AAR: Tank Tracks to Pusan

[wulfir]

Assault on Ongjin Peninsula

Because of the border being established on the 38th Parallel the Ongjin Peninsula had become an isolated South Korean outpost on the western flank of the North Korean main offensive. It was known to be defended by an ROK Infantry Regiment with some artillery support, but no tanks.

Responsible for the capture of the Peninsula and destruction of the South Korean troops was the NKPA 78th Independent Regiment.

This regiment was stronger than other regiments of the North Korean army; it had four rifle battalions and unlike other regiments included an assault engineer battalion, an organic tank company, SP Gun company and also to make up for it being forced to operate without divisional or corps artillery assets had been given a heavy mortar company equipped with Soviet 160mm mortars.

The commander of the 78th decided to concentrate his regiment against the small town of KANGYRONG and ordered his troops to quickly attain this target.

The defending troops from the South Korean 17th Infantry Regiment had however established an elaborate defensive position near the Kangyrong-josuji lake north of the NKPA target. The ROK commander had also seen that his troops were on full alert when the North Korean offensive kicked off.





OOB NKPA 78th Infantry Regiment:

HQ
FOOx3
78th Recon Battalion (leg)
I Rifle Battalion
II Rifle Battalion
III Rifle Battalion
IV Rifle Battalion
78th Engineer Battalion (leg)
78th Artillery Battalion (76,2mm)
78th Heavy Mortar Battery (12cm)
78th SP-Gun Battery (SU-76 x4)
78th Tank Company (T-34/85 x4)
78th AA-Company (37cm x4)
78th Supply Battalion (Gaz jeep x3, Heavy Truck x4, Medium Truck x6, Ammo Truck x6)
344th Heavy Mortar Battalion (240mm x6)

OOB ROK 17th Infantry Regiment (-)

HQ 17th Regiment
1st Battalion
2nd Battalion
Engineer Battalion
Artillery Battalion (105mm)
Elements AA Battalion (40mm/Quad 50cal)

[wulfir]

The Battle at Kangyrong-josuji lake

Sunday,
June 25, 1950

Turns 1-15



The commander of the 78th Regiment pushed his troops on two axis of advance, one heavy group along the main road compromising the I and II Battalions supported by the Tank and SP-Gun companies and the bulk of the Engineer Battalion – and a smaller group made up of the lightly reinforced III and IV Battalions that were sent on foot over some hills to attack and secure a crossing over a smaller stream. Contact with enemy troops were made early and efforts of the Recon Bn that led the advance to break that resistance proved largely unsuccessful. The Recon Companies were too weak to quickly deal with the defending ROK infantry and suffered high casualties.




Turns 16-40

Follow on Rifle Battalions, some forward deployed with trucks, were fed into the battle and worked their way through the enemy defences. Some friendly losses were sustained, but they were not catastrophic. Significant delays were imposed on the NKPA advance however. The enemy 105mm howitzers proved to have a range advantage against the NKPA Regimental 76,2mm guns and various mortars.





Turns 41-60

The 78th Regiment managed to break the ROK defences around the Kangyrong lake and fend off a small but spirited counterattack. The South Koreans used some 105mm guns as improvised AT-guns and managed to knock out one T-34 and damage another. One SU-76 was ambushed by stubborn ROK engineers and blown up with a satchel charge. One NKPA 120mm mortar section was taken out by ROK counterbattery fire. About 200 NKPA troops were lost.



Roughly 500 enemy troops were killed, and about 200 were taken prisoner.

Captured enemy (ROK) equipment in working order:

Six 81mm mortars
One 60mm mortar
Four 105mm Howitzers
One M55 Quad AA Gun (12,7mm)
One Bofors AA Gun (40mm)
One HMG (12,7mm)


Overall outcome:

The ROK position was taken but the disruption of the 78th Regiment at Kangyrong lake made it possible for the bulk of the remaining South Korean forces to evacuate south over the sea.


- - - - - - – - - – - - – - - - -

I used timed objectives in this setup, to make it necessary for the NKPA side to advance quickly. I cranked up the points to to max which meant the delays in advancing caused by leg infantry units crossing fairly large distances and ROK resistance landed the AI with loads of points. I have not previously experimented that much with timed objectives.

The result was a NKPA defeat with 7431 ponts vs the total score of 28620 score for the ROK side. Yeah, I should not have cranked up the points to max I guess.