Lt. Gen. Alpha L. Bowser Jr. USMC - Page 2

Higher headquarters, X Corps and GHQ Tokyo acted like we had made this all up, that we wouldn't recognize a Chinese soldier when we saw one. When we trotted out several Chinese prisoners at the stockade for General Willoughby, he said, "Well, they're probably just a few individual volunteers who have crossed over into North Korea to help the NK army."

We knew better! Those so-called volunteers had really told us that they came from organized divisions of the 20th CCF Corps. They even identified their own regiments and battalions by number.

These first Chinese we fought, having received a bloody nose from the 7th Marines and a taste of U.S. firepower, withdrew to the north and eventually broke major contact with us. In many ways, it's too bad that they didn't continue to engage us as we advanced to the north and west. If they had, our advance would have been slowed, and we would have been able to develop a "feel" as to what we would be facing later. We probably would not have found ourselves up the proverbial creek without a paddle, as we did in late November, early December.

Chinese troops, wearing tennis sneakers, rags and American footgear surrender to Charlie Company, 7th Marines south of Koto-ri