Battle Of Heartbreak Ridge Battle Analysis

North of the 38th parallel, in North Korea lies a serious of innocuous hills where some of the bloodiest fighting occurred during the Korean War. The forgotten war might be lost in the conscious of the American people, but the lessons learned on Heartbreak Ridge will forever be with the United States Army. The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge took place over a seven mile stretch of land that included three sharp peaks that were separated by steep valleys. The Battle lasted from September 13th 1951 to October 15th 1951 (Loudermilk, 2017, para. 1). This battle was the follow up to the Battle of Bloody Ridge where US forces claimed victory and pushed the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to Heartbreak Ridge. The US forces involved in this battle were the 2d Division, 23d Infantry Regiment, 9th Regiment, 38th Regiment, 3d Division, and 72nd Tank Battalion. The 38th Regiment was comprised of US and French troops (Encyclopedia reference). The opposing forces were the North Koreans and Chinese troops. The KPA included the 6th, 12th, and 13th Divisions, along with the Chinese CCF 204th Division and 68th Army (Loudermilk, 2017, para. 2). This is the area known as the

The U.N. Forces were coming off the heels of winning the battle of Bloody Ridge so we were familiar with the tactics of the KPA. Instead of waiting for more Soldiers and Intel they decided to send a single infantry regiment in without knowing roughly how many positions the KPA held along Heartbreak Ridge. The result ended in the 23d Infantry Regiment getting slaughtered on the first assault up the ridge. The U.N. could have avoided this by taking the time to be prepared for the battle. If the pre-planning phase consisted of looking back at the battle of Bloody Ridge and scouting the terrain for different trench points then the assault could have been conducted with better