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The performance of the Eighth Ranger Battalion was undoubtedly heroic, but not so much better than a regular infantry battalion as to make the sacrifice worth it. Eighty-eight Rangers attacked Hill 205 forty-seven survived to defend it only twenty-one left the hill alive. The situation grew worse when the counterattack came Chinese infantry and artillery swamped the Rangers’ defenses during the night of November 25, in six separate assaults. But the risks in such an approach soon became evident, as the Rangers took serious casualties attacking a hill with a stouter-than-expected defense. The use of special operators (even when hastily assembled) as the spearhead of a conventional offensive was neither new nor outside the traditional missions of such units similar units had regularly undertaken such jobs in World War II. Unbeknownst to the Americans, regular Chinese forces had infiltrated North Korea in great numbers, and were preparing to launch a major counteroffensive. offensive into North Korea, the Eighth Ranger Battalion, a unit established in August, was assigned the job of capturing and defending Hill 205, along the Chongchon River. On November 25, 1950, as part of the broader U.S. commanders a sour taste regarding further such operations in the Pacific. The middling success of the raid gave U.S. Altogether, thirty of the Marines committed to the operation died, with many more injured. Unfortunately, at least one boat could not survive the surf. The Marines destroyed the remaining Japanese facilities, and a submarine returned to pick up the survivors. When day broke, the Americans discovered that most of the Japanese were, in fact, dead. However, the unit’s efforts to leave the island were stymied by high seas only a small contingent were capable of swimming back to the waiting submarines.

The commander, Evans Carlson, decided that the remaining Japanese resistance was too stiff to accomplish the main objectives, which included the destruction of radio sets. The Raiders quickly lost the element of surprise, but nevertheless managed to inflict some casualties on the defending Japanese. Submarines delivered 222 specially selected and trained Marines within distance of the island their mission was to attack and destroy Japanese installations, thus sowing a sense of strategic vulnerability in the Japanese high command. In August 1942, the recently formed Marine Second Raider Battalion launched its first raid, against Japanese-held Makin Atoll in the South Pacific.