The Taking of Hill 1052
(Dr. Dibble's Home Web Site)
Hill 1052 is one mountain in the range of
mountains along the east coast of Korea. In January of 1952 when I
arrived in Korea, a year and a half
after the War started, it was occupied by the Chinese communists. Hill 1052
dominated the terrain in the sector of the Main Line of Resistance (MLR)
occupied by the First Marine Division. I was a Navy doctor
assigned as one of two Battalion Surgeons to the Third Battalion of the
Fifth Marine Regiment.
The Chinese held the high ground because we were on Hill 812, its peak 240 meters lower than their guns on Hill 1052. It was hazardous to move out of our bunkers in daylight but sometimes we had to. I remember very clearly the time a sniper bullet hit a tree behind my head and sprayed bark on my neck.
We wanted that hill very badly but it seemed impregnable. For several weeks in January and February of 1952 the battalion CO and his staff planned a helicopter assault on 1052. Helicopters had been used for over a year to move troops, to evacuate the wounded, and in other ways behind the MLR, but never before in history had an assault been made with helicopter-borne troops. As Battalion Surgeon I was naturally part of the plans. I don't know why, but I took voluminous notes of the details of the assault, especially the part the battalion surgeons and corpsmen would have to play. I had no intention then of writing a book about it.
The attack never took place. At the time I didn't know why, but later I found out that the Chinese were massing their troops along the MLR on the west coast above Seoul. So the entire First Marine Division was moved from the mountains of the east coast to the rolling hills and rice paddies of the west coast. We were to defend Seoul in the event of a massive offensive. Or perhaps the mere presence of the Marines might deter the Chinese from even attempting an offensive. The offensive never took place but we stayed on the west coast.
My notes on the helicopter assault came home with me, lay in a box for almost fifty years.
This novel, The Taking of Hill 1052, is what might have happened if the Marines hadn't been transferred to the west coast. The action is seen through the eyes of a Battalion Surgeon so there is verisimilitude in the work of the doctors and corpsmen on the MLR, in the Aid Stations, and in the forward hospital where most of the wounded went. In fact, except for the final climactic attack on the Hill itself, the events leading up to it actually took place, which gives non-medical personnel and non-military persons a behind-the-scenes view of the work of doctors and corpsmen in battle.
I have unabashedly used real men -- with their names changed -- to populate the book. Marine infantry-men, non-coms, and commissioned officers, corpsmen and doctors, all have recognized themselves as they read the book. One of my corpsmen sent copies to several of his friends with the note, "I'm JJ!" He was right. He was my model for one of the corpsmen because he was one of the best corpsmen I've ever worked with.
An autographed paperback copy is available for $15 plus $2 S & H from the author at
W 4290 Jene Road
e-mail: dibble@discover-net.net
Eau
Claire, WI, 54701
An un-autographed paperback copy may be available at
Note from the author: I would be happy to correspond by e-mail or snail-mail but I do not have the capability to take a credit card. Therefore all payments must be by check or money order.