Battles-p4

Katie

=**__Battles of the Korean War__**=

The Korean War first started when North Korea attcked South Korea on June 25, 1950. North Korea's army, led by Kim II Sung, had a force of 90,000 men and 150 T-34 tanks. South Korea was surprised by this attack and only had 38,000 men, but only one third were on duty! The main axes the North Koreans were invading were the Charwan-Uijonngbu-Seoul and the coast. Since it was clear that the North Koreans outnumbered and had heavier artillary than the Americans, they began an evacuation from the city of Seoul. During the evacuation the South Koreans lost their chance to have any effect with their army. The North Koreans blew up important bridges north of Seoul, causing 10,000 South Koreans to be stranded. On June 27, 1950 the North Koreans had completely taken over Seoul.The first major battle of The Korean War was Task Force Smith which took place on June 30, 1950. While North Korean troops were advancing further into South Korea, the U.S. was failing to find troops large and equipped enough to slow down the North Koreans advance. The firs unit called to combat was the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division led by Colonel Charles Bedford Smith. Smith led his troops to low hills next to a road just north of the village of Suwon. When North Korean Tanks were in shooting range of Smith's artillary, he opened fire. The artillary fire clearly wasn't stopping the tanks at all so Smith launched a bazooka fire stopping 2 of the North Korean tanks. When they were only 1,000 yards away, Smith fired everything he had. After two hours of fighting Smith was clearly outnumbered by troops 8 times larger than his. Smith withdrew fire so all his men wouldn't be annihilated. Most of the men eventually made it back to American lines. The Twenty-fourth Regimental Combat Team (RCT) arrived in Korea as the only all-black unit of the Twenty-fifth Division. Although Harry S. Truman had signed Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which provided equal rights in the armed forces, only the airforce had integrated troops. No one else thought it was right for African Americans and other groups to live and work in the same facilities. The army slowly moved forward with the issue having only one regiment consisting of African Americans in the army. On July 21, the Twenty-fourth RCT led a successful attack on the town of Yechon, defeating a large unit of North Koreans. Though later on the army began to state that the defeat never happened. For several weeks after the Twenty-fourth RCT panicked and bugged-out of all their battles. Officers said that they could not rely on this team, but they stated that they were forced to retreat like all the other units. This caused such commotion in the army that they split up the Twenty-fourth RCT and had no more segregated units. Matray, James I. 2002 

The next major battle took place after the sloppy deployment of American troops. Under the command of General Dean, the Americans attempted to hold the city of Taejon. North Korean tanks broke into the city making it clear that Dean had to withdraw for he wasn't going to be able to keep hold of the city. Despite aerial attacks and naval bombardment the North Koreans continued their journey. The next attack by these troops was Operation Killer. It was one of the first successful attack by the Americans that caused communist troops on the eastern part of the country to draw northward. On September 5, 1950 there was a battle called Pusan. The first Marine Brigade arrived intactfrom the U.S. helping stabalize the American lines. The Marines' responsibility was to protect the western point of the Pusan perimeter. They managed to counterattack the North Koreans causing them to stop dead in their tracks and the first victory for the U.S. on that front. The much needed equipment from the U.S. helped american troops stop 2 major attacks by north Korea and by the end of September the Pusan perimeter was nearly secured. On September 10, 1950, American vessels launched to Inchon, a port serving Seoul 20 miles inland, from Japan. Though, to land on Inchon, the vessels had to attack Wolmi-do Island. On September 15, the Marines attacked the island and achieved their first goal; Radio Hill. Within an hour the island was in American hands. The afternoon of the 16th, Marines headed tword Inchon, going for a surprise attack. Though losing the element of surprise, the Marines came ashore and overcame the defenders. The Marines managed both to move inward 10 miles and destroy six counterattack tanks in a matter of seconds.

Immediately after the capture of Inchon the American Army set their hopes on Seoul. As American forces started moving forward tword Seoul, North Korean forces collapsed throughout the south. Most American commanders didn't want to attack Seoul directly, but that was the only option that would make MacArthur happy. North Korean troops that withdrew went to stand against the Americans in Seoul forming a North Korean force of 20,000 troops. On September 20th the Marines crossed the Hans River and attacked Seoul from the North, South and West. The Americans were soon engaged in house-to-house combat that destroyed most of Seoul. On September 27th, 1950 the Americans finally reached the capitol building of Seoul. Though this was a moajor accomplishment the Americans were far from the end. On October 9th MacArthur's troops crossed the 38th parallel and successfully stayed there for one week. After a week of fighting the North Koreans broke through to the south again and MacArthur then proceeded as far as he could to the Chinese border. As South Korean troops headed northward they kept running into Chinese troops. Reports of these collisions were dismissed until the U.S. realized that the Chinese were a big part of the war. American casualties were inflicted because of the Chinese. The Chinese were sending the Americans a message; they were now a major part in the war and were to be taken seriously.

During July of 1951 war started to come to an end. There were peace talks between the UN and the Communists. This did not result in a direct end of the war though. Fighting still went on for nearly 2 years! The war soon became th extension of the peace talks. Sadly, soldiers did not know entirely the reason for being shot.

Overall, there were many casualties in this war. We are still not sure of the exact number of casualties there were. The Pentagon has estimated that there were 996,937 UN casualties. Of these there were 850,000 South Korean soldiers, 17,000 non-American UN troops, and 157,530 Americans. Of the American casualties, 33,629 were killed and 103,284 were wounded. There were an additional 20,617 deaths outside of Korea during the war. For the communist side the Pentagon estimated 1,420,000 casualties. 520,000 of which were North Korean casualties, and 900,000 Chinese casualties.

I feel that it is important that we know about the battles of the Korean War because without them there would be no war. I also believe that we should know what men of our country did before us so we could live out our lives peacefully with the rest of the world!

__Source Citation__:
 * "History Central." The Multimedia Company. 2005. 2/5/07. [|www.historycentral.com]
 * Benson, Sonia G. New York: Gale Group 2002. 1-313.
 * Evanhoe, Ed. "Korean War Timeline." //The Korean War.// 8/16/1999, 1/11/2007. 2/7/2007. [|www.korean-war.com]