Battle of Heartbreak Ridge The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge ( ; ) , also known as the Battle of Wendengli ( ) , was a month - long battle in the Korean War which took place between September 13 and October 15 , 1951 . The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge was one of several major engagements in the hills of North Korea a few miles north of the 38th parallel ( the pre - war boundary between North and South Korea ) , near Chorwon . For the Chinese , this battle is often confused with Battle of Triangle Hill , which occurred a year later . Background . After withdrawing from Bloody Ridge , the Korean People ' s Army ( KPA ) set up new positions just away on a seven mile ( 11 km ) long hill mass . If anything , the Communist defenses were even more formidable here than on Bloody Ridge . The US 2nd Infantry Division ' s acting commander , Brigadier General Thomas de Shazo , and his immediate superior , Major General Clovis E . Byers , the X Corps commander , seriously underestimated the strength of the North Korean position . They ordered a single infantry regiment , the 23rd , and its attached French battalion , to make what would prove to be an ill - conceived assault straight up Heartbreak ' s heavily fortified slopes . Battle . Initial attempts to take the ridge . All three of the 2nd Division ' s infantry regiments participated , with the brunt of the combat borne by the 9th and 23rd Infantry Regiments , along with the attached French Battalion . The attack began on September 13 and quickly deteriorated into a familiar pattern . First , American aircraft , tanks , and artillery would pummel the ridge for hours on end , turning the already barren hillside into a cratered moonscape . Next , the 23rd ' s infantrymen would clamber up the mountain ' s rocky slopes , taking out one enemy bunker after another by direct assault . Those who survived to reach the crest arrived exhausted and low on ammunition . The inevitable counterattack would then come — waves of North Koreans determined to recapture the lost ground at any cost . Many of these counterattacks were conducted at night by fresh troops that the North Koreans were able to bring up under the shelter of neighboring hills . Battles begun by bomb , bullet , and shell were inevitably finished by grenade , trench knife , and fist as formal military engagements degenerated into desperate hand - to - hand brawls . Sometimes dawn broke to reveal the defenders still holding the mountaintop . The battle progressed for two weeks . Because of the constricting terrain and the narrow confines of the objectives , units were committed piecemeal ; one platoon , company , or battalion at a time . Once a unit could no longer stand the strain , a replacement would take its place , until the 23rd Infantry as a whole was fairly well shattered . Several units up to company size ( 100 - 200 men ) were wiped out . The Americans employed massive artillery barrages , airstrikes and tanks in attempts to drive the North Koreans off the ridge , but the KPA proved extremely hard to dislodge . Regroup and replan . Preliminaries . Finally , on September 27 , the 2nd Division ' s new commander , Maj . Gen . Robert N . Young , called a halt to the " fiasco " on Heartbreak Ridge as American planners reconsidered their strategy . As long as the North Koreans could continue to reinforce and resupply their garrison on the ridge , it would be nearly impossible for the Americans to take the mountain . After belatedly recognizing this fact , the 2nd Division crafted a new plan that called for a full division assault on the valleys and hills adjacent to Heartbreak to cut the ridge off from further reinforcement . Spearheading this new offensive would be the division ' s 72nd Tank Battalion , whose mission was to push up the Mundung - ni Valley west of Heartbreak to destroy enemy supply dumps in the vicinity of the town of Mundung - ni . It was a bold plan , but one that could not be accomplished until a way had been found to get the 72nd ' s M4A3E8 Sherman tanks into the valley . The only existing road was little more than a track that could not bear the weight of the Shermans . Moreover , it was heavily mined and blocked by a six foot ( 2 m ) high rock barrier built by the North Koreans . Using shovels and explosives , the men of the 2nd Division ' s 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion braved enemy fire to clear these obstacles and build an improved roadway . While they worked , the division ' s three infantry regiments — 9th , 23rd , and 38th , — launched coordinated assaults on Heartbreak Ridge and the adjacent hills . Main thrust . By October 10 everything was ready for the main operation . On October 11 , led by more than 30 tanks and supported by artillery and airplanes , the 2nd Division started advancing into the valley . The sudden onslaught of a battalion of tanks racing up the valley took the enemy by surprise . By coincidence , the thrust came just when the Chinese 204th Division was moving up to relieve the North Koreans on Heartbreak . The Chinese unit under fire was the 610th Regiment of the 204th Division ( Commander : Wenfang Luo ) , dispatched by the 68th Army ( Commander : Niansheng Wen ) . The regiment ' s mission was to reinforce the North Korean defense along the valley against a possible American armored offensive ; more specifically , it was ordered to prevent the Americans from reaching the town of Mundung - ni at all costs . Before the Chinese could dig in , the 2nd Division had already started the attack . Caught in the open , the Chinese division suffered heavy casualties from the American tanks as the armored vehicles penetrated to a depth of 6 km of the Chinese defense lines and caused great harm . However , the 610th Regiment managed to damage five Sherman tanks before the Americans halted the offensive . On October 12 , the 2nd Division began an airborne and artillery bombardment that lasted for two hours on hill 635 . 8 and hill 709 . 6 before the 23rd Regiment , led by 48 tanks , assaulted Chinese defensive positions . Having learned the American tactics from the previous day , the 610th Regiment of the Chinese army had already reinforced the anti - tank trenches flanking the road that runs through the Mundung - ni Valley ; in addition , a battalion of anti - tank guns was assigned to the regiment ; 49 infantry guns , recoilless guns and rocket launchers were also distributed among the first - line soldiers . At point - blank - range , the Chinese infantry soldiers fired upon the advancing American tanks . Before the 23rd halted the assault at 1600hrs , the Chinese had destroyed or damaged 18 tanks at a high cost . The 23rd Regiment did not assault the hills on the next day . The South Korean 8th Division , however , starting from October 13 , launched its attack on hills 97 , 742 . 8 , 650 , 932 . 8 and 922 . These battles were subsequently known to be brutal and costly ; for example , a company of the Chinese 610th Regiment was defending hill 932 . 8 . Under the attack of four battalions of South Korean soldiers , the company resisted for four days to the last man before the South Korean army took the hill on its 11th assault . On October 14 , eight Sherman tanks in arrow formation attacked the Chinese positions along Mundung - ni Valley . All the tanks were knocked out by the cross - fire of Chinese anti - tank guns . Two more were lost on October 19 due to mines . During the five days , the Shermans roared up and down the Mundung - ni Valley , over - running supply dumps , mauling troop concentrations and destroying approximately 350 bunkers on Heartbreak and in the surrounding hills and valleys . A smaller tank - infantry team scoured the Sat ' ae - ri Valley east of the ridge , thereby completing the encirclement and eliminating any hope of reinforcement for the beleaguered North Koreans on Heartbreak . The armored thrusts turned the tide of the battle , but plenty of hard fighting remained for the infantry before French soldiers captured the last communist bastion on the ridge on October 13 . After 30 days of combat , the Americans and French eventually gained the upper hand and secured Heartbreak Ridge . Yet the Sherman tanks did not penetrate through the Mundung - ni Valley and reach the town of Mundung - ni after 38 of the armored vehicles were destroyed and nine were damaged . The defense of the Mundung - ni Valley ( or as it is known today in North Korea , the Battle of Height 1211 ) , is today celebrated as a great victory in North Korea , with a claim of a total of 29 , 000 enemy casualties ( certainly inflated ) , 60 tanks destroyed and 40 airplanes shotdown : North Korea propaganda today enhances the defense of the heights around the valley and a number of significant acts of courage and sacrifice ( real or alleged ) , committed during the battle . Actually , the failure of the Allied offensive inside the valley and the heights above , gave to the North Korean Army one of the few victorious actions during the last phase of the war . Aftermath . Both sides suffered high casualties : over 3 , 700 American and French and an estimated 25 , 000 North Korean and Chinese . These losses made a deep impression on the UN and US command , which decided that battles like Heartbreak Ridge were not worth the high cost in blood for the relatively small amount of terrain captured . However , the UN offensives were to continue with equally high casualty rates for the 1st Cavalry in Operation " Commando " , and the 24th Division in Operation " Nomad - Polar " , which was the last major offensive conducted by UN forces in the war . Public opinion had by this time turned against " limited - objective " operations of this nature , and military censorship resulted in far less media focus on the other October battles that followed Heartbreak Ridge . Sporadic battles along the line of contact between UN and communist forces continued to be fought until the armistice was signed in July 1953 , but they were usually initiated by the North Koreans or Chinese . In popular culture . " Heartbreak Ridge " is associated with the title and backstory of the 1986 movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood . Eastwood ' s character is a fictional veteran of the battle at Heartbreak Ridge , ( as is one other character ) , where he received the Medal of Honor . The movie itself is a fictional account of events that took place during actual operations in Grenada . The Korean battle was also mentioned in episode 25 , ( 1982 ) of " M * A * S * H " . " Crèvecœur " ( Heartbreak ) is a French combat documentary released in 1955 featuring the battle and uses actual war footage . It was nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Documentary category for 1955 . " Heartbreak Ridge " ( ) is a map for the RTS ( Real - Time Strategy ) computer game StarCraft . It was released in South Korea in 2009 and has since then been used in many leagues in the professional StarCraft scene , as well as in Non - Korean leagues and in amateur play .