That afternoon Company D was relieved by an Army unit when 2/5 turned over responsibility for the hill to the 2d Battalion, 24th Infantry. The fight had made veterans out of the men Zimmer led down to the road, but the company paid with 8 dead and 28 wounded.[213] [213] Zimmer, 18 Feb 54; and Annex How. Documents taken from enemy dead disclosed that the defenders of Hill 342 had been opposed by elements of the 13th and 15th Regiments of the NK 6th Division. Lieutenant Cahill qualified his report of 150 enemy dead as “conservative,”[214] and 2/5 set the total at 400 after its fight.[215] The actual number of fatalities inflicted by Marine-Army infantry and supporting arms probably lies somewhere between these two estimates. [214] Cahill, 9 Dec 53. [215] Annex How. At any rate, the Red Korean commander had committed at least two rifle companies supported by machineguns, mortars and artillery. The force thrown against Yaban-san could be estimated at 500 to 600 troops, and they had failed in their attempt to cut the MSR.[216] [216] _Ibid._; and Brig Periodic IntelRpts Nos. 5 and 6. CHAPTER VII Advance to Kosong _Heavy NKPA Resistance--Assault on Hill 255--Confusion at Tosan Junction--Brigade Artillery in Support--Encounter With Japanese Maps--Ambush at Taedabok Pass--The Seizure of Kosong_ While 2/5 and the 1st Platoon of Company G were fighting the enemy and weather on 7 August, Lieutenant Colonel Taplett’s 3d Battalion sat out an ominous calm at Chindong-ni. From their positions on Hills 253 and 99, Captain Fegan and Lieutenant Bohn periodically called for supporting fires to check enemy movement in the northern approaches to the village. At 1015 Second Lieutenant Lawrence W. Hetrick and his 3d Platoon, Company A Engineers, completed the laying of the first Marine minefield, located across the Haman road a half mile above Chindong-ni.[217] [217] Annex How. Lieutenant Colonel Newton’s 1st Battalion reached the village in the afternoon of the 7th and relieved Company G’s two platoons on Hill 99. Bohn took his company back across the valley and deployed on the lower slopes of 255 facing the Haman road. These positions were hit by close-in sniper fire during the night of 7–8 August, and at dawn the Marine infantrymen were startled to discover four NK soldiers emplaced less than 100 yards away in the valley. Both the enemy position and its occupants were quickly destroyed.[218] [218] _Ibid._; and Bohn, 17 Apr 50.