September with surprising ease the 2nd Division forces advanced and took over Bloody Ridge. The KPA, weakened by heavy losses, had finally evacuated their positions and left substantial stores of supplies and over 500 dead on the heights. Aftermath After almost three weeks of fighting and over 2,700 casualties, the Eighth Army had won its objective. According to 2nd Division estimates, the defense of Bloody Ridge had cost the KPA over 15,000 casualties. The advance by the X Corps in August demonstrated once again the reluctance of the North Koreans to part with any of their territory. Taking excellent advantage of the terrain and constructing well-placed defenses, they had fought bitterly to hold on to their observation posts on Bloody Ridge. Only when the attack had been broadened to apply pressure at several points along the Corps' front, and the 2nd Division had committed elements of all three of the division's regiments, and only after suffering severe casualties, did the North Koreans concede and evacuate the ridge. The much higher KPA/PVA casualties were probably caused by: poor discipline and constraining orders so strict to the point where subordinate leaders were often not allowed to withdraw under any conditions, in which case the entire unit would be blooded. Even when permission was granted for a withdrawal, it often came only after the large majority of troops in the unit had been killed. the overwhelming advantage in artillery and air support of UN forces; the KPA/PVA forces had no air support. An enormously destructive "rain of fire" could be brought by UN units against KPA/PVA forces which they could not answer in kind. After withdrawing from Bloody Ridge, the KPA set up new positions just away on a hill mass that was soon to earn the name Heartbreak Ridge. References Bibliography Blair, Clay (1987). The Forgotten War. New York: Times Books. . T. R. Fehrenbach (1964). This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History. New York: Macmillan. . (2002). Spencer C. Tucker (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. New York: Checkmark Books. . External links Korean War Map of N. end of Bloody Ridge: Heartbreak Ridge, Mungdung-ni Valley and Hill 1179 News Allies Capture 'Bloody Ridge' - Toledo Blade, Sep. 5, 1951 Yankees Seize 'Bloody Ridge' On Korea Front - Ellensburg Daily Record, Sep. 5, 1951 Bloody Ridge Bloody Ridge August 1951 events in Asia