Table Of Contentiv
ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES
COMBAT ACTIONS IN KOREA
Russell A. Gugeler
CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY
UNITED STATES ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 1987
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-603408
First Printed 1954–CMH Pub 30-2
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
Foreword
* This book was originally published in 1954, revised in 1970, and in
demand and print since then. The accounts of small-unit actions were written
primarily for junior officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates of the United
States Army who had not yet been in battle. The object was to acquaint them
with the realities of their own fields.
Since the Korean War, some of the tools and procedures of battle have
changed, but the basic conditions of combat have not. Indeed, the surprises, con-
fusion, and problems faced on one battlefield generally resemble the difficulties
met on another. Accounts of battle experience at other times in other places, then,
continue to have instructive value. It is with this fact in mind that this book is
being reprinted.
One of the accounts contained in the original version was omitted after a
review of the source material on which it was based revealed several irreconcilable
errors. All of the other episodes appearing in the 1970 revised edition continue to
appear in their original form. Those who absorb the lessons they offer can substan-
tially increase their competence as leaders and members of small units in battle,
and all students of military history should find profit in these intimate and objective
stories of combat action.
The Center of Military History is pleased to continue this popular work.
Washington, D.C. DOUGLAS KINNARD
20 July 1984 Brigadier General, USA (Ret.)
Chief of Military History
Preface
* This book is a collection of accounts describing the combat action of
small Army units–squads and platoons, companies and batteries. These are the
units that engage in combat, suffer the casualties, and make up the fighting strength
of the battalions, regiments, divisions, corps, and finally, of the field army. Combat
is a very personal business to members of such a small unit. Concerned with the
fearful and consuming tasks of fighting and living, these men cannot think of
war in terms of the Big Picture as it is represented on the situation maps at corps
or army headquarters. Members of a squad or platoon know only what they can
see and hear of combat. They know and understand the earth for which they fight,
the advantage of holding the high ground, the protection of the trench or hole.
These men can distinguish the sounds of enemy weapons from those of their own;
they know the satisfying sound of friendly artillery shells passing overhead and
of friendly planes diving at an objective. They know the excitement of combat, the
feeling of exhilaration and of despair, the feeling of massed power, and of
overwhelming loneliness.
The author has tried to describe combat as individuals have experienced it,
or at least as it has appeared from the company command post. In so doing, much
detail has been included that does not find its way into more barren official records.
The details and the little incidents of combat were furnished by surviving members
of the squads and companies during painstaking interviews and discussions soon
after the fighting was over. Conversely, many facts have been omitted from the
narrative presented here. The accounts tell only part of the complete story, inten-
tionally ignoring related actions of cause and effect in order to keep one or two
small units in sharper focus. The story of action on Heartbreak Ridge, for example,
describes fighting that lasted only one or two hours, whereas the entire battle for
that hill went on for several weeks. Sometimes there are obvious gaps because
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Preface
important information was lost with the men who died in the battle. Sometimes
the accounts are incomplete because the author failed to learn or to recount
everything of importance that happened.
The stories that follow have been selected as representative of the important
battles of the Korean conflict. In chronological sequence, they follow the fighting
beginning on the second day of the participation of United States troops until the
war settled into a static defense of fortified lines.
Because most of the peninsula is covered with an intricate mass of hills and
ridges, many of the battles in Korea took place on hilltops. The typical Korean
ridge rises from rice paddies and a stream at its base and slants upward at an
angle of forty-five or more degrees. It takes an hour of steady climbing to reach
the top and, once they have reached the path-wide crest, the sweating infantrymen
see only another ridge ahead, and others beyond it, stretching in row after row
to the purple haze at the horizon, In the wintertime the hills are windblown and
harsh but when summer rains come to Korea and the morning mist drifts along
the ridgelines there is a fresh beauty to the land. The hills become verdant and
between them the rice paddies, in delicate shades of green, are so neat they look
as if someone had combed them by hand and set them out in the sun. Other than
the beauty of the landscape, American soldiers find little that is desirable in Korea.
It has always been a poor land, and the shifting combat has reduced many of the
villages to heaps of red ashes, many of the people to destitution. In the combat
zone only the hills seem unchanged, and even a few of them are beaten up and
bare from the fighting. This is the setting for the stories that follow.
The preparation of this book has not been a one-man project. Major General
Orlando Ward, U.S. Army (now retired), is responsible for the book, having
planned it and furnished much of the enthusiasm and inspiration necessary to get
the writing done. It is a personal pleasure for the author to share the credit for
the book with nine officers with whom he worked and often shared tents in Korea.
These officers, members of historical detachments, were engaged in collecting and
preserving accurate historical records of the Korean conflict. From the large number
of accounts that they prepared, the author has included eleven that were either
partially or almost wholly prepared by them. To the following officers the author
is indebted for this valuable assistance and for the pleasure of sharing the experi-
ences of Korea: Major Edward C. Williamson, Captain John Mewha, Captain
Martin Blumenson, Major B. C. Mossman, Major Pierce Briscoe, Major William J.
Fox, Lieutenant Bevin R. Alexander, Lieutenant Edgar Denton, and Major
Robert H. Fechtman.
The author reserves a special acknowledgment of indebtedness and an
expression of appreciation to Lt. Co!, Roy E. Appleman. During both World
War II and the Korean War, the author benefited from Colonel Appleman’s
familiarity with military history and from his sturdy good judgment.
Preface vii
Except for one, the discussions following most of the action accounts were
compiled by Lt. Colonel Carl D. McFerren of the Office of the Chief of Military
History, and based upon comments from the Army schools at Fort Benning,
Fort Sill, and Fort Knox. At the request of the Chief of Military History, Lieu-
tenant Nicholas A. Canzona, U.S. Marine Corps, wrote the discussion following
“Attack Along a Ridgeline.” The discussions do not necessarily reflect the official
view of the Department of the Army, but are included to stimulate thought and
promote discussion. No attempt has been made to mention everything that is
either good or bad about the conduct of the battles described and, in many cases,
the obvious has been intentionally avoided. Neither has there been any attempt
to place blame, since no one can claim that, in the same circumstances, he could
have done better.
Miss Mary Ann Bacon has been generous in giving skillful editorial guidance
to the author. Mr. Alfred M. Beck accomplished the numerous tasks required to
convert the original publication into the present edition. Mrs. Vivian Brooks pre-
pared all maps illustrating the text, and Mr. Robert Johnstone prepared the two
pen-and-ink sketches. To them the author is deeply grateful.
Finally, the author is anxious to thank several hundred men and officers of
the United States Army who have been both patient and generous in furnishing
the information upon which the accounts are based. Without their cooperation
this book could not have been written and eventually much of the information
presented here would have been lost, just as the dust and smoke disappear from
the battlefield when the fighting is over.
RUSSELL A. GUGELER
Stuttgart, Germany
30 September 1969
