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A Study on the Battle of White Horse Hill, 1952 : Analysis on the 9th ROK Division's Improved Capabilities of combat execution

Jongnam Na 1

1육군사관학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the 9th ROK Division's historic victory against the Chinese forces at the Battle of White Horse Hill, October 1952. Although there have been many, official and/or academic, researches on this battle, mostly, they have focused on some vague factors such as mental power as key factors of the victory. This paper, however, tries to suggest fresh point of views on this battle by analyzing several first-handed data of the battle such as number of troops, casualties, times and durations of engagements, number of consumed ammunition, and etc. While suggesting the concept of ways of fighting and combat effectiveness as a analyzing frame, This paper seeks to find out how the 9th ROK Division was able to repulse the Chinese troops for more than 12 times during the 10-days long fierce and bloody battle. In order to review the detailed backgrounds of the 9th Division, this paper follow the history of this unit since May 1951 when it was collapsed seriously by the Chinese forces. After the defeat, the 9th Division was the first ROK unit that entered the Field Training Command(FTC) in August 1951 in order to reorganize and rehabilitate under the guidance of US Forces in Korean and KMAG. During 8 weeks of a well-organized training at the FTC, officers and soldiers of this division learned modern combat skills by harmonizing firepower and mobility of forces together. Also, since this unit came back to the front line in November 1951, The commanders of this unit never stopped to train their soldiers and troops by using FTC training models while increasing its combat effectiveness. When the Battle of White Horse Hill started in early October 1952 finally, the 9th ROK Division overwhelmed the Chinese forces by not allowing for the enemy to capture Hill 395. Although the Chinese troops captured the top seven times briefly during 10 days of the battle, the 9th ROK Division never stopped to repulse the enemy from the top with superior combat power based on more numbers of troops, strong firepower, and effective leadership skills. By analysing several key data on the Battle of White Horse Hill, this paper sheds light on the 9th ROK Division's developed way of fighting and superior combat effectiveness as the main factors of its final victory against the Chinese forces.

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