Second Battle of Naktong Bulge
Second Battle of Naktong Bulge | |
---|---|
Part of the Naktong River, South Korea | |
Result | United Nations victory |
Edward A. Craig
Pak Kyo Sam
Kim Tae Hong
9th Division
4th Division
10th Division
The Second Battle of Naktong Bulge was an engagement between
After the
The urgency of the threat to Pusan Perimeter prompted the
Background
Pusan Perimeter
From the outbreak of the Korean War and the invasion of South Korea by the North, the KPA had enjoyed superiority in both manpower and equipment over both the ROK and the UN forces dispatched to South Korea to prevent it from collapsing.
When the KPA approached the Pusan Perimeter on August 5, they attempted the same frontal assault technique on the four main avenues of approach into the perimeter. Throughout August, the KPA
September push
In planning its new offensive, the KPA command decided any attempt to flank the UN force was impossible due to the support of the UN naval forces.[12] Instead, they opted to use frontal attack to breach the perimeter and collapse it as the only hope of achieving success in the battle.[4] Fed by intelligence from the Soviet Union the North Koreans were aware the UN forces were building up along the Pusan Perimeter and that it must conduct an offensive soon or it could not win the battle.[15] A secondary objective was to surround Taegu and destroy the UN units in that city. As part of this mission, the KPA would first cut the supply lines to Taegu.[16][17]
On August 20, the KPA commands distributed operations orders to their subordinate units.[15] The plan called for a simultaneous five-prong attack against the UN lines. These attacks would overwhelm the UN defenders and allow the KPA to break through the lines in at least one place to force the UN forces back. Five battle groupings were ordered.[18] The center attack called for the KPA 9th, 4th, 2nd and 10th Divisions to break through the US 2nd Infantry Division at the Naktong Bulge to Miryang and Yongsan.[19]
Battle
During the KPA September 1 offensive, the US
During the last week of August, US troops on these hills could see minor KPA activity across the river, which they thought was KPA organizing the high ground on the west side of the Naktong against a possible US attack.[22] There were occasional attacks on the 9th Infantry's forward positions, but to the men in the front lines this appeared to be only a standard patrol action.[20] On August 31, the UN forces were alerted to a pending attack when much of the Korean civilian labor force fled the front lines. Intelligence officers reported an attack was coming.[23]
On the west side of the Naktong, KPA
Battle of Agok
On the southernmost flank of the 9th Infantry river line, just above the junction of the Nam River with the Naktong, A Company of the 1st Battalion was dug in on a long finger ridge paralleling the Naktong that terminates in Hill 94 at the
That evening
At 22:30 the fog lifted and Kouma saw that a KPA pontoon bridge was being laid across the river directly in front of his position.[24] Kouma's four vehicles attacked this structure, and after about a minute of heavy fire the bridge collapsed, and the ponton boats used to hold the bridge in place were sunk. At 23:00 a small arms fight flared around the left side of A Company north of the tanks.[25] This gunfire had lasted only two or three minutes when the A Company roadblock squads near the tanks received word by field telephone that the company was withdrawing to the original ridge positions and that they should do likewise.[24]
Kouma's patrol was then ambushed by a group of KPA dressed in US military uniforms.[27] Kouma was wounded and the other three vehicles had to withdraw, but he held the Agok site until 07:30 the next morning with his single tank.[25] In the attack against A Company, the KPA hit the 1st Platoon, which was near Agok, but they did not find the 2nd Platoon northward.[27]
The KPA 9th Division's infantry crossing of the Naktong and attack on its east side near midnight quickly overran the positions of C Company, north of A Company.[26] There the KPA assaulted in force, signaled by green flares and blowing of whistles. The company held its positions only a short time and then attempted to escape.[21] Many of the men moved south, a few of them coming into A Company's ridge line positions near Agok during the night. Most of C Company moved all the way to the 25th Division positions south of the Naktong. On September 1 that division reported that 110 men of C Company had come into its lines.[27]
North Korean crossing
Meanwhile, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Agok and A Company's position, B Company, 9th Infantry, held a similar position on Hill 209 overlooking the
Near the end of the month two reconnaissance patrols from the 9th Infantry had crossed to the west side of the Naktong and observed KPA tank and troop activity 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the river.
The 9th Infantry Regiment had planned Task Force Manchu on orders from the 2nd Division commander
After dark on August 31,
By 21:00, the closest front line unit was B Company on top of Hill 209, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the river road which curved around the hill's southern base.[28] The regimental chaplain, Captain Lewis B. Sheen, had gone forward in the afternoon to B Company to hold services. On top of Hill 209, Chaplain Sheen and men in B Company after dark heard splashing in the water below them. They soon discovered a long line of KPA soldiers wading the river.[30]
The first KPA crossing at the Paekchin ferry caught the Heavy Mortar Platoon unprepared in the act of setting up its weapons.[28] It also caught most of the D and H Company men at the base of Hill 209, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the crossing site. The KPA killed or captured many of the troops there.[30] Hill was there, but escaped to the rear just before midnight, together with several others, when the division canceled Operation Manchu because of the attacks.[28] The first heavy weapons carrying party was on its way up the hill when the KPA attack engulfed the men below. It hurried on to the top where the advance group waited and there all hastily dug in on a small perimeter. This group was not attacked during the night.[30]
From 21:30 until shortly after midnight the KPA 9th Division crossed the Naktong at a number of places and climbed the hills quietly toward the 9th Infantry river line positions.[30] Then, when the artillery barrage preparation lifted, the KPA infantry were in position to launch their assaults. These began in the northern part of the regimental sector and quickly spread southward.[28] At each crossing site the KPA would overwhelm local UN defenders before building pontoon bridges for their vehicles and armor.[30]
At 02:00, B Company was attacked.[26] A truck stopped at the bottom of the hill, a whistle sounded, then came a shouted order, and KPA soldiers started climbing the slope.[31] The hills on both sides of B Company were already under attack as was also Hill 311, a rugged terrain feature a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the river and the KPA's principal immediate objective.[28] The KPA apparently were not aware of the Task Force Manchu group lower down on the hill and it was not attacked during the night. But higher up on Hill 209 the KPA drove B Company from its position, inflicting very heavy casualties on it. Sheen led one group of soldiers back to friendly lines on 4 September.[31]
At 03:00, 1 September, the 9th Infantry Regiment ordered its only reserve, E Company to move west along the Yongsan-Naktong River road and take a blocking position at the pass between Cloverleaf Hill and Obong-ni Ridge, 3 miles (4.8 km) from the river and 6 miles (9.7 km) from Yongsan.
US 23rd Infantry attacked
North of the 9th Infantry sector of the 2nd Infantry Division front along the Naktong, the US
Two roads ran through the regimental sector from the Naktong River to
The 42 men of the 2nd Platoon, B Company, 23rd Infantry held outpost positions on seven hills covering a 2,600 yards (2,400 m) front along the east bank of the Naktong north of Pugong-ni.[33] Across the river in the rice paddies they could see, in the afternoon of August 31, two large groups of KPA soldiers. Occasionally artillery fire dispersed them.[28] Just before dark, the platoon saw a column of KPA come out of the hills and proceed toward the river. They immediately reported to the battalion command post. The artillery forward observer, who estimated the column at 2,000 people, thought they were refugees. Freeman immediately ordered the artillery to fire on the column, reducing its number. However the KPA continued their advance.[33]
At 21:00 the first shells of what proved to be a two-hour KPA artillery and mortar preparation against the US river positions of 2nd Platoon.[26] As the barrage rolled on, KPA infantry crossed the river and climbed the hills in the darkness under cover of its fire.[28] At 23:00 the barrage lifted and the KPA attacked 2nd Platoon, forcing it from the hill after a short fight. Similar assaults took place elsewhere along the battalion outpost line.[33]
On the regimental left along the main Pugong-ni-Changnyong road KPA soldiers completely overran C Company by 03:00 September 1.[26] Only seven men of C Company could be accounted for, and three days later, after all the stragglers and those cut off behind KPA lines had come in, there were only 20 men in the company.[28] As the KPA attack developed during the night, 1st Battalion succeeded in withdrawing a large part of its force, less C Company, just north of Lake U-p'o and the hills there covering the northern road into Changnyong, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the river and 5 miles (8.0 km) west of the town. B Company lost heavily in this action.[34]
When word of the disaster that had overtaken 1st Battalion reached regimental headquarters, Freeman obtained the release of G and F Companies from 2nd Division reserve and sent the former to help 1st Battalion and the latter on the southern road toward Pugong-ni and C Company.
US 2nd Division split
Before the morning of 1 September had passed, reports coming into US 2nd Division headquarters made it clear that the KPA had penetrated to the north-south Changnyong-Yongsan road and cut the division in two;
All three regiments of the KPA 2nd Division-the 4th, 17th and 6th, in line from north to south-crossed during the night to the east side of the Naktong River into the 23rd Regiment sector. The KPA 2nd Division, concentrated in the Sinban-ni area west of the river, had, in effect, attacked straight east across the river and was trying to seize the two avenues of advance into Changnyong above and below Lake U-p'o. On August 31, 1950, Lake U-p'o was a large body of water although in most places very shallow.[36]
At dawn September 1, Keiser at 2nd Division headquarters in Muan-ni, 7 miles (11 km) east of Yongsan on the Miryang road, felt his division was in the midst of a crisis.[36] The massive KPA attack had made deep penetrations everywhere in the division sector except in the north in the zone of the 38th Infantry.[35] The KPA 9th Division had effected major crossings of the Naktong at two principal points against the US 9th Infantry; the KPA 2nd Division in the meantime had made three major crossings against the US 23rd Infantry; and the KPA 10th Division had begun crossing more troops in the Hill 409 area near Hyongp'ung in the US 38th Infantry sector. At 08:10 Keiser telephoned Eighth Army headquarters and reported the heaviest and deepest KPA penetrations were in the 9th Infantry sector.[36]
Liaison planes rose from the division strip every hour to observe the KPA progress and to locate US 2nd Infantry Division front-line units.[37] Communication from division and regimental headquarters to nearly all the forward units was broken.[35] Beginning at 09:30 and continuing throughout the rest of the day, the light aviation section of the division artillery located front-line units cut off by the KPA, and made fourteen airdrops of ammunition, food, water, and medical supplies.[37] As information slowly built up at division headquarters it became apparent that the KPA had punched a hole 6 miles (9.7 km) wide and 8 miles (13 km) deep in the middle of the division line and made less severe penetrations elsewhere.[26] The front-line battalions of the US 9th and 23rd Regiments were in various states of disorganization and some companies had virtually disappeared.[35] Keiser hoped he could organize a defense along the Changnyong-Yongsan road east of the Naktong River, and prevent KPA access to the passes eastward leading to Miryang and Ch'ongdo.[37]
Reinforcements
At 09:00 Walker requested the
During the morning of 1 September, Walker weighed the news coming in from his southern front, wavering in a decision as to which part of the front most needed his Pusan Perimeter reserves.
Eighth Army had in reserve three understrength infantry regiments and the 2-battalion
As the morning passed, General Walker decided that the situation was most critical in the Naktong Bulge area of the US 2nd Division sector.
North Korean advance
The situation on the front was chaotic during the day September 1. The KPA had crossed at the Kihang ferry, captured Agok and scattered A Company, 9th Infantry at its positions from Agok northward. A Company withdrew to positions on the ridge line back of the river. From there at daylight the men could see KPA soldiers on many of the ridges surrounding them, most of them moving east. After several hours, 2nd Platoon of A Company sent a patrol down the hill to Agok to obtain supplies abandoned there during the night, returning later with much needed water, rations, and ammunition.[41]
Later in the morning KPA barges crossed the Naktong below A Company. The company sent a squad with a light machine gun to the southern tip of the ridge overlooking Agok to take these troops under fire. When the squad reached the tip of the ridge they saw that a KPA force occupied houses at its base. The company hit these houses with artillery. The KPA broke from the houses, running for the river. At this the light machine gun at the tip of the ridge took them under fire, as did another across the Naktong to the south in the US 25th Infantry Division sector. Proximity fuze artillery fire decimated this group. Combined fire from all weapons inflicted an estimated 300 casualties on this KPA force.[41] In the afternoon, US aircraft dropped food and ammunition to the company; only part of it was recovered. The 1st Battalion ordered A Company to withdraw the company that night.[42]
During the withdrawal, however, A Company ran into a sizable KPA force and had scattered in the ensuing fight. Most of the company, including its commander were killed at close range. In this desperate action,
The end of Task Force Manchu
In the meantime, Task Force Manchu was still holding its position along the Naktong River, about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of where A Company had been destroyed on the southern end of the line.[44] The perimeter position taken by the men of D and H Companies, 9th Infantry, who had started up the hill before the KPA struck, was on a southern knob of Hill 209, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of B Company's higher position.[32] In addition to the D and H Company men, there were a few from the Heavy Mortar Platoon and one or two from B Company. Altogether, 60 to 70 men were in the group. The group had an SCR-300 radio, a heavy machine gun, two light machine guns, a M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), about 20 M1 Garand rifles, and about 40 carbines or pistols. Schmitt assumed command of the group.[44]
During the night Schmitt established radio communication with the 1st Battalion, 9th infantry.[44] When daylight came Schmitt and his group saw that they were surrounded by KPA. One force occupied the higher knob 0.5 miles (0.80 km) above them, formerly held by B Company. Below them, KPA continued crossing the river and moving supplies forward to their combat units, some of them already several miles eastward.[32] The KPA quickly discovered Task Force Manchu group. They first attacked it at 14:00 that afternoon, and were repulsed.[44] That night an estimated company attacked three times, pressing the fight to close quarters, but failed each time to penetrate the tight US perimeter.[32] Daylight of the second day disclosed many KPA dead on the steep slopes outside the perimeter.[44]
In the afternoon of September 2 Schmitt radioed 1st Battalion for an airdrop of supplies.[32] A US plane attempted the drop, but the perimeter was so small and the slopes so steep that virtually all the supplies went into KPA hands. The men in the perimeter did, however, recover from a drop made later at 19:00 some supplies and ammunition. Private First Class Joseph R. Ouellette, of H Company, left the perimeter to gather weapons, ammunition, and grenades from the KPA dead. On several occasions he was attacked, and on one such occasion a KPA soldier suddenly attacked Ouellette, who killed the North Korean in hand-to-hand combat.[45]
That same afternoon, the KPA sent an American prisoner up the hill to Schmitt with the message, "You have one hour to surrender or be blown to pieces."[32] Failing in frontal infantry attack to reduce the little defending force, the KPA now meant to take it under mortar fire.[45] Only 45 minutes later KPA antitank fire came in on the knob and two machine guns from positions northward and higher on the slope of Hill 209 swept the perimeter. Soon, mortars emplaced on a neighboring high finger ridge eastward registered on Schmitt's perimeter and continued firing until dark.[46] The machine gun fire forced every man to stay in his foxhole. The lifting of the mortar fire after dark was the signal for renewed KPA infantry attacks, all of which were repulsed.[32] But the number of killed and wounded within the perimeter was growing, and supplies were diminishing. There were no medical supplies except those carried by one aid man.[46]
The third day, September 3, the situation worsened. The weather was hot and ammunition, food and supplies were nearly completely exhausted. Since the previous afternoon, KPA mortar barrages had alternated with infantry assaults against the perimeter.[47] Survivors later estimated there were about twenty separate infantry attacks repulsed. Two KPA machine guns still swept the perimeter whenever anyone showed himself. Dead and dying US troops were in almost every foxhole.[46] Mortar fragments destroyed the radio and this ended all communication with other US units. Artillery fire and air strikes requested by Schmitt never came.[32] Some KPA worked their way close to the perimeter and threw grenades into it. Six times Ouellette leaped from his foxhole to escape grenades thrown into it. In this close action Ouellette was killed. Most of the foxholes of the perimeter received one or more direct mortar hits in the course of the continuing mortar fire.[47] One of these killed Schmitt on September 3. The command passed now to First Lieutenant Raymond J. McDoniel of D Company, senior surviving officer.[46]
At daylight on the morning of 4 September only two officers and approximately half the men who had assembled on the hill, were alive.
Members of Task Force Manchu who escaped from Hill 209 brought back considerable intelligence information of KPA activity in the vicinity of the Paekchin ferry crossing site. At the ferry site the KPA had put in an underwater bridge. A short distance downstream, each night they placed a pontoon bridge across the river and took it up before dawn the next morning. Carrying parties of 50 civilians guarded by four KPA soldiers crossed the river continuously at night, an estimated total of 800–1,000 carriers being used at this crossing site.[48]
Changyong
North of the US 9th Infantry and the battles in the Naktong Bulge and around Yongsan, the US 23rd Infantry Regiment after daylight of September 1 was in a very precarious position.
The KPA advanced to Changnyong itself during the afternoon of September 2, and
Still farther northward in the zone of the US 38th Infantry the KPA were also active. After the KPA breakthrough during the night of August 31, Keiser had ordered the 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry, to move south and help the 23rd Infantry establish a defensive position west of Changnyong.[50] In attempting to do this, the battalion found KPA troops already on the ridges along the road. They had penetrated to Hill 284 overlooking the 38th Infantry command post. This hill and Hill 209 dominated the rear areas of the regiment. At 06:00 September 3, 300 KPA launched an attack from Hill 284 against the 38th Regiment command post. The regimental commander organized a defensive perimeter and requested a bombing strike which was denied him because the target and his defense perimeter were too close to each other, but the USAF did deliver rocket and strafing strikes.[52]
This fight continued until September 5. On that day F Company captured Hill 284 killing 150 KPA.[50] From the crest he and his men watched as many more KPA ran into a village below them. Directed artillery fire destroyed the village. Among the abandoned KPA materiel on the hill, Schauer's men found twenty-five American BARs and submachine guns, a large American radio, thirty boxes of unopened US fragmentation and concussion grenades and some rations.[52]
1-23rd Infantry isolated
Meanwhile, during these actions in its rear, the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry, was cut off 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the nearest friendly units.
On the morning of September 1, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry moved in an attack westward from the 23rd Regiment command post near Mosan-ni to open the road to the 1st Battalion. On the second day of the fighting at the pass, the relief force broke through the roadblock with the help of air strikes and artillery and tank fire. The advanced elements of the battalion joined 1st Battalion at 17:00 September 2. That evening, KPA strongly attacked the 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry, on Hill 209 north of the road and opposite 1st Battalion, driving one company from its position.[54]
On September 4, Haynes changed the boundary between the 38th and 23rd Infantry Regiments, giving the northern part of the 23rd's sector to the 38th Infantry, thus releasing 1st Battalion for movement southward to help the 2nd Battalion defend the southern approach to Changnyong.[54] The 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry, about 1,100 men strong when the attack began, was now down to a strength of approximately 600 men. The 23rd Infantry now made plans to concentrate all its troops on the position held by its 2nd Battalion on the Pugong-ni-Changnyong road.[50] The 1st Battalion moved there and took a place on the left flank of the 2nd Battalion. At the same time the regimental command post moved to the rear of this position. In this regimental perimeter, the 23rd Infantry fought a series of hard battles. Simultaneously it had to send combat patrols to its rear to clear infiltrating KPA from Changnyong and from its supply road.[54]
Battle of Yongsan
On the morning of September 1 the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the KPA 9th Division, in their first offensive of the war, stood only a few miles short of Yongsan after a successful river crossing and penetration of the US line.
On the morning of September 1, with only the shattered remnants of E Company at hand, the US 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division had virtually no troops to defend Yongsan.[55] Keiser in this emergency attached the 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion to the regiment. The US 72nd Tank Battalion and the 2nd Division Reconnaissance Company also were assigned positions close to Yongsan. The regimental commander planned to place the engineers on the chain of low hills that arched around Yongsan on the northwest.[57]
A Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, moved to the south side of the Yongsan-Naktong River road; D Company of the 2nd Engineer Battalion was on the north side of the road. Approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Yongsan an estimated 300 KPA troops engaged A Company in a fire fight.[58] M19 Gun Motor Carriages of the 82nd AAA Battalion supported the engineers in this action, which lasted several hours.[57] Meanwhile, with the approval of General Bradley, D Company moved to the hill immediately south of and overlooking Yongsan.[57] A platoon of infantry went into position behind it. A Company was now ordered to fall back to the southeast edge of Yongsan on the left flank of D Company. There, A Company went into position along the road; on its left was C Company of the Engineer battalion, and beyond C Company was the 2nd Division Reconnaissance Company. The hill occupied by D Company was in reality the western tip of a large mountain mass that lay southeast of the town.[57] The road to Miryang came south out of Yongsan, bent around the western tip of this mountain, and then ran eastward along its southern base.[55] In its position, D Company not only commanded the town but also its exit, the road to Miryang.[35][57]
The KPA had also approached Yongsan from the south.
At 09:35 September 2, while the KPA were attempting to destroy the engineer troops at the southern edge of Yongsan and clear the road to Miryang,
A decision was reached that the Marines would attack west at 08:00 on September 3 astride the Yongsan-Naktong River road;[65] the 9th Infantry, B Company of the 72nd Tank Battalion, and D Battery of the 82nd AAA Battalion would attack northwest above the Marines and attempt to re-establish contact with the US 23rd Infantry;[47] the 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, remnants of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, and elements of the 72nd Tank Battalion would attack on the left flank, or south, of the Marines to reestablish contact with the 25th Division.[66] Eighth Army now ordered the US 24th Infantry Division headquarters and the US 19th Infantry Regiment to move to the Susan-ni area, 8 miles (13 km) south of Miryang and 15 miles (24 km) east of the confluence of the Nam River and the Naktong River. There it was to prepare to enter the battle in either the 2nd or 25th Division zone.[61]
The US counteroffensive of September 3–5 west of Yongsan, according to prisoner statements, resulted in one of the bloodiest debacles of the war for a KPA division. Even though remnants of the KPA 9th Division, supported by the low strength KPA 4th Division, still held Obong-ni Ridge, Cloverleaf Hill, and the intervening ground back to the Naktong on September 6, the division's offensive strength had been spent at the end of the US counterattack.[53] The KPA 9th and 4th divisions were not able to resume the offensive.[67]
KPA 2nd Division destroyed
The KPA 2nd Division made a new effort against the 23rd Infantry's perimeter in the predawn hours of September 8, in an attempt to break through eastward. This attack, launched at 02:30 and heavily supported with artillery, penetrated F Company. It was apparent that unless F Company's position could be restored the entire regimental front would collapse. When all its officers became casualties, First Lieutenant Ralph R. Robinson, adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, assumed command of the company.[54] With KPA rapidly infiltrating his company's position and gaining its rear, Robinson in the darkness made his way through them 500 yards (460 m) to A Company's position. There he obtained that company's reserve platoon and brought it back to F Company. He accomplished the dangerous and difficult task of maneuvering it into the gap in F Company's lines in darkness and heavy rain.[54]
The attack tapered off with the coming of daylight, but that night it resumed. The KPA struck repeatedly at the defense line. This time they continued the fighting into the daylight hours of 9 September.[54] The USAF then concentrated strong air support over the regimental perimeter to aid the ground troops.[50] Casualties came to the aid stations from the infantry companies in an almost steady stream during the morning. All available men from Headquarters Company and special units were formed into squads and put into the fight at the most critical points. At one time, the regimental reserve was down to six men. When the attack finally ceased shortly after 12:00 the 23rd Regiment had an estimated combat efficiency of only 38 percent.[68]
This heavy night and day battle cost the KPA 2nd Division most of its remaining offensive strength.[50] The medical officer of the KPA 17th Regiment, 2nd Division, captured a few days later, said that the division evacuated about 300 men nightly to a hospital in Pugong-ni, and that in the first two weeks of September the 2nd Division lost 1,300 killed and 2,500 wounded in the fighting west of Changnyong. Even though its offensive strength was largely spent by September 9, the division continued to harass rear areas around Changnyong with infiltrating groups as large as companies. Patrols daily had to open the main supply road and clear the town.[68]
KPA and US troops remained locked in combat along the Naktong River for several more days. The KPA's offensive capability was largely destroyed, and the US troops resolved to hold their lines barring further attack.[68]
North Korean withdrawal
The UN
Aftermath
The KPA 2nd and 9th Divisions were almost completely destroyed in the battles. The 9th Division had numbered 9,350 men at the beginning of the offensive on September 1. The 2nd Division numbered 6,000.[18] Only a few hundred from each division returned to North Korea after the fight. The majority of the KPA troops had been killed, captured or deserted.[75] All of KPA II Corps was in a similar state, and the KPA, exhausted at Pusan Perimeter was on the brink of defeat.[76]
By this time, the US 2nd Infantry Division suffered 1,120 killed, 2,563 wounded, 67 captured and 69 missing during its time at Pusan Perimeter.[77] This included about 180 casualties it suffered during the First Battle of Naktong Bulge the previous month.[78] American forces were continually repulsed but able to prevent the KPA from breaking the Pusan Perimeter.[79] The division had numbered 17,498 on September 1, but was in excellent position to attack despite its casualties.[80] The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade suffered 185 killed and around 500 wounded during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, most of which probably occurred at Yongsan.[78]
Of all the KPA attacks along the Pusan Perimeter, the Second Battle of Naktong Bulge is seen by historians as the most serious threat. It was the battle in which the KPA made the most substantial gains, splitting the US 2nd Infantry Division in half and briefly capturing Yongsan, where they were very close to breaching through to the US forces' supply lines and threatening other divisions' rear areas.[62] However, once again the fatal weakness of the KPA had cost it victory after an impressive initial success—its communications and supply were not capable of exploiting a breakthrough and of supporting a continuing attack in the face of massive air, armor and artillery fire that could be concentrated against its troops at critical points.[51][81] By September 8, the KPA attacks in the area had been repulsed.[63]
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- ^ Alexander 2003, p. 185
- ^ Millett 2000, p. 535
- ^ Appleman 1998, p. 464
- ^ a b c Appleman 1998, p. 469
- ^ Appleman 1998, p. 568
- ^ Fehrenbach 2001, p. 159
- ^ Bowers, Hammong & MacGarrigle 2005, p. 179
- ^ Alexander 2003, p. 187
- ^ a b Appleman 1998, p. 570
- ^ Bowers, Hammong & MacGarrigle 2005, p. 180
- ^ Appleman 1998, p. 603
- ^ Appleman 1998, p. 604
- ^ Ecker 2004, p. 16
- ^ a b Ecker 2004, p. 20
- ^ Ecker 2004, p. 14
- ^ Appleman 1998, p. 382
- ^ Millett 2000, p. 537
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-7818-1019-7
- Appleman, Roy E. (1998), South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu: United States Army in the Korean War, ISBN 978-0-16-001918-0, archived from the original on 2014-02-07, retrieved 2010-12-25 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- Bowers, William T.; Hammong, William M.; MacGarrigle, George L. (2005), Black Soldier, White Army: The 24th Infantry Regiment in Korea, ISBN 978-1-4102-2467-5
- Catchpole, Brian (2001), The Korean War, ISBN 978-1-84119-413-4
- Ecker, Richard E. (2004), Battles of the Korean War: A Chronology, with Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures & Medal of Honor Citations, ISBN 978-0-7864-1980-7
- ISBN 978-1-57488-334-3
- Millett, Allan R. (2000), The Korean War, Volume 1, ISBN 978-0-8032-7794-6
- ISBN 978-1-882810-44-4
Further reading
- Gugeler, Russell A. (2005), Combat Actions in Korea, University Press of the Pacific, ISBN 978-1-4102-2451-4