Mired KW (id:#64082)

(Fight For Seoul ID: FtSmR1)   [next]   [previous]

Kung-Dong, South Korea 1950-09-22 (4 others)

Overview:

Major Koh Kil Hun's 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment, Korean Marine Corps was attached to the 5th Marines, who together were tasked with taking a series of heights just west of Seoul. The Marines did not anticipate that these hills, which were not very high nor excessively rugged by Korean standards, would form the main line of resistance for the approaches to Seoul. In fact, the KPA commander for this sector MG, Wol, had made them just that. He had, in an unorthodox move, particularly fortified the center of his line directly across from the village of Kung-dong, along the length of Hill 56, in time to be known as "Smith's Ridge" to the U.S. Marines. Here Wol had dug additional trenches and foxholes to augment those left over from the Japanese occupation, when these hills had been used as a training ground. At 0700 it fell to the 1st Battalion KMC to summit this ridge in order to secure it for the move into Seoul.

Defender: KPA (Elements of the Seoul City Regiment, the 78th Independent Infantry Brigade and the 25th Infantry Brigade)  

Errata (source)