A Series of The Battle History of Delaying Action in Korean War Presented for My Community

I had an opportunity to introduce the subject, from Osan to the Nakdong River Perimeter, for my community, so I has compiled and summarized the stories to fit for the limited volume to be presented lessthan 3 minutes a week. 

The stories are the ones that were presented during the Middle of Jun 2023 to the MIddle of August. 

I have hoped people having no knowledge of and thought on these battles and American sacrifices can be helpful to be interested in the stories. 

 Philippines Were First in Asia to Fight alongside South

“It is a little-known fact for many that, when the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, the Philippines was the first Asian country to send contingent forces to aid South Korea,”

The Philippines as the first Asian country to commit soldiers on the ground during the Korean War, the Philippines sent a total of 7,500 Filipino soldiers from September 1950 to May 1955, of whom 120 were killed in action, 300 were wounded, 60 went missing and 40 were captured and repatriated, according to the Embassy of the Philippines in Korea.

These combat stories are abstracted briefly from a weekly publication in cooperation with the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee

“The Battle of Miu-dong in North Korea was the first battle fought and won by Filipino soldiers on foreign soil,” Maj. Young said. “We moved out towards Singye in a long column early in the morning of Nov. 11, 1950. We were then hit by [a] heavy fusillade of fire power from North Korean soldiers dug in along the forward slopes of hills on our right flank.”
 
Maj. Young’s vision of the enemy was compromised at one point during the battle, whilst he was commanding five M24 Chafee tanks.
 
“I could not see the enemy positions from inside the tank. My gunner was yelling at me to tell him where to aim the tank’s 75-mm cannon. There was only one thing to do. I flung open the turret hatch, clambered out of the turret, braced my feet against the metal hull and fired the big .50 caliber machine gun at the enemy positions. The machine gun had no gun shield and I was fully exposed to enemy fire that continued to strike my tank.”
 
The Filipino 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) defeated the enemy troops by Nov. 12, 1950.

Around 900 Filipinos with the 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) were stationed along a three-mile defense line north of Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do, in the Battle of Yuldong from April 22 to 23, 1951. 

They were defending one of the northernmost defensive lines then held by the United Nations forces, while the Chinese Spring Offensives in the Korean War in 1951 were escalating. The Chinese forces were known for attacking in the dead of night.

“Their aim was to end the war with a decisive communist victory,” recalled Maj. “By 6 a.m. of April 23, the 10th BCT was only one of two UNC units on the Western Front not overrun or wiped out by the tremendous Chinese assault.

Many Filipino soldiers died during this battle, including Commanders Capt.Yap and Platoon Leader Lt. Artiaga. Capt. Yap was ordered to withdraw at dawn on April 23, but he defied this order to rescue the platoon of Lt. Artiaga which was trapped between enemy forces.

“Through intense enemy mortar and machine gun fire coming from all directions, they regained the hill,” reads the citation from the Medal for Valor awarded to Yap. “Capt. Yap recovered the bodies of Lt. Artiaga and two other men. They were able to rescue the remaining members of the trapped platoon.”
 
In standing firm at Yul-dong Battle in Yonchon, Paju, the grossly outnumbered Filipinos helped prevent the Communists from advancing further south.”

Single-handed Heroic Battle of Sergeant Kouma, 2nd American Army Division, in Nakdong-gang Resistance Parameter from 31 Aug. to 1 Sep. 1950

As we have commemorated the 73^rd anniversary of Korean war in this week, it is mindful to respect our Korean war veterans and their sacrifice for our freedom and peace.

Here is an excerpt from the single-handed heroic battle of Sergeant Kouma, the 2nd Army Division, taken place in Nakdong-gang Resistance Parameter from 31 Aug. to 1 Sep. 1950 in the time of perilous moment for the fighting their back to the river when the allied Korean and American forces were being outnumbered and outgunned by repeated North Korean onslaughts. Since the truce, the 2^nd Army Division has stayed in Dongducheon to protect a part of the western demilitarized zone and relocates its camp recently to Pyungtaek. This battle story also has served as a motive for the fictional tank fighting movie, Fury (2014 film), starring with Brad Pitt playing a role of tank commander in the single-handed battle against Germans, who carries out his mission in the 2^nd World War as did heroic Sergeant Kouma in Korean War.

 "In the early evening in 31 Aug. 1950, heavy fog covered Naktong-gang, which lay silent except for a continuous barking of dogs from the west bank. Suddenly, at eight p.m., shelling fell onto the American side, followed by heavy mortar fire. This battle site was a intersection behind the ferry, a part of the Nakdong-gang Resistance Parameter near the junction with Nam-gang, Aji-ri, Changryong-gun. This site was tactically important to American & Korean Forces as it was linked with a road leading to Youngsan and further to Milyang on the main supply route.

A half-hour later, the fog suddenly lifted and, in the clear night, sergeant Ernest Kouma commanding one of the two tanks was startled to see a pontoon bridge already completed across two-thirds of Naktong-gang. Kouma immediately opened fire on this bridge with his 90mm gun of the tank and with nearby second tank. The .50 cal. anti-aircraft gun vehicle and the twin 40mm gun motor vehicles immediately joined in. The North Korean bridge collapsed.

But the enemy had already crossed the river elsewhere. Sudden firing took place in the American Infantry Company Perimeter; the infantrymen were being forced back into the hills. As the infantry company withdrew, an American soldier shouted out to Kouma, "Hey, Tankers. We're pulling out!"

It was a bad night for Kouma's men and those in the other tank commanded by sergeant Berry. Kouma opted to act as a rearguard to cover the infantry withdrawal. He was wounded shortly thereafter in the foot, while reloading ammunition of the tank.

He quickly fought off another North Korean attack across the river, with his machine gun.

Next round, Koreans dressed in American uniforms approached them and spoke in English, then attacked them with hand grenades, wounding Kouma a second time with fragments in his shoulder. Other North Koreans slaughtered the more poorly protected crew of the 0.50 cal. anti-aircraft gun vehicle parked nearby; the crew of the twin 40mm gun motor vehicle was also wounded but managed to escape.

Kouma and Berry slued their Pershing tanks out onto open ground where they had clear fields of fire. Here they killed or drove off repeated waves of North Koreans until Berry's tank engine began to overheat. Berry told Kouma by radio he was withdrawing. After proceeding about one mile, Berry's tank caught fire, and Berry and his crews abandoned it. 

At one point, the tank was surrounded by the rushing attackers, Kouma had to engage them from outside the tank with a machine gun fire at point blank range. After ammunition of the tank gun was expended, Kouma used his pistol and grenades to hold off the North Koreans.

Sergeant Kouma bravely held his ground, firing overnight at any enemy who threatened his Pershing tank. After daylight, 1 September 1950, he fought his way back to American lines, shooting up enemy troops and positions all the way. During his action, Kouma had killed 250 North Koreans around his tank. Once he returned to his American unit, Kouma attempted to resupply his tank and to return to the front lines, but the wounded Kouma was ordered to evacuate for medical treatment.

Osan Battle

On 25 Jun. 1950, North Korean Forces crossed the 38th Parallel Border facing with Republic of Korea. The numbers of North Korean Communist Army were approximately 135,000 men, meanwhile Republic of Korea’s Army contained 98,000 soldiers.

Three days later on 28 Jun., North Korean Forces crossed Han-gang and captured Seoul.

American President Truman did not hesitate. He immediately instructed General of the Army Douglas MacArthur at his Far East Command Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan to supply South Korean Forces with his ammunition and military equipment.

On 26 June, Truman then authorized MacArthur to use his air and naval units against North Korean targets below the 38th parallel border, and the next day, seizing on the new Security Council Resolution, he extended the targets beyond the 38^th parallel border to North Korea. He also authorized the use of American Ground Forces to protect Pusan, South Korea’s major port. On 30 June, after MacArthur had gone to Korea to assess the situation, he authorized MacArthur to use all of his available forces to repel the surprising invasion and blockade the Korean coast.

On 1 Jul. in Japan, the first American Ground Combat Force, Task Force Smith, was urgently organized with the Japanese Occupation Force, the 24th Infantry Division, and arrived in Korea via transportation plane.

On 5 Jul, the Task Force Smith engaged and delayed advancing North Korean forces at Jukmi-ryong, Osan in the first American ground action. About 155 American men were killed, wounded or missing in the seven-hour fight at Osan. To the North Korean, six tanks with 127 dead or wounded were a lot of casualties in the short fight. 

Had it not been for Task Force Smith, the North Koreans would have driven, virtually unmolested, to Pusan, and the war would have ended in a North Korean victory in just a few days.  By any definition of 'mission accomplished', it was a battle which tactical mission was accomplished by Task Force Smith, and not a unfeasible battle they stood squarely on the path of the formidable enemy.   

This summer week, 73 years ago, was the perilous times of our country and our alliance United States for our fathers and mothers to resist desperately for our survival and anti-communism.

34th Regiment Withdrawal Actions

As part of the 24th infantry division, the 1st battalion, 34th regiment, was one of several unprepared American battalions rushed from Japan to help stopping the North Korean surprising advance. At the time, the regiment was consisted of only two under-strength battalions. Twenty-four hours later, they sailed from Sasebo, Kyushu, arriving in the port of Pusan on the evening of 2 Jul. After spending two days, checking equipment, organizing supplies, and arranging for transportation north, the regiment crowded onto five trains operated by South Korean had started north on the afternoon of 4 July.

Korean summer was wet. It was raining and unseasonably cold on the early morning of 5 July, when the regiment reached Pyongtaek.

A rifle platoon from a battalion went north to make a contact with the North Korean tanks as a reconnaissance mission. About halfway between Pyongtaek and Osan, the platoon met several tanks and fired upon them without effect. But the tanks made no effort to advance, so the opposing forces both settled down to observe each other around the town of Songtan.

On the early morning of 6 Jul., about fifty rounds fell in a battalion area within the fifteen minutes, following the first shell-burst in the area. Meanwhile, North Korean soldiers were appearing in numbers that looked overwhelmingly large to a company man. Within thirty minutes after the attacking action began, the leading North Korean soldiers had moved so close that the company men could see clearly them loading and reloading their rifles.

Of the approximately 140 men who had been in the position of a company at daybreak, only a few more than 100 could be assembled on that morning in Pyongtaek. Believing that the North Koreans were in rapid pursuit to destroy the whole regiment force, they were ordered to occupy the next defensive position which happened to be about two miles south of Chonan.    

On the next morning of 7 July, the commanding officer got his men up the hills and ordered them to go on digging in foxholes. The fighting for Chonan was continued on until the next early morning of 8 July and, by midmorning, the remaining men of the regiment began to withdraw and abandon the town.

By the time on 9 July, south of Chonan, trenches and holes were dug in around the town of Chonui. To the south under the divisional order, a new regiment had already crossed on sea from Japan to take up a delaying position at Chochiwon, south of Chonui, to protect the rear of the fighting regiment and the main supply road toward the province of Kyungsang-do.

On the late afternoon of 12 July, the North Korean shells were landed again in the area. Within a few minutes, North Korean soldiers appeared in large numbers in front of the regiment. There was a heavy volume of fire until about dawn on 13 July, when the regiment abandoned its hills and moved very quietly back to the north of the river of Kum-gang and to the town of Kongju for protecting the province of Cholla-do.

Along the river, another American defensive perimeter was desperately established in this summer week, 73 years ago.

Background of Daejeon Battle

In the middle of Jul. 1950, the North Korean two divisions were now across the Geum-gang River and both were ready to advance to the attack of Daejeon itself. One North Korean Division was closer to the town of Youseong and was approaching to the northwest of the city. Meanwhile another North Korean Division was blocking the Gongju-Nonsan Road to move south and then to turn east around the city for a round-up action, blocking the major retreating roads at the rear of the American Force.

In the North Korean Attacking Plan, another third division was supposed to join these two divisions in the attack. But this division could not arrive in time to join, because it was advancing on the east side of Daejeon and had been heavily engaged with South Korean Forces in the Jincheon-Cheongju Area where it suffered crippling casualties.

In any deployment of the American Forces against these North Koreans, The American 24^th Division Commander, General Dean, faced the fact that he had only remnants of three defeated regiments. Each of them could muster little more than a battalion size of troops. A series of the delaying action in the battles of Osan, Pyongtaek, Cheonan, Jeonui, Jochiwon and Geum-gang River had reduced substantially these regiments to the decimated state. In addition to the numerical weakness, all the American Troops were deadly tired, and their morale was not the best.

General Dean's Plan had been to place one regiment on the northern part of the defensive line covering the main Seoul-Busan Highway, where it curved around the northern edge of the mountain ridges in the area of Wolpyong-dong, and to place the other regiment on the western part of the defensive line along the Dosol-san Mountain Ridge adjacent to the Gap-cheon Creek to cover the Nonsan-Daejeon Road, where it passed both directly through the downtown and along the southern edge of the Bomun-san Mountain Ridges. But, due to the one combat-ineffective regiment under process of the re-equipping, the defense of the entire northern and western parts of the defensive line fell upon the one regiment. He instructed his third reserve regiment staying in the town of Youngdong, Southeast of Daejeon, to patrol periodically the terrain along the Daejeon-Okcheon Road. In this way, he could cover any North Korean’s infiltration affairs in the eastern part of the city.

He had no intention of the fighting a last-ditch battle for the city. He looked upon it as just another temporary place in a series of the delaying action to which his division had been committed to slow the speed of the North Korean Advance.

But his plan had to be changed by the arrival of his superior, General Walker, at the Daejon Airstrip just on the noon of 18 Jul. just one day before the battle breakout. General Walker said he would like to hold Daejeon, until the reinforcing division could move up to get into the mountain passes of Chupung-ryong around the town of Youngdong. He said to the General Dean, he needed two days to accomplish this action.

This is the Background Story of the Daejeon Battle, the American 24^th Division had to engage in the bloodiest battle taken place during Jul 19 to Jul 22, 73 years ago on this summer week.

Hwanggan Battle_

On the night of July 25, 1950, the American 1st Cavalry Division Troops hearing of the enemy breakthrough fled rearward from its forward positions in the town of Youngdong and were reorganized on the next morning of July 26, digging in near the town of Nogeun-ri.

It has been unclear whether the American shootings were the result of hostile fire from the disguised North Korean Agents among the refugees or the horrified American troopers who were misunderstanding of the order controlling of the civilian refugees, addressed as “No refugees should not cross the line, and fire anyone trying to cross ."  The refugees were blocked and thereinafter shot on the twin tunnel and its railroad bank in Nogeun-ri for several days. So far, this incident can be understood as an unfortunate tragedy inherent to the pressing war situation and not as a deliberate killing.

In regard of the tragic Nogeun-ri incident, when the Daejeon defensive line of the American 24^th Division was collapsed, North Korean Divisions were closing on the town of Youngdong. Meanwhile the North Korean 2nd Division, after engaging with South Korean Forces around Cheongju, continued its advance down to the town of Boeun. Its orders were to pass by Daejeon swiftly and to come out on the Seoul–Busan Highway at the town of Hwanggan, placing it in the rear of the 1st Cavalry Division to cut it off for its main retreat toward Gimcheon.

Responding to this developing threat, the US 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division around the town of Sangju was ordered to block the North Korean advance. In carrying out the order, the regimental commander Colonel Michaelis moved out his regiment immediately and assigned one battalion to make contact with a head of the North Korean Advance.

On the morning of July 23, the battalion moved northward toward the town of Boeun from the point of the Hwanggan Assembly. It took up defensive positions in the evening near the town of Boeun. Soon American troops spotted a North Korean column approaching and immediately arranged superior attacking points. They ambushed the column, as it passed, with all their weapons. The North Koreans halted their advance, thinking they had encountered a major American force, and held back until daylight. Into the evening of July 24, the fight continued and, after dark, the battalion disengaged and withdrew through the rearward battalion positions behind it, because its commander expected the North Koreans to encircle them during the night if they stayed where they were.

On the morning of July 25, the North Koreans were apparently unaware of this American withdrawal and came in for a double envelopment action behind the American positions which the battalion held the night before, but in front of the reward battalion positions. There, the North Koreans were caught in open ground by the combined cross-fire of tanks, artillery, mortar, and the infantry automatic and small arms fire. However, the North Korean pushed forward despite their casualties, and they were attacking the regimental main positions on the afternoon.

On the morning of July 26, the regiment came under the heavy attack where a large gap getting extended between the left element of the regiment and the nearest element of the 1st Cavalry Division staying around the village of Nogeun-ri. At this time of the threat being encircled, Colonel Michaelis asked the 1st Cavalry Division Commander for the permission to withdraw his whole regiment through the division positions.

On the afternoon of July 29, the regiment withdrew through the division positions to the town of Waegwan. In recognition of its quality battle performance to blow the substantial damage to the enemy and to protect the division rear, the US 27th Infantry was used as a fire brigade during the battle of Nakdong-gang River where it particularly distinguished itself at the Battle of the Bowling Alley in Dabu-dong, supporting of the South Korean Force in charge of General Paik SunYup. 

Why did American fight well in the beginning of the Korean War?

This is the criticism on the deficient performance of American Forces in initial stage of Korean War, which were regarded as the greatest fighting forces defeating German Nazi and Japanese Imperial Forces in the Second World War.

Before daylight on Sunday, June 25, 1950, Kim IlSung, hurled eight veteran infantry divisions to the South across the 38th Parallel. Led by 120 T34 tanks and extensive mobile artillery, they quickly crushed the valiant South Korean defenders, and butchered their way down the Korean peninsula until stopped by the American forces dispatched urgently at the Nakdong River Perimeter.

General MacArthur counter-attacked with his Marines at Inchon, far behind of the North Korean advancing lines and routed them, American Forces struck back across the 38^th Parallel to the Yalu River and Chinese Border. But China entered the war with their veteran forces already victorious in the most decisive battles at Huai-Hai during the Chinese Civil War. American Forces were ambushed by these Chinese and again driven deep back into South Korea.

In regard of the battle of Huai-Hai, Mao Zedong's Chinese Forces, without support of the air force, trapped a half-million-man of Chiang Kai-shek's Forces between the Huai River and the Hai Railway and destroyed them all at once. Originally, Chiang had dominated Mao, but Mao's guerilla force survived from the battles in 12,000 km of the "Long March", gained strength in the fighting with Japanese in the Second World War and eventually forced Chiang Forces retreating to Taiwanese Formosa Island after the battle of Huai-Hai.

Chinese Force was skillful, brave, and resourceful in the infantry, and North Korean Forces was so cruel to commit dishonorably the cruel murder of countless civilians and prisoner of war. The battlelines raged back and forth by mid-1951 and settled along the original Korean border, the 38th Parallel. However, cruel battles were continued for more two years until the cease-fire.

Given the huge disparity in artillery, armor, and air and naval fire support, the United States should have crushed North Korea's offensive within the first month of American Entry into the war.

But President Truman did not recognize that nuclear weapons did not make conventional combat impractical, but rather made it the only practical form of combat. His cabinet and high military command had no understanding of the tactics and strengths of the North Korean and Chinese Forces.

Acting on this misperception, the United States failed to prepare American Forces psychologically for the savage realities of conventional combat. American Forces were too conditioned for the duty of peacetime occupation in Japan and Germany.

General Matthew B. Ridgway commented on it. “I believe, we need to read the lessons closely lest we repeat the mistakes for which we paid so much." Summarily, leadership failure, inconsiderate disarmament, misguided training objectives, and incorrect intelligence assessments all had disastrous consequences in beginning of the Korean War.