Turkish Brigade - Service History

Service History

Three different Turkish Brigades served in the Korean War, each replacing the previous one each year. The core of the 1st Turkish Brigade was the 241st Infantry Regiment based at Ayaş which was supplemented with volunteers to raise it to brigade level. Brigadier General Tahsin Yazıcı, a veteran of World War I, who had volunteered to be demoted to lead this force, commanded the 1st Brigade.

The advance party of the Turkish Brigade arrived in Pusan on 12 October 1950. The main body arrived five days later, October 17 from the eastern Mediterranean port of Iskenderun, Turkey, and the brigade went into bivouac near Taegu where it underwent training and received U.S. equipment. The brigade was attached to the U.S. 25th Infantry Division.

The bulk of the enlisted men were from small towns and villages in the mountains of eastern Turkey. For these volunteer officers and volunteer enlisted men who were just completing their compulsory two year service, it was not only the first time that they had left their native country—it was the first time they had been out of the villages of their birth. It was, at least for the enlisted men, the first time that they had encountered non-Muslims. Vast cultural and religious differences existed between the Turks and the Americans.

The U.S. Army command was unaware of the difficulties in coordination, logistics and, above all, basic communication in a common language that would complicate orders and troop movements, especially in the crucial early months of their joint exercises. Unfamiliar food, clothing requirements and transportation would come to create more problems than the American high command had counted on.

The dietary requirements of the Turks forbade pork products, and the American rations contained pork products forbidden to all Muslims. A Japanese cook was hired to provide rations that met the Turkish requirements. Bread and coffee presented other problems. The Turks favored a heavy, substantial bread containing non-bleached flour along with thick, strong, heavily sweetened coffee. Most of the enlisted men had fierce looks, flowing mustaches and carried a sidearm sword that, to Americans and the other U.N. troops, appeared to be a long knife, all of which attracted much media attention.

Few American liaison officers were attached to the Turkish companies, thereby adding to the problems the Turks faced in their initial combat operations. Misinterpretation of orders resulted from the lack of communication between Allies. The problem, at first overlooked and judged to be only minor, became exacerbated in the heat of battle.

Though it was initially placed as reserve for the U.S. 8th Army, the collapse of the front in the face of massive Chinese attacks on 26 November 1950, meant that it soon found itself in the thick of battle.

The Turkish brigade, between November 1950 and July 1953, fought in the following battles:

• Battle of Kunuri (November–December 1950)
• Kumyangjang-Ni (January 1951)
• 22–23 April 1951; the Chorwon-Seoul diversion; the Taegyewonni defense; the Barhar-Kumhwa attacks; and
• 28–29 May 1953; the Vegas battle during Battle of the Hook.

The brigade's most costly battle was Kunu-ri, which took place towards the end of 1950. Actually a series of four encounters lasting from 26 November to 6 December 1950; Battle of Wawon on 28 November, Sinnim-ni, 28–29 November, Kunuri Gorge, 29–30 November, and Sunchon Gorge on 30 November 1950. The brigade lost over 15% of its personnel and 70% of equipment at Kunuri, with 218 killed and 455 wounded, and close to 100 taken prisoner.

After the battle of Kumyangjang-Ni, 25–26 January, in which the Turkish Brigade repulsed a Chinese force three times its size, President Harry Truman signed a Distinguished Unit Citation (now the Presidential Unit Citation) on 11 July 1951. The brigade was also awarded the Presidential Unit Citation from the President of Korea.