Cpl. Gerald G. Hilliard
United States Army (1946-1951)
Gerald Glover Hilliard was born on
May 17, 1927, to parents Margaret G. and Clare P. Hilliard of 2012 Edgebrook
Avenue. Gerald had two brothers, Eugene and Charles, and two sisters, Grace
and Patricia. The Hilliards were members of Resurrection Church and Gerald
attended Resurrection Elementary School.
After grade school, Gerald attended
Washington Vocational School in Lawrenceville. While in school, his parents
both passed away. Gerald's father Clare died on June 1, 1943, and his mother
Margaret less than a year later, on March 14, 1944.
He moved in with his sister Grace
Bancuk in Lawrenceville and finished his education. Gerald was employed as
a Western Union cashier at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Pittsburgh
when, on January 8, 1946, he enlisted in the Army with the intention of
making it a career.
After boot camp, he was assigned to
Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.
When the Korean War began in June 1950, the Regiment, known as the
Cottonbalers, was stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
The 7th Regiment set sail for the Far
East from San Francisco, California, on August 20. They landed in Japan on
September 16, one day after the start of the Battle of Inchon. The 3rd
Infantry Division spent two months near the port of Moji, Japan, in
preparation for their deployment to the Korean Peninsula.
As the tide of the war turned in favor
of the United Nations, the 3rd Infantry Division, known as the "Rock Of The
Marne" for it's exploits during World War I, was assigned to the Far Eastern
Command Reserve, earmarked for post-conflict occupation duty in North Korea.
Soon, their intended mission was to be dramatically altered.
When the Peoples Republic of China
entered the war in November 1950, the 7th Regiment was quickly dispatched to
Wonsan on North Korea's eastern coast. They landed on November 21, and joined
with the Division's 15th and 65th Infantry Regiments. The men were transported
to positions northwest of Hungnam.
At Majon-dong, Third Division
established a defensive position and began fighting. They helped cover the
withdrawal of the Army's X Corps rearguard elements (1st Marine Division and
7th Infantry Division) during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. Elements of
the 7th Infantry Regiment formed the nucleus of Task Force Dog, a relief force
that advanced forward to create a corridor for the approaching
columns.
Once the withdrawing units had reached
the safety of the Port of Hungnam, the Regiment helped form a collapsing
perimeter around the area. Skirmishes broke out between the Cottonbalers and
the pursuing PVA 27th Corps. With strong naval fire support provided by an
offshore task force, the badly mauled enemy units never breached the Hungnam
perimeter.
The Hungnam harbor during the
evacuation (left) and the port being destroyed on December 24,
1950.
In what U.S. historians called the
"greatest evacuation movement by sea in U.S. military history", a 193-ship
armada assembled at the port and evacuated not only the U.N. troops, but also
their heavy equipment and roughly a third of the Korean refugees. Cpl.
Hilliard's regiment was the last unit to disembark before the harbor facilities
were destroyed. The 7th Infantry Regiment left Hungnam by sea on December 24,
1950.
From January 25 through February 9,
after the fall of Seoul, the Third Division was engaged in Operation
Thunderbolt, the initial phase of the Eighth Army counteroffensive to recapture
the South Korean capital.
In March, the Division saw action during
Operation Ripper, or the Fourth Battle of Seoul. On the evening of March 15,
elements of the Third Division entered the city. Threatened with encirclement,
the enemy abandoned their positions and retreated north into the
mountains.
A limited Eighth Army offensive aimed at
seizing the Chorwon-Kumhwa-Pyonggang area, an important enemy communication and
supply zone called "The Iron Triangle," began in April. The Division crossed the
Sinchon River and attacked north towards Chorwon and Pyonggang along the road
running from Seoul.
3rd Infantry Division soldiers near the Imjin
River on April 17, 1951.
With forward elements of the Third Division
only ten miles from their Chorwon objective, the enemy counterattacked in force,
not just at Chorwon but along the entire United Nations front line. This was the
start of the Chinese Spring Offensive. The breadth and severity of the attack
caught the Eighth Army by surprise.
As usual, the Chinese waited until after
dark before launching their big attack. By morning on the following day, April 23,
they had penetrated United Nations' lines at widely scattered points and, under
orders, units of Eighth Army began falling back. The 3rd Division gave up ten miles
of territory, returned to the south bank of the Imjin River and took up previously
prepared positions on an established Eighth Army fortified defense
line.
The 7th Regiment was placed on a ridge
overlooking the important Seoul-Chorwon-Wonsan road and the single-track railroad
line that parallels it. The position was especially important since it guarded the
crossing site of the Imjin River. This was the same road and river crossing the
North Koreans had used when they first invaded South Korean territory during the
summer of 1950.
These defensive positions were not more than
a thousand yards south of the 38th parallel. The 1st Battalion occupied the east end
of the regimental sector. Cpl. Hilliard and Bravo Company manned the bunkers and
foxholes on Hill 283 and those along the ridgeline that slanted down toward the
road.
A ridge line machine gun position (left) and
wounded 3rd Division soldiers awaiting evacuation.
Able Company's sector extended from Bravo
Company, southwest across a long, brush-covered saddle, then west along the top of
Hill 287, a company front of 1,400 yards. Beyond Able Company there was a gap of
about 500 yards between its left flank position and the right flank of the 3rd
Battalion, which occupied another ridgeline to the north and west.
On the morning of April 24th the Chinese struck
the regimental line. Third Battalion faced the brunt of the enemy attack and was
engaged throughout the day and the following evening. Another enemy force struck Bravo
Company's end of the line and started a heavy fire fight that lasted from midnight
until first light on April 25.
On the morning of April 25, the enemy had
secured some high ground on the flank of 3rd Battalion that threatened the entire
regimental ridgeline position. Orders came for a withdrawal across the Imjin River.
Able Company was ordered to cover the withdrawal.
The battle weary men of 3rd Battalion on the
left flank moved slowly down the narrow path off the hill, stopping several times to
rest. Their casual pace upset the entire time table for the evacuation. A much needed
napalm strike by four planes silenced the enemy threat on the left flank. However, by
the time Baker Company began its move off the 1st Battalion's right flank the Chinese
had maneuvered to that area and began exerting pressure there.
Chinese human wave attacks, accompanied by a
cacophony of blowing horns, were common during the Korean War
While Corporal Hilliard and Bravo Company withdrew
down the path to the river, the Chinese occupied their abandoned positions and attacked
the right flank of Able Company in strength. The situation turned desperate quickly and
one platoon from Bravo Company was rushed back up the hill to help hold back the enemy
onslaught.
As the desperate struggle raged on and the slow
evacuation continued, another problem arose. Although they had been stripping the
passing soldiers of their ammunition, it was being expended quicker than it could be
replaced. It began to look as though the ridgeline, and possibly the river crossing,
would be overrun by thousands of screaming Chinese attackers.
Only a last minute barrage of heavy, accurate
and continuous artillery, called in by Able Company's forward observer, secured the
necessary time to effectively withdraw the remaining men of Able and Bravo Company to
the safety of the Imjin River crossing. That forward observer was none other than
Brookline's Corporal James W. Gormley, who was awarded a Silver Star for his actions on that day.
It will never be known if Gerald G. Hilliard of
Bravo Company knew that the Able Company forward observer, whose actions saved not only
his life but possibly the bulk of the 7th Regiment, was his neighbor James W. Gormley,
who grew up only a few blocks away in East Brookline. Gormley was killed in action a
month after the battle for Hill 283.
Members of the 7th Infantry Regiment
on a hilltop position on May 24, 1951.
During the following month of heavy fighting,
the weight of the Chinese Spring Offensive continued to gradually push back the United
Nations front lines. By the middle of May, the 7th Infantry Regiment had moved to
positions seventy-five miles to the east, defending hilltop strongholds near the
village of Habae Jae.
May 24, 1951 marked the start of the United
Nations Summer/Fall Counteroffensive. While units in other sectors of the front were
beginning their move against enemy positions, the 7th Regiment near Habae Jae was still
in a defensive posture and under determined pressure from a combined force of Chinese
and North Koreans.
Soon the enemy pressure slackened and the 7th
Regiment began once again to advance north towards Chorwon and the Iron Triangle. It
was to be the final real offensive of the campaign before the war settled into a
static struggle for strategic ridges. It was the offensive that pushed the North
Koreans and Chinese into accepting peace negotiations.
It was during this advance, on June 7, 1951,
somewhere near the Chorwon area, that Brookline's twenty-four year old Corporal Gerald
G. Hilliard was killed in action.
News of his death from the Defense Department
reached his sister Grace in Lawrenceville on the same day as his final letter home.
In that letter, Gerald said, "I do not expect that I should be coming home
soon." He enclosed a photograph that was taken in May while he was on a rest
leave in Japan.
At the time of his death, Gerald's brother
Eugene was an Air Force Staff Sergeant at Eglin Field in Florida and Charles was
attending State Teachers College in California, Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh Press announced his death on
July 8, 1951. Gerald's body was returned to the United States in November 1951.
He was laid out at Beinhauer Mortuary for three days beginning on November 23 and
a Requiem Mass was held at Resurrection Church on Monday, November 26. Gerald G.
Hilliard was the last of four soldiers from the community of Brookline to die during
the Korean War.
After Corporal Hilliard's death, although the
warring parties began peace negotiations, first at Kaesong, on the border
between North and South Korea, and then at the neighboring village of Panmunjom, the
conflict dragged on for another two years before the Armistice was signed on July 27,
1953. Many more lives were lost during those two long years.
* Written by Clint Burton:
May 13, 2018 *
The Brookline
War Memorial
Listed below are
many of the sons of Brookline who gave their
lives to preserve freedom and contain aggression during
World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”
General George S. Patton
World War I
(1917-1919)
The World War I Memorial -
Washington D.C.
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World War II
(1941-1945)
Alm, William H.
Pioneer Avenue
Army
Details |
Arensberg, Roy T.
Fernhill Avenue
Army
Details |
Bracey, Bruce H.
Plainview Avenue
Army
Details |
Brickley, Edward G.
Woodward Avenue
Army
Details |
Capogreca, James J.
Merrick Avenue
Navy
Details |
Copeland, Clarence R.
Creedmoor Avenue
Navy
Details |
Cullison, Thomas J.
Birtley Avenue
Army
Details |
Dempsey, Howard F.
Berkshire Avenue
Army
Details |
Dempsey, Walter F.
Milan Avenue
Navy
Details |
Diegelman, Edward R. Jr
Norwich Avenue
Army
Details |
Dornetto, Frank P.
Jacob Street
Navy
Details |
Doyle, John F Jr.
Eben Street
Navy
Details |
Fagan, Gerald B.
Woodbourne Avenue
Army
Details |
Falk, Harold E.
Pioneer Avenue
Army
Details |
Fehring, Robert M.
Fernhill Avenue
Army
Details |
Gmuca, Joseph J.
Brookline Boulevard
Army
Details |
Heil, Robert F.
Bayridge Avenue
Army
Details |
Hynes, Richard E.
Waddington Avenue
Army
Details |
Kestler, Paul C.
Creedmoor Avenue
Navy
Details |
Ketters, Robert C.
Berkshire Avenue
Army
Details |
Mahoney, Michael J.
Oakridge Street
Army
Details |
Majestic, Arthur B.
Starkamp Avenue
Army
Details |
Mayberry, Alexander G.
Breining Street
Army
Details |
Mazza, John
Alwyn Street
Army
Details |
McCann, Robert F.
Edgebrook Avenue
Navy
Details |
McFarland, Hugh R.
McNeilly Road
Army
Details |
Meisner, Walter F.
Berwin Avenue
Merchant Marine
Details |
Miller, William J.
Norwich Avenue
Army
Details |
Napier, Edward J.
Brookline Boulevard
Army
Details |
Nicholson, John D.
Woodbourne Avenue
Army
Details |
O'Day, John R.
Creedmoor Avenue
Navy
Details |
Orient, Andrew D.
Fordham Avenue
Army
Details |
Pisiecki, Raymond A.
Wolford Avenue
Army
Details |
Reeves, Alfred M.
Brookline Boulevard
Army
Details |
Reitmeyer, John P.
Bellaire Avenue
Navy
Details |
Rhing, Vern M.
Norwich Avenue
Army
Details |
Ruane, Roy J.
Berkshire Avenue
USMC
Details |
Shannon, Harry C.
Midland Street
Army
Details |
Shannon, Jack E.
Midland Street
USMC
Details |
Simpson, James D.
Woodbourne Avenue
Army
Details |
Spack, Harry
Linial Avenue
Army
Details |
Tobin, Paul M.
Woodbourne Avenue
Army
Details |
Vierling, Howard F.
Fordham Avenue
Army
Details |
Wagner, Ralph G.
Shawhan Avenue
Army
Details |
Wentz, Walter L. Jr
Woodbourne Avenue
Army
Details |
Zeiler, Harold V.
West Liberty Avenue
Army
Details |
The World War II Memorial -
Washington D.C.
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Korean War
(1950-1953)
Korean War Memorial -
Washington D.C.
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Vietnam War
(1965-1973)
Vietnam War Memorial -
Washington D.C.
The Brookline
Monument - The Cannon
<Brookline
War Memorial> <> <Brookline
History> |