Lieut. Douglas A. Cowin's 42-man Marine detachment had a routine mission: to carry six truckloads of supplies up the 75-mile route from Tientsin to Peiping. Because they had been fired on before in this area, bitterly contested by Chinese Communist and Nationalist armies, the marines traveled in an armed convoy of weapons carriers, staff cars and jeeps. At high noon, on a paved road near Anping, the mission ceased to be routine.
From the dense fields of kaoliang lining each side of the highway came a spatter of small-arms fire. With a combat-developed reflex motion, the marines sprang from their vehicles, took...
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