Combat· Korean War
Battle of Yoke Ridge
Yoke Ridge was the first of the hard ridge battles for the high ground around the Punchbowl, an assault on a long, narrow hill mass held by North Korean troops dug deep into the rocky spurs east of the basin.
Relieving dispirited South Korean defenders, the Marines attacked along the snaking crests, fighting from one fortified knob to the next against an enemy who resisted, in the words of the official account, as long as a man remained alive. The terrain itself was an enemy, sharp ridges and narrow valleys that channeled the attack and exposed the assault companies. The Marines and their attached Korean Marines cleared the ridge in several days of close, costly combat, knocking out bunkers one by one. Yoke Ridge secured the southeastern shoulder of the Punchbowl and served as the springboard for the even harder fight to come on the ridges to the north.
Record no. 632