Battle of Osan
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| Korean War |
|---|
| Pusan Perimeter – Inchon – Chosin Reservoir – Imjin River – Gloster Hill– Kapyong – The Hook - Pork Chop Hill - Bloody Ridge - Heartbreak Ridge |
Summary
This battle was the first engagement between US and North Korean forces during the Korean War. Vastly outnumbered and ill-equipped, US Task Force Smith suffered heavy casualties while delaying the North Korean advance by no more than seven hours.Task Force Smith was named for Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith, commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 21st Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. It comprised 406 officers and men: half of the battalion headquarters company, two understrength rifle companies (B and C), a communications section, a recoilless rifle platoon and two mortar platoons. In addition to its rifles, the task force had two 75 mm recoilless rifles, two 4.2-inch mortars, six 2.36-inch "bazooka" rocket launchers and four 60 mm mortars. Supporting Task Force Smith were 108 men from the 52nd Field Artillery Battalion armed with six 105 mm howitzers. Ammunition for the howitzers consisted only of High Explosive rounds and six armor piercing High Explosive Anti Tank HEAT rounds. Each man was issued 120 rounds of ammunition and two days' C-rations. All the equipment was of World War II vintage. All the soldiers were from the Army of Occupation of Japan. Most of the men were 20 years old or less; only one sixth had seen combat.
The men of Task Force Smith left Japan on the morning of July 1. Major General William Dean, 24th Division commander, ordered Smith to block the main road to Pusan as far north as possible.
On July 4th, Task Force Smith set up a defensive positon covering the road between the cities of Suwon and Osan.
Shortly after 7:00 a.m. on July 5th, a column of eight North Korean T-34 tanks, part of the 107th Tank Regiment of the 105th Armored Division, approached across the open plain from Suwon. The 105 mm howitzers first opened fire with high explosive rounds which proved ineffective against the buttoned up tanks. A single howitzer, deployed in a foward position and armed with the six HEAT rounds, then opened fire, damaging one T-34 and setting another on fire before being destroyed. Once in range, Task Force Smith engaged the tanks with the 75 mm recoilless rifles and 2.36-inch bazookas. Neither weapon had any effect. The 2.36-inch rounds could not penetrate the armor of the T-34. Smith later said he believed that the rounds had deteriorated with age. The 3.5-inch bazooka round would have been effective, but there were none in the unit. In truth, the high-explosive rounds of these two weapons were the reason why they had no effect against the North Korean armor. The T-34's had sloped armor that was designed to deflect shape-charged warheads. Only armor-piercing rounds could defeat sloped armor, and they were in very short supply. After raking the positions with shell and machine gun fire, killing or wounding 20 US soldiers, the North Korean column continued south unmolested.
At about 11:00 a.m., three more tanks were sighted advancing from the north. Behind them was a column of trucks, followed by two infantry regiments of the North Korean 4th Division. The column apparently was not in communication with the tanks that had preceded it.
It took about an hour for the head of the column to reach a point about 1,000 yards from the American position, when Smith ordered fire opened. American mortars and machine guns swept the enemy column causing heavy casualties but did not stop the three tanks. These advanced to within 300 yards and raked the ridge with shell and machine gun fire.
Smith held his position as long as he dared, but casualties mounted rapidly. His men were down to less than 20 rounds of ammunition each and the enemy threatened to cut off the position. The enemy tanks were to the rear of the American position, and Smith consolidated his force in a circular perimeter on the highest ground east of the road. The enemy was now using mortar and artillery fire. About 4:30 p.m., Smith ordered a withdrawal, remarking, "This is a decision I'll probably regret the rest of my days." Under heavy enemy fire, the poorly-trained American troops abandoned weapons and equipment in sometimes precipitous flight. Not all of them had received word of the withdrawal, and it was at this point that the Americans suffered most of their casualties. When they reached the battery position Smith was surprised to find it intact with only Perry and one other man wounded. The artillerymen disabled the five remaining howitzers by removing their sights and breechblocks. Then all walked to the outskirts of Osan where they recovered most of their trucks that had been hidden earlier. Fortunately there was no enemy pursuit. In the battle approximately 150 American infantrymen were killed, wounded, or missing. All five officers and ten enlisted men of the forward observer liaison, machine gun and bazooka group were lost. North Korean casualties in the battle before Osan were approximately 42 dead and 85 wounded; four tanks had been destroyed or immobilized. The enemy advance was delayed perhaps seven hours.
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