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Korean War · 1953 Members · from $3

Pork Chop Hill, 1953

Pork Chop Hill (Hill 255) was a company outpost of the U.S. 7th Infantry Division in front of the Jamestown Line, west of Ch'orwon, in the last months of the Korean War. After the Chinese People's Volunteers took neighboring Old Baldy from the Colombian Battalion in March 1953, Pork Chop was attacked twice. On 16–18 April a Chinese night assault overran most of the hill; companies of the 31st and then the 17th Infantry, beginning with Lt. Joseph Clemons' K Company, fought their way back up and held it, supported by tens of thousands of artillery rounds. On 6–11 July, with the armistice nearly signed, the Chinese came again; five U.S. battalions rotated through the outpost in four days before Generals Taylor, Clarke and Trudeau decided to give it up, and the garrison was withdrawn in daylight by armored personnel carrier on 11 July. Two weeks later the war ended. S.L.A. Marshall's book Pork Chop Hill (1956) and the 1959 film made the April fight famous as a symbol of limited war at the truce table.

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Pork Chop Hill after the armistice
Pork Chop Hill after the armistice — Jun Miki · public domain

The battle, stage by stage

  1. 23–26 March 1953

    The outpost line and the loss of Old Baldy

    West of Ch'orwon, the U.S. 7th Infantry Division held the Jamestown Line with a string of company and platoon outposts a mile or more out in front: Old Baldy (Hill 266, Outpost 11), Pork Chop (Hill 255, Outpost 10), and, farther east, Arsenal and Erie at the foot of the Chinese-held T-Bone. The 31st Infantry (Col. William Kern) held the sector with its attached Colombian Battalion in the center, on Old Baldy. On the evening of 23 March the Chinese struck both hills at once. A battalion of the 141st Division's 423rd Regiment overran the Colombian company on Old Baldy, while two companies of the 67th Division's 201st Regiment hit Pork Chop, which held, though by the official history it was 'a shambles' by morning. Counterattacks by the 32nd Infantry won back part of Old Baldy but could not keep it; on 30 March Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Eighth Army commander, ended the attempts. The Colombians reportedly lost 95 killed, 97 wounded and 30 missing. With Old Baldy gone, Pork Chop could be attacked from three sides.

  2. 16 April 1953, about 11 PM

    Night assault from Hasakkol

    Pork Chop was a single hill ringed by a trench at the military crest, with sandbagged bunkers about 30 yards apart; Hill 200, about 500 yards behind it, was the jump-off point for help. On 16 April it was held by E Company, 31st Infantry, under 1st Lt. Thomas U. Harrold, about 76 riflemen in two platoons by one account. Just before 11 PM an ambush patrol near the stream in the valley met Chinese troops coming over from Hasakkol; minutes later flares went up and the divisional artillery opened fire. Behind a barrage, a battalion of the 201st Regiment came up the north face and, within about two hours, held most of the hill. Harrold and a handful of men held out in the command bunker and isolated positions on the south side.

  3. 17 April 1953, 4:30–8:30 AM

    Clemons' counterattack

    Before dawn, K and L Companies, 31st Infantry, were sent up from Hill 200. K Company, 135 men under 1st Lt. Joseph G. Clemons Jr., stepped off at 4:30 AM as the barrage lifted, climbing the rear slope; it took 29 minutes to cover the first 170 yards, and the first man entered the works about 5 AM, just as Chinese artillery came down. L Company under 1st Lt. Forrest Crittenden attacked up the right-hand finger and was cut up near the chow bunker. By mid-morning roughly 65 Americans held the southern part of the trench system, with the Chinese in the bunkers to the north. At 8:14 AM G Company, 17th Infantry (1st Lt. Walter B. Russell Jr.), reached the hill and joined Clemons. The detail comes largely from S.L.A. Marshall's interviews, which some historians treat with caution.

  4. 17 April 1953, 3 PM–midnight

    Hold or let go?

    At 2:45 PM Clemons radioed for help; by 4:40 PM he reported about 20 unhurt men, and K Company would end the battle with 18 killed and 71 wounded. A muddle of orders pulled Russell's G Company off the hill at 3 PM. That afternoon Maj. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau, the division commander, came forward and, with higher command still weighing whether a company outpost was worth a regiment, ordered the hill held. F Company, 17th Infantry (Capt. Monroe D. King), came up through artillery fire about 9:30 PM, losing 19 killed on the way in; E Company, 17th Infantry (1st Lt. Gorman C. Smith), was sent around the east side onto the Chinese flank about 11 PM. Clemons' survivors came off the hill about midnight.

  5. 18 April 1953

    The Chinese give up the hill

    About 1:30 AM the Chinese came again and nearly overran F Company around the command post; E Company broke up the attack, and company-sized assaults at about 3:20 AM and 4:20 AM gained nothing. A Company, 17th Infantry, came up at dawn, and through the day the companies cleared the remaining bunkers while the Chinese pulled back across the valley. U.N. artillery supported the defense on an enormous scale — Marshall counted 37,655 rounds on the first day and 77,349 on the second, from nine battalions of the 7th and 2nd Divisions. U.S. losses for the April fight are usually given as about 104 killed and 373 wounded; Chinese losses are not known.

  6. 6 July 1953, 10:25 PM

    The July assault

    In July the armistice was all but agreed, and the Chinese came back for Pork Chop. It was held by A Company, 17th Infantry, with a B Company platoon out on ambush patrol and the rest of B Company in hidden reserve behind Hill 200. At 10:25 PM, after a mortar and artillery barrage, a reinforced battalion of the 200th Regiment, 67th Division, struck (by McWilliams' account; other accounts name the Chinese First Army). Within an hour the fighting in the trenches was hand to hand. Monsoon rain for the first three days hampered resupply and evacuation, and the division relied heavily on armored personnel carriers to reach the hill. B Company came up shortly after midnight, but the Chinese pushed the defenders off the top and held the northern works; two U.S. counterattacks on the night of 7–8 July failed. 1st Lt. Richard T. Shea Jr., executive officer of A Company, led repeated counterattacks over 6–8 July, was wounded more than once and was last seen fighting hand to hand; he received the Medal of Honor posthumously.

  7. 8–10 July 1953

    A battalion for every company

    When the rain stopped on 8 July, the 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry, counterattacked. Cpl. Dan D. Schoonover's demolition squad of the 13th Engineer Combat Battalion, attached to G Company, turned rifle squad, cleared bunkers on the east shoulder and called in artillery during the Chinese counterattack; he was mortally wounded and received the Medal of Honor posthumously. Over four days five battalions of the 17th and 32nd Infantry rotated through the outpost against assaults from company to battalion size; for each fresh U.S. company, the Chinese committed another battalion. Neither side could drive the other off. Trudeau ordered the hill held and, by Marino's account, personally led a counterattack force from the division's reconnaissance company.

  8. 11 July 1953

    Pork Chop abandoned

    Taylor, the I Corps commander Lt. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke and Trudeau decided the hill was not worth more lives with an armistice imminent. On the 7th Division G-2's advice they withdrew in daylight: on the afternoon of 11 July the armored personnel carriers drove up their usual supply route, the garrison climbed in, and the carriers drove back. The Chinese, the official history says, took it for another resupply run; when they occupied the empty hill about two days later they met the division's artillery and booby traps. U.S. losses in July are usually given as 243 killed, 916 wounded and 9 captured, with 163 dead never recovered. The armistice was signed on 27 July; Pork Chop now lies in the Demilitarized Zone.

Casualties

In the April and July battles U.S. forces lost about 347 killed and roughly 1,300 wounded, with 163 of the July dead never recovered; Chinese losses are known only from a high U.N. estimate and a much lower Chinese medical history. U.S. figures are reasonably firm; Chinese figures are poor. Certainty: fair.

Chinese People's Volunteers

Killed and wounded, July (U.N. estimate)U.N. estimate given by McWilliams for the July battle; some summaries attach the same figures to both battles. Bill McWilliams, On Hallowed Ground (2004), p. 435, as cited in Wikipedia, 'Battle of Pork Chop Hill'about 1,500 killed and 4,000 wounded
Killed and wounded, July (Chinese medical history)The PLA General Logistics Department's medical history (1989) gives these losses for the 67th Division, of 6,800 men engaged, far below the U.N. estimate. Medical Department of PLA General Logistics, history of medical work in the War to Resist America (1989), as cited in Wikipedia, 'Battle of Pork Chop Hill'533 killed, 1,242 wounded
Killed, AprilNo reliable figure for Chinese losses in the April battle has been published. Wikipedia, 'Battle of Pork Chop Hill'unknown
Killed, Old Baldy (March)American officers estimated 600 to 800 Chinese killed in the March fighting for Old Baldy. Charles H. Briscoe, 'Old Baldy' article, Veritas 2:4 (USASOC History Office, 2006)600–800 (U.S. estimate)

United Nations Command (U.S. 7th Infantry Division, KATUSA, Colombian Battalion)

U.S. killed and wounded, AprilOf the dead, 63 were from the 31st Infantry, 31 from the 17th Infantry and 10 engineers and artillery observers; K Company, 31st Infantry, alone lost 18 killed and 71 wounded (Marino, after S.L.A. Marshall). Wikipedia, 'Battle of Pork Chop Hill' (figures uncited there); James I. Marino, 'Korean War: Battle on Pork Chop Hill', HistoryNet (Military History, 2003)104 killed, 373 wounded
U.S. killed, wounded and captured, July163 of the dead were never recovered. Figures after Rodriguez (2010) and McWilliams (2004). Rodriguez (2010) and McWilliams (2004), as cited in Wikipedia, 'Battle of Pork Chop Hill'243 killed, 916 wounded, 9 captured
KATUSA killed and wounded, JulyKorean soldiers attached to U.S. units, per McWilliams. Bill McWilliams, On Hallowed Ground (2004), p. 435, as cited in Wikipedia, 'Battle of Pork Chop Hill'about 15 killed, about 120 wounded
U.S. casualties, Old Baldy and Pork Chop (March)7th Infantry Division losses for both outposts combined, 23–26 March 1953. Charles H. Briscoe, 'Old Baldy' article, Veritas 2:4 (USASOC History Office, 2006)more than 300 (killed, wounded and missing)
Colombian Battalion, Old Baldy (March)About a fifth of the battalion's strength; the missing were presumed captured. Charles H. Briscoe, 'Old Baldy' article, Veritas 2:4 (USASOC History Office, 2006); HistoryNet, 'Seeking Information on Colombia in the Korean War'95 killed, 97 wounded, 30 missing

Then and now: how the ground has changed

Pork Chop Hill became part of the Korean Demilitarized Zone after the armistice of July 1953 and has been closed to visitors and researchers ever since, so no published survey describes how the ground has changed.

Weapons

Chinese People's Volunteers

PPSh-41

PPSh-41

7.62 mm submachine gun · 1941–1950s (Chinese Type 50 copy in Korea)

At Pork Chop Hill: Chinese troops carried PPSh-41s and the Chinese-made Type 50 copy.

The Soviet wartime submachine gun, simple to make and fast-firing. China copied it as the Type 50, and Chinese assault troops used it in great numbers in the night attacks of the Korean War.

Caliber
7.62×25 mm
Magazine
71-round drum or 35-round box
Rate
about 900–1,000 rounds a minute
Photo: PPSh-41, National Museum of Scotland · 501ghost · CC0
82 mm mortar (M1937 / Type 53)

82 mm mortar (M1937 / Type 53)

Infantry mortar · 1937–present

At Pork Chop Hill: Mortars and massed artillery fired tens of thousands of rounds onto the hill.

The Soviet 82-BM-37 and its Chinese copy, the Type 53, were standard battalion mortars of communist forces in Vietnam. An 82 mm tube could also fire captured US 81 mm rounds, though not the other way around.

Caliber
82 mm
Max range
about 3,000 m
Weight
about 56 kg in action
Photo: George Chernilevsky · CC BY-SA 4.0

UN Command (US 7th Infantry Division)

M1 Garand

M1 Garand

Semi-automatic rifle · 1936–1958 (US standard rifle)

At Pork Chop Hill: Standard rifle of the 7th Division.

The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle adopted as a nation's standard infantry weapon. It gave the American rifleman much more firepower than a bolt-action rifle, and General George Patton called it "the greatest battle implement ever devised."

Caliber
.30-06 Springfield
Effective range
about 460 m (500 yd)
Feed
8-round en-bloc clip
Photo: Armémuseum (Swedish Army Museum) · Public domain
M1 carbine

M1 carbine

Semi-automatic carbine · 1942–1970s (US); much longer in allied armies

At Pork Chop Hill: Carried by many riflemen and support troops.

The light M1 carbine was designed in World War II for soldiers who needed something handier than a full rifle. After the war it was supplied in large numbers to allied armies, and its small size made it popular with South Vietnamese troops.

Caliber
.30 Carbine
Magazine
15- or 30-round box
Weight
about 2.4 kg
Photo: Armémuseum (Swedish Army Museum) · CC BY-SA 4.0
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

Automatic rifle · 1918–1960s

At Pork Chop Hill: Squad automatic weapon.

John Browning's BAR first reached the front in September 1918 and became the automatic weapon at the heart of the US rifle squad in World War II. The M1918A2 version added a bipod and a two-speed rate of fire.

Caliber
.30-06 Springfield
Magazine
20-round box
Rate of fire
M1918A2: selectable slow/fast, roughly 300–650 rounds/min
Weight
about 8.8 kg (M1918A2)
Photo: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
M101 (M2A1) 105 mm howitzer

M101 (M2A1) 105 mm howitzer

Towed howitzer · 1941–present

At Pork Chop Hill: 105 mm howitzers fired the defensive barrages around the hill.

The M2A1, later redesignated M101A1, was the standard US light field howitzer from World War II through Vietnam. In Vietnam it was often lifted by helicopter into firebases to support air-mobile infantry.

Caliber
105 mm
Max range
about 11,300 m
Weight
about 2,260 kg
Photo: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Paintings and photographs

Pork Chop Hill after the armistice
Pork Chop Hill after the armistice Pork Chop Hill the morning after the armistice, July 1953, photographed by Life's Jun Miki. Jun Miki · public domain · source
Old Baldy area (CMH map)
Old Baldy area (CMH map) U.S. Army map of the Old Baldy and Pork Chop outpost area, 1953. U.S. Army Center of Military History · public domain · source
Maj. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau
Maj. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau Arthur G. Trudeau, commander of the 7th Infantry Division during both Pork Chop battles (later lieutenant general). U.S. Army Military History Institute · public domain · source
Colombian Battalion in Korea
Colombian Battalion in Korea Colombian soldiers with a mortar in Korea. A company of the Colombian Battalion held Old Baldy when it fell in March 1953. Gilberto Díaz Velasco · public domain · source

★ Medal of Honor 2 recipients

Links go to the official records: the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and, where they exist, the service's own pages.

Free for everyone every year on its anniversary: April 16–18 and July 6–11.

Accuracy score: 58/100 (limited)

How the accuracy score works

Sources and method

Pork Chop Hill, 1953. The official framework comes from the U.S. Army Center of Military History: Walter G. Hermes, Truce Tent and Fighting Front (CMH Pub 20-3, 1966), ch. 17, 'Cold Front' (Old Baldy and Pork Chop, March 1953: units, the 201st Regiment, Westview, Hill Zoo, over 300 U.S. casualties), ch. 21, 'The Last Offensive' (July 1953 and the daylight APC withdrawal) and ch. 13 (Hill 255 as Outpost 10; Old Baldy's ridge); and CMH, The Korean War: Years of Stalemate, July 1951–July 1953 (CMH Pub 19-10). Company-level detail for April follows S.L.A. Marshall, Pork Chop Hill (1956), based on his post-battle interviews, as summarized by James I. Marino, 'Korean War: Battle on Pork Chop Hill' (Military History, April 2003); Marshall's figures and methods have been questioned (see HistoryNet on Marshall's reliability; Roger Spiller, 'S.L.A. Marshall and the Ratio of Fire', RUSI Journal, 1988), so his times and numbers are given as his. July detail follows Bill McWilliams, On Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill (Naval Institute Press, 2004; author's summary). Medal of Honor citations: Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Richard T. Shea Jr. and Dan D. Schoonover. Casualty figures, Chinese unit numbers and the Chinese medical-history figure (67th Division, July: 533 killed, 1,242 wounded) were cross-checked against the Wikipedia articles on the battles of Pork Chop Hill and Old Baldy, which also give the hill coordinates used here. The hills lie in or beside the DMZ; positions are map-derived (about ±400 m), and the trench ring, Hasakkol, Hill 347 and the MLR are schematic. Images from Wikimedia Commons.

Where the positions come from

Further reading