Battle of Heartbreak Ridge
| date | September 13 to October 15, 1951 |
|---|---|
| place | Mountain range at Yanggu Gangwon Province , Korean Peninsula |
| output | Victory of the UN troops |
| consequences | Section protection at the 38th parallel |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Thomas F. Deshazo |
Hong Nim |
| losses | |
|
567 dead, 84 missing, 3,063 wounded |
approx. 25,000 killed and wounded (UN estimate), of which at least 1,473 were killed |
The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge was the last major offensive of the United Nations armed forces under the leadership of the USA in the Korean War and was primarily intended to strengthen the position of the UN in the ceasefire negotiations that had already begun. It lasted from September 13 to October 15, 1951 and was the last of several main acts of combat over a terrain known as "The Punchbowl" of several mountain ranges in the mountains of North Korea , a few kilometers north of the 38th parallel .
background
After the withdrawal from the Bloody Ridge ridge, which was conquered by UN troops in September 1951 , the Korean People's Army moved into new positions on the 11 km long neighboring massif, which it was only 1400 m away and which it was able to defend better. The UN High Command ordered the US X Corps of Major General Clovis E. Byers then, even this Heartbreak Ridge ( "ridge of broken hearts") to secure ridge above. Within the X Corps, this task fell to the 2nd US Infantry Division under Brigadier General Thomas F. Deshazo . Byers and Deshazo initially underestimated the strong defensive position of the North Koreans and ordered a single infantry regiment - the 23rd under Colonel James Y. Adams - and his supporting French battalion to launch a frontal attack on the well-fortified hill, which turned out to be a wrong decision.
Course of the battle
The first attack began on September 13 with a tactic of the US troops, which was later repeated several times: first, planes, tanks and artillery fired the ridge with no significant effect on the well-fortified positions of the North Koreans, then the infantrymen of the 23rd stormed Regiment climbed the mountainside to take the enemy bunkers . The survivors often reached the ridge exhausted and without ammunition. The counterattack followed, with waves of North Koreans trying to recapture the lost ground. Many of these counter-attacks were carried out at night by fresh troops who were brought up under cover of the neighboring hills and often ended in hand-to-hand combat.
The fight went on like this for two weeks, until the 23rd regiment was almost completely wiped out. The ridge changed hands several times in a series of attacks and counter-attacks, with several units up to company size (100-200 men) being destroyed on the US side . The Americans used artillery barrages, air strikes, and tanks in an attempt to drive the North Koreans off the ridge, but the Korean People's Army proved very resilient.
Colonel James Y. Adams, together with the French battalion commander, made it clear to the division leadership that further direct attacks on the ridge would be ineffective and suicidal and that the North Koreans' supply routes would have to be cut off instead. On September 27, the new commander of the 2nd US Division, Maj. Gen. Robert N. Young , ordered the temporary cessation of the attacks in order to develop new operations management .
From October 1st to 5th the UN troops were supplied with ample supplies and a new main attack with a different tactic was prepared. It had become clear that it was nearly impossible to take the range of hills as long as the enemy could keep bringing in supplies and reinforcements. In order to prevent this, the UN troops wanted to concentrate the attacks on the side hills and valleys. The spearhead of this new tactic was the 72nd Panzer Battalion, with the task of destroying the enemy’s supply depots in the valley near Mundung-ni . To do this, however, a route through the valley had to be found for the M4 Sherman tanks. There was only one narrow path that was closed and mined. The 2nd Pioneer Battalion therefore cleared and paved this route. UN patrols arrested several North Koreans and obtained strategically important information from them. Corsair pilots of the United States Navy covered enemy positions and supply depots with napalm over a large area .
At 9 p.m. on October 5th, the three infantry regiments (9th, 23rd and 38th) of the 2nd Division began coordinated attacks on Heartbreak Ridge and the neighboring hills. On October 10, the UN troops started the offensive in the Mundung-ni valley. The attack by the 72nd Panzer Battalion under Colonel Joseph Jarvis was successful and surprised the 204th Chinese Division as it was moving through the valley to relieve the North Koreans on the ridge. The Chinese suffered heavy losses in the open. For the next five days, the American tanks controlled the Mundung-ni Valley and destroyed supply bases, troop concentrations and about 350 bunkers at Heartbreak Ridge and the adjacent hills and valleys. A small group of tanks and infantry also managed to bypass the North Korean troops on the ridge and thus thwarted possible reinforcements and supplies from this side.
Through the use of tanks and massive air deployment, the US troops now gained the upper hand, but the stubborn infantry fighting continued until French troops took the last North Korean position on October 13.
Review
Both sides had suffered heavy losses: more than 3,700 Americans and French and around 25,000 North Koreans and Chinese lost their lives or were wounded. These losses led the UN and the US High Command to realize that this was not in an acceptable relationship to the minimal space gained. The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge was the last major UN offensive in the Korean War.
Until the armistice was signed in July 1953, sporadic fighting continued at Heartbreak Ridge, mostly initiated by North Koreans or Chinese. On November 3, the North Koreans launched a final assault on the heights of Heartbreak Ridge, but the defending US 160th Infantry Regiment successfully held it until the armistice negotiations were concluded.
Trivia
The name Heartbreak Ridge for the contested mountain ridge comes from a sentence from a reporter interview with Colonel James Y. Adams, in which he lamented the heavy losses of his own troops with the words "such a heartbreak for me".
The feature film Heartbreak Ridge by and starring Clint Eastwood borrowed the name and background of the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge.
literature
- Stanley Sandler: The Korean War: An Encyclopedia (Military History of the United States) . Garland Pub, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-8240-4445-9 , pp. 127f.
- Clay Blair Jr .: The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953 . Datakontext-Fachverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 978-1-59114-075-7 .
- TR Fehrenbach: This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History . Brassey's Inc., 1994, ISBN 978-0-02-881113-0 .
- Spencer Tucker: Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History . Sonlight Christian, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8160-4682-9 .
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 18 ′ 0 ″ N , 128 ° 1 ′ 0 ″ E