battle were high for both sides. The 2nd Infantry Division had suffered over 3,700 casualties during the 13 September to 15 October period, with the 23rd Regiment and its attached French Battalion incurring almost half of this total. The KPA 6th, 12th and 13th Divisions and the PVA 204th Division all suffered heavily. Estimates by the 2nd Division of the KPA/PVA losses totaled close to 25,000 men. Approximately half of these casualties had come during the Touchdown operation. The increase in casualties had been accompanied by a similar rise in ammunition expenditures. Besides the millions of rounds of small arms ammunition that were used, the 2nd Division received the following artillery support: 76mm gun 62,000 rounds; 105mm howitzer 401,000 rounds; 155mm howitzer 84,000 rounds; and 8-inch howitzer 13,000 rounds. The division's mortar crews sent over 119,000 rounds of 60mm, 81mm and 4.2-inch mortar fire and the 57mm and 75mm recoilless rifle teams directed nearly 18,000 rounds at the KPA/PVA. Although there were shortages in some types of ammunition at the theater level, Van Fleet had given the 2nd Division commander permission to fire "all the ammunition thought necessary to take the positions." To supplement the artillery support given the division, the Fifth Air Force flew 842 sorties over the Heartbreak Ridge area and loosed 250 tons of bombs on the KPA/PVA. Against the deep bunkers of the KPA, anything less than a direct hit was ineffective. There were many points of similarity between the Heartbreak Ridge struggle and its immediate predecessor, Bloody Ridge. In both cases the North Koreans had organized strong defensive positions in depth and had had the advantage of defiladed routes to bring in logistical support and reinforcements. The UN forces had to advance over exposed routes which the KPA artillery and mortar fire covered very effectively. The 2nd Division advance was extremely hazardous and slow as long as the KPA were allowed to concentrate their fire on relatively few targets. In both attacks, KPA capabilities and will to resist had been underestimated. Each had been planned as a small-scale advance to straighten out a front-line sag and each had suffered from a lack of adequate reserves to reinforce and consolidate the objectives after they were won. After the KPA counterattacked the Eighth Army forces, the latter had been compelled to withdraw. At Heartbreak the Corps commander, General Byers, had not permitted the 2nd Division to use