The Myth of the Isolated Defense Battle - (4) Steadfast Will

[Nam Dohyun, Military Columnist] Jipyeong-ri is a basin where the highlands, extending about 16km around Jipyeong Station on the Jungang Line, curve around it. Therefore, the most desirable way to defend this area is to establish a circular defense line along the ridges. However, despite the French Battalion being reinforced, the US 2nd Division's 23rd Regiment, with a total strength of about 5,600 troops across four battalions, could not form a connected position linking the highlands. After much deliberation, Freeman came up with an unconventional counterintuitive idea.

He boldly decided to abandon the highlands and bring the defense line forward into the basin, reducing it to a circular position using hills and rice field ridges. By creating a deep minefield at a radius of 1.6km from the center and building a circular position, the defense line was drastically shortened to about 6km. However, since the enemy could overlook the allied forces from the surrounding highlands, this was tactically quite disadvantageous.

Colonel Freeman of the 23rd Regiment abandoned the outer high ground and moved the defensive line inward, connecting it tightly. However, since they were completely surrounded on all sides, it was a highly dangerous operation where a breakthrough at any point could lead to total annihilation in an instant.

Additionally, due to insufficient manpower, they could not operate a sufficient reserve force. Freeman arranged for one company to serve as the regimental reserve and one platoon per battalion as the battalion reserve. Nevertheless, since the defense line could not be tightly connected, all support units, including the tank company, were deployed along the defense line as a strong measure. Although the will was strong, if even a small section was breached, the situation would become unpredictable.

However, Freeman firmly believed that the shortage of troops could be offset by firepower. He positioned the command post and artillery battalion around Jipyeong Station, the center of the circular defense network, to provide immediate fire support in all directions. Since US artillery had a longer range than the Chinese forces, he judged this deployment to be sufficiently effective, and he was confident in overwhelming air support as well.

The biggest challenge was rather to instill belief in the soldiers. No matter how numerous the Chinese forces were or how disadvantageous the position, without the will to endure to the end, victory was impossible. Freeman trusted his subordinates who had shared life and death experiences so far. Moreover, Colonel Ralph Monclar, who had voluntarily reduced his rank by four levels to lead the French Battalion in the Korean War, did not hesitate to offer advice to Freeman.

Meanwhile, the Chinese forces, having completed preparations for the offensive, began to encircle the US 23rd Regiment’s circular defensive positions in double and triple layers with overwhelming numbers. However, the Chinese made a fatal mistake. To attack Jipyeong-ri, the Chinese deployed four regiments (344th, 356th, 359th, and 396th Regiments), each belonging to different divisions (115th, 119th, 120th, and 126th Divisions), and from the start, there was no organic cooperation system among them.

They were only scheduled to assault their assigned areas once the offensive began, and as later revealed, the attack timings for each regiment were different. The Chinese believed that since Jipyeong-ri was isolated and surrounded, as had been the case before, a slight attack from all directions at night would easily throw the US forces into panic, after which they could block the retreat routes and mop up the forces.

The artillery positioned deep within the defensive line, firing in all directions, was the key contributor to the victory.

However, the Chinese failed to properly grasp the resolve of the US 23rd Regiment. The US 23rd Regiment, composed of US, French, and Republic of Korea Army support troops (KATUSA), was a multinational unit that barely communicated verbally but shared the same conviction in facing the enemy. In contrast, the Chinese were overconfident, relying solely on their numerical superiority. This difference in morale became a decisive factor in the battle’s outcome.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.