The Battle at Dongducheon
June 25, 1950
The vanguard of the NKPA 3rd Division approached the village of DONGDUCHEON late on the first day of the war. The vanguard was made up of the reinforced 7th Infantry Regiment which up until this time had made good progress barreling down the river roads on both sides of the Sin-Chon river behind the T-34 tanks of the attached 1st Battalion, 107th Tank Regiment.
This regiment had been given a crucial role in the invasion, leading the attack down the Uijeongbu corridor, the traditional invasion route down the Korean peninsula. The regiment had been reinforced, not only with attached tanks but also boosted additional infantry and engineer assets, heavy caliber artillery from the recently acquired Soviet guns and overhead ground attack aircraft had been detailed to add to the weight of this particular attack. The officers of the regiment were all experienced veterans of the war in China. They were handpicked for this mission.
They had jumped off in the morning and brushed aside weak ROK defences and with ease moved through the villages along the river. However upon approaching the settlement of SONGBONGAM-DONG just before DONGDUCHEON the regiment received scattered enemy artillery and air recon was ordered to scout out the area in front. The Il-2 recon planes drew little anti-aircraft fire but reported back seeing enemy movement on the ground, including a concentration of enemy tanks, estimated to be of at least brigade strength.
It was previously believed the South Koreans had no tanks at all.
Extremely alarming.
The Air Force got ordered to attack the enemy tank consecrations ahead of the 7the Regiment which was carried out with some success, while knocking out a few enemy tanks it did not disperse the resistance.
Trusting the quality of the tankers and their T-34s of the supporting first battalion, NKPA 107th Armoured Regiment the North Korean commander committed his forces to the attack.
It went bad almost from the get go.
The NKPA infantry attacked with vigour but took heavy losses and got separated from the tanks who on their own penetrated into DONGDUCHEON where they dueled with ROK light tanks and both inflicting and taking losses. The T-34s main gun AP ammo ran out and the battalion was forced to disengage and reload.
Upon returning to battle the T-34s with infantry managed to penetrate as far as the first bridge of DONGDUCHEON but was then subject to a spirited tank counterattack by large ROK forces attacking from three sides.
The South Korean counterattack shattered much of the 7th Regiment and restored the ROK main line of resistance.
NKPA advance through the important Uijeongbu corridor was stopped cold.
