{ "slug": "pusan-perimeter", "title": "Battle of the Pusan Perimeter", "status": "draft", "era": "WWII and later", "date_text": "4 August – 18 September 1950", "start": "1950-08-04", "end": "1950-09-18", "war": "Korean War", "cdb90_war": "KOREAN WAR", "place": { "name": "The Pusan Perimeter: the Naktong River line from Masan to Waegwan and the mountains north and east of Taegu to P'ohang-dong, south-east Korea (coordinates are Pusan, as Wikipedia gives them)", "lat": 35.1, "lon": 129.04, "wikidata": "Q482979" }, "lede": "From 4 August to 18 September 1950 the US Eighth Army and the South Korean army held a hundred-mile box around the port of Pusan against the North Korean People's Army, buying the time for Inchon and the breakout that destroyed it.", "result": "UN defensive victory; the KPA was broken in the breakout after Inchon", "result_cdb90": "attacker loss", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Korean People's Army (North Korea): Front Command with I and II Corps", "commanders": [ "Choe Yong-gon", "Kim Chaek", "Kim Ung", "Mu Chong" ], "strength": { "value": 97850, "low": null, "high": null, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 50000, "low": 50000, "high": 60000, "source": "s1" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "United Nations Command: US Eighth Army and the Republic of Korea Army, with US Marine, British and air and naval forces", "commanders": [ "General Douglas MacArthur", "Lt-Gen Walton Walker", "Chung Il-kwon", "Paik Sun-yup" ], "strength": { "value": 180000, "low": 156500, "high": 180000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 12987, "low": 12987, "high": 19165, "source": "s1" } } ], "sections": { "background": "North Korea invaded the South on 25 June 1950. In five weeks the Korean People's Army (KPA) drove the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army and the first, under-strength American divisions from the 38th Parallel to the south-east corner of the peninsula. The ROK Army lost about 70,000 men before the perimeter battle began, and US casualties in July passed 6,000. From 17 July Lieutenant-General Walton Walker's US Eighth Army had operational control of the ROK forces as well as its own.\n\nOn 29 July Walker told his division commanders there would be no more retreating: \"There will be no Dunkirk, there will be no Bataan.\" Eighth Army's directive of 1 August took the line back behind the Naktong River, and by the morning of 4 August every Naktong bridge on its front had been destroyed. At Waegwan, General Gay ordered the bridge blown at dusk on 3 August while refugees were crossing; hundreds died.\n\nWhat remained was a rough rectangle about 100 miles from north to south and 50 from east to west, with the Naktong on the west, the sea to the south and east, and the mountains north of Taegu and P'ohang-dong closing the top. Inside it lay the port of Pusan, through which American reinforcements, tanks and ammunition could arrive, and a rail loop from Pusan through Miryang and Taegu towards P'ohang-dong on which Walker could move troops. Kim Il Sung had ordered Pusan taken by 15 August. The KPA had to break the box before American strength built up inside it; the UN had to hold it until that strength could be used.", "forces": "On 4 August the UN had 141,808 men in Korea, about 92,000 of them combat troops, against perhaps 70,000 North Koreans. The American divisions, the 24th and 25th Infantry and 1st Cavalry, held the Naktong front from Masan to Waegwan; they had arrived from occupation duty in Japan understrength and short of training. They were joined in August and September by the US 2nd Infantry Division, the 5th Regimental Combat Team, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade and the British 27th Brigade.\n\nThe ROK Army, under Chung Il-kwon, held the mountainous northern arc: II Corps with the 1st and 6th Divisions, I Corps with the 8th and Capital Divisions, and the 3rd Division on the east coast. Paik Sun-yup's 1st Division, barely 9,000 strong, covered the approaches to Taegu with no effective anti-tank weapons until American bazookas arrived.\n\nThe KPA had ten infantry divisions and the 105th Armored Division, reduced to about 40 tanks, organised under I and II Corps. By 1 September it had 14 divisions and about 97,850 men, but up to a third were raw recruits or South Koreans conscripted by force, and it had fewer than 100 tanks against some 500–600 American. Walker's advantages were air supremacy, which let him move by daylight, interior lines, and the sea on two flanks. He had no corps headquarters until September and ran the battle himself, by jeep and light aircraft, improvising reserves he called 'fire brigades'.", "course": "**The first Naktong Bulge (5–19 August).** Around midnight on 5 August some 800 men of the KPA 4th Division crossed the Naktong at the Ohang ferry, west of Yongsan, into a loop of the river held thinly by the US 24th Division's 34th Infantry. By 10 August the whole division was across, with an underwater bridge at the Kihang ferry. Counterattacks by the 9th, 19th and 34th Infantry under Task Force Hill on Cloverleaf Hill and Obong-ni Ridge failed. On 17 August the Marine brigade attacked Obong-ni, losing 205 men that day, while the 9th Infantry took Cloverleaf; four T-34s were knocked out that evening. Obong-ni fell overnight and by 19 August the 4th Division, down from about 7,000 to 3,500 men, had gone back across the river, leaving 34 guns.\n\n**Masan and the east coast.** In the south-west, Task Force Kean, the first American counterattack of the war, went in on 7 August; on 10–11 August North Koreans overran two artillery battalions in 'Bloody Gulch', and by 14 August the force was back near its start line. In the north-east, the KPA 12th and 5th Divisions and the 766th Regiment came down on P'ohang-dong and Kigye. The ROK 3rd Division, trapped on the coast, was taken off by sea on the night of 16 August, 9,000 men, while Task Force P'ohang, built from ROK regiments, and US Task Force Bradley held the An'gang-ni corridor. By 17–19 August the North Koreans had fallen back.\n\n**Taegu and the Bowling Alley (7–25 August).** The KPA 1st, 3rd, 13th and 15th Divisions converged on Taegu, whose population refugees had swollen from 300,000 to 700,000. The 1st Cavalry Division threw back crossings at Triangulation Hill (10 August) and Yongp'o (14 August). On 16 August B-29s dropped about 960 tons on 27 square miles west of the Naktong; no evidence shows the raid killed a single KPA soldier. From 18 to 25 August the US 27th Infantry and the ROK 1st Division held the Taegu–Sangju road north of Tabu-dong, a narrow valley named the 'Bowling Alley' for the tank shells that rolled down it at night like bowling balls. In the largest attack, at 01:37 on 21 August, nine T-34s and six self-propelled guns were destroyed.\n\n**The Great Naktong Offensive (31 August–12 September).** The KPA's last attack came in five prongs: at Masan, in the Naktong Bulge against the US 2nd Division, at Taegu, at Yongch'on against the ROK 8th and 6th Divisions, and at P'ohang-dong and Kyongju against the Capital and 3rd Divisions. The first two struck at 23:30 on 31 August, the rest on the evening of 2 September. The 2nd Division was cut in two and the North Koreans came within a few miles of Yongsan before the returning Marines helped throw them back. P'ohang-dong fell. On 4–5 September the Eighth Army and ROK headquarters moved to Pusan and a fall-back position, the Davidson Line, was prepared; Walker stayed in Taegu and on 6 September decided no retreat was needed. By about 12 September the offensive was spent.\n\n**Breakout (16–18 September).** X Corps landed at Inchon on 15 September. Eighth Army attacked along the whole front at 09:00 the next day, with the new I Corps making the main effort north-west from Taegu. For three days the KPA held hard: the 13th Division stopped the 8th Cavalry on the Tabu-dong road. These three days are CDB90's single engagement. The 38th Infantry won a Naktong bridgehead on the 18th; Waegwan fell on the 19th, KPA resistance broke on the 22nd, and Task Force Lynch met X Corps near Osan on 27 September.", "aftermath": "The US Army lost 3,390 killed and nearly 13,000 casualties in all in the perimeter; ROK losses were certainly heavier, but the sources I read give no total. North Korean losses can only be estimated: probably more than 50,000, with only 20,000–30,000 men getting back north after the breakout. Fourteen divisions were wrecked, and with them North Korea's ability to fight on alone. The pursuit north that followed drew China into the war.\n\nThe fighting was hard on civilians. KPA troops murdered American prisoners on Hill 303 and at Bloody Gulch. American units fired on refugees crossing the Naktong. Behind the lines South Korean military and police executed suspected leftists, many of them members of the National Guidance (Bodo) League. South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirmed 4,934 Bodo League victims between June and September 1950, and more than 3,400 prisoners and civilians killed in and around Pusan, Masan and Chinju from July to September. Historians' estimates of the whole Bodo League killing run from 60,000 to 200,000.\n\nWalker's defence is widely called brilliant, a model of shifting reserves on interior lines, though critics fault his later conduct of the pursuit. Some historians argue the KPA's goal was out of reach once the UN had a continuous line. In South Korea, Tabu-dong (Dabu-dong) is remembered as the battle that saved the republic, and Paik Sun-yup as its hero, though his service as a Manchukuo officer under Japan made him controversial late in life.", "wargaming": "The perimeter is a campaign rather than a battle, which makes it a natural operational game: one counter per division or regiment, daily turns, and a map of the whole box from Masan to P'ohang-dong. The interest is in the clock. The North Korean player must break through somewhere before American divisions, tanks and ammunition pour in through Pusan; the UN player has too few troops to man the line and must decide, every day, where to send a reserve along the rail loop. Air supremacy should let the UN move by day and stop the KPA doing so.\n\nKey terrain: the Naktong Bulge and the road to Yongsan and Miryang; Waegwan and the Tabu-dong road into Taegu; the Masan corridor; the Yongch'on and An'gang-ni valleys behind P'ohang-dong, where ROK formations carry the defence. Rules should rate ROK and KPA divisions unevenly, and let KPA quality fall as conscripts fill the ranks.\n\nWhat ifs: the KPA launches the coordinated five-prong offensive in mid-August instead of attacking piecemeal; the Marine brigade is withdrawn for Inchon before the September crisis; Walker retreats to the Davidson Line. For tactical games, the Bowling Alley night tank attacks, Obong-ni Ridge and Task Force Manchu on Hill 209 are good company- and battalion-level scenarios. The breakout is a separate game: an exhausted army trying to break contact as news of Inchon spreads." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Pusan Perimeter initial actions.svg", "kind": "map", "caption": "The Pusan Perimeter in August 1950: the Naktong line, the ROK sector in the northern mountains, and the KPA thrusts at Masan, the Naktong Bulge, Taegu and P'ohang-dong. US Army Center of Military History.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Pusan_Perimeter_initial_actions.svg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Pusan_Perimeter_initial_actions.svg/960px-Pusan_Perimeter_initial_actions.svg.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pusan_Perimeter_initial_actions.svg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "", "credit": "SVG version of Original file en en:wikipedia", "width": 700 }, { "file": "File:Naktong Defense.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "The Naktong defence lines in September 1950, during the KPA's Great Naktong Offensive. US Army Center of Military History.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Naktong_Defense.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Naktong_Defense.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naktong_Defense.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "The original uploader was Wbfergus at English Wikipedia .", "credit": "Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.", "width": 587 }, { "file": "File:Pusan Perimeter breakout.gif", "kind": "map", "caption": "The breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, 16–22 September 1950. US Army map.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Pusan_Perimeter_breakout.gif?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Pusan_Perimeter_breakout.gif?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pusan_Perimeter_breakout.gif", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "United States Army", "credit": "https://history.army.mil/brochures/kw-unoff/unoff.htm", "width": 500 }, { "file": "File:Walton H. Walker (US Army General).jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Lieutenant-General Walton Walker, commander of the US Eighth Army, about 1950.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Walton_H._Walker_%28US_Army_General%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Walton_H._Walker_%28US_Army_General%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walton_H._Walker_(US_Army_General).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Unknown photographer. Original autograph has become illegible with time. Published on Army Historical Foundation web site and by other organizations.", "credit": "Eighth United States Army photo of its commander, Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker. 1950.", "width": 500 }, { "file": "File:SC 348629 - Brig. Gen. Paik Sun Yup, CG, 1st ROK Div., at his CP near Taegu, Korea. 18 September, 1950. (52514675919).jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Brigadier-General Paik Sun-yup, commanding the ROK 1st Division, at his command post near Taegu on 18 September 1950.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/SC_348629_-_Brig._Gen._Paik_Sun_Yup%2C_CG%2C_1st_ROK_Div.%2C_at_his_CP_near_Taegu%2C_Korea._18_September%2C_1950._%2852514675919%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/SC_348629_-_Brig._Gen._Paik_Sun_Yup%2C_CG%2C_1st_ROK_Div.%2C_at_his_CP_near_Taegu%2C_Korea._18_September%2C_1950._%2852514675919%29.jpg/960px-SC_348629_-_Brig._Gen._Paik_Sun_Yup%2C_CG%2C_1st_ROK_Div.%2C_at_his_CP_near_Taegu%2C_Korea._18_September%2C_1950._%2852514675919%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SC_348629_-_Brig._Gen._Paik_Sun_Yup,_CG,_1st_ROK_Div.,_at_his_CP_near_Taegu,_Korea._18_September,_1950._(52514675919).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Signal Corps Archive from United States", "credit": "SC 348629 - Brig. Gen. Paik Sun Yup, CG, 1st ROK Div., at his CP near Taegu, Korea. 18 September, 1950.", "width": 4408 }, { "file": "File:Marines at Naktong River.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "Two Marines of the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade rest on the third objective overlooking the Naktong, 19 August 1950, the last day of the first Naktong Bulge battle.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Marines_at_Naktong_River.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Marines_at_Naktong_River.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marines_at_Naktong_River.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "US Navy", "credit": "http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h96991.jpg", "width": 880 }, { "file": "File:M26-Pershing-Naktong-19500903.JPG", "kind": "photo", "caption": "Marine M26 Pershing tanks climb the heights along the Naktong in support of an attack, 3 September 1950.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/M26-Pershing-Naktong-19500903.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/M26-Pershing-Naktong-19500903.JPG/960px-M26-Pershing-Naktong-19500903.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M26-Pershing-Naktong-19500903.JPG", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "SGT. FRANK C. KERR", "credit": "http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil ID: HMSN9806724", "width": 3000 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Battle of Pusan Perimeter (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pusan_Perimeter", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "Roy E. Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, United States Army in the Korean War (US Army Center of Military History, 1961), chapter XV, 'Establishing the Pusan Perimeter' (online copy)", "url": "https://www.koreanwaronline.com/history/Appleman/Chapter15.htm", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "Roy E. Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (CMH, 1961), chapter XVII, 'The First Battle of the Naktong Bulge' (online copy)", "url": "https://www.koreanwaronline.com/history/Appleman/Chapter17.htm", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "David T. Zabecki, 'Stand or Die: 1950 Defense of Korea's Pusan Perimeter', HistoryNet (Military History), 2009", "url": "https://historynet.com/stand-or-die-1950-defense-of-koreas-pusan-perimeter/", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "Uzal W. Ent, 'Korean War: Battles of the Bowling Alley', HistoryNet (Military History, August 2000)", "url": "https://historynet.com/korean-war-battles-of-the-bowling-alley/", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "Paik Sun-yup, 'A strategy begins to form', excerpt from his memoir, Korea JoongAng Daily, 13 June 2010", "url": "https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/lifestyle/a-strategy-begins-to-formhuman-face-even-for-the-enemy/10220776", "kind": "primary" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "Park Hyun Min, 'Dabu-dong Battle, the Saviour of the Fatherland', Daily NK, 23 June 2009", "url": "https://www.dailynk.com/english/dabudong-battle-the-saviour-of-the/", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s8", "title": "Pusan Perimeter offensive (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pusan_Perimeter_offensive", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s9", "title": "Second Battle of Naktong Bulge (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Naktong_Bulge", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s10", "title": "Battle of P'ohang-dong (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_P%27ohang-dong", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s11", "title": "Battle of Taegu (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taegu", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s12", "title": "Associated Press, 'South Korea Confirms Nearly 5,000 Wartime Executions', via History News Network, 26 November 2009", "url": "https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/120608", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s13", "title": "'Gov't Killed 3,400 Civilians During War', The Korea Times, 2 March 2009", "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20090302/govt-killed-3400-civilians-during-war", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s14", "title": "Bodo League massacre (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodo_League_massacre", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s15", "title": "Yonhap, 'Korean War hero Paik Sun-yup dies at 99', The Korea Times, 11 July 2020", "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/amp/lifestyle/people-events/20200711/korean-war-hero-paik-sun-yup-dies-at-99", "kind": "article" } ], "cdb90": [ 626 ], "order": 220, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/pusan-perimeter/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }