I COMPANY/3RD BATTALION IN "EAST OF CHOSIN:
Entrapment And Breakout In Korea", the book by Roy E. Appleman

map of the 3rd Battalion

"Little or nothing is known of the part the 3rd Battalion CP played in the action during the night , except that it was quickly overrun and almost everyone was either killed or wounded."
THE FIRST NIGHT-

Page 77.

EXCERPTS FROM EAST OF CHOSIN

THE FIRST NIGHT-
"After the Chinese were driven out of the A Battery position after dawn, the battery mess was used for a tempory aid station, and the kitchen was moved outside the building. About one-third of the men of A Battery were casualties. Four cooks who had remained inside the mess hall during the fight saw Chinese march off one American and 15 ROK prisoners. Private First Class Shannon, of I Company, said that Captain Marr helped drive the Chinese away from the overrun battery position in the counterattack there in the morning. He said that enemy dead lay all about the guns and that a few artillerymen were still fighting from their foxholes. He said that in this counterattack "to my knowledge there were thirty or so prisoners taken."
Page 82

THE FIRST NIGHT-
"It is clear that the Chinese almost overran the 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry, and the two batteries of the 57th Artillery Battalion in their initial attack at the inlet on the night of November 27 - 28. No count of American and ROK casualties at the inlet perimeter during the night's battle was ever recorded."
Page 85.

THE 31ST REGMENTAL COMBAT TEAM CONSOLIDATES-
"The "perimeter" of the 3/31 and 57th F.A. when I first saw it from the ridge line was a scene of destruction. It had been effectively "reduced" and was offering no organized resistance. There was smoke, fog, and very limited visibility. There was a sizeable column of troops moving down the road to the Southeast (Curtis subsequently corrected this to southwest) along what had been part of the perimeter. I recognized them as Chinese troops - and assumed (correctly I think) that they were by-passing the perimeter and moving south since the perimeter had been reduced."
Page 144.

THE 31ST REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM CONSOLIDATES-
"As our Bn Command Group arrived on the north side of the Inlet we could look across the ice and see that the 3rd Bn, 31 and 57 FA were heavily engaged. Chinese were pouring down the surrounding hill toward the perimeter of the units. The quad 50 machines guns and the dual 40 mm anti-aircraft weapons of the 57th FA were taking a heavy toll of the Chinese columns. It was like being a spectator at a large screen movie for a moment. It was about this time that we observed a column of troops approaching the perimeter of the 31st from the south along the road."
Page 144.

BREAKOUT FROM THE INLET PERIMETER-
"The 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry, was the convoy rear guard. The three rifle companies of the battalion, I, K, and L, were now so reduced in strength that their able-bodied men, those who could walk and carry a weapon, has been combined into one company. It was call K Company, with Captain Kitz, of the original K Company, commanding. It left the perimeter at the rear of the column but must soon have moved to the right side of the road, where it would be defiladed from most enemy fire. Kitz, in a statement made a few days later at Hagaru-ri, said that K Company moved mostly on ice."
Page 222.

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