Task Force Smith

Battle of Osan
Part of the Korean War
An American soldier (Robert L. Witzig) with a 2.36-inch bazooka prepares to take aim at a North Korean tank during the Battle of Pyongtaek which took place after the Battle of Osan. On his right is Kenneth R. Shadrick, who would later be reported as the first American killed in the Korean War.
Date July 5, 1950 Location Osan, South Korea Result North Korean victory
Belligerents
United States	North Korea
Commanders and leaders
Charles B. Smith Miller O. Perry (WIA)	Lee Kwon Mu Ryu-Kyong Su
Units involved
1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Battery A 52nd Field Artillery Battalion	4th Infantry Division  • 16th Infantry Regiment  • 18th Infantry Regiment 105th Armored Division  • 107th Tank Regiment
Strength
540 infantry and support	5,000 infantry 36 tanks
Casualties and losses
60 killed 21 wounded 82 captured 1 howitzer destroyed, 5 disabled	42 killed 85 wounded 1 tank destroyed, 3 disabled

The Battle of Osan (Korean: 오산 전투) was the first engagement between United States and North Korean forces during the Korean War, on July 5, 1950. Task Force Smith, a U.S. task force of 400 infantry supported by an artillery battery, was moved to Osan, south of the South Korean capital Seoul, and ordered to fight as a rearguard to delay advancing North Korean forces while additional U.S. troops arrived in the country to form a stronger defensive line to the south. The task force lacked both anti-tank guns and effective infantry anti-tank weapons, having been equipped with obsolescent 2.36-in. rocket launchers and a few 57 mm recoilless rifles. Aside from a limited number of HEAT shells for the unit's 105-mm howitzers, crew-served weapons capable of defeating the T-34 Soviet tank had not been distributed to U.S. Army forces in Korea.

A North Korean tank column equipped with ex-Soviet T-34/85 tanks overran the task force in the first encounter and continued its advance south. After the North Korean tank column had breached U.S. lines the Task Force opened fire on a force of some 5,000 North Korean infantry approaching its position, temporarily holding up the North Korean advance. North Korean troops eventually flanked and overwhelmed American positions and the remnants of the task force retreated in disorder.

On the night of June 25, 1950, ten divisions of the North Korean People's Army launched a full-scale invasion of the nation's neighbor to the south, the Republic of Korea. The force of 89,000 men moved in six columns, catching the Republic of Korea Armed Forces by surprise, resulting in a rout. The smaller South Korean army suffered from widespread lack of organization and equipment, and was unprepared for war. The numerically superior North Korean forces destroyed isolated resistance from the 38,000 South Korean soldiers on the front before it began moving steadily south. Most of South Korea's forces retreated in the face of the invasion. The North Koreans had captured South Korea's capital of Seoul by June 28, forcing the government and its shattered army to retreat further south.

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