Battle of the Berlin Outposts and Boulder City

The Battle of the Berlin Outposts and Bunker City was fought between 7 and 27 July 1953 during the Korean War between United Nations Command (UN) and Chinese forces over several frontline outposts.

Background In late June 1953 the US 1st Marine Division completed its training and prepared to return to the Jamestown Line, the UN's Main line of resistance (MLR) across Korea relieving the US 25th Infantry Division. By dawn on 7 July, the 7th Marine Regiment took over on the right of the 1st Marine Division's line and the 5th Marine Regiment on the left, while the 1st Marine Regiment formed the division reserve, protecting the bridges across the Imjin River and the AN/MPQ-2 radar used to direct air strikes. The tactical situation had changed for the worse since the Marines last occupied this sector. Since the Battle of the Nevada Complex ended on 29 May, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) troops now controlled the three outposts, Carson, Vegas, and Elko, that blocked the best approach to Outposts Berlin and East Berlin, now being taken over by the 7th Marines. As General Randolph M. Pate, the division's commander, immediately realized: "The loss of Outpost Vegas... placed Berlin and East Berlin in very precarious positions and negated their being supported by ground fire except from the MLR." The PVA tried to take advantage of any confusion resulting from the relief of the 25th Infantry Division by the Marines.

Battle Berlin Outposts (7-20 July) On the evening of 7 July, PVA mortars opened fire upon Outposts Berlin and East Berlin and the nearby portion of the MLR, the area that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Cereghino's 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, was taking over from Turkish Brigade attached to the 25th Infantry Division. By midnight, assault troops from the PVA 407th Regiment, 136th Division, advanced from the vicinity of Hill 190, a frequently used staging area, then moved along the ridgeline broken by Carson, Reno and Vegas, all of them now in PVA hands and attacked Berlin and East Berlin. At Berlin, Turkish soldiers stayed in place for a time after the Marines arrived, and a patrol dispatched from Cereghino's battalion to set up an ambush got no farther than the outpost when the PVA struck. The remaining Turks and the newly arrived patrol reinforced the Marines manning Berlin. Higher headquarters soon lost contact with both Berlin and East Berlin. Because both outposts lay no more than from the MLR, their capture could provide the PVA with a springboard for an attack designed to shatter the main defenses. As a result, Cereghino organized a provisional platoon from members of his battalion headquarters and sent the unit to reinforce the MLR. Elements of Companies H and I, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, came under Cereghino's operational control and prepared to counterattack if the PVA should break through. Meanwhile, the mixed force of Marines and Turkish soldiers succeeded in clinging to Outpost Berlin. However, the Marines at East Berlin succumbed to an overwhelming force that surged up a steep slope and seized the main trench despite stubborn resistance from the outpost itself and accurate fire from the MLR and beyond. Supporting machine guns, mortars and artillery could not save East Berlin.

A squad from Company F, 2/7 Marines, unsuccessfully counterattacked Outpost East Berlin at 04:15 on 8 July, dispensing with the usual artillery barrage in the hope of achieving surprise. A second force of Marines from Company F moved out at about 04:40 to reinforce the squad already committed to attacking East Berlin. PVA artillery caught the reinforcements in the open and wounded 15 Marines, but the attempted counterattack continued for another hour until the men of Company F received orders to fall back so the 11th Marine Regiment could fire a time-on-target concentration against the PVA-held outpost. The PVA who overran East Berlin had advanced by way of Reno and Vegas, where additional forces were now gathering to exploit this early success. The 1st 4.5-inch Rocket Battery hammered the assembly areas and also the PVA attacking Berlin and consolidating their hold on East Berlin. Artillerymen of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, fired a time-on-target concentration that shattered a PVA company as it was organizing on Outpost Vegas to continue the attack. During the early morning's fighting, all four battalions of the 11th Marines took part in the firing, along with the seven US Army and Turkish artillery battalions still in the area until the relief of the 25th Infantry Division was completed. These weapons matched their PVA counterparts almost round for round, and Army and Marine Corps tanks joined the rocket battery and artillery battalions in battering the PVA.

Not until 06:30 did Cereghino obtain confirmation that East Berlin had fallen, and shortly afterward he learned that Berlin, some west of the captured outpost, still survived. He promptly reinforced Berlin insofar as its compact size permitted, dispatching 18 additional Marines, roughly doubling the number of the outpost's American and Turkish defenders. To recapture East Berlin would require a strong force of infantry supported by intense fire from mortars, tanks, and artillery. At 10:00, taking advantage of an artillery and mortar barrage totalling perhaps 1,600 rounds, a reinforced platoon from Company G, 3/7 Marines, and another from that battalion's Company H, both companies now under Cereghino's operational control, launched the counterattack. The platoon from Company H led the way but encountered an accurate PVA mortar barrage that pinned the Marines against the barbed wire protecting the MLR and in 15 minutes reduced the force to about 20 men able to fight. The platoon from Company G advanced through the battered unit and pressed home the counterattack. Shells fired by tanks and artillery exploded immediately in front of the infantrymen, enabling the assault force to reach the main trench on East Berlin and use grenades and small arms fire to kill, capture, or drive off the PVA. At 12:33, the platoon from Company I, reduced to fewer than two-dozen effectives, regained control of the outpost. Another platoon from the same company immediately moved forward to reinforce the survivors.

Throughout the fighting at Berlin and East Berlin, storms had disrupted the movement of supplies by swelling the Imjin out of its banks and destroying a bridge. The bad weather also created mud that hampered movement on the battlefield and brought clouds that reduced visibility of supporting aircraft. At about noon on 8 July, however, four Marine F9Fs of VMF-311 took advantage of ground-based radar to attack targets a safe distance from East Berlin, dropping five tons of bombs on bunkers and troop concentrations. Heavy downpours hampered frontline combat and grounded the 1st Marine Air Wing for a total of 12 days early in July. Rain fell on 22 days that month, but the wing nevertheless reported 2,668 combat sorties, more than half of them flown in close support all along the United Nations line. The weather improved after mid-month, enabling aerial activity to increase.

The recapture of East Berlin enabled the last of the Turkish troops to withdraw, completing the relief of the US 25th Infantry Division. The 11th Marines resumed its normal mission of direct support of the 1st Marine Division, as did the 1st Tank Battalion.

Regaining Outpost East Berlin on 8 July, which coincided with the resumption of truce negotiations at Panmunjom, did not end the PVA pressure on the Marines. After dark on the 8th, Colonel Glenn C. Funk, who had assumed command of the 7th Marines on 27 March, moved a platoon from the regiment's 3rd Battalion and four M46 Patton tanks into position to strengthen the MLR. The tanks had just arrived at Hill 126, an outcropping just to the rear of the battle line, when the Marines heard the sound of trucks from beyond PVA lines. From the hilltop, the M-46s directed 90mm fire against known PVA positions, and the noise of truck motors ended. PVA troops, who meanwhile had advanced from the assembly area on Vegas, probed Outpost Berlin and struck a stronger blow against East Berlin. Fighting raged for almost two hours before fire from mortars, artillery and tanks forced the PVA to break off the action at about 03:15 on 9 July. After Cereghino's Marines ended this latest threat to East Berlin, the PVA remained content to jab at the division rather than try for a knockout. Entire days might pass during which Marine aerial or ground observers and patrols saw few, if any, signs of the PVA who seemed to be improving their tunnels and bunkers instead of venturing out of them to mount an attack. The Marines still underwent sporadic shelling, but the bombardments did not approach in ferocity those of 8 and 9 July. Mines for a time proved deadlier than artillery and mortars, as on 12 July when these weapons killed four Marines and wounded eight. At least one minefield contained a new type of Russian-designed weapon that could be detonated by pressure or with a trip wire. Most of the fields employed mines familiar to the Marines, types that may have been newly planted or perhaps had lain dormant under the frozen ground and become deadly when the weather grew warmer and the earth softer.

Although the PVA did not attack on the scale of 7–8 July, PVA patrols repeatedly clashed all along the division's front with those sent out by the Marines. On the night of 12 July, for example, a 13-man patrol from the 5th Marines encountered a force of PVA near Outpost Esther, and a combat patrol from the 7th Marines, looking for the PVA near Elko, engaged in an 18-minute firefight. As the frequency of patrol actions increased, flooding again interfered with the supply effort. On the night of 14–15 July, the Imjin River reached a maximum depth of . Only the solidly-built Freedom Bridge, carrying the road to Panmunjom across the swollen river, could be used until the water subsided. On the night of 16–17 July, patrols from the 5th Marines engaged in two firefights, suffering no casualties in the first, near Outpost Hedy, while killing three PVA and wounding one. The regiment's second patrol of the night ran into an ambush near Hill 90. The PVA proved more aggressive than in recent days, pinning down the patrol and unleashing a flurry of mortar and artillery fire that wounded every member of a unit sent to help break the ambush. Another group of reinforcements succeeded, however, in reaching the embattled patrol. After two hours of fighting and several attempts to isolate and capture individual Marines, the PVA withdrew, having suffered 22 killed and wounded. When seven Marines failed to return to the MLR, a platoon from the 5th Marines searched the battle site and recovered six bodies. The third firefight of the night erupted just after midnight in the sector of the 7th Marines, when a 30-man patrol from Company A, 1st Battalion, was ambushed after it passed through a gate in the barbed wire northwest of Outpost Ava. Between 40 and 50 PVA, supported by mortars, opened fire with grenades and small arms. After a 15-minute exchange of fire in which as many as 18 PVA may have been killed or wounded, the ambush party vanished into the darkness. As the Marines from Company A returned through the gate, a head count revealed four men missing. A recovery squad crossed and recrossed the area until dawn drew near but found only three bodies. One Marine from Company A remained missing; three had been killed and 21 wounded.