page_title: Battle of Yongdong
section_title: US 1st Cavalry Division arrival
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Yongdong / Background / US 1st Cavalry Division arrival
caption_attribution_description: WAR IN KOREA: Troops of the 1st CAV Div land at P'ohang-Dong, Korea. NARA FILE#: 111-SC-343656
context_page_description: The Battle of Yongdong was an engagement between United States and North Korean forces early in the Korean War. It occurred on July 22–25, 1950, in the village of Yongdong in southern South Korea. The newly arrived US Army 1st Cavalry Division was ordered there to cover the retreat of the US 24th Infantry Division after the Battle of Taejon. The 1st Cavalry Division soldiers, however, were untried in combat, and the North Korean Korean People's Army's 3rd Division was able to outmaneuver them and force them back.
  Though the Americans lost the town, their artillery inflicted substantial casualties on the North Koreans and delayed them for several crucial days, allowing the United Nations Command time to set up the Pusan Perimeter.
context_section_description: On July 6, Major General Hobart R. Gay, Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division, was ordered by UN commander General Douglas MacArthur to prepare the 1st Cavalry Division to move into Korea. Between July 12 and 14 the division was moved from its garrisons in central Honshu, Japan and loaded onto ships in the Yokohama area. It was then ordered to land on the east coast of Korea at P'ohang-dong, a fishing town 60 miles (97 km) northeast of Pusan, in order to immediately reinforce the faltering 24th Infantry Division. From P'ohang-dong the division could moved promptly toward the Taejon area. The command ship USS Mount McKinley and first elements of the division sailed for Korea on July 15. The 1st Cavalry Division's transportation was provided by Task Force 90, commanded by Rear Admiral James H. Doyle. Lead elements of the division's first regiment, the 8th Cavalry Regiment were ashore by 06:10 on July 18, and the first troops of the division's US 5th Cavalry Regiment came in at 06:30. Typhoon Helene swept over the Korean coast and prevented landing of the third regiment, the 7th Cavalry Regiment and the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion until July 22. For three days ships could not be unloaded at Pusan and Eighth Army rations dropped to one day's supply. However, the landings were entirely unopposed by North Korean forces.
  The transfer of 750 noncommissioned officers (NCOs) from the 1st Cavalry Division to the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions, a move aimed at strengthening the infantry divisions combat missions in Korea, had weakened the 1st Cavalry Division. It had been stripped of practically every NCO except the first sergeants of companies and batteries in the division. Even though it had received 1,450 replacements before it left Japan, 100 of them from the Eighth Army stockade, the division was understrength when it landed in Korea and, like the preceding divisions, it had only two battalions in its three regiments, two firing batteries in the artillery battalions, and one tank company with M24 light tanks.
  On July 19, the 5th Cavalry Regiment started toward Taejon. The next day the 8th Cavalry Regiment followed by railroad and in trucks, and reformed in an assembly area east of Yongdong that evening. Brigadier General Charles D. Palmer, the division artillery commander, took charge of these two forward regiments. On July 22 the 8th Cavalry Regiment relieved the US 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division from its positions at Yongdong. At that point, the 1st Cavalry Division assumed responsibility for blocking the KPA along the main Taejon–Taegu corridor to Pusan. The 24th Division's troops retreated through the 1st Cavalry Division's lines as the newly arrived soldiers advanced to their new defensive positions that day.
  Protect Yongdong. Remember there are no friendly troops behind you. You must keep your own back door open. You can live without food but you cannot last long without ammunition, and unless the Yongdong–Taegu road is kept open you will soon be without ammunition.
  -Lieutenant General Walton Walker's orders to Gay
  Once it was fully assembled in the city, the 1st Cavalry Division was ordered to move north of Yongdong and set up defensive positions. The division moved one battalion of the 8th Cavalry 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Yongdong on the south side of the Kum River, and another battalion 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Yongdong. The first would cover the approach along the main Taejon–Taegu highway, the second the approach on the Chosan-ni–Muju–Kumsan road. Gay placed the 5th Cavalry Regiment on the high ground east of the town in a blocking position. By July 19, the division numbered 10,027 men in Korea. This move coincided with a reorganization of the ROK consolidating their lines and making room for the new division. On July 22, the 1st Cavalry Division had finished preparing its defensive positions north of Yongdong, as the battered 24th Infantry Division was moved to the Naktong Bulge area along the Naktong River. At the same time, the 25th Infantry Division moved to Sangju where it
caption: The 1st Cavalry Division arrives at P'ohang-dong.
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