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Korean War Anthology

Artillery in Korea:

Massing Fires and Reinventing the Wheel

D.M. Giangreco

United States Army

Command and General Staff College
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Cover Photo: Red Legs of Battery C, 936th Field Artillery Battalion fire 

their 100,001st 155mm shell of the war at Chinese positions near

Ch’orwon. (U.S. Army, 10 Oct 51)
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Korean War Anthology

Artillery in Korea:

Massing Fires and Reinventing the Wheel

D.M. Giangreco

United States Army

Command and General Staff College
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Combat Studies Institute

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027

CSI Press 03–01
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Artillery in Korea:

Massing Fires and Reinventing the Wheel

D.M. Giangreco,

United States Army Command and General Staff College

The night attack was unexpected and unstoppable. A human 

sea had swept through the fire direction center as ‘extraordinarily bitter hand-to-hand fighting’ raged throughout the area. 

The artillery battalion’s commander was one of the first men 

killed and the men of Battery I withdrew along a narrow-gauge 

railroad track to seek refuge in Battery G’s position. Neither 

battery brought their guns into action.1 Battery H defended 

their position with carbines and anything at hand. Fuses were 

cut to four-tenths of a second to explode 105-millimeter (mm) 

shells at less than 50 yards, but could not be set fast enough 

and the muzzle of at least one gun was immediately depressed 

to spew ricochet fire off the foreground. Another section turned 

their weapon completely to the rear to engage targets, but as 

the fighting intensified, more and more cannoneers were literally shot from their guns.2

 A breakthrough at the wooded ravine on Battery H’s left finally forced the survivors into a

‘pell-mell’ retreat. In their haste to get away, breech blocks 

and firing locks were left in place.3

The first nine months of the Korean War saw U.S. Army field artillery 

units destroy or abandon their own guns on nearly a dozen occasions. North 

Korean and Chinese forces infiltrated thinly held American lines to ambush 

units on the move or assault battery positions from the flanks or rear with, all 

too often, the same disastrous results. Trained to fight a linear war in Europe 

against conventional Soviet forces, field artillery units were unprepared for 

combat in Korea, which called for all-around defense of mutually supporting 

battery positions, and high-angle fire.4 Ironically, these same lessons had

been learned the hard way during recent fighting against the Japanese as the 

vignette above—which describes a 1944 action on Saipan, not Korea—aptly 

demonstrates.5 Pacific theater artillery tactics were discarded as an aberration 

after War World II, but Red Legs soon found that they “frequently [have] to 

fight as doughboys”6 and “must be able to handle the situation themselves if 

their gun positions are attacked.”7

A second problem with artillery in Korea was felt most keenly by the soldiers that the artillery was supposed to support—the infantry. Commanders at 
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all levels had come to expect that in any future war, they would conduct operations with fire that equaled or even surpassed the lavish support they had 

recently enjoyed in northwest Europe.8 It was clear almost from the begi nning, however, that this was not going to happen in Korea because there was 

a shortage not only of artillery units but also of the basic hardware of the 

cannoneers’ craft—guns and munitions. Until the front settled down into a 

war of attrition in the fall of 1951 (which facilitated the surveying of refe rence points and positioning of “an elaborate grid of batteries, fire direction 

centers, [and] fire support coordination centers”9), massed fires were

achieved by shooting at unprecedented speed.10 This tactic, in turn, exposed 

the fact that the huge surplus of World War II munitions was actually deficient in some calibers, and strict ammunition rationing became the norm until 

production caught up with demand in the last days of the fighting.11

When the North Korean People’s Army swarmed south across the 38th 

Parallel on 25 June 1950, America’s arsenal of artillery was little different 

than it had been when Germany invaded Poland and was identical to our inventory at the end of World War II.12 While it was identical in terms of 

hardware and doctrine like the rest of the postwar Army, the number of

combat-ready field artillery battalions had shrunk radically in both number 

and even tubes per unit. After the war, a variety of reorganizational schemes 

had been proposed for the field artillery, but they all agreed on certain

basics: the need to improve mobility, fire direction, command and control, 

and, above all, firepower. On this last point, it was a question of how to best 

achieve the desired end—add an additional four-gun battery to each

battalion; keep the same number of batteries but give them six guns each; or 

simply increase the number of battalions at division and corps.13 The bottom 

line was that the Army had derived huge benefits from its massive and

effective use of artillery during the last war and that a future war against our 

only likely enemy, the Soviet Union, would require even more firepower. 

The Army ultimately adopted the six-gun battery since it would clearly be 

more economical than adding more battalions. Divisions were to increase

from 48 to 72 cannons apiece, with beefed-up support from corps artillery 

groups as well.14 The actual situation at the outset of the Korean War was 

somewhat different, however. Taxpayers and their representatives in Congress had little interest in strengthening America’s 10 remaining combat divisions. Although the equipment existed in artillery parks, the additional

guns remained unissued since no divisions received enough men to make the 

changeover from four-gun to six-gun batteries.15 Indeed, many battalions

could only field two of their three batteries, and this was particularly true for 

the units on occupation duty in Japan. The table of organization may have 

called for divisions to employ a robust 72-cannon force of 105mm and 
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155mm, but the reality was that most contained 48 howitzers, and those in 

Korea could not maintain anything above 24 in peacetime.16

To the newly created South Korean army, even this amount of artillery 

looked positively lavish. Their eight divisions contained only 15 105mm

howitzers apiece and their ammunition supply was kept on a very tight leash 

by General Douglas MacArthur’s Far East Command in Tokyo because of

the very real fear that the South would attack the North if given half a

chance.17 By contrast, North Korean divisions were built along Soviet lines 

and contained 12 122mm howitzers and 36 76mm guns, 12 of which were 

self-propelled. Both the 122s and 76s outranged the South Korean 105s; in 

the case of the 76mm gun, by some 2,300 yards. Additionally, each North 

Korean division contained 40 45mm antitank guns, which were commonly 

employed as field artillery, plus 150 tanks mounting 85mm guns added to 

their firepower and maneuverability as well.18

With such an overwhelming force at its disposal, the Communists could 

and did dominate the battlefield and would for nearly two months. Before his 

capture, the U.S. 24th Infantry Division (ID) commander even remarked to 

one of his staff that he “had seen as much incoming artillery fire at Taejon 

Airfield . . . as he had ever seen in one day in Europe.” 19 As for the South 

Koreans, outranged, outgunned, and with little ammunition, they pleaded for 

more 105mm shells. In a magnificent effort, 119 tons of munitions were immediately shifted from Ikego Ammunition Depot near Tokyo to Tachikawa 

Air Base and then airlifted to Suwon—where they were promptly overrun by 

the North Koreans.20

U.S. field artillery battalions arriving from Japan found themselves in

much the same position as the South Koreans. And although the venerable 

M1 155mm howitzer had plenty of range, there were too few of them. 21 Further, until the front stabilized as the Pusan perimeter, they were largely nullified by North Korean infiltration tactics, which took advantage of the Eighth 

Army’s very thin infantry strength and the resultant dangerous dispersal

across the front. Time and time again, artillery units found themselves in 

danger of being cut off, under direct attack, or both. Over 40 guns were lost 

or abandoned—11 of them the big 155s—and the understrength batteries

could barely provide even limited support while constantly being displaced.22

The worst hit of several field artillery units was the 63d Field Artillery 

Battalion. Strung out along a secondary road south of Kongju on the morning 

of 14 July 1950, its mission was to supply fire support for two infantry companies and a South Korean cavalry troop guarding 12 miles of the Kum River 

front. A regiment of the North Korean 4th Division crossed the river unopposed and in daylight two miles from the nearest American troops and immediately headed for the line of communications running out of Kongju.
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Artillery belonging to the 24th Infantry Division on a Pusan quay. The arrival of these 105mm howitzers helped make up for Task Force Smith’s recent losses, but most of this equipment would itself be destroyed or

captured in subsequent months. (U.S. Army, 6 July 50)

Units at the center of the elongated battalion position were struck first after a 

machine gun outpost was overrun. Concern that South Korean troops in the 

area might be fired upon by mistake had led to orders that the outpost not fire 

unless attacked, and their captured gun was turned on the Headquarters Battery. Battery A, some 250 yards to the north, was struck almost simultaneously. Mortar rounds fell among the gun positions and both the battalion

switchboard and radio truck were destroyed at the outset of the attack. Battery A’s five 105mm howitzers were abandoned intact.23

Forty-five minutes after the assault began, Battery B was attacked. The 

extra time had allowed this unit to prepare for the ground assault, and it

fought back effectively with cannon and machine gun fire. Seeing that the

position could not be easily taken by the storm, the North Koreans then kept 

it under fire and concentrated their mortars on the 105mm guns as well as the 

vulnerable trucks and prime movers. The battery had no way to respond to 

the mortars, and the commander ordered a withdrawal after two guns were 
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disabled and the radio jeep destroyed. Firing locks and sights were removed 

from the remaining guns, and the men of Battery B made their escape. Barely 

an hour and a half after the 63d Field Artillery Battalion had come under attack, 10 howitzers and up to 80 vehicles had been lost with 136 missing in 

action, including the battalion and Battery A commanders.24 Quickly

reconstituted into a battalion of two three-gun batteries, the 63d lost more 

men and weapons to North Korean roadblocks six days later during the night 

withdrawal from Taejon, with only Battery B escaping intact.25

The combat experience field artillery officers brought to Korea was

gained almost exclusively in northwest Europe. And while they quickly understood the need for units to protect themselves through all-around defense 

and coordinate their activities with nearby infantry and armor units, putting 

this into practice after years of training for linear warfare was another matter 

entirely. There was little realization that the force had only recently “been 

there before” in the Pacific fighting.26 However, it was perceived that something could be learned from the field artillery of parachute units since they 

obviously had to be able to provide fire support in any direction and while 

surrounded.27 As best they could, Red Legs moved quickly to absorb infantry 

techniques for defense and integrate them with the unique needs of their

battalions.28

Basic limitations in equipment also had to be reconciled. For example, a 

battery of 155mm howitzers west of Taejon arrayed itself with its weapons 

pointed in three different directions. When warned by an infantry officer that 

the enemy was advancing on his position from the southwest, where no guns 

were directed, the battery commander claimed that he could not turn the guns 

without authority from the battalion operations officer. Rumors and false

alarms were common during the confused, early fighting in Korea, and the 

battery commander was not about to turn his 13,000-pound (lb) cannons on 

the word of a second lieutenant whom he’d never laid eyes on before.29 A 

155mm gunner not from this unit later remarked: “A good artilleryman . . . 

should be prepared to shift trails to engage targets in almost any direction.

This is all very easy for the infantryman, or even artilleryman, not familiar 

with the 155mm howitzer to say.”30 In this case, however, not making the 

effort was costly. The position soon came under attack and several soldiers 

were killed almost immediately. It was later reported that “the artillerymen 

had shown no desire to limber up the pieces under fire,” and the North

Koreans failed to capture all of the guns only because an infantry commander 

sent a counterattack force to retrieve as many guns as possible.31

Ad hoc efforts to improve perimeter defense met with some success but 

were nevertheless hampered by the fact that there were simply too few guns 

and too few boots on the ground. Typical of the challenge faced at this stage 
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M4A3 Sherman tanks of the 2d Infantry Division, operating as artillery, 

have backed into excavated fire positions to give their relatively flat trajectory guns more elevation for greater range, Pia-ri area. (U.S. Army, 18 

Sep 51)

of the fighting was that of the 24th ID’s field artillery, which had to cover 32 

miles of the Naktong River front. In 1944 and 1945, such an expanse would 

have been covered by perhaps 250 divisional and corps guns, sometimes less, 

sometimes considerably more.32 In early August 1950, the 24th ID had just 

17 105mm and 12 155mm howitzers to do the job. Doctrine may have called 

for as many as three to four artillery battalions available to support each infantry battalion in combat, but the inverse had become the killing reality just 

five years after World War II.33

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was painfully aware of his artillery’s shortcomings and, on 8 July, reminded the Joint Chiefs that his divisions were “at neither war strength nor at full authorized peace strength.” 

Among other things, he wanted 11 fully manned 105 battalions sent from the 

United States as quickly as possible.34 Of course, if the Army didn’t have 

these extra units in June, it certainly didn’t have them in July. Fully half of 

the Army’s combat-ready divisions were either already committed or very 

soon would be. Batteries were stripped away from existing units (the 2d

Armored Division, for example, gave up three), but shipping limitations prevented any from arriving until late August.35

 The situation with heavy,

nondivisional artillery was even worse. Corps in Korea had virtually no cannons. MacArthur requested an initial shipment of 15 battalions and implied 

that the force would not reach World War II standards until he had 24 battalions. But again, the units simply did not exist. Despite the most vigorous 
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protests from MacArthur, all that could be shipped were three 155 battalions 

and the single 8-inch battalion in the general Reserve.36

In the meantime, though, Eighth Army divisions had to work with what 

they had. To cover its extended front, the 1st Cavalry Division placed individual batteries 7,000 yards behind the lines and, depending on terrain, approximately the same distance apart. 37 How were they able to do this and live 

to tell about it? Isolated instances of effective North Korean counterbattery 

fire occurred as late as 22 August, 38 but for all practical purposes the first 

month of grueling combat had seen the Communists’ field pieces steadily 

chewed up by our longest-range artillery—the F4U Corsair, F-51 Mustang,

and F-80 Shooting Star.

39 Still, the North Koreans had plenty of good infantry, and the wide expanses meant that our artillery could never truly mass 

fires, but by shifting trails, two and sometimes three batteries could be

brought to bear on a single threat. 40 Ultimately, though, the truncated units 

found that the best way to achieve an appropriate volume of ordnance on ta rgets was to shoot at exceptionally rapid rates and keep the ammunition coming.41 Fires massed in this manner were a common feature during the

defensive battles of August and September, and the unrelenting pounding of 

one 105 battalion in the desperate perimeter fighting damaged its gun tubes, 

yet was key to eliminating the dangerous enemy bridgehead at Yongp’o.42

Mobile warfare returned with the invasion at Inchon and breakout from 

Pusan. The long-sought medium and heavy artillery battalions arrived in the 

theater, and new combat divisions such as the 2d ID and 1st Marine arrived 

on the scene with their full complements of howitzers.

43 This was none too 

soon. 

Chinese artillery played a minor role during the initial months of its intervention, primarily because it could not be sneaked across the frozen Yalu 

River in quantity and hidden as effectively as infantry, and also, frankly, because it was unable to keep up with the speed of our “retrograde movement” 

into the southern peninsula.44 Between the 1st Cavalry Division, several

South Korean divisions, and the 2d ID (which itself lost 64 howitzers), some 

200 field pieces were wiped from the force structure in the west. 45 In the 

east, the Marines organized their withdrawal as they would an attack, and but 

for some extremely bad luck near the end would have been able to extricate 

all of their 155s. Unfortunately, the freezing temperatures had required that 

their prime movers’ engines be kept running during delays along the road, 

and gas tanks ran dry short of an air-dropped supply of diesel fuel. Eight of 

the heavies were lost in addition to another that slipped off the icy road.46

The loss of so many field pieces during the Chinese onslaught was a significant blow, but weapons could be replaced. One ironic aspect of the situation was not fully appreciated at the time. Perhaps as many as 150 of the lost 
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7th Infantry Division 155mm self-propelled howitzers near Sinhung protect the 

perimeter around the seaport city of Hamhung during the withdrawal of the 1st

Marine Division from the Chosin Resevoir. (U.S. Army, 2 Dec 50)

105mm howitzers fell into Chinese hands with little or no damage and were 

not destroyed by subsequent air strikes. The North Koreans had little interest 

in the American-made artillery when they overran much of the South the 

previous summer because their Army was a totally Soviet-equipped and supplied force.47 However, the mainstays of Chinese field artillery in 1950 were 

Japanese 75mm field guns and 105mm howitzers and guns, Soviet 76mm

guns, and the “made in USA” 105mm. 48 For obvious reasons, the Chinese 

were more than happy to add the captured weapons to their inventory. 

When Soviet forces withdrew from Manchuria in 1946, they left behind 

some 6,000 pieces of captured Japanese artillery ranging from 70mm to

150mm and a vast store of ammunition.49 Only a relatively small portion of 

this materiel was destroyed when the civil war between the Communist

Chinese and the Nationalist Chinese heated up after Japan’s surrender, and 

that amount was dwarfed by an even bigger windfall when the U.S.-equipped 

Nationalist armies were destroyed, scattered, or defected en masse between

1947 and 1949.50 The exact amount of equipment which fell intact into

Communist hands is impossible to pin down, but it is worth noting that so 
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Above: Chinese troops with trucks and 105mm guns of the 1st Cavalry Division or Republic of Korea II Corps in the Unsan area. This photo was 

probably staged since all or most lost artillery was overrun between 27 

Oct and 2 Nov 50 in actions that occurred in early morning darkness. (DA 

Pamphlet, 1955) 

Below: Chinese Communist artillery unit equipped with made in USA 

M2A1 105mm howitzers captured during China’s civil war. The Chinese 

army in Korea principally used captured U.S. and Japanese weapons but 

received a steady stream of Soviet-built artillery throughout the war. (DA 

Pamphlet 30-51, Handbook on the Chinese Communist Army , Sep 52)
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many 105s were harvested from the “running-dog lackies of Yankee

imperialism” that the Chinese actually went into the export business. For

example, the Viet Minh 351st Heavy Division, a formation patterned along 

the lines of a Soviet artillery division (and which pummeled the French

garrison at Dien Bien Phu), was equipped with 48 105s.51

But just because the Chinese now had more artillery in reserve than many 

armies possessed in total, this did not mean that the force could be effectively employed in Korea anytime soon. The see-saw warfare of January to 

October 1951 placed the limited Chinese artillery in Korea at a mobility and 

logistic disadvantage until politics stabilized the front late that year.52 Even 

then, the pace of the artillery buildup was slowed by the need to place the 

weapons in individual, deep bunkers that were safe against all but a direct 

hit.53 Another factor was the U.S. air interdiction campaign, which was far 

more effective than it is fashionable to admit. 54 By May 1952, some 710 active pieces were able to fire approximately 102,000 rounds, and the final 

month of the shooting war, July 1953, saw over 375,000 rounds fired on UN 

positions by nearly 900 pieces.55 While this may not appear to be a high rate 

of fire (a daily average of 16 rounds per tube), it must be appreciated that 

bombardments were highly focused and much more violent than what the 

Eighth Army had previously experienced. In any event, in July 1951, when 

the front was still quite fluid, it was estimated that the Chinese fired fewer 

than 8,000 artillery and mortar rounds.56

The appearance of Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway as Eighth Army 

commander in December 1950 meant that there would be no more grand, 

division-size drives up the main roads. This general sent foot soldiers into 

the hills, and in a series of deliberate, limited-objective operations beginning 

in January 1951, he edged his forces forward literally battalion by battalion 

in set-piece assaults employing air strikes, tank support, and very heavy artillery preparations.57 By this time the corps had nearly all the heavy artillery 

they were going to get. 58 These units were activated from Reserve and National Guard sources during a partial mobilization that did not include a corresponding mobilization of industry to get it on a war footing.59 Within a 

short time this was to have a pronounced impact on the munitions available 

in Korea.

Attacks and counterattacks characterized this period, but tighter control 

of the front, even in the face of major Chinese efforts, lessened the

hemorrhage of field guns to the enemy. In one instance, though, 28 105s and 

a half dozen 155s were lost in the X Corps area during the Communists’ 

February offensive.60 When the same area was retaken a month later, all of 

the 105s, as expected, were long gone. However, air strikes had purposely 

not been sent to destroy the 155s and, sure enough, X Corps was able to 
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Eighth Army cannoneers reloading their 8-inch howitzer during a fire mission against Chinese targets. (U.S. Army, 10 Jun 51)

recover five of them. 61 This episode saw the last U.S. field artillery lost to 

enemy action during the war.

By the spring of 1951, Chinese tactics had become as predictable to the 

Eighth Army as the Eighth Army’s had been to the Chinese just several

months earlier. When it became apparent that the Communists were preparing a second major offensive in the X Corps area in May, the newly

appointed Eighth Army commander, Lieutenant General James Van Fleet, 

canceled his own planned drive and prepared to receive the enemy forces on 

ground of his choosing.62 It was his opinion that, by World War II standards, 

his Army’s artillery was short by some 70 battalions.63 It was equally clear to 

him that the coming Chinese offensive offered an opportunity to eliminate 

much of its infantry in Korea, and Van Fleet stated his intent in clear and 

simple terms: “We must expend steel and fire, not men. . . . I want so many 

artillery holes that a man can step from one to the other.”64

Van Fleet had his staff calculate the maximum amount of ammunition 

that could be fed into the coming battle with the limited available truck

transport making the 60-mile round trip from the primary Eighth Army supply center to the X Corps dump, and thence to the artillery units. It was determined that if transportation of all other supplies was essentially halted, a 

truly stunning rate of fire could be maintained for approximately seven

days—or roughly the amount of time that the Chinese army could effectively 

maintain an offensive before its own strained logistic system, savaged by 
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A snowstorm blowing out of Manchuria doesn’t stop the crew of this 

155mm howitzer from pounding Communist troops on the central front.

(U.S. Army, 21 Feb 52)

U.S. airpower, would force it to consolidate.65 Of course, Van Fleet had no 

intention of even letting the Chinese get that far. 

To say that the U.S. Army’s daily authorized rate of fire was thrown out 

the window does not come close to doing justice to what was planned and 

executed. The per-gun 105mm daily rate was raised from 50 to 300 rounds, 

the 155mm from 33 to 250, and the 8-inch from 20 to 200.66 The offensive 

opened on the evening of 16 May, but it was not until late the next day when 

the exact positions and avenues of approach of all Chinese units were clearly 

known, that the order was issued for X Corps artillery to open up with its 

“Van Fleet loads.”67 In spite of considerable gains against the South Korean 

divisions to the east of X Corps, the Chinese abruptly called off the offensive 

on 20 May and attempted to quickly fall back north to get beyond cannon 

range. The U.S. supply system had been stretched almost to the breaking 

point but had enabled the field artillery to inflict crippling losses on six divisions.68 The last major Chinese offensive until 1953 was over and UN forces 
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fought their way some 40 miles north to a defensible line that nearly approximates the Demilitarized Zone today.

Artillery use remained high throughout the long, self-imposed stalemate 

that followed. Great quantities of ammunition were consumed even in limited 

operations to straighten out portions of the front and particularly in the defense of the string of outposts designed to keep the Communists out of key 

positions near the Eighth Army main line of defense. As it had proved over 

and over again in the mobile phase of the war, when massed fires were used 

to protect cut-off units, field artillery—not to minimize the soldiers’ own tenacity—was the determining factor in preventing the destruction of exposed, 

isolated outposts.69 Moreover, with ground offensive operations curtailed and 

the Air Force pushed to the fore in the new war of attrition, artillery was literally the only weapon at the Army’s disposal that could keep pressure on 

the enemy.70 By October 1951, however, after 16 months of unrelenting combat and no end in sight, it was alarmingly clear that our surplus of World War 

II munitions might not hold out until new production caught up with demand. 

It was also evident that if a second major ground war developed in Europe, 

we would quickly find ourselves in a precarious position.71

Although our rate of fire remained substantially higher than that of the 

Communists, it was far below what commanders desired because strict ammunition rationing was imposed and continued into the summer of 1952,

even as Communist bombardments increased in volume and accuracy. In

fact, it was not until early 1953 that theater stocks began to finally see the 

increase in munitions from money authorized years earlier, because of the 

extended time it took to gear up additional production.72 Later, during

congressional hearings into the matter, Van Fleet would maintain that rationing did not extend to troops in the front lines, but pointedly stated: “The 

only pressure the Army can put on, without advancing is firepower.”73 He 

believed that increased activity at the front would force the Communists to 

increase their resupply effort, forcing them to move more men and supplies 

during vulnerable daylight hours. “If the Army had been adequately supplied 

with ammunition, and could put a fire pressure greater than it does now,” 

said Van Fleet, “it would consume more of the enemy, the enemy supplies, 

create more problems for him which, in turn would help our air service.”74

Once the Chinese and revived North Korean forces were able to dig in, 

the utility of the Army’s trusty 105s had lessened appreciably since they

were not effective against bunkers and were useful only for interdiction of 

supply routes close to the front and for massed fire during enemy assaults. 

Heavier artillery, particularly the 8-inch howitzer, was required to reduce the 

bunkered artillery appearing only 2,000 to 6,000 yards from forward

positions, yet the 105s were wastefully employed in this largely futile
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“Long Tom” 155mm self-propelled guns fire in support of the 25th Infantry Division near Munema on the west central front. (U.S. Army, 26 Nov 

51)

effort.75 By fall 1952, the Eighth Army had 36 155mm howitzers plus 44 8-

inch guns after a battalion of 105s converted to the 8-inch. Unfortunately the 

155s in particular were plagued by ammunition shortages.76 While defensive 

fires never failed to be fully employed, useful limited operations that would 

have saved lives in the long run, such as a planned atta ck in the Triangle Hill 

complex by the South Korean 2d Division, had to be canceled.77 However, 

since an adequate supply of 438 lb, 240mm rounds existed in Army stocks, 

two batta lions were switched away from the 155mm and given the massive 

240mm howitzers in May 1953.78

Van Fleet’s boss in Tokyo, General Ridgway, frequently found himself going 

to bat for his aggressive Army commander. While not convinced that the artillery 

was being used in the most efficient manner, he stated in the fall of 1951 that 

“Whatever may have been the impression of our operations in Korea to date, 
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Young porters lugging 105mm shells on A-frame carriers to an artillery unit in 

the mountains, circa summer 1952. The lack of any road system in the Heartbreak Ridge-Punchbowl area necessitated that the Eight Army supplement air 

drops by employing thousands of Koreans to move supplies forward. (U.S. 

Army, 19 Jan 53)

artillery has been and remains the great killer of Communists. It remains the 

great saver of soldiers, American and Allied. There is a direct relation between the piles of shells in the ammunition supply points and the piles of

corpses in the graves registration collection points. The bigger the former the 

smaller the latter and vice versa.”79 Six months later the budget question still 

raged and Ridgway was just as adamant: “The only alternative is to effect 

savings of dollars by expenditure of lives.”80

In later years, military scholars, safely removed in time from the conflict, 

would ruminate over whether the Army learned the “right” lessons from Korea, but however applicable attrition warfare, in some degree, was to later 

conflicts, it was the best that could be done at that time without risking either 

America’s position in that theater or elsewhere in the world.

Numerous factors contributed to the Communists’ willingness to wrap up 

the war in 1953: first, the death of Stalin in March of that year and the apparent willingness of the new Soviet leadership to let things cool down;81

second, a worsening Chinese economy largely tied to its war effort;82 and 

finally, the warning to China in May that supply bases in its Manchurian 

sanctuary would be attacked coming immediately on the heels of our

destruction of North Korea’s irrigation dams.83 The new administration of

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was already beginning to rattle the nuclear 
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saber of what would soon be called “massive retaliation,” but it is highly 

unlikely that the Chinese feared we would wipe out some of their cities over 

a stalemate on the Korean Peninsula. Enter the 280mm “atomic cannon.”84

The development of the weapon had been well publicized. Harry S. Truman’s secretary of defense lauded its revolutionary potential and senior

military, including the Army chief of staff, stated specifically that “in the not 

too distant future” it could be used to obliterate “massed ground troops.”85

Now that’s attrition. Of course, all kinds of fanciful claims are made for 

weapons, projected or real, but in the midst of the Eisenhower administration’s bombing of the irrigation dams and warning that the war might be expanded into China came the highly publicized development and firing of a 

nuclear round from a 280mm cannon appropriately named “Atomic Annie.”86

What did the decision makers in China think of this? The large quantity of 

picked documents recently released by the Chinese government principally 

covers China’s entry into the war and provides few insights into decisions 

made during the two-year Battle of the Truce Tent at Panmunjom. What is 

clear, however, is that the Chinese understood very well the U.S. Army’s 

long-established policy of employing utterly massive fire support. While they 

frequently misinterpreted U.S. and world opinion, they also appreciated that 

a cannon-fired—and obviously tactical—use of nuclear weapons in response

to an attack had a political palatability in the West that air-delivered nukes 

did not possess, because of the public perception that air operations could 

easily be expanded beyond Korea’s battlefields.87

Items that had been sticking points in the negotiations literally for years 

were worked out with breathtaking dispatch88 and in an “agreeable fashion.”89 The final Chinese offensive of the war was launched in July as much 

to give the South Koreans a final bloody nose to remember as to leave the 

impression that the Communists had triumphed on the field of battle and 

forced a UN capitulation. In by far their largest sustained effort of the war, 

the Chinese fired some 705,000 rounds, including much of the remaining 

stock of 105mm munitions captured during their civil war. UN field artillery 

fired a total of 4,711,120 rounds in return, with the guns of both sides falling 

silent at 2200 on 27 July 1953.90

Almost immediately after the guns stopped firing, the Eisenhower administration announced that, henceforth, any further assaults on our interests 

or Allies would result in massive nuclear retaliation. To many in the Army, 

this widely trumpeted “new look” in America’s military policy bore an uncomfortable similarity to the pre-Korea old look of the Truman administr ation when atomic deterrence was the name of the game and the Army very 

rapidly shrunk to 10 understrength divisions. By the end of the 1950s, the 

Army indeed found itself down to just 11 active divisions.91 And although 
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the cuts had come more gradually this time around, they and other policy 

disagreements still provoked a rash of senior officer resignations and early 

retirements that eventually included virtually every surviving general who 

commanded the Eight Army in Korea: Van Fleet, Ridgway and Maxwell

Taylor.92 Field artillery, meanwhile, grappled with the problems of the projected nuclear battlefield as well as combat divisions reorganized to operate 

in widely dispersed battlegroups, a setup that theoretically provided a semblance of safety from nuclear attack, yet effectively prevented any true

massing of fires.93 The practical techniques of all-around defense developed 

during World War II’s Pacific fighting—and relearned the hard way in

Korea—did not figure into the “pentomic” and subsequent reorganization

objective Army division concepts, but were not forgotten by a generation of 

Red Legs who remembered all too well batteries and even whole battalions 

being overrun. Ironically, however, the sudden change to a battle of attrition 

behind a comparatively thick main line of defense and outpost system in the 

last years of the Korean War had also meant that the often-elaborate perimeter defenses of artillery units were never really tested against either sustained 

assault or large-scale infiltration. Such tests would have to wait for yet another Asian war.94
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Notes

 1. Robert Sherrod, On to Westward: War in the Central Pacific (New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 

1946), 136-37; Henry I. Shaw, Jr., Bernard C. Nalty, and Edwin T. Turnbladh, Central Pacific Drive, 

History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: Historical Branch, 

U.S. Marine Corps, 1966), 341; John C. Chapin, Breaching the Marianas: The Battle of Saipan (Washington, DC: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1994), 34.

 2. Carl W. Hoffman, Saipan: The Beginning of the End (Washington, DC: Historical Division, U.S. Marine 

Corps, 1950), 224-25; Shaw, Nalty, and Turnbladh, 341.

 3.Philip A. Crowl, War in the Pacific: Campaign in the Marianas, United States Army in World War II 

(Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1960), 259; Hoffman 225.

 4. Boyd L. Dastrup, King of Battle: A Branch History of the U.S. Army’s Field Artillery (Fort Monroe, VA: 

Office of the Command Historian, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command; and Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1993), 242-43, 247, 251.

 5. Ibid., 228-29.

 6. Edward T. Klett, Jr., “Solving the 6400-mil Nemesis,” Combat Forces Journal (July 1951), 34.

 7. Robert F. Cocklin, “Artillery in Korea,” Combat Forces Journal (August 1951), 23.

 8. Dastrup, 223-25.

 9. Bruce I. Gudmundsson, On Artillery (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993), 146.

10. Billy C. Mossman, Ebb and Flow: November 1950-July 1951, United States Army in the Korean War 

(hereafter USAKW) (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1990), 441-42; 

Gudmundsson, 146.

11. Walter G. Hermes, Truce Tent and Fighting Front, USAKW (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of 

Military History, United States Army, 1966), 336-40.

12. Dastrup, 237, 250-51, 263.

13. Ibid., 241-42.

14. Ibid., 250.

15. James F. Schnabel, Policy and Direction: The First Year, USAKW (Washington, DC: Office of the 

Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1972), 43-46; Dastrup, 250.

16. Schnabel, 54, 89-91; Dastrup, 251. Divisions on occupation duty in Japan generally contained three field 

artillery battalions, each containing two four-gun batteries. When deployed to Korea, some battalions 

were able to scrape together enough personnel to bring their batteries up to five guns, and the last occupation division to enter the Pusan perimeter fighting, the 25th, deployed with at least one six-gun battery 

in its 90th Field Artillery Battalion.

17. Roy E. Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu: June-November 1950, USAKW, (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1986), 16-17; Schnabel, 34-35.

18. Appleman, 11-12, 17; Schnabel, 36.

19. Appleman, 154.

20. Robert F. Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea, revised edition (Washington, DC: Office of Air 

Force History, United States Air Force, 1983), 25-26; Appleman, 56. The discrepancy in presented tonnage figures in these two volumes is the result of the Army figure representing only 105mm munitions, 

while the Air Force figure accounts for total ammunition shipped.

21. There were none of the even longer-range M2 155mm “Long Tom” guns available in Japan.

22. Appleman, 75, 128, 285.

23. Ibid., 126-28.

24. Ibid., 128.

25. George B. Barth, “The Final Days in Korea,” Combat Forces Journal (March 1952), 24, 179.

26. Dastrup, 255.

27. Klett, 34-35.

28. Cocklin, 22-27; Dastrup, 255-57; Leon F. Lavoie, “The Artillery Perimeter,” Combat Forces Journal

(October 1951), 25-26.

29. Appleman, 167.

30. Trevor N. Dupuy, “Increased Traverse for the 155mm Howitzer,” Combat Forces Journal (February 

1952), 37-38.
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31. Appleman, 167, 170.

32. Dastrup, 223-25; Appleman, 298.

33. Gudmundsson, 144-45; Schnabel 96-97.

34. Schnabel, 89.

35. Ibid., 92.

36. Ibid., 96-97.

37. Appleman, 337.

38. Ibid., 361.

39. Futrell, 84-98, 137-46.

40. Dastrup, 254.

41. Appleman, 337.

42. Ibid., 344.

43. Schnabel, 95-96, 160-61.

44. Appleman, 691-93, 706.

45. Ibid.

46. Mossman, 126; Appleman, 674, 707-708; S.L.A. Marshall, “They Fought to Save Their Guns,” Combat 

Forces Journal (May 1953), 10-18. See also “[Letters] to the Editor,” Combat Forces Journal (July 

1953), 2-4.

47. Lynn Montross and Nicholas A. Canzona, The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, History of U.S. Marine 

Operations in Korea, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: Historical Branch, U.S. Marine Corps, 1957), 250, 254-

55, 274-75; Appleman, Escaping the Trap: The U.S. Army X Corps in Northeast Korea, 1950 (College 

Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1990), 214, 216, 257-59.

48. Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 30-51, Handbook on the Chinese Communist Army (Washington, 

DC: Department of the Army, September 1952), 37, 89-91.

49. David M. Glantz, August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria , Leavenworth Paper 

No. 7 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 1983), 26, 29, 32-33; R. Ernest Dupuy and 

Trevor N. Dupuy, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History, fourth edition (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 1424.

50. Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, China-Burma-India Theater: Time Runs Out in CBI, United 

States Army in World War II (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1990), 

43-45, 338, 368-69, 374, 389-93; International Aid Statistics: World War II (Washington, DC: Army 

Service Forces, War Department, 1946), 22, 44-46, 54. Note that figures for artillery and particularly 

munitions in this volume do not include the extensive theater transfers, which accounts for stockage for 

39 U.S.-sponsored divisions supplied through CBI supply channels.. Dupuy and Dupuy, 1426-27.

51. Robert H. Scales, Jr., Firepower in Limited War (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1994, 36-37, Gudmundsson, 144.

52. Hermes, 79-80.

53. Gary J. Bjorge, “The Korean War: Chinese Forces’ Response to Heavy Bombardment” in Tactical Responses to Concentrated Artillery, CSI Report No. 13 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 

1983), 119-29; Chinese Communist Army, 41-42, 61-62.

54. Futrell, 692, 702-704.

55. Hermes, 284, 477; Mark M. Boarner III, “Countering Communist Artillery,” Combat Forces Journal

(September 1953), 24-25; Hermes, 284, 477-78.

56. John Miller, Jr., Owen J. Carroll, Margaret E. Tackley, Korea: 1951-1953 (Washington, DC: Center of 

Military History, 1957), 209.

57. Matthew B. Ridgway, 1984 address at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort 

Leavenworth, KS; in D.M. Giangreco, War In Korea: 1950-1953, second edition (Novato, CA: Presidio 

Press, 2000), 175-76; Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army, enlarged edition (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1984), 521-22; Mossman, 183, 237-47.

58. Schnabel, 136, 230.

59. “The Ammunition Hearings: Guns and/or Butter,” Combat Forces Journal (May 1953), 30-35; Hermes, 

298-300; Mossman, 231.

60. Mossman, 279.

61. Ibid., 321.
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62. Ibid., 440-42.

63. J.B.A. Bailey, Field Artillery and Firepower (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 237; Hermes, 

228.

64. Miller, Carroll, and Tackley, 106.

65. Mossman, 441-42.

66. Ibid., 442.

67. Ibid., 452-54.

68. Schnabel 400-402; Mossman, 469-70, 480, 486-87.

69. Gudmundsson, 146-47; Dastrup 258; Scales 16-17; James A. Houston, The Sinews of War: Army Logistics, 1777-1953 (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 

1966), 630-32.

70. Hermes, 509.

71. Miller, Carroll, and Tackley 106; Hermes, 224-30.

72. Hermes, 336-40; Charles W. Henry, “The Ammunition Supply System,” Combat Forces Journal (January 1952), 28-32.

73. “Ammunition Hearings,” 33.

74. Ibid., 32-33.

75. Bjorge, 123; Hermes 183-84, 226, 352-53; “Fortified Hill—Communist Style,” Combat Forces Journal

(March 1952), 18-20.

76. Hermes, 336-39.

77. Ibid., 352-53.

78. Ibid., 356.

79. Ibid., 227.

80. Ibid., 229.

81. Hermes, 412, 421. 

82. Futrell, 529, 606.

83. Hermes, 460-61; Futrell, 667-70.

84. Futrell, 709-10; Weigley, 525.

85. “Weapons and Men for the Future” condensed from the Semiannual Report of Secretary of the Army 

Frank Pace, Jr., Combat Forces Journal (February 1953), 16-17; General J. Lawton Collins in “Atomic 

Projectiles for Artillery,” Combat Forces Journal (March 1952), 16-17. See also “Pace Hails Army’s 

Atomic Gun,” New York Times, 9 May 1952, 1.

86. George C. Reinhardt, “Notes on the Tactical Employment of Atomic Weapons,” Military Review, 

September 1952, 28-37; “Van Fleet Said to Favor ‘Limited’ Atomic Attacks,” New York Times, 9 March 

1953, 8; “New 280-mm Gun Can Fire Atomic Projectile,” Combat Forces Journal (November 1952), 

29; “The Shot Heard Round the World: More Pictures of the 280 Gun,” Combat Forces Journal (June 

1953) 20-21; “The Atomic Gun Fires First Atomic Shell,” Combat Forces Journal (July 1953), 1. 

Robert A. Doughty also notes that President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s January 1953 inauguration parade 

pointedly included a 280mm gun in his The Evolution of U.S. Army Tactical Doctrine, 1946-76, 

Leavenworth Papers No. 1 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 1979), 26. See also

Reinhardt and W.R. Kintner, Atomic Weapons in Land Combat (Harrisburg, PA: Military Service Publishing Co., 1953).

87. Such perceptions remained strong throughout the coming decades, and nuclear artillery shells were 

never turned into an effective rallying point for protests by anti-American groups.

88. Hermes, 411-13, 419-21, 425.

89. Ibid., 435.

90. Ibid., 477-78.

91. Weigley, 525-26.

92. Ibid.; See also A.J. Bacevich, The Pentomic Era: The U.S. Army Between Korea and Vietnam (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1986).

93. Doughty, 18-19; Dastrup, 268, 272-73.

94. Scales, 136-141; Dastrup, 281, 283-84.