“Exemplary Battle”

During the Korean war (June 1950-July 1953) the US imperialist aggressors planned a “new offensive” in early 1953 in an attempt to make up for their shameful loss. The aggressive plan was aimed at cutting connection between the front and the rear of Korea by means of large-scale landing operations on the east and west coasts of Korea, combining it with attacks in the land in order to annihilate the main units of the Korean People’s Army through encirclement, and thus occupying the whole Korean territory and further expanding the war deep into the Asian continent.

What the US imperialists put main emphasis upon in the offensive was the battle to attack a small T-shaped hill located in a hilly area west of Cholwon. The hill was 200 to 300 meters in height.

The US imperialists had suffered a heavy loss due to positive military actions of the KPA. So they decided to carry out the offensive at all costs, and planned a new attack called “Smack Operations” for the purpose of assessing the possibility of the “new offensive” and heightening the morale of the allied states so as to bring together much more cannon fodders. The target of the battle was just the T-shaped Hill, and the battle was to be done by the 31^st regiment of the 7^th Infantry Division of the US Army, under the command of Van Fleet.

To prepare for the battle the enemy showered ten thousand 105 mm shells on the small hill by January 20. Their tanks waged an “action to destroy trenches” from January 17, and their planes that had heavily bombarded the hill for weeks dropped 136 000 pounds of bombs and lots of napalm bombs on it on the eve of their attack. They described it as an accomplished fact to win the battle saying that it would be an “exemplary battle” done with more technical means than that required by the military standard and the “greatest offensive after Kimhwa offensive”. And they invited the 1^st Corps Commander, 5^th Air Force Commander, 7^th  Division Commander and other officers and UN Press Corps including the AP news agency to see the battle and distributed among them documents that contained the outline and schedule of the battle, and main content of the attack.

After turning the hill into a sea of flames, they concluded that there would be no survivors on the hill, and ordered an infantry regiment trained nine times for attack on a similar spot to the T-shaped Hill to charge, under cover of 40 tanks.

However, they were defeated by KPA soldiers who fought under the wise leadership of Supreme Commander Kim Il Sung. At 5 o’clock pm on January 24 the Supreme Commander received the urgent report that the enemies were trying to launch a large-scale attack on the hill. He understood the military and political significance of the battle in frustrating the US imperialists’ “new offensive” and decided to repulse their attack at a blow.

At that time the enemy’s force on the line of the hill was several times as much as the KPA’s there, so the latter might be broken unless they were reinforced. However, there were no reserve units of ordinary arms nearby, and time was too pressing. Even in this tense situation the Supreme Commander deeply analyzed the front situation and suggested an original way of crushing the enemy’s attack at a stroke by quickly moving reserve artillery units of the KPA supreme headquarters from the line of Yangdok to the line of the T-shaped Hill. It was just against the common military knowledge to move the artillery units from the line of Yangdok to that of Cholwon overnight and that along rough roads in winter.

The Supreme Commander phoned commanders of the artillery units in Yangdok to inform them of the urgent circumstance of the front and ordered them to quickly move the units to the line of the hill by 4 o’clock the next morning. The artillery units made a forced march and reached the destination in time. And they finished preparation to fire. Then they massed their fire upon the enemy the moment the latter was about to begin attacking in an exposed state. The enemy’s tanks, armored vehicles and soldiers were crushed to splinter in an instant. Now the KPA soldiers, who had been defending the hill by depending on tunnel-type defense position, launched counter-attack under cover of powerful artillery fire and wiped out all the rest of the enemy. As a result, the “exemplary battle” the enemy had started after showering 225 000 shells, napalm bombs and bullets on the hill ended in their own shameful defeat. With this the US imperialists could no longer launch a large-scale offensive, and soon their attempt of “new offensive” ended in failure.