United Nations The Battle of Tabu-dong was an engagement between United Nations Command (UN) and North Korean forces early in the Korean War from September 1 to September 15, 1950, in the vicinity of Tabu-dong, Chilgok County, north of Taegu in South Korea.

What followed was a two-week battle around Tabu-dong and Waegwan in which the KPA were able to gradually push the 1st Cavalry Division back from its lines.

[2] From their initial June 25 offensive to fights in July and early August, the KPA used this strategy to effectively defeat any UN force and push it south.

[10][11] Particularly heavy fighting took place at the Battle of the Bowling Alley where the KPA 13th Division was almost completely destroyed in the attack.

[4] Fed by intelligence from the Soviet Union the KPA were aware the UN forces were building up along the Pusan Perimeter and that it must conduct an offensive soon or it could not win the battle.

Next in line northward, the US 5th Cavalry Regiment defended the sector along the Naktong around Waegwan and the main Seoul highway southeast from there to Taegu.

Eastward, the US 7th Cavalry Regiment was responsible for the mountainous area between that highway and the hills bordering the Sangju road.

[21] This planned attack against Hill 518 coincided with the defection of KPA Major Kim Song Jun of the 19th Regiment, 13th Division.

[21] The ROK 1st Division under command of Brigadier General Paik Sun Yup also braced his men for attack.

It curves westward from its peak to its westernmost height, Hill 346, from which the ground drops abruptly to the Naktong River.

[25] From their positions they delivered mortar and machine gun fire on the climbing infantry, stopping the weak, advanced US force short of the crest.

[26] KPA cut the Waegwan to Tabu-dong road east of the regiment so that its communications with other US units now were only to the west.

This withdrawal caused the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, to give up a hill it had just attacked and captured near the Tabu-dong road on the approaches of the Walled City of Ka-san.

[29] Heavy rains fell during the night of September 5–6 and mud slowed all wheeled and tracked vehicles in the withdrawal.

Nearing Waegwan at dawn, the battalion column was taken under KPA mortar and T-34 tank fire after daybreak and sustained 18 casualties.

The battalion commander, Major Omar T. Hitchner, and his operations officer, Captain James T. Milam, were killed.

The company left six dead on the hill and, carrying its wounded on improvised litters of ponchos and tree branches, it started down the shale slopes of the mountain in rain and darkness.

At dawn on September 7 the men in G Company was discovered and attacked by KPA troops in nearby positions.

[30] The Weapons Platoon, after becoming separated from the rest of the company, encountered KPA on the trail it was following three times in the night, but in each instance neither side fired, each going on its way.

[31] Later in the day on September 7, Captain Melbourne C. Chandler, acting commander of the 2nd Battalion, received word of G Company's location on Hill 464 from an aerial observer and sent a patrol which guided the company safely to the battalion at the eastern base of Hill 380.

During the night of September 7–8 the 5th Cavalry Regiment on division orders withdrew still farther below Waegwan to new defensive positions astride the main Seoul-Taegu highway.

[27] Observers sighted barges loaded with troops and artillery pieces crossing the river 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Waegwan on the evening of the 7th.

On its left flank, the KPA 3rd Division forced the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, to withdraw from Hill 345, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Waegwan.

[34][35] The UN counterattack at Inchon on September 15 outflanked the KPA and cut off all their main supply and reinforcement routes.

On September 19 the UN discovered the KPA had abandoned much of the Pusan Perimeter during the night, and the UN units began advancing out of their defensive positions and occupying them.

[37] Most of the KPA units began conducting delaying actions attempting to get as much of their army as possible into North Korea.

[38] UN units rapidly pursued them north, passing over the Naktong River positions, which were no longer of strategic importance.

John Raymond Rice, a Ho Chunk Indian awarded the Bronze Star in World War II, was killed at Tabu-dong on September 6, 1950 leading a squad of Company A, 8th Cavalry Regiment.

President Truman personally intervened, and arranged for his burial with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

A subsequent U.S. Supreme Court case determined in 1954 that racial segregation at public cemeteries was legal.