War: At the Bowling Alley

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.

Armored Slam. For four nights running, Kim slammed his armor at Michaelis' forward elements astride the road just south of the junction. The Red tanks would drive down the road to within 100 yards of the first U.S. foxhole and open flat trajectory fire with their 85-mm. guns; a good many of the shells went screaming down the road, hit the first small elevation in their path and bounced into a nearby hillside, like bowling balls. Michaelis' men, who did not budge under the assault, nicknamed the road, "the bowling alley."

Finally, General Kim stopped bowling. Instead of trying to take the road headon, he tried to cut it off by an enveloping thrust. Kim sent his 8th Regiment through a hole in the South Korean line on Michaelis' right flank.

"He's trying to cut the road to Taegu," said grey-haired Mike Michaelis as he sat, bone-tired, against the wall of his culvert command post as automatic weapon fire zinged and buzzed like angry bees around him. "He's trying to scare me into withdrawing and leaving my equipment. Then he can come down the road with his armor. I'm just not going to do it."

Big or Dead. Michaelis (rhymes with quick hail us) had been in tight spots before. He took part in the Normandy assault, won a battlefield promotion to full colonel. During the airborne invasion of Holland in September 1944, he jumped at the head of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, was wounded twice in three days. During the Battle of the Bulge, he was chief of staff of the 101st.

When he arrived in Korea to take command of the 27th, Michaelis had reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. A few days later, he had won his second battlefield promotion to full colonel. This time it looked as if he would keep his silver eagles. Said one of his sergeants thoughtfully : "The colonel, he's going to be a big man in this Army—or a dead one."

Kim Mu Chong discovered what Michaelis' men knew—the colonel was a hard man to scare. In the face of Kim's enveloping move, Mike sat tight and blasted away with his expertly placed artillery. He had some bad moments when his artillery fire control center, directing four batteries, suffered a direct mortar hit which killed his best fire control personnel. But under Mike Michaelis' skillful direction the batteries continued to fire.