Combat· Korean War
Battle of Bunker Hill (Korea)
Bunker Hill, designated Hill 122, was a commanding height overlooking the Panmunjom corridor that both sides recognized as vital, and the battle for it opened the most intense phase of the 1952 outpost war.
The Marines seized the hill through a clever scheme that drew Chinese attention to a diversionary attack against the neighboring Siberia outpost, then fought to consolidate and hold the position against a furious enemy response. Over days of combat the Chinese pounded Bunker Hill with some of the heaviest artillery and mortar concentrations the division had yet faced and threw repeated company- and battalion-strength assaults against it, but the Marines held, rushing reinforcements forward and beating back each attack. The contest established the pattern for the battles to come, an exposed outpost, a massive enemy barrage, waves of infantry, and a Marine garrison fighting to keep ground it had paid dearly to take. Bunker Hill remained in Marine hands.
Record no. 638