841, north of Hill 974. Up on Heartbreak Ridge the 23rd Regiment was also able to report encouraging news. Colonel Adams' battle plan had directed Major Williams' 1st Battalion to exert diversionary pressure north against Hill 851, while the French Battalion feinted south toward Hill 931. Daniels' 2nd Battalion would hit Hill 931 from the south with Craven's 3rd Battalion as reserve behind Daniels. Under cover of night and the distractions provided by the rest of the division, Daniels' troops moved out. KPA fire came in quickly upon the battalion, but the North Koreans could not concentrate all their attention upon this assault. With the 3rd Battalion in support, Daniels' force slowly approached Hill 931. To preserve the element of surprise, there had been no artillery preparation. The 37th Field Artillery Battalion opened up on all known KPA mortar positions as the attack got under way. The effectiveness of the counter-mortar fire helped the 23rd infantrymen as they closed with the KPA after only light losses. Flame throwers, grenades, and small arms rooted the KPA from the formidable bunkers that had blocked the 23rd's advance for so many weeks. By 03:00 the 2nd and 3rd Battalions had won the southern half of Hill 931. The expected KPA counterattack came and was repulsed. With the coming of daylight, the advance was renewed. The French Battalion moved in from the north and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions pressed on to meet it; before noon Hill 931 finally belonged to the 23rd Infantry. Craven's 3rd Battalion then pushed on to join the 1st Battalion in its assault against the last objective on Heartbreak Ridge, Hill 851. In the Sat'ae-ri Valley, Task Force Sturman'''s tanks sustained their daylight raids and continued to blast away at the bunkers on the eastern slopes of Hill 851. On the west, in the Mundung-ni Valley, Woods's 72nd Tank Battalion awaited the go-ahead signal from Love's engineers. On 10 October the engineers finished their task and the 72nd's Shermans, accompanied by Company L, 38th Infantry, and an engineer platoon, began to rumble north up the valley. By a fortunate coincidence the KPA was caught in the middle of relieving the rapidly disintegrating elements of the KPA V Corps in the Heartbreak Ridge-Mundung-ni sector. Advance elements of the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) 204th Division, 68th Army, were in the process of taking over positions already vacated by the KPA. The