Qualla: Battle of Osan

Battle of Osan: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Uri Tours, CC BY-SA 2.0. The soldiers were mostly teenagers. They had eight weeks of basic training, 120 rounds of ammunition each, two days of C-rations, and obsolete bazookas that could not penetrate the armor of a Soviet T-34 tank. On July 5, 1950, these 540 men of Task Force Smith -- named for their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bradford Smith, a Guadalcanal veteran -- dug in on two rain-soaked hills north of Osan and waited for the North Korean army to arrive. It was the first ground engagement between the United States and North Korea, and it was over in hours.

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Image: Uri Tours | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Osan: Rushed to the Front

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Defense. Defense Audiovisual Agency. 6/21/1979-9/30/1985, Public domain. Ten days earlier, on June 25, ten North Korean divisions had poured across the 38th parallel with 89,000 men. Seoul fell in three days. The South Korean Army, outgunned and outnumbered, disintegrated. President Truman ordered ground troops to the peninsula, but years of postwar m...

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Image: Department of Defense. Defense Audiovisual Agency. 6/21/1979-9/30/1985 | Public domain

Battle of Osan: Steel Against Flesh

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leomonaci98, CC BY-SA 3.0. At 7:30 on the morning of July 5, eight T-34 tanks appeared through the rain, heading south from Seoul. The Americans opened fire at 8:16. Howitzer rounds struck the tanks and bounced off. Recoilless rifle rounds scored direct hits that did nothing. Second Lieutenant Ollie Connor...

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Image: Leomonaci98 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Osan: Overwhelmed

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JNicol, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the armor passed, an eerie quiet settled over the hills. For about an hour, nothing moved on the road from Seoul. Then, at 11:00, three more tanks appeared. Behind them stretched a truck column six miles long carrying 5,000 infantry of the North Korean 4th Division. The col...

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Image: JNicol | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Osan: The Cost of Seven Hours

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Army Signal Corps photograph by Corporal Robert Dangel, Public domain. The retreat dissolved into chaos. The 2nd Platoon of B Company never received the withdrawal order and found itself alone on the hill, surrounded. Wounded soldiers on stretchers were left behind with an attending medic. They were later found shot to death in their litters; the me...

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Image: US Army Signal Corps photograph by Corporal Robert Dangel | Public domain