![]() The poorly trained and inadequately armed troops thrown in the path of the invading North Korean army were overwhelmed. military that had rolled to victory in World War II. Their war began with the ugly discovery: The wheels had fallen off the mighty U.S. ![]() troops in Korea.įifty years later, those awful early days of the Korean War remain vivid to veterans who make their home around Washington and to thousands of their former comrades, many of whom will join them Sunday on the Mall for a ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. It was a harbinger of things to come for the U.S. "We didn't know that the piece-of-trash bazookas we were carrying didn't do anything but annoy tankers." ![]() This was sobering," said Bernard, who is now 74 and lives in Alexandria. soldiers had been given could not penetrate the heavy armor of the T-34 tanks. To his shock, the rocket bounced off a tank. So he snatched a bazooka himself, took aim and fired. Carl Bernard figured his nervous men couldn't shoot straight as they fired time and again at the column of 33 North Korean tanks rolling down a highway 30 yards away. Follow him This first appeared in 2019.Watching from a hillside, 2nd Lt. Army who retired in 2015 after twenty-one years, including four combat deployments. Davis is a senior fellow for Defense Priorities and a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. More would die soon-and the fate of the war hung on the outcome of the Battle of Taejon.ĭaniel L. The 21st RCT in particular had been crushed in early fights, suffering 1,400 casualties of its initial strength of 2,500. That life had been permanently shattered for them all. The North Koreans didn’t slow or hesitate, but continued their relentless march, and on the morning of July 14 began a multi-pronged attack against the American defenders.Īll the units had been badly shaken psychologically, as just three weeks before the battle began, these men were all in Japan living the luxurious and easy life of occupation troops. The defense of Taejon was critical in accomplishing that objective.ĭean moved the 24th ID’s third regiment, the 19th RCT, to join the badly wounded 34th and 21st RCTs in the defense along the Kum River. For the United States to have any chance at eventually winning the war, Pusan would have to remain in American hands. If Taejon fell as quickly as Osan, Chonan and Chochiwon, North Korean forces would be able to move to Pusan, further to the southeast, and take the ports. It had many rail, river, and road lines running into and out of the city. Taejon was a major transportation hub in the southern part of South Korea. Dean ordered all his troops to withdraw across the river and then blow the bridges to slow the communist advance. troops broke through the trap and moved south to set up the next line of defense, along the south bank of the Kum River, just north of Taejon. On July 11, three divisions of enemy mechanized forces attacked the Americans at Chochiwon and quickly overwhelmed and surrounded them too. The North Koreans, however, were also reinforcing their troop numbers. The 21st RCT was the next to enter the fight, joining the remnants of the previous units at Chochiwon. After suffering many casualties, they succeeded in breaking through the encirclement and moving further south towards more defensible terrain in the direction of Taejon. After a short but fierce engagement, the 34th RCT was surrounded by the communist troops. On July 7, Kim’s tanks attacked the Americans at Chonan. Dean threw the first unit available forward to support Smith’s men, the 34th Regimental Combat Team (34th RCT). After the disaster at Osan, Smith pulled the survivors thirty miles back to the first position from which he could set up a new defense, Chonan. Dean had been deploying the remainder of the 24th ID at five southern ports centered on Pusan. Task Force Smith was mauled and slowed down Kim’s southward march by mere hours. When the North’s tanks made contact with Smith’s troops, the few anti-tank weapons they had bounced harmlessly off the enemy armor. The first engagement took place on July 5, near the town of Osan, south of Seoul and north of Taejon. The Soviets had been training North Korean leader Kim il-Sung’s men and had provided them with then-state of the art tanks, the T34. He was soon to find out how wrong American intelligence had been. Smith knew his men were not trained or equipped as well as American World War II troops have been, but the North Koreans were thought to be backwards, peasant conscripts.
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