Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Who won The Battle of Kyongju?
The Battle of Kyongju was an engagement between United Nations (UN) and North Korean (NK) forces early in the Korean War from August 31 to September 15, 1950, in the vicinity of Kyongju in South Korea. It was a part of the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, and was one of several large engagements fought simultaneously. The battle ended in a victory for the United Nations after large numbers of United States (US) and Republic of Korea (ROK) troops repelled a strong North Korean attack.
With the North Koreans having cut off all other approaches from the Kyongju area, the task force spent all of September 10 making a circuitous southern approach to its objective. It arrived in its assembly area at Yongdok-tong, 1 mile (1.6km) south of Yonil Airfield, at 19:00 that evening. Davidson early that morning had flown on ahead from Kyongju to Yongdok-tong. Emmerich was there to meet him when his light plane landed on the road. On the flight over, Davidson looked for but did not see any North Korean soldiers. Emmerich told Davidson the North Koreans had driven the ROK troops from Hill 131. This hill was on the southern side of the boundary between the two ROK regiments holding the Yonil defensive position. Davidson and Emmerich agreed that the ROK troops would have to recapture Hill 131 during the night and that then the task force would attack through the ROK 3rd Division to capture the main North Korean positions on Hill 482. They thought that if the task force could establish the ROK troops on Hill 482 they should be able to hold it and control the situation thereafter. Emmerich took Davidson to meet the ROK 3rd Division commander. Davidson told him that he was in command in that area and informed him of his plan for the attack. That night the South Korean troops did succeed in recapturing Hill 131 and restoring their lines there. In this attack the ROK 3rd Engineer Battalion fought as infantry, and under the leadership and guidance of Captain Walter J. Hutchins, the KMAG adviser to the battalion, contributed heavily to the success.[40]
The next morning, September 11, the 19th Infantry passed through the left-hand ROK regiment just south of Hill 131 and, with the 1st Battalion leading, attacked west. At 09:30 it captured without opposition the first hill mass 2 miles (3.2km) west of its starting point. The 2nd Battalion then passed through the 1st Battalion and continued the attack toward Hill 482 (Unje-san), 1 mile (1.6km) westward across a steep-sided gorge. There, North Koreans held entrenched positions, and their machine gun fire checked the 2nd Battalion for the rest of the day. The morning of September 12 four Australian pilots from No. 77 Squadron RAAF struck the North Korean positions with napalm, and an artillery preparation followed the strike. The 2nd Battalion then launched its attack and secured Hill 482 about 12:00. That afternoon, ROK forces relieved Task Force Davidson on the hill mass, and the task force descended to the valley southwest of Yongdok-tong for the night. On September 13, Task Force Davidson returned to Kyongju.[40]
At a briefing in Taegu on August 27, Eighth Army commander Lieutenant General Walton Walker showed his concern over this development. One of those present was Major General John B. Coulter who had arrived in Korea about a month earlier.[22] Half an hour after the briefing ended, Walker ordered Coulter to observe the South Korean troops on the east.[25] Coulter flew to Kyongju, arriving there at 12:00 that day. Walker in the meantime formally appointed Coulter Deputy Commander, Eighth Army, placing him in command of the ROK I Corps which controlled the Capital and 3rd Divisions, the US 21st Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Battalion, US 9th Infantry Regiment, and the 73rd Medium Tank Battalion, less C Company. Coulter designated these units Task Force Jackson and established his headquarters in the same building in Kyongju in which the ROK I Corps commander and the KMAG officers had their command post.[25]
On August 20, the North Korean commands distributed operations orders to their subordinate units.[15] The North Koreans called for a simultaneous five-prong attack against the UN lines. These attacks would overwhelm the UN defenders and allow the North Koreans to break through the lines in at least one place to force the UN forces back. Five battle groupings were ordered.[18] The easternmost of these was for the NK 12th and NK 5th Divisions break through the ROK Capital Division and ROK 3rd Division to P'ohang-dong and Kyongju.[19]
Coulter knew the NK 15th Division had crossed the Taegu lateral corridor at Yongch'on and was heading in the direction of Kyongju. On September 6, he ordered the US 21st Infantry to attack the next day up the valley and bordering hills that lead northwest from Kyongju into the high mountain mass in the direction of Yongch'on. When it attacked there on September 7 the 21st Infantry encountered virtually no opposition.[37]
The ROK 3rd Division followed the withdrawing NK 5th Division, and the ROK Capital Division advanced against the retreating survivors of the NK 12th Division.[26] On September 15 some elements of the Capital Division reached the southern edge of An'gang-ni. Reports indicated that North Korean troops were retreating toward Kigye. With the threat in the east subsiding, Eighth Army dissolved Task Force Church, effective at 12:00 September 15, and the ROK Army resumed control of the ROK I Corps. Eighth Army also ordered the US 24th Infantry Division to move to Kyongsan, southeast of Taegu, in a regrouping of forces. The US 21st Infantry Regiment had already moved there on the 14th. The US 9th Infantry was to remain temporarily at Kyongju in Eighth Army reserve.[41]
September 12 is considered as the day when the North Korean offensive in the east ended.[23] By that date, the NK 12th Division had been virtually destroyed and the NK 5th Division was trying to consolidate its survivors near P'ohang-dong. Aerial observers reported sighting many North Korean groups moving north and east.[41]
In the hills southeast and east of Yongch'on, the NK 15th Division encountered very stiff resistance. Its artillery regiment outpaced the North Korean infantry, expended its ammunition, and, without support, was then largely destroyed by ROK counterattack. The North Korean artillery commander was killed in the action. After the ROK 5th and 11th Regiments arrived in the vicinity of Yongch'on to reinforce the demoralized 8th Division, South Korean action against the North Korean units was so intense that the two armies had no chance to regroup for co-ordinating action. On September 9 and 10 ROK units surrounded and virtually destroyed the NK 15th Division southeast of Yongch'on on the hills bordering the Kyongju road. The North Korean division chief of staff, Colonel Kim Yon, was killed there together with many other high-ranking officers. The part played by KMAG officers in rounding up stragglers of the ROK 8th Division and in reorganizing its units was an important factor in the successful outcome of these battles. On September 10, the ROK 8th Division cleared the Yongch'on-Kyongju road of the North Koreans.
North and South Korean forces suffered heavily in the battle, each side inflicted large numbers of casualties on one another. The exact numbers of casualties are impossible to determine.[23] Both sides are known to have suffered heavily.[42] Following the counterattack at Inchon, the North Korean units in the sector fled back North, no more than a few thousand troops from the NK 5th and 12th divisions were known to have returned to North Korea.[43] US casualties, in the meantime, were relatively light.[40]
By 1200 on September 4, North Korean units had established roadblocks along the Kyongju-An'gang-ni road within 3 miles (4.8km) of Kyongju. A 2 miles (3.2km) gap existed between the ROK 3rd and Capital Divisions in the P'ohang-dong area.[24] But the big break in the United Nations line was in the high mountain mass west of the Hyongsan valley and southwest of An'gang-ni. In this area northwest of Kyongju there was an 8 miles (13km) gap between the Capital Division and the ROK 8th Division to the west. From that direction the North Koreans posed a threat to the railroad and the road net running south through the Kyongju corridor to Pusan. Faced with this big gap on his left flank, Coulter put the US 21st Infantry in the broad valley and on its bordering hills northwest of Kyongju to block any approach from that direction.[35]
While this action was in progress near Yonil Airfield, the week-long battle for Hill 300 north of Kyongju came to an end. A regiment of the ROK 3rd Division captured the hill on September 11. In midafternoon the 3rd Battalion, US 19th Infantry, relieved the South Korean troops there. Scattered over Hill 300 lay 257 counted North Korean dead and great quantities of abandoned equipment and weapons, some of it American. In this fighting for Hill 300, the US 3rd Battalion, 19th Infantry, 37 men killed.[40]
The situation at Kyongju during the evening of September 4 was tense. Kim Hong Il, The South Korean corps commander, proposed to evacuate the town. He said that the North Koreans were only 3 miles (4.8km) away on the hills to the north, and that they would attack and overrun the town that night.[36] Coulter told him that he would not move his command post. Coulter put four tanks around the building where the command posts were located. Out on the roads he stationed KMAG officers to round up ROK stragglers and get them into positions at the edge of the town. One KMAG Major stopped ROK troops fleeing south, sometimes having to do so with a pistol.[35]
This forced Coulter to withdraw the 21st Infantry from the line northwest of P'ohang-dong and concentrate it in the vicinity of Kyongju.[32] The 2nd Battalion had joined the regiment on August 31, but Coulter had held it in the task force's reserve at An'gang-ni. That battalion now took up a horseshoe-shaped defense position around the town, with some elements on high ground 2 miles (3.2km) east where they protected the Kyongju to P'ohang-dong highway. The rest of the regiment closed into an assembly area north of Kyongju. At the same time, Walker started the newly activated ROK 7th Division toward the North Korean penetration. Its ROK 5th Regiment closed at Yongch'on that afternoon, and the ROK 3rd Regiment, less its 1st Battalion, closed at Kyongju in the evening. Walker also authorized Coulter to use the 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry; the 9th Infantry Regimental Tank Company; and the 15th Field Artillery Battalion as he deemed advisable. These units, held at Yonil Airfield for its defense, had not previously been available for commitment elsewhere.[33]
The gains of the North Koreans in the east on September 4 caused Walker to shift still more troops to that area.[26] The day before, he had ordered the US 24th Infantry Division to move from its reserve position near Taegu to the lower Naktong River to relieve the US 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in the Naktong Bulge area of the US 2nd Infantry Division front. It bivouacked that night on the banks of the Naktong near Susan-nil. On the morning of the 4th, before it could begin relief of the US Marine Corps forces there, the 24th Infantry Division received a new order to proceed to Kyongju. The assistant division commander, Brigadier General Garrison H. Davidson, proceeding at once by jeep, arrived at Kyongju that evening. Division troops and the US 19th Infantry Regiment started at 13:00 the next day, September 5, and, traveling over muddy roads, most of them arrived at Kyongju just before midnight. Major General John H. Church, the 24th Division commander, had arrived there during the day. All division units had arrived by 07:00, September 6.[37]
At 12:30 Eighth Army redesignated Task Force Jackson as Task Force Church, and at 13:00 Coulter departed Kyongju for Taegu to resume his planning duties. Church was now in command on the eastern front. That afternoon, September 7, Church canceled Coulter's order for the 21st Infantry to attack into the mountains. He felt it was a useless dispersion of troops and he wanted the regiment concentrated near Kyongju. Church made still another change in the disposition of the task force. On the 8th he moved its command post from Kyongju to the vicinity of Choyang-ni, 4 miles (6.4km) south. He believed the command post could be more easily defended there in the open if attacked than in a town, and that traffic congestion near it would be less.[39]
The expected North Korean attack on Kyongju, however, never came.[35] The North Koreans turned east, crossed the highway north of the town, and headed toward Yonil Airfield.[26] The next day the US Air Force, attacking North Korean gun positions 4 miles (6.4km) north of Kyongju along the road, found many targets in the Kigye-Kyongju-P'ohang-dong triangle as they caught the North Koreans advancing in the open.[35]
Choe Chung-heon was born in 1149, the son of Grand General Choe Won-ho (최원호). He is thought to have been born in Gaeseong or Gyeongju. He was descended from the famous Confucian scholar Choe Chi-won, who lived in the North South States Period and was the ancestor of the Kyongju Choe clan, but because Choe Won-ho was given the subname, Ubong (우봉, "great warrior"), his family split from the Kyongju Choe clan and became the Choe clan of Ubong. He married a Lady Yu (유씨) and had two sons by her, Choe U (최우) and Choe Hyang (최향).
In planning its new offensive, the North Korean command decided any attempt to flank the UN force was impossible thanks to the support of the UN navy.[12] Instead, they opted to use frontal attack to breach the perimeter and collapse it as the only hope of achieving success in the battle.[4] Fed by intelligence from the Soviet Union the North Koreans were aware the UN forces were building up along the Pusan Perimeter and that it must conduct an offensive soon or it could not win the battle.[15] A secondary objective was to surround Taegu and destroy the UN and South Korean units in that city. As part of this mission, the North Korean units would first cut the supply lines to Taegu.[16][17]
North Korean forces had four possible routes in the perimeter: to the south, the pass through the city of Masan around the confluence of the Nam and Naktong rivers; another southerly route through the Naktong Bulge and into the railroad lines at Miryang; through the route into Taegu in the north; and through Kyongju in the eastern corridor. North Korea mounted a large offensive in August, simultaneously attacking all four entries into the perimeter. As a result, the Battle of Pusan Perimeter was not one single engagement but a series of large battles fought between the UN and North Korean divisions all along the perimeter.
The next morning, September 2 at 01:30, the NK 12th Division, executing its part of the coordinated NK II Corps general attack, struck the Capital Division on the high hill masses south of the Kigye valley. This attack threw back the ROK 18th Regiment on the left in the area of Hills 334 and 438, and the ROK 17th Regiment on the right in the area of Hill 445. By dawn of September 3, the North Korean penetration there had reached the vital east–west corridor road east of An'gang-ni. As a result of this gain during the night, the NK 12th Division had advanced and the Capital Division all but collapsed. This forced Coulter to withdraw the 21st Infantry from the line northwest of P'ohang-dong and concentrate it in the vicinity of Kyongju. The 2nd Battalion had joined the regiment on August 31, but Coulter had held it in the task force's reserve at An'gang-ni. That battalion now took up a horseshoe-shaped defense position around the town, with some elements on high ground east where they protected the Kyongju to P'ohang-dong highway. The rest of the regiment closed into an assembly area north of Kyongju. At the same time, Walker started the newly activated ROK 7th Division toward the North Korean penetration. Its ROK 5th Regiment closed at Yongch'on that afternoon, and the ROK 3rd Regiment, less its 1st Battalion, closed at Kyongju in the evening. Walker also authorized Coulter to use the 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry; the 9th Infantry Regimental Tank Company; and the 15th Field Artillery Battalion as he deemed advisable. These units, held at Yonil Airfield for its defense, had not previously been available for commitment elsewhere.
Because the big gap between the ROK Capital and ROK 8th Divisions made it impossible for ROK I Corps at Kyongju to direct the action of the 8th Division, the ROK Army transferred that division to the control of the ROK II Corps on September 7, and attached to it the ROK 5th Regiment of the ROK 7th Division.[38] This shift of command came just as the NK 15th Division penetrated the ROK 8th Division lines to enter Yongch'on in the Taegu-P'ohang-dong corridor. From west of An'gang-ni the ROK 3rd Regiment drove toward Yongch'on, attempting to close the gap.[37]
Holding a line north of P'ohang-dong, An'gang-ni, and Kyongju, the so-called "Kyongju corridor," the Republic of Korea Army I Corps was unexpectedly hit with an attack by the North Korean People's Army's II Corps, part of the wider Great Naktong Offensive. The South Korean troops, already demoralized and struggling to maintain a strong defensive line, were easily pushed back from their positions. US Army units were called in to assist the South Koreans repel the attack.
Fighting was heavy and the two sides fought to capture and recapture P'ohang-dong and An'gang-ni, with the North Koreans seeking to break through the Kyongju corridor as a way to attack the UN base at Pusan. However, with large amounts of UN air and naval support, the US and South Korean ground forces were able to rout and force back the North Korean troops after two weeks of fighting.
By 12:00 on September 4, North Korean units had established roadblocks along the Kyongju-An'gang-ni road within of Kyongju. A gap existed between the ROK 3rd and Capital Divisions in the P'ohang-dong area. But the big break in the UN line was in the high mountain mass west of the Hyongsan valley and southwest of An'gang-ni. In this area northwest of Kyongju there was an gap between the Capital Division and the ROK 8th Division to the west. From that direction the North Koreans posed a threat to the railroad and the road net running south through the Kyongju corridor to Pusan. Faced with this big gap on his left flank, Coulter put the US 21st Infantry in the broad valley and on its bordering hills northwest of Kyongju to block any approach from that direction.