User:Eparment/sandbox

The article on the Battle at Unsan states that the Chinese set forest fires to create smoke to hide their movements. First - None of the War Diaries of either the First Cavalry Division or the War Diaries of the 8th Cavalry Regiment or of any of its three battalions, or of the 99th Field Artillery Battalion units which were supporting the 8th Cavalry mention forest fires. In fact there are numerous entries about sightings of enemy troops which were then fired upon by the artillery units. The war diaries also reflect that the entire First Cavalry Division was ordered north from Pyongyang with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the lead. The original orders issued on 29 October were for them to relieve the ROK units for a normal exchange so that they could rest, re-equip where necessary and after a short period of time, return to the battle lines where needed. Again, according to the 8th Cavalry War Diary for 31 October and 1 November, the commander of one of the ROK units refused to be relieved when originally scheduled because his unit had lost about 2,00 yards of territory and he wanted to regain it before being relieved. According to entries in the same War Diary, that commander knew he was under attack by Chinese Forces. However, after coming under a very severe attack, he changed his mind and stated. The 8th Cavalry Regiment was set up in a standard configuration with two battalions on the line and the third in reserve to their rear, south and slightly west of the other two battalions. Only one battalion was completely surrounded, the one which was in reserve and eventually over half of the battalion escaped, carrying only small arms. The majority of the artillery support was cut off, managing to save only five of their 18 howitzers. Several weeks later, 27 Americans were released by the Chinese for propaganda reasons. Twenty of them were members of the 8th Cavalry who had been captured at Unsan, two were from Battery C of the 99th Field Artillery, also captured at Unsan and one waqs from the 5th Cavalry Regiment and had been captured during an attempt to relieve the 8th Cavalry. One of them was a Master Sergeant Samuel Kleckner from "I" Company of the Third Battalion of the 8th Cavalry Regiment.