“A” Battery’s Independent Battle Action – Korea

by Francis Graves

I served in the 1^st Calvary Division in the Korean War. My unit was the 82^nd Field Artillery Battalion which was the general support artillery for the division. We were armed with 155mm Howitzers as opposed to the direct support battalions which were armed with the shorter range 105mm Howitzers.

In early 1951 I was the Commander of “A” Battery when it was assigned an unusual direct support mission. The Division had been driving north (before the Chinese entered the war) and was fighting in very remote, mountainous terrain. One of our cavalry* battalions was locked in a hard fight near a large reservoir and urgently needed artillery support, but it’s direct support unit could not get within range to help due to the difficult terrain.

My Battery was detached from the Battalion and ordered into the mountains to a deep narrow valley from which our Howitzers could reach the enemy. There was a very old unused road, more trail than road, leading into that valley which was barely passable for our high speed tractor prime movers. I believe the valley had been located by aerial reconnaissance. I went up to look at the site and was appalled. The valley was “V” shaped with no flat ground and its sides were very steep, but treeless, and soft ground.

The area was too small for all six of my guns so I opted to bring up four which we emplaced halfway up the slope opposite from our direction of fire. We used a D-4 Caterpillar bulldozer to dig deeply into the side of the hill to provide enough level ground for our guns to be put into action.

I left most of my battery sub-units behind bringing only the four Howitzers, two ammunition trucks and my fire direction center along with a security detail armed with several machine guns because in that area we were vulnerable to attack by enemy patrols.

We were in contact with the infantry unit we were supporting by radio and someone, possibly an artillery observer, managed to register (direct) our fire into the enemy area. Once in position we spent the day and evening providing fire support by employing the high-angle fire capability of our Howitzers which was necessary in order to clear the high ridge on the opposite side of our narrow valley. It was hard work for our gunners and canoneers working without rest preparing, loading, and firing projectiles weighing about one hundred pounds almost continuously.

But at the end of the day we were successful. Our infantry defeated the North Korean enemy unit they were facing decisively, with our fire support.

It was an unusual mission for a general support battery which rarely operated independently of the battalion, and on a direct support mission. The action was made especially difficult by the “impossible” terrain, our isolated vulnerable location, difficult radio communication conditions, and the need to work directly with an infantry unit we did not know.

I was proud of the way my soldiers performed. They were professionals and dedicated to our mission. We all certainly earned our pay that day.

Our greatest reward, however, was a message from the infantry commander, whom I have yet to meet, commending us for the “best artillery support he’d ever had.”

*The 1^st Cav Div in Korea was organized as an infantry division so it called its regiments “cavalry.”