Operation Courageous - Operations Rugged and Dauntless

Operations Rugged and Dauntless

In advance of issuing orders for attacks above the 38th parallel, General Ridgway assembled corps and division commanders at his Yoju headquarters on March 27 to discuss courses of action that were now open to them or that they might be obliged to follow. The possibility of Soviet intervention again had been raised, he told them. According to a reputable foreign source, the USSR planned to launch a large scale offensive in Korea near the end of April employing Soviet regulars of Mongolian extraction under the guise of volunteers. Ridgway doubted the accuracy of the report, but as a matter of prudence, since the Eighth Army might be ordered out of Korea in the event of Soviet intervention, he intended to pass the evacuation plan outlined by the Eighth Army staff in January to corps commanders for further development. Lest Eighth Army forces start "looking over the shoulder", no word of the course of action or preparations for it was to go beyond those working on the plan.

Alluding to past and recent proposals of cease-fire negotiations, Ridgway also advised that future governmental decisions might compel the Eighth Army to adopt a static defense. Because of its inherent rigidity, such a stance would require strong leadership and imaginative tactical thinking, he warned, to stand off a numerically stronger enemy that might not be similarly inhibited in the choice of tactics.

The Eighth Army meanwhile would continue to move forward and in the next advance would cross the 38th parallel. Ridgway agreed with General MacArthur's earlier prediction that a stalemate ultimately would develop on the battlefront, but just how far the Eighth Army would drive into North Korea before this occurred, he informed the assembled commanders, could not be accurately assessed at the moment.

Ridgway had revised his concept for advancing above the parallel since meeting with MacArthur on March 24. He originally had intended to direct a strong attack northwestward across the Imjin, expecting that in moving as far as the Yesong River the attack force would find the elusive North Korean I Corps. His intelligence staff later discovered that the bulk of the North Korean corps had withdrawn behind the Yesong and also warned that the attack force would be vulnerable to envelopment by a fresh Chinese unit located off the right flank of the advance. (The unit was the XIX Army Group, which intelligence had not yet fully identified.) Ridgway, as a result, elected to limit operations northwest of the Imjin to reconnaissance and combat patrols.

He planned to point his main attack toward the centrally located road and rail complex marked out by the towns of Pyonggang in the north and Ch'orwon and Kumhwa in the south.

This complex, eventually named the Iron Triangle by newsmen searching for a dramatic term, lay twenty to thirty miles (30–50 km) above the 38th parallel in the diagonal corridor dividing the Taebaek Mountains into northern and southern ranges and containing the major road and rail links between the port of Wonsan in the northeast and Seoul in the southwest. Other routes emanating from the triangle of towns connected with P'yongyang to the northwest and with the western and eastern halves of the present front. A unique center of communications, the complex was of obvious importance to the ability of the communist high command to move troops and supplies within the forward areas and to coordinate operations laterally.

Ridgway's first concern was to occupy ground that could serve as a base both for continuing the advance toward the complex and, in view of the enemy's evident offensive preparations, for developing a defensive position. The base selected, line Kansas, traced the lower bank of the Imjin in the west. From the Imjin eastward as far as the Hwach'on Reservoir the line lay two to six miles (3–10 km) above the 38th parallel across the approaches to the Iron Triangle. Following the lower shoreline of the reservoir, it then turned slightly north to a depth of ten miles (16 km) above the parallel before falling off southeastward to the Yangyang area on the coast. In the advance to line Kansas, designated Operation Rugged, the I and IX Corps were to seize the segment of the line between the Imjin and the western edge of the Hwach'on Reservoir. To the east, the X Corps was to occupy the portion tracing the reservoir shore and reaching Route 24 in the Soyang River valley, and the ROK III and I Corps were to take the section between Route 24 and Yangyang.

In anticipation of enemy offensive operations, Ridgway planned to pull substantial forces off the line immediately after reaching line Kansas and prepare them for counterattacks. The IX Corps was to release the 1st Cavalry Division. Under army control, the division was to assemble at Kyongan-ni, below the Han River southeast of Seoul, and prepare to meet enemy attacks aimed at the capital city via Route 1 from the northwest, over Routes 33 and 3 from the north, or through the Pukhan River valley from the northeast. In the X Corps zone, the bulk of the 2d Division was to assemble at Hongch'on ready to counter an attack following the Route 29 axis, and a division yet to be selected from one of the two ROK corps in the east was to assemble at Yuch'on-ni on Route 20 and prepare to operate against enemy attacks in either corps sector. The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, which on March 29 left the I Corps zone for Taegu, meanwhile was to be ready to return north to reinforce operations wherever needed.

While these forces established themselves in reserve, Ridgway planned to launch Operation Dauntless, a limited advance toward the Iron Triangle by the I and IX Corps. With the objective only of menacing the triangle, not of investing it, the two corps were to attack in succession to lines Utah and Wyoming. They would create, in effect, a broad salient bulging above line Kansas between the Imjin River and Hwach'on Reservoir and reaching prominent heights commanding the Ch'orwon-Kumhwa base of the communications complex. If struck by strong enemy attacks during or after the advance, the two corps were to return to the Kansas line.

To maintain, and in some areas regain, contact with enemy forces, Ridgway allowed each corps to start toward line Kansas as it completed preparations. The Operation Rugged advance, as a result, staggered to a full start between April 2 and April 5. When General MacArthur made his customary appearance on April 3, this time in the ROK I Corps zone on the east coast, Ridgway brought him up to date on plans. MacArthur agreed with the Operation Rugged and Operation Dauntless concept, urging in particular that Ridgway make a strong effort to hold the Kansas line. At the same time, MacArthur believed that the two operations would move the battlefront to that "point of theoretical stalemate" he had predicted in early March. He intended to limit offensive operations, once Ridgway's forces reached their Kansas-Wyoming objectives, to reconnaissance and combat patrols, none larger than a battalion.