 As the 2nd Infantry Division entered the valley , later known as the " Gauntlet " , the Chinese machine guns delivered punishing fire while mortar shells saturated the road . The length of the roadblock caught the 2nd Infantry Division by surprise , and the road was soon filled with wrecked vehicles and wounded and dead soldiers . Those who tried to take cover in the ditches were promptly left behind by the convoy rushing south , and unit cohesion instantly evaporated . During the day , the air cover tried to suppress the Chinese positions with some success , but with no air cover at night , the Chinese attack intensified . Finally , the Chinese blocked the road completely by destroying the US 38th and 503rd Artillery Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division , and the immobilized artillery pieces forced the rest of the division to abandon all vehicles and to retreat by hiking through the hills . At the rear of the division , Colonel Freeman attempted to save his 23rd Infantry Regiment by retreating through the Kunu @-@ ri — Anju road . In one of the last acts of the battle , the 23rd Infantry Regiment fired off its stock of 3 @,@ 206 artillery shells within 20 minutes , and the massive barrage shocked the Chinese troops from following the regiment . The last stragglers from the US 2nd Infantry Division finally arrived at Sunchon on December 1 , and by December 2 the Eighth Army had completely lost contact with the Chinese . 
