This was an area approximately 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Seoul and was the most direct route to the South Korean capital.

Since the outpost was defended each night by only a single company of American or Greek soldiers, the PVA had anticipated an easy capture.

[citation needed] Most of the fighting occurred at night, under heavy mortar fire, while the daylight hours were usually spent by the UN forces evacuating the dead and wounded, replacing the defending company, sending up resupplies and repairing the fortified positions.

The daylight hours were punctuated with artillery, mortar and sniper fire, making repairs and reinforcement a more dangerous task.

A service road that wound from the Main Line of Resistance (MLR) along an intermittent stream led to the rear of the outpost where a medical aid station and a supply point were located.

The route to the outpost was under constant PVA observation and fire, and its height made it harder to pack supplies up the hill.

Its defense and preservation was viewed as critical because it blocked PVA observation down the Kumwha Valley and shielded that portion of the MLR from direct fire.

If the UN forces lost the outpost, the US Eighth Army would have had to withdraw approximately 6 miles (10 km) to the next defensible line.

The position contained a communication trench line which ran from the supply point forward some 400 yards (370 m) to the top.

Despite an intense barrage of defensive firepower and the detonation of Napalm, the PVA stormed the slopes of the outpost and soon penetrated the trenches.

When K Company got under cover in bunkers, UN Variable Time (VT) artillery was called in to stop the attack.

The artillery rounds exploded in the air rather than on impact, and this, plus hand-to-hand combat, finally drove the PVA from Harry that night.

PVA infantry crept in close through the artillery fire and had gained the trenches on the rear of the outpost where bitter hand-to-hand fighting ensued.

On 25 September 2010, PFC Charles R. Johnson was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, 57 years after his death, by Brigadier general Jeffrey Phillips, 3rd Infantry Division Rear-Detachment Commander.

They were supported by a detachment from the 10th Combat Engineer Battalion that got trapped on the outpost while on a mine laying detail.

That night at approximately 02:55, PVA artillery and mortar fire preceded a screening action against the outpost from the east and west for the purpose of protecting recovery of their dead.

On the morning of 18 June, the PVA returned at around midnight, moving through their own and UN artillery and mortar fire to attack Outpost Harry from the northeast and northwest.

Bitter hand-to-hand fighting ensued with the PVA making numerous attempts to reinforce through the protective artillery ring.