page_title: Battle of Masan
section_title: Battle of Nam River
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Masan / Battle / Battle of Nam River
caption_attribution_description: T 34 au musée des blindés de Saumur - T34/85
context_page_description: The Battle of Masan was an engagement between United Nations Command and North Korean forces, which took place early in the Korean War between August 5 and September 19, 1950, in the vicinity of Masan and the Naktong River in South Korea. It was part of the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, and was one of several large engagements fought simultaneously. The battle ended in a victory for the UN after large numbers of United States Army troops were able to repel the repeated attacks of two Korean People's Army divisions.
  Operating as the extreme southern flank of the Pusan Perimeter, the US 25th Infantry Division placed its regiments around the South Korean city of Masan, with the 24th Infantry Regiment and 5th Regimental Combat Team based in Haman and nearby Sobuk-san, and the 35th Infantry Regiment based along the Nam River to the west of the city. Throughout the six-week battle, the KPA 6th and 7th Divisions attacked the 25th Division's regiments in an attempt to break through the UN forces and attack Pusan.
  An initial UN counteroffensive out of Masan proved ineffective in stopping the KPA from advancing.
context_section_description: Meanwhile, the KPA 7th Division troops committed all of their effort into attacking the US 35th Infantry line. At 23:30 on August 31, a KPA SU-76 self-propelled gun from across the Nam fired shells into the position of G Company, 35th Infantry, overlooking the river. Within a few minutes, KPA artillery was attacking all front-line rifle companies of the regiment from the Namji-ri bridge west. Under cover of this fire a reinforced regiment of the KPA 7th Division crossed the Nam River and attacked F and G Companies, 35th Infantry. Other KPA soldiers crossed the Nam on an underwater bridge in front of the paddy ground north of Komam-ni and near the boundary between the 2nd Battalion, led by Lieutenant Colonel John L. Wilkins, Jr., holding the river front and Lieutenant Colonel Bernard G. Teeter's 1st Battalion holding the hill line that stretched from the Nam River to Sibidang-san and the Chinju-Masan highway. The 35th Infantry, facing shortages of equipment and reinforcements, was under-equipped but nonetheless prepared for an attack.
  In the low ground between these two battalions at the river ferry crossing site, the 35th Infantry commander had placed 300 ROK Police, expecting them to hold there long enough to serve as a warning for the rest of the forces. Guns from the flanking hills there could cover the low ground with fire. Back at Komam-ni he held the 3rd Battalion ready for use in counterattack to stop a KPA penetration should it occur. Unexpectedly, the ROK police companies near the ferry scattered at the first KPA fire. At 00:30, KPA troops streamed through this hole in the line, some turning left to take G Company in its flank and rear, and others turned right to attack C Company, which was on a spur of ground west of the Komam-ni road. The I&R Platoon and elements of C and D Companies formed a defense line along the dike at the north edge of Komam-ni where US tanks joined them at daybreak. But the KPA did not drive for the Komam-ni road fork 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the river as Colonel Fisher expected them to; instead, they turned east into the hills behind 2nd Battalion.
  At daybreak on September 1, a tank-led relief force of C Company headquarters troops cleared the road to Sibidang-san and resupplied the 2nd Platoon, B Company, with ammunition just in time for it to repel another KPA assault, killing 77 and capturing 21. Although Fisher's 35th Infantry held all its original positions, except that of the forward platoon of G Company, 3,000 KPA soldiers were behind its lines. The farthest eastern penetration reached the high ground just south of Chirwon overlooking the north-south road there.
  By midafternoon, Kean felt that the situation was so dangerous that he ordered the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, to attack behind the 35th Infantry. A large part of the division artillery was under direct KPA infantry attack. During the morning hours of September 1, when the KPA 7th Division troops had attacked, the first American unit they encountered was G Company, 35th Infantry, at the north shoulder of the gap. While some KPA units peeled off to attack G Company, others continued on and engaged E Company, 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream from it, and still others attacked scattered units of F Company all the way to its 1st Platoon, which guarded the Namji-ri bridge. There, at the extreme right flank of the 25th Division, this platoon drove off a KPA force after a fierce fight. By September 2, E Company in a heavy battle had destroyed most of a KPA battalion.
  Bitter, confused fighting continued behind the 35th Infantry's line for the next week. Battalions, companies, and platoons, cut off and isolated, fought independently of higher control and help except for airdrops which supplied many of them. Airdrops also supplied relief forces trying to reach the front-line units. Tanks and armored cars drove to the isolated units with supplies of food and ammunition and carried back critically wounded on the return trips. In general, the 35th Infantry fought in its original battle line positions, while at first one battali
caption: T-34 tanks, such as this one, were the standard armor used by the North Korean Army in 1950 and were also present at Masan
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