combat actions in korea (front)

7/28/2019 COMBAT ACTIONS IN KOREA (Front)

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ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES

COMBAT ACTIONS IN KOREA

Russell A.Gugeler

CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY

UNITED STATES ARMY

WASHINGTON, D.C., 1987


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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-603408

First Printed 1954CMH Pub 30-2

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing OfficeWashington, D.C. 20402


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Foreword

* This book was originally published in 1954, revised in 1970, and in

demand and print since then. The accounts of small-unit actions were written

primarily for junior officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates of the UnitedStates Army who had not yet been in battle. The object was to acquaint them

with the realities of their own fields.

Since the Korean War, some of the tools and procedures of battle have

changed, but the basic conditions of combat have not. Indeed, the surprises, con-

fusion, and problems faced on one battlefield generally resemble the difficulties

met on another. Accounts of battle experience at other times in other places, then,

continue to have instructive value. It is with this fact in mind that this book is

being reprinted.

One of the accounts contained in the original version was omitted after a

review of the source material on which it was based revealed several irreconcilable

errors. All of the other episodes appearing in the 1970 revised edition continue to

appear in their original form. Those who absorb the lessons they offer can substan-

tially increase their competence as leaders and members of small units in battle,

and all students of military history should find profit in these intimate and objective

stories of combat action.

The Center of Military History is pleased to continue this popular work.

Washington, D.C. DOUGLAS KINNARD20 July 1984 Brigadier General, USA (Ret.)

Chief of Military History


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* This book is a collection of accounts describing the combat action of

small Army unitssquads and platoons, companies and batteries. These are the

units that engage in combat, suffer the casualties, and make up the fighting strength

of the battalions, regiments, divisions, corps, and finally, of the field army. Combat

is a very personal business to members of such a small unit. Concerned with the

fearful and consuming tasks of fighting and living, these men cannot think of

war in terms of the Big Picture as it is represented on the situation maps at corps

or army headquarters. Members of a squad or platoon know only what they can

see and hear of combat. They know and understand the earth for which they fight,

the advantage of holding the high ground, the protection of the trench or hole.

These men can distinguish the sounds of enemy weapons from those of their own;

they know the satisfying sound of friendly artillery shells passing overhead and

of friendly planes diving at an objective. They know the excitement of combat, the

feeling of exhilaration and of despair, the feeling of massed power, and of

overwhelming loneliness.

The author has tried to describe combat as individuals have experienced it,

or at least as it has appeared from the company command post. In so doing, much

detail has been included that does not find its way into more barren official records.

The details and the little incidents of combat were furnished by surviving members

of the squads and companies during painstaking interviews and discussions soon

after the fighting was over. Conversely, many facts have been omitted from the

narrative presented here. The accounts tell only part of the complete story, inten-tionally ignoring related actions of cause and effect in order to keep one or two

small units in sharper focus. The story of action on Heartbreak Ridge, for example,

describes fighting that lasted only one or two hours, whereas the entire battle for

that hill went on for several weeks. Sometimes there are obvious gaps because

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Preface

important information was lost with the men who died in the battle. Sometimes

the accounts are incomplete because the author failed to learn or to recount

everything of importance that happened.

The stories that follow have been selected as representative of the importantbattles of the Korean conflict. In chronological sequence, they follow the fighting

beginning on the second day of the participation of United States troops until the

war settled into a static defense of fortified lines.

Because most of the peninsula is covered with an intricate mass of hills and

ridges, many of the battles in Korea took place on hilltops. The typical Korean

ridge rises from rice paddies and a stream at its base and slants upward at an

angle of forty-five or more degrees. It takes an hour of steady climbing to reach

the top and, once they have reached the path-wide crest, the sweating infantrymen

see only another ridge ahead, and others beyond it, stretching in row after row

to the purple haze at the horizon, In the wintertime the hills are windblown and

harsh but when summer rains come to Korea and the morning mist drifts along

the ridgelines there is a fresh beauty to the land. The hills become verdant and

between them the rice paddies, in delicate shades of green, are so neat they look

as if someone had combed them by hand and set them out in the sun. Other than

the beauty of the landscape, American soldiers find little that is desirable in Korea.

It has always been a poor land, and the shifting combat has reduced many of the

villages to heaps of red ashes, many of the people to destitution. In the combat

zone only the hills seem unchanged, and even a few of them are beaten up and

bare from the fighting. This is the setting for the stories that follow.

The preparation of this book has not been a one-man project. Major General

Orlando Ward, U.S. Army (now retired), is responsible for the book, having

planned it and furnished much of the enthusiasm and inspiration necessary to get

the writing done. It is a personal pleasure for the author to share the credit for

the book with nine officers with whom he worked and often shared tents in Korea.

These officers, members of historical detachments, were engaged in collecting and

preserving accurate historical records of the Korean conflict. From the large number

of accounts that they prepared, the author has included eleven that were either

partially or almost wholly prepared by them. To the following officers the author

is indebted for this valuable assistance and for the pleasure of sharing the experi-

ences o f Korea: Major Edward C. Williamson, Captain John Mewha, Captain

Martin Blumenson, Major B. C. Mossman, Major Pierce Briscoe, Major William J.

Fox, Lieutenant Bevin R. Alexander, Lieutenant Edgar Denton, and Major

Robert H. Fechtman.

The author reserves a special acknowledgment of indebtedness and a n

expression of appreciation to Lt. Co!, Roy E. Appleman. During both World

War I I and the Korean War, the author benefited from Colonel Applemans

familiarity with military history and from his sturdy good judgment.


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Preface vii

Except for one, the discussions following most of the action accounts were

compiled by Lt. Colonel Carl D. McFerren of the Office of the Chief of Military

History, and based upon comments from the Army schools at Fort Benning,

Fort Sill, and Fort Knox. At the request of the Chief of Military History, Lieu-tenant Nicholas A. Canzona, U.S. Marine Corps, wrote the discussion following

Attack Along a Ridgeline. Th e d iscussions do not necessarily reflect the official

view of the Department of the Army, but are included to stimulate thought and

promote discussion. No attempt has been made to mention everything that is

either good or bad about the conduct of the battles described and, in many cases,

the obvious has been intentionally avoided. Neither has there been any attempt

to place blame, since no one can claim that, in the same circumstances, he could

have done better.

Miss Mary Ann Bacon has been generous in giving skillful editorial guidanceto the author. Mr. Alfred M. Beck accomplished the numerous tasks required to

convert the original publication into the present edition. Mrs. Vivian Brooks pre-

pared all maps illustrating the text, and Mr. Robert Johnstone prepared the two

pen-and-ink sketches. To them the author is deeply grateful.

Finally, the author is anxious to thank several hundred men and officers of

the United States Army who have been both patient and generous in furnishing

the information upon which the accounts are based. Without their cooperation

this book could not have been written and eventually much of the information

presented here would have been lost, just as the dust and smoke disappear from

the battlefield when the fighting is over.

RUSSELL A. GUGELER

Stuttgart, Germany

30 September 1969


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Contents

FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 WITHDRAWAL ACTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 ATTACK ALONG A RIDGELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 DEFENSE OF A BATTERY POSITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

TANK ACTION AT CHONGJU . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 ARTILLERY AT KUNU-RI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 CHOSIN RESERVOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7 TWIN TUNNELS PATROL AMBUSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8 CHIPYONG-NI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9 TASK FORCE CROMBEZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10 TANK SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11 A RIFLE COMPANY AS A COVERING FORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 ARTILLERY IN PERIMETER DEFENSE. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13 HILL 800 (BUNKER HILL) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14 TASK FORCE GERHARDT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15 MILLION DOLLAR HILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16 BLOODY RIDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17 HEARTBREAK RIDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18 OUTPOST EERIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19COMBAT PATROL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LEGEND TO SYMBOLS ON MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page. . .iii

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