Last Stand of Fox Company
The story of Fox Company’s last stand in the frozen hills of northern Korea serves As a testament to the human will in the face of overwhelming forces of opposition. The never say die attitude of every man on that hill is proof why the Marines can take every hardship that the world can throw at them and still have the ingrained training while having the attitude to fight back, keep moving, with the will to never give up.
There were many brave heroes at the battle of Fox Hill but one Private Hector Cafferata’s story stands above them all. On the first night at Fox Hill, Cafferata found his foxhole surrounded by the enemy as the Chinese passed through the gaps in the American lines during the first night of the attack. Two enemy riflemen reached the edge of their hole and 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. He and his foxhole buddy retreated back to a trench they had identified earlier, to join two other Marines shoulder to shoulder to shoot upon a wall of enemy that overran the machine gun emplacement next to them. The four Marines in the trench provided supporting cover fire to repel the Chinese assault as the enemy focused on the machine gun emplacements, leaving fire team after fire team dead. The other Marines mowed down the attacking enemy but were still overcome through the sheer number of attacking forces and the inevitably running out of ammo, often taking a few more of the enemy with them in bayonet and hand-to-hand combat.
This left Cafferata and a few marines alone as an island in a sea of advancing Chinese soldiers. But the next wave of Chinese found a squad of Marines firing into their right flank. After Cafferata Emptied his M1 he used his e-tool like a baseball bat knocking a thrown grenade back to the enemy. A grenade landed near the fox hole and as Cafferata went to throw it the grenade exploded while
There were many brave heroes at the battle of Fox Hill but one Private Hector Cafferata’s story stands above them all. On the first night at Fox Hill, Cafferata found his foxhole surrounded by the enemy as the Chinese passed through the gaps in the American lines during the first night of the attack. Two enemy riflemen reached the edge of their hole and 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. He and his foxhole buddy retreated back to a trench they had identified earlier, to join two other Marines shoulder to shoulder to shoot upon a wall of enemy that overran the machine gun emplacement next to them. The four Marines in the trench provided supporting cover fire to repel the Chinese assault as the enemy focused on the machine gun emplacements, leaving fire team after fire team dead. The other Marines mowed down the attacking enemy but were still overcome through the sheer number of attacking forces and the inevitably running out of ammo, often taking a few more of the enemy with them in bayonet and hand-to-hand combat.
This left Cafferata and a few marines alone as an island in a sea of advancing Chinese soldiers. But the next wave of Chinese found a squad of Marines firing into their right flank. After Cafferata Emptied his M1 he used his e-tool like a baseball bat knocking a thrown grenade back to the enemy. A grenade landed near the fox hole and as Cafferata went to throw it the grenade exploded while