Link-up in Korea CONTINUED
THE PERIMETER near Munsan, shown above, is explained in the drawing below. Edge of perimeter is a line of tanks (1 and 2) bordering drop zone (3). Within perimeter are 155-mm self-propelled guns (4), supply trucks (5 and 9), piles of rations and ammunition (6), antiaircraft half-tracks (7), armored personnel carriers (10) and 155-mm self-propelled howitzers (11). Markers (8) identify area to planes.
PANORAMA OF BATTLEGROUND
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When Lieut. Colonel Growdon's tanks rumbled into the valley where paratroopers of Brig. General Frank S. Bowen had jumped, night was already upon them. Not knowing whether darkness would bring Red counterattacks, Colonel Growdon ordered his tanks to form a huge circle, as the covered wagons in the West used to do a century ago. In this rare panorama of the battlefield (above) the tanks are stretched in a one-mile arc and the troops are hidden in the surrounding hills as far as five miles away.
Colonel Growdon did not have light enough to put the tanks under cover or disperse them. Growdon's alternative was to place his tanks in the armored perimeter shown above and trust that their concentrated firepower would beat off any attacks the Reds might make. General Bowen's paratroopers had gone up into the hills on the day the drop zone had been secured. Dug in on the slopes, they formed an outer screen for the perimeter. The inner screen was made up of about 60 Patton tanks, many lined up almost hull to hull behind a big dike (above, left) which ran around the rice fields at the edge of the drop zone. The big 155-mm selfpropelled howitzers inside the circle were ready to fire in any direction to defend the perimeter or support the men in the hills.
No big counterattacks developed during the night, but enemy artillery lobbed shells into the perimeter. Two Pattons blazed fiercely after taking direct hits, but there was little other damage and few casualties: When the frosty dawn came and the Reds still made no move to attack, Bowen sent the tanks after the Ranger patrols northward toward the 38th Parallel.
PATROL MOVING NORTH LOOKS DOWN AT IMJIN RIVER AND AT VILLAGE SET ON FIRE BY U.S. ARTILLERY
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