Here is the story of a battle in the Korean War. A battle that was sadly typical of that war.
By mid-1951, the Korean War was in a stalemate. Armistice negotiations had begun, but no end to the war was in sight. We now know there would be two more years of fighting. During that time, both sides were looking for limited successes. Some of the battles were designed to straighten the front line in various sectors. One of those battles was known as Bloody Ridge. United Nations forces suffered heavy casualties to take a ridge. Soon after, the UN command decided to repeat the tragedy.
The Punchbowl was a communist staging area. Several hills in the area were targeted in a line-straightening operation. The task was given to the 2nd Infantry Division under Brigadier General Thomas de Shazo. Some of his superiors were skeptical of his plan, but General de Shazo was optimistic that the attack would be easy, so he designated only the 23rd Regiment, plus its attached French battalion, to make the assault. Unfortunately, communist forces had well-fortified the ridge with numerous bunkers. Despite a heavy artillery (230,000 rounds) and air bombardment, the defenders had been little effected. When the attack was launched on Sept. 13, it met heavy resistance. The North Koreans fought fanatically. The Americans had to claw their way up the hillside. Each bunker had to be taken. Losses were heavy. The survivors reached the crest exhausted and low on ammunition. The inevitable counterattacks began that night and some of the fighting was hand-to-hand. One company reached the crest having lost most of its men. Their commander was told he would have a wall of steel, provided by the artillery, protecting him. It didn’t work. All of the Americans were killed overnight. Not one bullet was found on any of the bodies. The crest changed hands several times over the next two weeks. Reinforcements were fed in piecemeal and had to cross open ground under heavy fire. Many of them were reservists who had stayed in the Army after WWII, but now had civilian lives. Most were not combat ready. And they were not sent by units, they were sent as individuals. (A mistake repeated in Vietnam, except in Vietnam they were trained before being sent.)
On Sept. 27, 1951, the 2nd Division got a new commander. Maj. Gen. Robert Young decided to press pause. A new plan was hatched to secure the hills around Hill 851 to end the flanking fire from them. The key to Operation Touchdown was a tank assault to get to the area behind the hills to interdict enemy reinforcements. A narrow, unsuitable road had to be improved by Army engineers. Mines had to be neutralized and a rock barricade had to be removed. While all three regiments renewed the assault, the 72nd Tank Battalion roared into the valley behind the ridge. The Sherman tanks caught a Chinese division in the open and decimated it. 350 bunkers were destroyed. Supply depots were eliminated. On Oct. 13, the last enemy bastions on Hill 851 were taken. The battle ended after a month of combat. The 2nd Division had 3,700 casualties. The Chinese and North Koreans suffered more than 25,000. The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (as reporters called it) proved to be another bloody exercise in attrition. The gain did not equal the loss of life, but it was par for the course in Korea until the armistice in 1953. Neither side wanted to lose face by losing a hill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Heartbreak_Ridge
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/1498554
https://factsanddetails.com/korea/Korea/Korean_War/entry-7177.html
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