Fighting Back to 38th Parallel

[Draggingtree]

Fighting Back to 38th Parallel

CHAPTER XVII

Operation RIPPER

The Plan

The final objective line of the RIPPER operation, line Idaho, was anchored in the west on the Han River eight miles east of Seoul. From that point it looped steeply northeastward through the eastern third of the I Corps zone and almost to the 38th parallel in the IX Corps' central zone, then fell off gently southeastward across the X Corps and South Korean zones to Hap'yong-dong, an east coast town six miles north of Kangnung. Since line Idaho traced a deep salient into enemy territory, a successful advance to it would carry the Eighth Army, in particular the IX Corps in the center, into an area believed to hold a large concentration of enemy forces and supplies.¹

 

Prize terrain objectives in the central zone were the towns of Hongch'on and Ch'unch'on. (Map 26) Both were roads hubs, and Ch'unch'on, nearer the 38th parallel, appeared to be an important enemy supply center. In the major RIPPER effort, the IX Corps, now commanded by Maj. Gen. William M. Hoge, was to seize the two towns as it moved some thirty miles north to the deepest point of the Idaho salient.² The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, currently undergoing refresher training at Taegu, was to assist the IX Corps attack should an opportunity arise to employ airborne tactics profitably.³

 

To General Hoge's right, the X Corps was to move to a segment of line Idaho whose most northerly point lay about twenty miles above the present corps front. (Map 27) In clearing enemy forces from this territory, General Almond was to pay particular attention to the two principal northsouth corridors in his zone, one traced by the Soksa-ri-Pangnim-ni segment of Route 20 at the corps right, the other by a lesser road running south out of P'ungam-ni in the left third of the corps zone.⁴

 

Responsibility for the remaining ground to the east was once again divided between the ROK III and ROK I Corps. Believing that the South Korean sector needed to be strengthened,

 

http://www.history.army.mil/books/korea/ebb/ch17.htm