hands.
18:21The icy, winding road into Haga Ruri, dubbed Hellfire Valley, is 11 miles of torturous
18:28hairpin turns running between towering hills.
18:33These hills now swarm with an entire division of furious Chinese.
18:38They slow progress with vicious roadblocks and pour scathing fire from the heights onto
18:43the 900 men in the 141 slow-moving trucks of Task Force Brysdale.
18:50Fate has placed George Company at the fiery center of a deadly gauntlet as they rush to
18:56rescue their Marine brothers trapped in a freezing hell.
19:07Task Force Brysdale begins on the morning of November 30th, and they're given practically
19:15a suicide mission.
19:17To somehow fight through 11 miles of territory that's held by elements of an entire Chinese
19:26division.
19:31As they get out the gates, they're immediately hit by the Chinese.
19:36Every few hundred yards, they're hit by Chinese mortars and machine guns.
19:41The trucks are turned into Swiss cheese.
19:44Several are hit directly with mortar rounds.
19:47It's a road of death.
19:50The radios wouldn't work in this cold weather.
19:54There was no way of us knowing what was happening two or three trucks behind us.
20:01There's firing going on all, not just in front of you, but the whole length of that convoy.
20:08The fire became so intense that the tanks had trouble because guys running up to the
20:16road on satchel charges underneath the tanks.
20:24Tillman was on his knees right by me.
20:29I was touching him.
20:30He was on his knees, and all of a sudden something said, and I turned and Tillman's helmet rolled
20:39down the hill.
20:41He caught a round right under the lip, and he was gone that quick, gone that quick.
20:54Right where he went, and so that was my introduction to combat.
21:04We were trying to get to Hageroo to save them, and it looked like we needed the rescue.
21:14We knew we was in a bad situation.
21:17We didn't know that we was going to be running roadblock after roadblock after roadblock.
21:23We was only living, more or less, minute by minute, doing what we had to do.
21:31Colonel Drysdale contact General Smith and asks whether or not we should turn back, because
21:37the casualties are so high.
21:39And Sitter and Drysdale are given a direct order, press on at all costs.
21:49With the war in the Chosin Reservoir hanging in the balance, the icy cold orders to keep
21:55fighting forward are clear to the men of George Company.
22:00Do what you must, sacrifice what you must, but Hageroo must be saved.
22:19Let's make sure we don't forget our flanks, right and left, don't forget our flanks.
22:48George Company fought its way towards Hageroo Reef.
22:52They were outnumbered massively by the Chinese.
22:57But they were not only facing the Chinese as an enemy, but the weather.
23:03The weather became deadly.
23:05One of the things was frostbite.
23:12Golly.
23:15There was just no way to get away from that cold weather.
23:21This war was a terrible war.
23:39The Chinese was close.
23:40They were right at the edge of the road.
23:43Just keep coming, it seemed like.
23:44It seemed like there was no end to them.
23:48We knew that all odds pretty much was against us.
23:54The truck behind me got hit with a mortar shell and burst into flame and you could see
24:01the guys inside of it in flames.
24:08When they say Hellfire Valley, it was Hellfire Valley.
24:14It was terrible.
24:23The Chinese, who are very well versed in ambush tactics, start to split the convoy.
24:29They cut it apart.
24:31The middle segment of the convoy is surrounded and are fighting for their lives.
24:36Many of these men are made prisoners of war.
25:02Over 900 men made up Task Force Drysdale, but only about 350 somehow made it through
25:08the gates at Hageroo Reef.
25:10This was all that was left.
25:13I left Kodoo Reef at 19 years of age and was 45 by the time I got to Hageroo Reef.
25:28They had that thousand yards there.
25:34As George Company settles in, they can hear gunfire erupting high atop a hill looming
25:41eerily to the north.
25:47East Hill is a grim 1,640-foot nightmare of ice and rock that towers over the garrison
25:54and surrounding hamlet of Hageroo.
25:57If the Chinese, now flowing in from the northeast, can capture the hill, they can bring their
26:02artillery to full force against the defenders below.
26:07Without Hageroo, the 5th and 7th Marine Regiments, fighting desperately to reach the garrison,
26:13will be lost.
26:14With no airfield to fly out the growing casualties, they will perish.
26:20In one final sweeping assault, the Chinese could annihilate the entire 1st Marine Division
26:25and hold Korea in their grasp.
26:35Starving and exhausted, the small brotherhood of George Company Marines is all that stands
26:40in the enemy's way.
26:43At that point we didn't know the name of East Hill and he just pointed, like so.
26:49See that hill there?
26:51That's George Company's hill.
26:53We were to take that hill at all costs.
26:56None of us had any idea of what was in store for them.
27:03An estimated 6,000 Chinese troops pour into the reservoir for a final epic showdown.
27:10Bloody George, hardened in battle and unbreakable in spirit, will be waiting.
27:48Killed on East Hill.
27:52Walter Seavers, killed in the early days of the war.
27:59Ralph Murphy, Red Nash.
28:03Roy E. Sherry, killed after his convoy was ambushed in the hills near Meijiawnee.
28:12Joe Rice, he was my assistant gunner and he died in my arms on East Hill.
28:20These are all the heroes of George Company that gave their lives in Korea.
28:28All 18, 19 year old guys mostly that paid the ultimate price and this is really the
28:38honor roll of George Company.
28:42They gave everything they had.
28:54On November 30th, with thousands of Chinese forces attempting to overrun the first Marine
28:59headquarters at Hageroo, less than 200 men of George Company fighting on East Hill are
29:05all that stand in their way.
29:10George Company got to the top of East Hill, the crest, and started forming its positions
29:16and waited for that night because they knew that night there'd be another attack.
29:31It got dark and we were close enough to those Chinese that you could hear them talking.
29:38And then we heard them stomping their feet.
29:44And then they heard the whistles blow.
29:50Then the bugles blew.
29:54Wow.
29:56Then here they came.
30:00They hit us with a regiment of Chinese, which is like 3,000.
30:30One of the first guys that I saw get killed on that hill was Tommy Wilcox.
30:36And Wilcox had a good friend named Martinez.
30:43Martinez went, wow.
30:51He wanted to go get those Chinese.
30:55It took about four guys to hold him down.
31:08Got back up there on the line, there was a boy named Roach, and damn, he got shot.
31:18And he cried for his mother.
31:22It's just like stabbing you in the heart.
31:31But anyway, you get used to that.
31:33You get used to it.
31:37But it does, it does affect you.
31:43Fred Hems fired so many rounds through that machine gun that night that the barrel was
31:49like a neon light was lit up.
31:57I was laying over the ridge, firing down.
32:02And all of a sudden, right through my left wrist.
32:08It was a World War I battle in many ways.
32:10Machine guns ruled the day.
32:13Machine guns ripped and tore into the bodies of charging Chinese,
32:17which were launching human wave assaults.
32:21And the combat descended into hand-to-hand combat.
32:27You couldn't tell where the enemy was until the fire would go off.
32:32It was either right in your foxhole with you, or it was 20 or 30 foot down the hill.
32:48It's hard, it's really hard to relive all this, even more than 60 years later.
32:56It's still, it's still hard to put your mind back through it.
33:18After somehow withstanding several days of Chinese assaults in the weather,
33:24the 5th and 7th Marines had finally broken through and fought their way down to Hagerah Ree.
33:32And they saw these men as they marched in formation with pride and singing the Marine
33:39Corps hymn as they entered the gates of Hagerah Ree.
33:48With the surge in manpower, George Company is finally relieved on East Hill after five horrific
34:03days. The 200-man force has been reduced to just 96 men, most barely able to stand.
34:11But in the breaking dawn, the roar of the C-47s overhead
34:16signals the incredible miracle that George Company has made possible.
34:22Their sacrifice, trading blood for time, has given the workers below the crucial hours needed
34:29to complete the airfield and begin the life-saving flights out of Hagerah Ree.
34:41I believe I went out on the first daggum aircraft that flew out of Hagerah Ree.
34:56The only thought I ever had when I was being transferred out was I left the people in my unit,
35:04George Company 3rd Battalion 1st Marines. They, in that short period of time,
35:10had become my brothers, my family. And I was concerned about them. I had to get back to them.
35:22I felt empty.
35:29I should have been with them.
35:31Even with the garrison now swollen to over 14,000 men, Hagerah Ree cannot hold against
35:36the Chinese forces. The 1st Marine Division begins a mass exodus, even as the last of the
35:42wounded are flown out. Their only hope of escape is a deadly hike back through Hagerah Ree.
35:52Their only hope of escape is a deadly hike back through Hellfire Valley in an attempt to reach
35:57the port of Hengnam, where ships wait to transport them out of the Chosin to fight another day.
36:07As the garrison flees, so does the surrounding town of Hagerah Ree.
36:13Fearing Chinese retaliation, they swell the exodus to Hagerah Ree.
36:18Fearing Chinese retaliation, they swell the exodus to more than 100,000 people.
36:31As the convoy presses forward, they have no idea that the Chinese,
36:35who have no intention of letting them escape, are setting yet another trap.
36:40Chinese troops rush to the hills lining the escape route
36:44to prepare for a slaughter of the now-vulnerable 1st Marine Division.
36:58As the caravan slows, a photojournalist with Life magazine catches up with Bloody George
37:05and asks what it is.
37:10Bloody George is one of the exhausted Marines. What would you want if you could have any wish?
37:17As he snapped what would become the most iconic image of the Korean War,
37:23his weary subject said at last, give me tomorrow.
37:32Bloody George has paid an enormous price for the hell they have exacted on their enemy.
37:38But now, in this final epic showdown, the last 96 survivors of Bloody George,
37:45defiant as ever, plan to finish what they started.
38:07In December, with emergency calls flooding the American fleet off the coast of Korea,
38:24Navy and Marine fighters launch in support of the massive civilian
38:28and 1st Marine Division exodus, fleeing Hageroo to the port of Hunnam.
38:38Against the crippling cold, the 1st Marine Division, including the last 96 survivors
38:56of George Company, are desperately fighting back thousands of enemy troops
39:01now pouring artillery and machine gun fire into the caravan.
39:07We had to be concerned more, I guess, about the weather than what was even the enemy.
39:18We was all sick. I come out there with pneumonia, had no energy.
39:24We was concerned about what was going to physically make it through the cold weather there.
39:38Finally, after torturous hours, Marine Corsairs flying from carriers offshore
39:44arrive to scrape the Chinese tormentors off the high ridges with rockets, bullets and napalm.
40:07At long, terrible last, George Company can see the possibility of survival as Hunnam comes into sight.
40:21When I got close enough, I could see the ships out at sea.
40:25That was one of the most beautiful sights I could see.
40:27There was a number of ships waiting on the 1st Marine Division there.
40:30The 1st Marine Division, including members of George Company, will be back in action in Korea.
40:37Having barely escaped annihilation, the 1st Marine Division loads onto waiting ships
40:42that will transport them out of the Chosin Trap to safety and rest.
40:52Within weeks, the division, including members of George Company, will be back in action in Korea.
40:58It will be another two-and-a-half brutal years before the boys of George Company finally come home.
41:12Throughout American history, there are crucial points where a few men make the difference between victory and defeat.
41:20That's the men of Bloody George, who came together,
41:25who came together from all walks of American life, many with no experience at all,
41:32and did something extraordinary.
41:35They changed the course of the Korean War.
41:39They arguably helped save the 1st Marine Division by their actions on East Hill.
41:45George Company made the difference between victory and defeat.
41:49Most of the people today don't even know what the Chosin Reservoir is about.
41:54They should teach us to the kids.
41:55This was probably the greatest battle that was ever fought by a division in wartime.
42:05We had 149 guys in our company that were killed in action.
42:10We had over a thousand Purple Hearts.
42:13I guess that's why they call us Bloody George.
42:16I guess that's why they call us Bloody George.
42:19Because we were pretty bloody.
42:24Being a member of George Company fills me with immense pride.
42:29There's something about being shot at that makes you part of an elite group.
42:34It can't be like a football team.
42:36It can't be like a baseball team.
42:37It can't be like a unit that never faces combat.
42:40Once you've been shot at, everything is different.
42:44It creates a bond that is indescribable.
42:50There was a bond that took place in the time I served with them
42:56that nobody else can understand unless they were there.
43:02That's what makes Marines.
43:07And I hope to think I was one, and still today.
43:14After East Hill, we cut up red parachutes and tied them around our neck
43:21and let everybody know who Bloody George was.
43:28And we still get together once a year.
43:32It's a brotherhood that can't be broken.
43:37These boys, once they bond together, their lives depend on one another.
43:44And that's what made Bloody George, Bloody George.
43:48They'd never hesitate.
43:51They are still a band of brothers.
43:55Still a band of brothers.
43:58And what a pleasure it is to be a part of.
44:00Still a band of brothers.
44:02And what a pleasure it is to be a part of.
44:30you