Saturday I went and checked out the Korean War battle site in Kapyong which is located East of Seoul not to far from Chunch’on. Kapyong is a small country city with a wide river that runs through it from the nearby mountains. Nothing about the appearance of this city would lead you to believe an epic life or death battle happened here. However, one did.
On 23-24 April, 1951 the British 27th Commonwealth brigade reinforced with New Zealand, Canadian, & Australian soldiers plus a US tank company fought a heroic pitched battle against the communist Chinese forces just North of the city of Kapyong. To the North of the city the Kapyong river goes to the base of the 1200 foot Myeongji-san mountains. It is in these mountains that the Commonwealth Brigade held off the Chinese for two days allowing rear UN forces to retreat without being destroyed.
Here is a great quote from the battle I really liked from the Australian website commemorating the battle.
“Major O’Dowd then directed the radio operator to contact anyone. The American 1st Marine Division answered but their operator refused to believe who our operator was speaking for. Major O’Dowd took the phone and demanded to speak to the commanding officer. The general in charge of the [Marine] division came on the phone and told O’Dowd we didn’t exist as we had been wiped out the night before. Major O’Dowd said, ‘I’ve got news for you, we are still here and we are staying here.'”
Private Patrick Knowles, 3 RAR, on the morning of 24 April 1951
To check out this link to check out the complete website (Battle of Kapyong).
In honor of these country’s heroes a memorial in the city of Kapyong was created. The memorial honors the British, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian militaries for there heroices during the battle of Kapyong.
Noticably missing from the memorial was any mention of the US military’s involvement in the battle. Plus at the different battle sites just north of city, memorials for the commonwealth brigade’s individual countries have been constructed but the US Army has none.
Granted the commonwealth brigade took the majority of the casualties in the fight and deserves the memorials but could the American military’s involvement be at least worthy of being mentioned in the overall memorial in Kapyong?
Actually it is probably better that the Americans are not mentioned on the memorial because it is quite possibly the dirtiest memorial park I have ever been to. Dead grass, garbage everywhere, cigarette butts, and worn out flags greet the visitors to the park. There was even empty beer bottles and cigarette butts on the memorial itself. This is by far the worse Korean War memorial park I have been to so far in the country. Usually they are kept up fairly well.
Myeongjisan Mountain North of Kapyong
However if you are not into Korean War history the drive to Kapyong and then North on highway 75 is definitely worth the ride. There are scores of beautiful mountains to see and the Kapyong river makes for a nice sight also. A recommended weekend drive.
