McClatchey, Herman Lohse
Army Private

Herman Lohse McClatchey, age 40, from Fulton County Atlanta, Georgia .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Tuesday, February 27, 1951
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Private First Class Herman Lohse McClatchey, who joined the U.S. Army from Georgia, served in A Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on December 1, 1950, as his unit withdrew from Kunu-ri to Sunchon. He was marched with other prisoners to Pukchin-Tarigol Valley, North Korea, where he died of malnutrition on February 27, 1951. His remains have not been recovered. Private First Class McClatchey is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Atlanta Constitution (1951)