Saturday, June 3, 2017

Tiger's Tail: Aggregate

To kick off our new Saturday feature here's a refresher for the Tiger's Tail Series:

Unknown Unknowns 

Before the war began certain parameters were understood by American and South Korean planners. Geography necessitated that the North Korean offensive concentrate in the western part of South Korea on both banks of the Han River, on the Han River plain.

Both sides also understood that the contest at its most basic would be North Korean mass against American time. That is, could North Korean mass win the battle before American reinforcements arrived?

So no one was surprised when two of North Korea's four first echelon armies rolled across the border and onto the Han River plain.

This put a dozen North Korean divisions against the American 2nd Infantry Division and South Korean forces. These were of course hammered by American and South or Korean air assets which attained air superiority the moment the war began.

These were the last known-knowns of the war.

Kim was expected to concentrate his massive arsenal of artillery on Seoul, Instead. these fell upon the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, which was unprepared for the onslaught and pinned. The brigade, under siege within the first six hours of the war, hunkered down and waited for the 2nd and 3rd Brigades (deployed from Ft. Lewis in the lead up to the crisis), to move up.

No one expected what happened next. Advancing north both brigades were subjected to bombardment by nuclear armed artillery units. It is now known that at least have of the nuclear shells failed to detonate. No matter. Both brigade's were shattered and the 1st, isolated and cut off, fearing nuclear bombardment itself, disintegrated.

A path to Seoul was now open...

The Nihilist

The North Korean's nuclear strike paralyzed the Trump Administration, dividing it into two factions those that wanted to immediately flood the country with reinforcements and those that wanted to halt those reinforcements and simply retaliate in kind.

For twenty four crucial hours the president simply did not know what to do.

As Kim's armies advanced on Seoul, North Korean troops showed a barbarity and nihilism not faced by the Americans since the Second World War.

Against orders most young soldiers carried their smart phones into battle. Retreating American forces were not able in most cases to recover the bodies of their dead. Cunning North Korean political officers recovered as many phones as they could find. What happened next caused an uproar at home. The North Koreans took over social media accounts of many American dead. Here they posted photos of the dead owners of those accounts. In hundreds of cases they contacted via phone or text the bereaved families and mocked or taunted them.

By the third day of the war the North Koreans had several hundred American prisoners. They subjected several dozen female prisoners to brutal gang rape, often broadcast on FB Live. North Korean political officers singled out several black soldiers and forced them to read statements condemning 'White America'. The same was done with a few Hispanic prisoners. The North Koreans executed several captured white officers and posted the videos on prominent black social media sites.

Kim could not have been happier with the overall results. American media covered thees atrocities exclusivity, ignoring entirely the course of the war, the heroics stands by surviving individual units of the 2nd Infantry Division and the fanatical defense of the Han River Plain by the South Korean Army.

As the North Korean Army reached the outskirts of Seoul the Trump Administration came to a decision...

The Red Triangle Looms

As the U.S. Second Infantry Division was fighting its way into the pantheon of American military history the South Korean VI Corps grimly held in the Uijongbu Corridor to the east, while the South Korean I Corps did the same in the Munson Corridor to the west.

The the west he brunt of the first day's effort fell to the ROK 1st Infantry division which by nightfall was fought out by successive waves of North Korean armor. Though exhausted the division fell back in good order and passed the defense of the Munson Corridor to the ROK 25th Infantry Division. Fearing another nuclear strike commanders here deployed their battalions in open formation. Thought partially protected from a nuclear blast, the dispersed formation was less able to absorb the blows form the North Koreans. Several North Korean formations, some battalion sized slipped through the 25th Infantry Division's lines and engaged the ROK 9th Infantry Division. With rear area formations now under attack, South Korean commanders believed the communists had achieved a mass breakthrough and ordered the I Corps to retreat to the South Bank of the Han River. This left the ROK 25th Division in lurch and began a saga of fighting retreat rivaling that of the U.S. X Corps at Chosin during the last war.

In the Uijongbu Corridor the VI Corps of three infantry divisions was steadily pushed south by concerted North Korean pressure. It seemed that despite the massive losses inflicted by American and South Korean air power, the communists just kept coming. By the end of the second day the ROK 6th Infantry division was pushed off to the east, while the 3rd and 8th Infantry Divisions struggled to keep their formations coherent as they pulled back south through the corridor. Both divisions regrouped along the ridge just north of Seoul and running west to Uijongbu, which was now occupied by the Capitol Infantry, or Tiger Division. The 17th Infantry Division came up form Seoul and occupied a hill to the Southwest of Uijongbu, thus protecting the capitol but leaving open Uijongbu's left flank.

By dawn of the third day the battle map showed a giant, red inverse triangle bracketed by the Han River in the west, with its point bearing down on Seoul. While the government there evacuated to Daejon 75 miles to the south, the President remained in Seoul where he was in constant contact with the Trump administration.

Even as American B-1 and B-2 Bombers hammered North Korean logistics, and wave after wave of Tomahawk missile swarmed over the DMZ the South Korean President demanded, 'Where are your troops! Where are your troops!'

'Those decisions are being made,' President Trump replied.
'We are dying,' replied the South Korean President. 'Must I ask the Japanese for help?'
'What is it you would like me to do?' President Trump asked.
'Mr. President, my Minister of Defense has prepared a list of twenty five targets he believes suitable for nuclear attack...'

Fire from the Sly

'I do not need Nuclear Weapons!' exclaimed Commander, US Forces, Korea. 'I need time.'
'You don't have it,' Defense Secretary Mattis replied.

As South Korean forces gathered in Seoul, Uijongbu and on the Han River, the Trump Administration made he still controversial decision to fly into Korea units of the 82nd Airborne Division.  As the battle of Uijonhbu was beginning, one brigade of the division was airlifted to Inchon International Airport with no heavy equipment. Units of the brigade debarked and proceeded across the causeway to shore A second brigade was just a few hours behind.

For three days American, South Korean, and Japanese air power mercilessly hammered North Korean logistics. Everywhere throughout the peninsula one heard the sound of aircraft. After the first day of the war these were almost universally friendly and in their quest to gain air superiority, Allied air forces scored an impressive 133-7 kill record.

Command and control targets throughout the north were hammered by sustained Tomahawk strikes. One spectacular strike leveled party headquarters and the presidential palace in Pyongyang. But the main effort fell upon North Korean logistics running to the south.

By the end of the 3rd day of the war these strikes had taken their toll on the North Koreans. It is now known that North Korean armor and mechanized units were short of fuel and ammunition. Supply trucks that entered the Red Triangle had a 50/50 chance of making it to the front. During the 4th day of the war, North Korean troops , never particularly well fed, were actually going hungry.

Indeed it was North Korea's sustained food shortages that great hampered their sabotage efforts...

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