Task Force Smith (Battle of Osan) 1950

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Task Force Smith

 

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In Japan, US occupation forces were prepared for quick shipment to Korea. A 540 man battalion sized task force of the 24th Infantry Division under Lt. Col. Charles Smith was rushed to Korea on transport planes and moved north through hordes of refugees and retreating ROK Army units to block the enemy advance. They were told the communists would flee at the sight of American soldiers.

 

Early on the morning of July 5th, Task Force Smith took up position a mile long just north of Osan on ridge 300 feet above the plain to the north. A platoon of B Company occupied a knob to the west of the road while the other two platoons as well as the two platoons of C Company occupied the ridge to the east. Two mortar platoons were 400 yards to the rear and five 105 mm howitzers were 2,000 yards to the rear.

 

At around 7:00 AM the approaching enemy was sighted, and at 8:16 the artillery began firing on the advancing enemy. Leading the North Korean advance was the 107th Armored Brigade equipped with T-34 tanks. Not bothering to deploy, the tanks advanced straight up the road toward the American position. Fire from two American 75 mm recoilless rifles did not damage the advancing T-34s. No anti-tank mines had been brought along, and anti-tank guns, a vital part of World War II armies, were no longer used. As the tanks continued, the Americans opened up with the 2.36 inch bazookas. These weapons were quickly obsolete in World War II and predictably could not penetrate the T-34s' frontal armor. They were even of questionable use against the weaker areas of the tanks. One of the 105 mm howitzers fired HEAT rounds as the tanks crested the ridge, and the front two tanks were disabled. The remaining 33 tanks continued down the road, firing as they went. The tanks tore up the communications wire as they went and bypassed the howitzers, whose rounds stopped only three of the T-34s.

 

Before noon, 1,000 men in two regiments of the North Korean 4th Division supported by three tanks deployed to attack the ridge. The Americans held off attacks to their front, but the enemy began moving around both flanks. At 12:30 PM, the North Koreans occupied a hill overlooking the American position west of the road, so the American platoon fell back to the east side. Running low on ammunition and with the enemy around both flanks, Smith ordered a withdrawal at 2:30. The retreat was confused and the guns were abandoned. Although they had inflicted 127 casualties, the task force suffered 181 casualties and was so scattered it would be largely ineffective. Over the coming months, additional US troops were sent to Korea, and the battlelines finally stabilized at the Pusan Perimeter, where UN troops fought off desperate human wave attacks. In September, landings at Inchon would turn the tide in favor of the UN.

 

The battle at Osan is a low point in American history. It symbolizes the price in blood our troops pay for ill preparedness and inadequate defense spending. Has America learned this lesson? Other than Korean War veterans, how many people have heard of Task Force Smith?

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The lesson of Task Force Smith

David Adesnik

July 5 2014

 

US Army/Center for Military History

A team mans a Bazooka at the Battle of Osan. At right is Private First Class Kenneth Shadrick, who was killed by enemy fire a few moments after this photo was made, becoming the first United States soldier to die in the Korean campaign.

 

In more than a decade on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, American forces have never been routed. American combat units have suffered extensive casualties, but they have never disintegrated into a helpless mass of individual soldiers, capable of nothing more than a desperate flight for safety.

 

This achievement should not be taken for granted. Today, the armed forces grapple with a trillion dollars of defense cuts that are impairing readiness. And today is an appropriate time to reflect on the costs of unpreparedness: It was on this day in 1950 that American forces suffered the first of a series of tragic and embarrassing defeats in Korea. The hollow force that broke on contact in Korea resulted from President Truman’s consent to an exhausted nation’s demands for a peace dividend after World War II.

 

Seven days after the invasion of South Korea, the men of the 1/21st infantry battalion arrived from Japan, where they had been part of the American occupation force. Four days after their arrival, they became the first Americans to face North Korean troops in battle. Two of the battalion’s four companies were still aboard ships traveling from Japan to Korea, leaving only 403 men in the foxholes overlooking the road from Osan to Suwon. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith, the poorly equipped, understrength unit became known as Task Force Smith.

 

The U.S. military had the technology necessary to stop a North Korean armored assault, but that firepower was not in the hands of Task Force Smith. The artillery available to support the task force couldn’t pierce the armor of the advancing T-34 tanks. One lieutenant fired 22 bazooka rounds at the approaching T-34s, with no appreciable effect. None of the occupation forces in Japan had the newer launchers with larger rockets that could punch through T-34 armor.

 

Within hours, a mass of North Korean infantry enveloped Smith’s position. Casualties mounted. No reinforcements were available. Command and control of the unit broke down, with some men unaware that a retreat was underway. “It was every man for himself,” recalled one officer. There was no reason to expect any better from these poorly trained soldiers. Small groups began a disorganized trek southward toward a divisional headquarters. Most arrived starving and exhausted. The unit as a whole suffered 155 killed and wounded.

 

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