The Battle of Kapyong
Saturday I went and checked out the Korean War battle site in Kapyong which is located East of Seoul not to far from Chunch’on. Kapyong is a small country city with a wide river that runs through it from the nearby mountains. Nothing about the appearance of this city would lead you to believe an epic life or death battle happened here. However, one did.
On 23-24 April, 1951 the British 27th Commonwealth brigade reinforced with New Zealand, Canadian, & Australian soldiers plus a US tank company fought a heroic pitched battle against the communist Chinese forces just North of the city of Kapyong. To the North of the city the Kapyong river goes to the base of the 1200 foot Myeongji-san mountains. It is in these mountains that the Commonwealth Brigade held off the Chinese for two days allowing rear UN forces to retreat without being destroyed.
Here is a great quote from the battle I really liked from the Australian website commemorating the battle.
“Major O’Dowd then directed the radio operator to contact anyone. The American 1st Marine Division answered but their operator refused to believe who our operator was speaking for. Major O’Dowd took the phone and demanded to speak to the commanding officer. The general in charge of the [Marine] division came on the phone and told O’Dowd we didn’t exist as we had been wiped out the night before. Major O’Dowd said, ‘I’ve got news for you, we are still here and we are staying here.'”
Private Patrick Knowles, 3 RAR, on the morning of 24 April 1951
To check out this link to check out the complete website (Battle of Kapyong).
In honor of these country’s heroes a memorial in the city of Kapyong was created. The memorial honors the British, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian militaries for there heroices during the battle of Kapyong.
Noticably missing from the memorial was any mention of the US military’s involvement in the battle. Plus at the different battle sites just north of city, memorials for the commonwealth brigade’s individual countries have been constructed but the US Army has none.
Granted the commonwealth brigade took the majority of the casualties in the fight and deserves the memorials but could the American military’s involvement be at least worthy of being mentioned in the overall memorial in Kapyong?
Actually it is probably better that the Americans are not mentioned on the memorial because it is quite possibly the dirtiest memorial park I have ever been to. Dead grass, garbage everywhere, cigarette butts, and worn out flags greet the visitors to the park. There was even empty beer bottles and cigarette butts on the memorial itself. This is by far the worse Korean War memorial park I have been to so far in the country. Usually they are kept up fairly well.
Myeongjisan Mountain North of Kapyong
However if you are not into Korean War history the drive to Kapyong and then North on highway 75 is definitely worth the ride. There are scores of beautiful mountains to see and the Kapyong river makes for a nice sight also. A recommended weekend drive.
I will actually be visiting the Punch Bowl battle site this next weekend hopefully if I can get off of work. I have been wanting to go to the site for awhile but every time I have made plans something from work comes up. It is located way up in the mountains right on the DMZ and difficult to access but I can't wait to get a chance to see it.
Went to the Punchbowl two years ago. Actually, it's not that difficult to access if you've got a couple of days. Definately worth going to — the views from the rim alone are worth the trip. I should also say that Yang-gu is quite the nice little town, which kind of surprised me given just how out of the way it is. Friendly, too.
There is little mention of the US role in the battle of Kapyong because aside from a company from the 72nd Tank Battalion and artillery units the bulk of US soldiers were in full retreat down the valley. Kapyong was ultimately held by approximately 600 Canadians of the 2nd Battalion PPCLI against a much larger force of Chinese soldiers. The Canadians held the hill only after calling in fire support directly on their own positions and being resupplied by air drop.
Crap! The 14 US Sherman tanks actually poured machine gun fire at each others tanks because there were so many Chinese soldiers on top of their tanks. The Australians had fought of the entire Chinese Dvision for 36 hours with little airtillery support and as they ran out of ammuntion and were in territory that would not support air supply were ordered to retire to new positions ( not as the Canadian report often says..retreat) at this stage the Canadians had not even been engaged, When the Chinese advanced again they ran in to the Australians, along with the British Middlesex Unit in new dug in positions, and then decided not to attack them but turned west to attack the Canadians instead( 1st time Cans enagaged) the Chinese had been fighting non stop for 36 hours against the Australians and the had been stopped with ferocious fighting and were then tired, shocked and amazed, the Canadians by then had effiecent and effective artillery to support them as well as co ordinated air strikes and air supply – some thing the Australians did not have, each countries men fought extremely bravely, but to rubbish the efforts of any is unworthy and to paint the picture as it was not is basically disgusting not to say untrue – the initial attack force was severely blunted by Australian infantry with huge support from USA Sherman Tanks, which resulted in the capability necessary for Canadian forces with strong air and artillery support to do the rest. Your version and many versions like yours is utter crap and does not do justice to what really happened ad Kayong.
Ian – yes let's correct the historical record, the Canadians did nothing and deserve zero praise for their role at kapyong- it was all the Americans with (unfortunately) a tiny little help from the Australians.
Here’s the real story of what happend
http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/korea/operations/kapyong/
The American tank units withdrew after the start of the battle as they had no com’s with the other allied units in the area, when they first where contacted by the Chinese troops (without infantry support) they locked themselves in there tanks, used there machine guns to clean the chinese off each other and then withdrew at no time did they provide any fire support to the Australian troops, this was the total extent of there actions at Kapyong, The NZ artillery where the only unit to provide artillery fire to support the Australian and Canadian troops
The Australians bore the inital attack, after 36 hours the Chinese then attacked the Canadians.