Battle for the Punchbowl: The U. S. 1st Marine Division 1951 Fall Offensive of the Korean War Page: 242

were wounded drew back. Some personnel, new in combat and inexperienced, upon
being wounded, left their original positions and may have participated in a general
panic, had not [Averill] and others, at great personal risk to themselves, directed the
reorganization of the units."78
The enemy could sense the weakening and redoubled his efforts. "Fortunately,
however, the flanks of this line had not been overcome by the enemy, and about a
dozen Marines remained in bunkers on either side of the dissolved center." These
Marines rushed towards the center in the dark, firing into North Korean forms, and then
to clench with enemy soldiers and kill them by feel when they had not the time to reload
afterward. Pistols were handy here, and bayonets. Sometimes rocks, a shovel,
whatever else was at hand. Grenade detonations were as common as flowers in a
meadow.79
The names of those who turned tail are not known and it is well they sleep
anonymous through the ages. But the names of those who rose to the occasion with
duty and courage should never be forgotten.
PFC Bishop (no first name supplied), was in charge of guarding his machine gun's
flank during the maelstrom. He fought off two enemy with his BAR when the gun went
silent, buying time to restore the automatic weapon to the fray. Then the BAR ran dry.
His ammo belt of six magazine pouches, each capable of holding two twenty-round
magazines, and which normally creased his shoulders where the suspenders hung with
the weight, was light with none left. Bishop then flung grenades into the rushing foe, and

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78 Ibid.
79 Ibid.