Task Force Smith and the Bazooka

Spitballs Against Armor at the Start of the Korean War in 1950

Mar 11, 2009

Under armed and overwhelmed the US Army soldiers of Task Force Smith turned to their M9A1 Bazookas to save the day at the Battle of Osan in 1950.

The United States Army began the Korean War in a panic. The first ground troops rushed to the front to try and stop the North Korean Army were drawn from men on occupation duties in nearby post-WWII Japan. The first boots on the ground was a unit built around 400 men of the 1st Battalion of the 21st Infantry Regiment with an attached group of artillery. It was led by Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith (hence the Task Force Smith moniker). The unit was understrength, comprised of very junior soldiers (some 85 % had never seen combat), and under equipped. The Task Forces biggest problem was that it had no practical anti-tank weaponry. This was suicide for a light infantry force being told to stop tanks.

Flown to South Korea within 24 hours of the North Korean armored advance, Task Force Smith was ordered to hold the road north of Pusan and delay the oncoming forces as long as possible. In World War Two this had been accomplished by infantry with the help of air support and anti-tank mines; however Task Force Smith did not have either of those two luxuries. Its hopes were placed in mortars, a pair of 75mm recoilless rifles, a battery of six 105mm howitzers and a half dozen M9A1 2.36-inch "bazooka" rocket launchers. The mortars and howitzers could have normally been used in an anti-tank role but the battery was only issued a total of six armor-piercing rounds. This left the pair of recoilless rifles and the bazookas were the only tools left to do the combat with the tanks.

The 2.36-inch Bazooka

The bazookas, which had come about in World War Two, did not have an illustrious track record. Early US bazookas were abandoned in number during the first combat with the Nazi forces in North Africa in 1942. A redesigned model, the M9, was carried into the invasions of Italy and Northern Europe later in the war but it too was found lacking against heavy German armor. Bazooka teams were taught to aim for tracks, road wheels, and rear engine compartments as the rocket was unable to penetrate the main armor of most modern tanks. US army general and armor expert George Patton stated that "the purpose of the bazooka is not to hunt tanks offensively, but to be used as a last resort in keeping tanks from overrunning infantry. To insure this, the range should be held to around 30 yards." The M9 was mainly used as a 'bunker-buster" during World War Two for such a reason. The larger M20 "Super Bazooka" was introduced before the Korean War and had a much larger warhead that could defeat modern tanks; however none were made available to Task Force Smith.

Combat and Heartbreak

On July 5, 1950 Task Force Smith was deployed to stop the North Korean advance along the road near Osan. Some 1100 North Korean troops with no less than 33 Soviet made T-34 main battle tanks threatened. Combat began at 0700 and continued all day. The North Korean tanks advanced over the US positions and only four were knocked out, three by artillery fire and one by a recoilless rifle. The six bazooka teams made valiant efforts to halt the North Korean armor but to no avail. One team, led by 2nd Lieutenant Ollie Conner, ran down a ditch and achieved the perfect textbook firing position on the rear of a T-34 from defilade. Conners fired shot after shot into the tank and watched the 8oz penolite warhead burn out as it could not penetrate the 52mm of steel armor. Connor and his team fired some 22 rounds into the North Korean tanks that day without a single success. It was later theorized that the rockets, left over from World War Two, had expired in storage.

Task Force Smith was not able to stop the North Korean tanks, which ultimately sliced through their positions. Confronted by upwards of a thousand infantrymen following behind the armor and drained from 7 hours of combat, Task Force Smith withdrew. The defeated unit lost some 150 men and was combat-ineffective. Lieutenant Ollie Conner was later quoted as saying of the fact that the M9 bazooka was not capable of penetrating the T-34 armor as, "The seat in Hell closest to the fire is reserved for those who knew this but kept it quiet."

Just three months later an Australian light infantry force defeated a North Korean armored unit at the Battle of the Broken Bridge near Kujin. They had the newer M20 bazookas, which were quite effective, and air support.

Sources

Korean War After Action Reports Lessons Learned Documents Battle Assessments 24th Infantry Division 1950

The copyright of the article Task Force Smith and the Bazooka in Modern War is owned by Christopher Eger. Permission to republish Task Force Smith and the Bazooka in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.