Task Force Smith, named after its commander Charles Bradford Smith, had 406 men of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, and 134 men of A Battery, 52nd Field Artillery Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Miller O. The first units of the 24th Infantry Division left Itazuke Air Base in Japan on June 30. Good luck, and God bless you and your men! Sorry I can't give you more information-that's all I've got. If you can't find him, go to Taejon and beyond if you can. Block the main road as far north as possible. We want to stop the North Koreans as far from Pusan as we can. The battalion deployed quickly to block advancing North Korean forces and performed a holding action while the rest of the division could be moved to South Korea by sea. C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft airlifted one battalion from the division garrison under Smith's command into Korea. He decided to send the 1st Battalion from the formation because its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bradford Smith, was the most experienced leading man since he had fought at the Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II. Dean determined that the 21st Infantry Regiment was the most combat-ready of the 24th Infantry Division's three regiments. ĭivision Commander Major General William F. Military spending cuts meant that the division was understrength and using outdated equipment. The strength of US forces in the Far East, however, 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. Truman ordered ground troops into the country to supplement the air support. Although the navies blockaded North Korea and launched aircraft to delay the North Korean forces, those efforts alone did not stop the North Korean Army juggernaut on its southern advance. The US 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. To prevent South Korea's collapse, the UN Security Council voted to send military forces. The North Koreans had captured South Korea's capital, Seoul, by June 28, which forced the government and its shattered army to retreat further south. Most South Korean forces retreated in the face of the invasion. The numerically-superior North Korean forces destroyed isolated resistance from the 38,000 South Korean soldiers on the front before they began moving steadily to the south. The smaller South Korean Army suffered from widespread lack of organization and equipment and was unprepared for war. The North Korean force of 89,000 men moved in six columns, caught the Republic of Korea Armed Forces by surprise, and routed them. Main articles: Korean War § Police Action: US intervention, and Initial phase of the Korean Warĭuring the night of June 25, 1950, ten divisions of the North Korean People's Army launched a full-scale invasion of its southern neighbor, the Republic of Korea. North Korean troops eventually flanked and overwhelmed the US positions, and the rest of the task force retreated in disorder. After the North Korean tank column had breached US lines, the task force opened fire on a force of some 5,000 North Korean infantry that were approaching its position, which held up their advance. Aside from a limited number of HEAT shells for the unit's 105 mm howitzers, crew-served weapons that could defeat T-34/85 tanks from the Soviet Union had not yet been distributed to the US Army forces in Korea.Ī North Korean tank column equipped with ex-Soviet T-34/85 tanks overran the task force in the first encounter and continued its advance south. The task force lacked both anti-tank guns and effective infantry anti-tank weapons and had been equipped with obsolete 2.36-inch (60 mm) rocket launchers and a few 57 mm recoilless rifles. On July 5, 1950, Task Force Smith, an American task force of 540 infantry supported by an artillery battery, was moved to Osan, south of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and was ordered to fight as a rearguard to delay the advancing North Korean forces while more US troops arrived to form a stronger defensive line to the south. The Battle of Osan ( Korean: 오산 전투) was the first engagement between the United States and North Korea during the Korean War.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |