On August 2nd, 1950, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade docked at Pusan with more than 4,000 Marines, no destination, and orders to be ready to move by six the next morning. Eight days later, it was the coastal column of the Eighth Army's first counteroffensive of the war.
This episode covers the brigade's first week in Korea. It opens with MacArthur's argument with the Joint Chiefs over a full Marine division, a flooded tank deck and a crippled transport on the crossing, and a first night at Changwon spent firing at an enemy that was never there.
Then the fighting starts. Fifty-two Marines are sent alone up Hill 342 in heat reported at 112 degrees. How Company fights its way up Hill 255. A battalion crosses a 1,200-yard dike in the dark behind two strangers. Corsairs drop the first close-support napalm of the war and fly so low their spent brass falls on the Marines below. The week ends with an ambush at Taedabok Pass and two wounded Marines beside a wrecked jeep, waiting for morning.
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