Actually the fight in Captain Carl R. Gray’s Company H sector, to the rear of Hedy, was mainly at the MLR, for the Chinese indulged in merely a brief fire fight at the latter outpost, bypassing it in favor of a crack at JAMESTOWN. The main line of resistance failed to yield to the enemy thrust, which was supported by 2,400 rounds of mortar and artillery fire along the MLR and outposts. After being thwarted by Hedy-Esther defenses, the enemy shifted his efforts westward to the 1st KMC area. The Korean regiment received the brunt of the enemy’s minor infantry probes immediately preceding the Nevada Cities battle. Late on 25 March a series of skirmishes broke out in the 1st Marines sector between one-or-two platoon size Chinese infantry forces and Marine outpost defenders. Following a quiet daylight spell on the 26th, the Chinese resumed the offensive with a probe at COP Dagmar. This coincided with what developed into a massive regimental assault unleashed against Carson, Reno, and Vegas, outposts in the 5th Marines sector, to the right. There Colonel Walt’s regiment would shortly be the target of the bloodiest Chinese attack to date on the 1st Marine Division in West Korea. CHAPTER VII Vegas _The Nevada Cities--Supporting Arms--Defense Organization at the Outposts--Chinese Attack on 26 March--Reinforcements Dispatched--Massed Counterattack the Next Day--Push to the Summit--Other Communist Probes--Three CCF Attempts for the Outpost--Vegas Consolidation Begins--Aftermath_ _The Nevada Cities_[352] [352] Unless otherwise noted, the material in this section is derived from: _PacFlt EvalRpt_ No. 6, Chap. 9; 1stMarDiv, 1stMar, 5thMar, 11thMar, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5 ComdDs, Mar 53; 5thMar ComdD, Apr 53, Special Action Rpt Period 26–30 Mar 53, “Battle of the Cities,” hereafter 5thMar SAR “Cities”; Maj Norman W. Hicks, “U.S. Marine Operations in Korea, 1952–1953 with Special Emphasis on Outpost Warfare” (M.A. thesis, Univ. of Maryland, 1962), hereafter Hicks, _Outpost Warfare_; 1stLt Peter Braestrup, “Outpost Warfare,” _Marine Corps Gazette_, v. 37, no. 11 (Nov 53) and “Back to the Trenches,” _Marine Corps Gazette_, v. 39, no. 3 (Mar 55); MSgt Robert T. Fugate, “Vegas, Reno, and Carson,” _Leatherneck_, v. 36, no. 6 (Jun 53), hereafter Fugate, “Vegas.” As the third winter of war in Korea began to draw to an inconclusive end in late March 1953, some 28,000 Marines of the 1st Division stationed on the western front suspected that coming weeks would bring a change of pace. Consider just the matter of basic logistics. Rising temperatures, tons of melting snow, and the thawing of the Imjin River, located north of the rear Marine support and reserve areas, would turn vital road nets into quagmires to tax the patience and ingenuity of men and machinery alike.