Altogether, the enemy harassed the harbor islands for 16 days during the month, expending 316 rounds, compared with 11 days in January. Hostile fire, not limited to the Wonsan Harbor islands, was also directed against friendly ships USS _DeHaven_ and USS _Moore_. These provided counterbattery fire and were, in turn, fired upon, the nearest shells landing only 400 yards from the two vessels. This attack, also on 14 February, was described as an “unusually determined and precise”[473] effort. The enemy, moreover, did not appear to take his usual precautions with respect to disclosing his positions. The fact that a Communist shore battery would cease fire when subjected to friendly counterbattery, with other positions then immediately taking up the delivery, “indicated some sort of central control for the first time.”[474] The I Corps, NKPA artillery units across from the Wonsan Island command revealed the “heavy, effective artillery capability of enemy batteries which encircle Wonsan Harbor.”[475] [473] _PacFlt EvalRpt_ No. 6, Chap. 2, p. 2-5. [474] _Ibid._ [475] ECIDE(U) ComdD, Feb 53, p. 1. Seventh Fleet intelligence estimated that there were no less than “21 active batteries emplaced on Wonsan Bay and within range of our islands.” _Heinl ltr._ Unseasonably good weather the latter part of February improved the transportation and supply situation. With the bitter cold and wind subsiding, maintenance crews could repair the ravages of the past several months. Craft, up to LCVP size, were hoisted in on a large pontoon for repair. For most of December and January, “this small, physically remote Marine Corps command,”[476] as the ECIDU commander, Lieutenant Colonel Robert D. Heinl, Jr. himself described it, had been snowbound. Winds howled in excess of 40 knots, and temperatures dropped to 10° below at night. Personnel at the command island, Yo-do, subsisted on C rations for eight days. With boating operations suspended because of the high winds, it was not possible to send supplies or water to Hwangto-do which for several days relied solely on melted snow. [476] ECIDE(U) ComdD, Jan 53, p. 3. The prolonged foul weather, moreover, interrupted all classified radio communications between the ECIDU and the outside world. Crypto guard for the Wonsan islands was maintained by elements of the East Coast TG 95. Coded and decoded security radio messages had to be picked up by patrol boat which could not reach the islands during extreme conditions of icy seas and heavy snows.