Showdown on Triangle Hill: twelve days of intense combat in October 1952 cost the U.S. 7th Infantry Division 365 KIA for a piece of turf that ultimately remained in enemy hands

VFW Magazine, Sept, 2002 by Richard Ecker

In October 1952, the U.S. 7th Infantry Division occupied a sector of the Main Line of Resistance (MLR) in central Korea near Kumhwa. Opposing the division, the Chinese 45th Division held elevations to the north, including Hill 598, also called Triangle Hill. Both sides were well dug-in. Battle lines had not changed significantly in almost a year.

After peace talks began in November 1951, the Eighth Army assumed an "active defense" posture and combatants on both sides marked time awaiting the outcome of the talks.

The "War of the Hills" had begun. For six months, this war played out as artillery/mortar exchanges and minor skirmishes that did little to change the situation. Then, in spring 1952, as frustration over the failure of peace talks increased, "active" defense gave way to active engagement. Operation Showdown began to take shape.

Col. Lloyd Moses, commander of the 7th Division's 31st Infantry Regiment, relates in his memoirs, "Not long after my arrival in the 31st Infantry, the division and corps commanders talked to me about an attack on Hill 598." By June 1952, Moses wrote, plans were under way "to move our MLR forward ... On 23 July, I began to make serious plans to capture Hill 598, should we be called upon to do so."

Hill 598 was a formidable objective. The apex of its 2,000-foot triangular crest overlooked U.S. 7th Division positions on a line of hills about half a mile away to the south. From this apex, two massive ridges extended to the northeast and northwest. The ridge to the northwest was dominated by a hill called Pike's Peak.

The other terminated with a pair of hills that had been dubbed Jane Russell in honor of the well-endowed American actress. A less prominent ridge, named Sandy, sloped down to the east. About 1,000 yards across the valley from Sandy stood Sniper Ridge, which, because of its strategic location relative to Triangle, also was an objective of Operation Showdown.

On Oct. 8, Far East Commander Gen. Mark Clark approved the operation. By then Maj. Gen. Wayne Smith, 7th Division commander, had selected the 31st Infantry to conduct the assault on Triangle Hill. The attack on Sniper Ridge was assigned by the Corps commander to elements of the South Korean 2nd Division.

`Shower of Grenades'

Operation Showdown began on Oct. 14. Although the original plans called for a single battalion attack on Triangle Hill, the objective was too large and too well-defended for such a limited force. So Moses ordered his 3rd Battalion to take the west sector of the objective, including Hill 598 and Pike's Peak. The east sector of the complex, including Jane Russell and Sandy Ridge, became the objective of the 1st Battalion.

In spite of two days of preparatory air strikes and artillery barrages, the two assault companies on Hill 598, L and K, met fierce resistance from the Chinese as they made their way up the hill's steep south slope. Small groups from the attacking force repeatedly assaulted the crest of the hill, each time being repulsed by "a shower of hand grenades, shape charges, bangalore torpedos and rocks."

Within the first half hour, all of L Company's officers became casualties. After two hours, with both assault companies still bogged down, I Company was committed to the battle.

Taking advantage of earlier gains by the 1st Battalion, I Company attacked the hill from the east through Sandy Ridge. L and K companies, pinned down throughout the day, were finally ordered to withdraw. I Company held into the evening, but faced with repeated counterattacks, also abandoned the assault.

In the 1st Battalion sector, A Company led the attack on Sandy Ridge and Jane Russell. Pinned down almost immediately by small arms fire from Hill 598, the platoon on Sandy sustained 25 casualties in the first few minutes. When the remainder of the company was also stopped short of their objective, B Company was sent into battle.

Sandy Ridge was finally taken and consolidated, but the attack on Jane Russell remained bogged down. C Company was then pitched into the maelstrom. After three hours of combat against intense resistance, "the crest of Objective `B' (Jane Russell) was in friendly hands."

On that crest, 1st Lt. Edward R. Schowalter performed feats Hollywood could not duplicate. He led platoons of A Co., 1st Bn., 31st Inf., up Jane Russell Hill. "Right through the hail of grenades and small-arms fire he led us," recalled one GI.

Nearly killed twice, he at one point found himself stacked among dead Chinese. Severely wounded, he spent six months in the hospital recuperating. Modesty was Schowalter's hallmark.

"I always figured I was awarded the medal as the representative, of a superb fighting team," he said. "We took that hill together. I wear the Medal of Honor on behalf of all the men who fought and died on that hill. It's really theirs."

Repeated enemy counterattacks, however, finally forced the 1st Battalion to abandon its positions, and by the end of the day, the enemy remained in control of all 31st Infantry objectives.