The Desperate Battle to Keep South Korea Alive

In a month of almost continuous action, the U.S. 27th ("Wolfhound") Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division had never retreated unless it was ordered by higher command, and most of the professionals on the Korean front thought they knew the reason why: the 2yth Regiment had something no other outfit had. That something was its commander, a lean, pleasantly hard-bitten West Pointer named John Hersey Michaelis, 38. Last week, the men of Colonel Michaelis' 27th combat team tangled with a capable and battle-tested foe, a 45-year-old North Korean lieutenant general named Kim Mu Chong, onetime commanding general of the Chinese Communists' famed Eighth Route Army. Kim's men met "Mike" Michaelis' men at a road junction 15 miles northwest of Taegu. General Kim looked the situation over and decided to hit young Colonel Michaelis smack in the nose.