Battle of Osan

Battle of Osan
Part of Korean War
An American 2.36-inch bazooka team takes aim at a North Korean tank during the Battle of Osan. On the right is Kenneth R. Shadrick who would later be reported as the first American killed in Korea.
Date July 6,1950 Location Osan, South Korea Result North Korean victory
Belligerents
United States	North Korea
Commanders and leaders
Charles B. Smith Miller O. Perry (WIA)	Lee Kwon Mu
Units involved
1st Battalion, 21st Infantry	4th Infantry Division 16th Infantry Regiment 18th Infantry Regiment 105th Armored Division 107th Tank Regiment
Strength
540 infantry and support	5,000 infantry 36 tanks
Casualties and losses
60 killed 21 wounded 82 captured	42 killed 85 wounded 4 tanks destroyed

The Battle of Osan was the first engagement between United States and North Korean forces during the Korean War, on July 5, 1950. A U.S. task force of 400 infantry supported by an artillery battery was moved to Osan, south of the South Korean capital Seoul, and ordered to fight as a rearguard to delay advancing North Korean forces while additional U.S. troops arrived in the country to form a stronger defensive line to the south. The task force lacked both anti-tank guns and effective infantry anti-tank weapons, having been equipped with obsolescent 2.36-in. rocket launchers and a few 57mm recoilless rifles. Aside from a limited number of HEAT shells for the unit's 105-mm howitzers, crew-served weapons capable of defeating the T-34 had not been distributed to U.S. Army forces in Korea at the time.

In the first encounter, a North Korean tank column equipped with ex-Soviet T-34/85 tanks overran the task force and continued its advance south. After the North Korean tank column had successfully breached U.S. lines, the Task Force opened fire on a force of some 5,000 North Korean infantry approaching its position, temporarily holding up the North Korean advance. Eventually, North Korean troops overwhelmed American positions, and the remnants of the Task Force retreated in disorder.

Background

Outbreak of war

Main Article: Initial Phase of Korean War

On the night of June 25, 1950, ten divisions of the North Korean People's Army launched a full-scale invasion of the nation's neighbor to the south, the Republic of Korea. The force of 89,000 men moved in six columns, catching the Republic of Korea Army by surprise, resulting in a complete rout. The smaller South Korean army suffered from widespread lack of organization and equipment, and it was unprepared for war. Numerically superior, North Korean forces destroyed isolated resistance from the 38,000 South Korean soldiers on the front before it began moving steadily south. Most of South Korea's forces retreated in the face of the invasion. By June 28, the North Koreans had captured South Korea's capital of Seoul, forcing the government and its shattered army to retreat further south.

To prevent South Korea's collapse, the United Nations Security Council voted to send military forces. The United States' Seventh Fleet dispatched Task Force 77, led by the fleet carrier USS Valley Forge; the British Far East Fleet dispatched several ships, including HMS Triumph, to provide air and naval support. Although the navies blockaded North Korea and launched aircraft to delay the North Korean forces, these efforts alone did not stop the North Korean Army juggernaut on its southern advance. To supplement the air support, U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered ground troops into the country. However, the strength of U.S. forces in the Far East had steadily declined since the end of World War II five years earlier and the closest unit was the 24th Infantry Division of the Eighth United States Army, headquartered in Japan. Cuts in U.S. military spending meant the division was under strength and using outmoded equipment.

Division commander, Major General William F. Dean determined that the 21st Infantry Regiment was the most combat-ready of the 24th Infantry Division's three regiments. From the formation, Dean decided to send the 21st Infantry's 1st Battalion because its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith, was the most experienced leading man, having commanded a battalion at the Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II. From the division garrison, C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft airlifted one battalion under Smith's command into Korea. The battalion deployed quickly to block advancing North Korean forces, performing a holding action while the rest of the division could be moved to South Korea by sea.

Task Force Smith

When you get to Pusan, head for Taejon. We want to stop the North Koreans as far from Pusan as we can. Block the main road as far north as possible. Make contact with General Church. If you can't find him, go to Taejon and beyond if you can. Sorry I can't give you more information—that's all I've got. Good luck, and God bless you and your men!

–Major General William F. Dean's orders to Colonel Smith

Task Force Smith arrives in South Korea.

The first units of the 24th Infantry Division left Itazuke Air Base in Japan on June 30. Named for its commander, Task Force Smith consisted of 406 men of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, as well as 134 men of A Battery, 52nd Field Artillery Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Miller O. Perry. The forces were both poorly equipped and understrength: 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry had only two companies of infantry (B and C Company), as opposed to the regulation three for a U.S. Army battalion. The battalion had half of the required number of troops in its Headquarters Company, half of a communications platoon, and half of a heavy weapons platoon, which was armed with six obsolescent M9A1 Bazooka rocket launchers, two 75mm recoilless rifles, two 4.2 inch mortars, and four 60mm mortars. Much of this equipment was drawn from the rest of the under-strength 21st. A Battery, which formed the entire artillery support for the Task Force, was armed with six 105mm howitzers. These howitzers were equipped with 1,200 HE (high explosive) rounds, but these were incapable of penetrating tank armor. Only six High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds were issued to the battery, all of them allocated to the number six howitzer sited forward of the main battery emplacement. Most of the soldiers of the Task Force were teenagers with no combat experience and only eight weeks of basic training. Only one third of the officers in the Task Force had combat experience from World War II, and only one in six enlisted soldiers had combat experience. Many of them nevertheless volunteered to join the task force. The soldiers were each equipped with only 120 rounds of ammunition and two days of C-rations.

Task Force Smith Order of Battle 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Headquarters Platoon B Company C Company Heavy Weapons Platoon 52nd Field Artillery Battalion A Battery

By July 1, Task Force Smith had fully arrived in South Korea, and briefly established a headquarters in Taejon. Soon after, the task force began moving north by rail and truck to oppose the North Korean army. Task Force Smith was the first of several small U.S. units sent into Korea with the mission to take the initial "shock" of North Korean advances, delaying much larger North Korean units with the goal of buying time to allow more U.S. units into Korea. In the case of Task Force Smith, its mission was to move as far north as possible and begin engaging the North Koreans to stem their advance, so that the rest of the 24th Infantry Division could be moved into South Korea to re-enforce it. The 24th Division commander William F. Dean personally ordered Smith to stop the North Korean force along the highway from Suwon and "as far from Pusan" as possible.

Three days later, on July 4, it dug in on two hills straddling the road north of the village of Osan, 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Suwon and about 25 miles (40 km) south of Seoul. These ridges rose up to 300 ft (91 m) above the road, providing visibility almost the entire distance to Suwon. The battalion set up a 1 mi (1.6 km) long line over these ridges. There, they waited to meet the advancing North Korean forces. The force was emplaced along the road with the infantry formations on the two hills, with five of the howitzers sited 1 mi (1.6 km) behind the infantry, and the sixth with its six HEAT shells positioned halfway between the infantry and other five field artillery pieces. Heavy rain made air support impossible, so Smith and Perry preregistered the artillery battery in hopes it would be just as effective.

Battle

Tank columns

At around 0730 on July 5, Task Force Smith spotted a column of eight North Korean T-34/85 tanks of the 107th Tank Regiment, North Korean 105th Armored Division heading south toward them. The North Korean forces, driving south from Seoul, were in pursuit of retreating South Korean forces. At 0816, the artillery battery fired its first rounds at the advancing North Korean tanks. The tanks, which were around 2 km (1.2 mi) from the infantry force, were hit with numerous 105mm howitzer rounds, but were unaffected. When the tanks closed to 700 m (2,300 ft), the 75mm recoilless rifles opened up, scoring direct hits on the lead tanks, but did not damage them. The North Korean tanks, meanwhile, were unable to locate the American weapons and began firing aimlessly from their main cannons and machine guns.

The T-34 tank was standard armor used by the North Korean Army in 1950 and was also present at Osan.

Once the tanks reached the infantry line, Second Lieutenant Ollie Connor fired some 22 2.36-inch rockets at a range of 15 yd (14 m) from his M9A1 launcher tube. Some of these rockets failed to ignite. The remainder ignited successfully, and several struck the rear plate armor of several T-34s, where their armor was thinnest. However, the warheads failed to penetrate the armor, and the North Korean tanks continued their advance, ignoring the roadblock and continuing down the road. The operators assumed the roadblock was manned by South Korean troops, and ignored it since it did not pose them a serious threat. When the tank column came over the crest of the road, the forward howitzer fired its HEAT rounds, damaging the first two tanks and setting one of them on fire. One of the crew members of the burning tank emerged with a PPSh-41 "burp gun" and killed a member of an American machine gun crew before being killed himself; the American became the first casualty of Korean War ground combat.He was later identified, possibly incorrectly, as Kenneth R. Shadrick The howitzer, depleted of HEAT rounds, began firing high explosive rounds before being destroyed by the third T-34. The tanks then advanced, continuing to ignore the American howitzer and bazooka fire. U.S. forces managed to disable another North Korean T-34 when a 105mm shell struck and damaged its tracks. The tracks of the T-34 tanks cut communication signal wires between the infantry and artillery forces, further compounding the confusion. As he was attempting to get the crew of the disabled tank to surrender, Perry was wounded in the leg by North Korean small arms fire. His artillery force continued firing at the North Korean tanks, but without effect.

Within an hour, a second column of 25 T-34 tanks approached the Task Force. This second T-34 formation advanced singly or by twos, and threes, close together with no apparent formal organization. The howitzer battery hit another tank from this column in its tracks, disabling it, and damaged three more. In return, the North Korean tanks had destroyed the forward howitzer (number six) and wounded one of its crew members, had killed or wounded an estimated twenty infantrymen, and had destroyed all the parked vehicles behind the infantry line. At the main battery position one of the five remaining 105mm guns had been slightly damaged by a near miss. At this point, several of the men in the artillery battery began deserting their positions, but Perry managed to convince most of them to return. Although Smith later stated that he believed that the rounds had deteriorated with age, the ineffectiveness of the 2.36-inch bazooka had been demonstrated repeatedly during World War II against German armor. Because of peacetime defense cutbacks, the 24th Infantry Division had never received improved U.S. M20 3.5-inch bazookas with M28A2 HEAT antitank ammunition, capable of defeating Soviet tanks. After the last tanks passed their lines, no North Korean forces were spotted for around an hour.

Infantry column

Map of the Battle of Osan

At around 1100, three more tanks were sighted advancing from the north. Behind them was a column of trucks 6 miles (9.7 km) long, carrying two full infantry regiments; the 16th Infantry Regiment and the 18th Infantry Regiment of the North Korean 4th Infantry Division, amounting to almost 5,000 troops under the command of Major General Lee Kwon Mu, which were advancing from Seoul. The column apparently was not in communication with the tanks that had preceded it, and the North Korean infantry was not aware of the Americans' presence.

At 1145, when the column had advanced to within 1,000 yd (910 m) of the Americans, Smith gave the order for the task force to open fire with everything it had. The mortar, machine gun, artillery, and rifle fire destroyed several trucks, scattering the column. The three lead tanks moved to within 300 m (980 ft) of Task Force Smith and opened fire. Behind them, around 1,000 of the infantry formed in the rice paddies to the east of the road in an attempt to envelop the American forces, but were repulsed. Smith attempted to order artillery fire on the North Korean force, but runners were unable to get back to the field artillery positions, and so he assumed they had been destroyed by the tanks. Within 45 minutes, another enveloping force formed to the west of the road, forcing Smith to withdraw a platoon to the east side of the road. Quickly thereafter, the American infantry began taking mortar and artillery fire from the North Koreans.

American withdrawal

Task Force Smith managed to hold its lines for three hours, but at 1430 Smith ordered the Americans to withdraw, suffering from low ammunition and a breakdown of communications. At this point, North Korean forces were moving on both flanks of the American force and toward the rear of the formation. Smith ordered an orderly withdrawal of the force one unit at a time, allowing the rest of the force to cover it as it withdrew. C Company pulled back, followed by the American medics, the headquarters, and finally B Company. However, 2nd Platoon, B Company did not receive the withdrawal order. When the platoon discovered that it was alone, it was too late for an orderly withdrawal and it could not move its wounded quickly enough. The platoon left most of its equipment in its positions, which was captured by the North Koreans. Most of the survivors were able to escape captivity, but a number of wounded litter-borne U.S. soldiers were left behind along with an attending medic. The American wounded were later found shot to death in their litters; the medic was never seen again. One North Korean officer later told historian John Toland that the American forces at the battle seemed "too frightened to fight."

Soldier of the 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Division, captured and executed by North Korean forces, 1950

The retreat quickly broke down into a confused and disorganized rout. It was during this withdrawal, that Task Force Smith suffered its highest casualties, as its soldiers were most exposed to enemy fire. The surviving members of Task Force Smith reached Battery A's position, which was intact. The artillerymen disabled the five remaining howitzers by removing their sights and breechblocks and retired in good order with the remains of the Task Force on foot to the northern outskirts of Osan, where most of the unit's hidden transport vehicles were found intact. Unmolested by the North Korean forces, the vehicles then departed for Pyongtaek and Cheonan, picking up stragglers along the way, eventually joining units of the 24th Infantry Division that had established a second line of defense.

Before nightfall, 250 of Task Force Smith's force had returned to the American lines, with about 150 more of the force killed, wounded or missing. Over the next several days, most of the other stragglers found their way into the American lines. Five days later, the final stragglers from 2nd Platoon, B Company reached Chonan, only 30 minutes ahead of the North Korean army. Upon the initial count, Task Force Smith suffered 20 killed in action, 130 wounded in action or missing in action, and around 36 captured. After the end of the war this figure was revised to 60 dead, 21 wounded and 82 captured, 32 of whom died in captivity. The first of the troops reported killed was Kenneth R. Shadrick. This casualty count accounted for 40 percent of Task Force Smith. Much later, during the Pusan breakout offensive, U.S. troops advancing northward would discover a series of shallow graves containing the bodies of several soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division. All had been shot in the back of the head, their hands still bound behind their backs with communications wire. North Korean casualties were approximately 42 dead and 85 wounded, with four tanks destroyed or immobilized. The North Korean advance was delayed approximately seven hours.

Aftermath

South Korean soldiers in formation in front of the Task Force Smith memorial at Osan

The Battle of Osan was the first U.S. ground action of the war. The fight showcased American weaknesses and unpreparedness for the war; outdated equipment was insufficient to fight North Korean armor and poorly trained and inexperienced units were no match for better-trained North Korean troops -- though the disparity in number of troops engaged certainly had a profound affect on the outcome of this, and future, battles. Undisciplined U.S. troops abandoned their positions prematurely, leaving equipment and wounded for North Korean troops to capture. Smith also said he felt he had stayed too long in his position, allowing North Korean troops to envelop the force and cause heavy casualties on it as it retreated. These weaknesses would play out with other U.S. units for the next month as North Korean troops pushed them further back.

Though the force was badly defeated militarily, Task Force Smith accomplished its mission of delaying North Korean forces from advancing for several hours. During the battle, the 24th Infantry Division's 34th Infantry Regiment was able to set up in Pyeongtaek, 15 mi (24 km) to the south. It would be similarly defeated in the Battle of Pyongtaek. Over the next month, the 24th Infantry Division would fight in numerous engagements to delay North Korean forces with similar results. Within a week, the 24th Infantry Division had been pushed back to Taejon where it was again defeated in the Battle of Taejon. The North Koreans, overwhelming U.S. forces time and again, were able to push the Eighth Army all the way back to Pusan, where the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter would culminate in the eventual defeat of the North Korean Army.

Three months later, on September 19, Osan would be the location where the U.S. and U.N. forces under the command of the Eighth Army, advancing from the south, would meet up with forces of X Corps, advancing from the north after having recently surprised the North Koreans with the Inchon Landings, as the two forces were in the process of an offensive pushing the North Koreans back, which would eventually culminate in a complete defeat of the North Korean Army in the south.

In the years following the Korean War, the U.S. Army used the areas in Japan where Task Force Smith had trained as a memorial. A monument to Task Force Smith was also established on the Osan battlefield, where an annual commemoration of the Battle of Osan is held by the Eighth Army, which is still headquartered in South Korea. On July 16, 2010, 60 years after the Battle of Osan, Eighth Army leaders, in conjunction with government officials of Osan, held another ceremony, speaking of Task Force Smith and describing the engagement as "the opening shots of a war of ideas that exists even today." On the 61st anniversary, another ceremony was held by both US military and Osan politicians to remember the task force.

References

Sources

• Alexander, Bevin (2003). Korea: The First War we Lost. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0-7818-1019-7.
• Blair, Clay (2003). The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-075-7.
• Catchpole, Brian (2001). The Korean War. Robinson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84119-413-4.
• Fehrenbach, T.R. (2001). This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History – Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Potomac Books Inc. ISBN 978-1-57488-334-3.
• Green, Michael (2000). Weapons of Patton's Armies. Zenith Imprint Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-0821-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Hackworth, David H. (1989). About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0671526928. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Malkasian, Carter (2001). The Korean War. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-282-1.
• Millett, Allan R. (2010). The War for Korea, 1950–1951: They Came from the North. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1709-8.
• Summers, Harry G. (2001). Korean War Almanac. Replica Books. ISBN 978-0-7351-0209-5.
• Varhola, Michael J. (2000). Fire and Ice: The Korean War, 1950–1953. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-1-882810-44-4.

External links

• "American Ground Forces Enter the Battle"