The Battle of Bloody Ridge was a ground combat battle that took place during the Korean War from 18 August to 5 September 1951. By the summer of 1951, the Korean War had reached a stalemate as peace negotiations began at Kaesong. The opposing armies faced each other across a line which ran from east to west, through the middle of the Korean peninsula, located in hills a few miles north of the 38th Parallel in the central Korean mountain range. United Nations and the North Korean Korean People's Army (KPA) and Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) forces jockeyed for position along this line, clashing in several relatively small but intense and bloody battles. Bloody Ridge began as an attempt by UN forces to seize a ridge of hills which they believed were being used as observation posts to call in artillery fire on a UN supply road. Background U.S. Eighth Army commander General James Van Fleet had directed U.S. X Corps commander Maj. Gen. Clovis E. Byers to eliminate important KPA observation posts that directed heavy and accurate artillery fire upon Line Kansas position from the ridge, some west and slightly south of Hill 1179. Since Van Fleet believed that the Republic of Korea Army (ROK) troops lacked self-confidence and needed experience to develop faith in their own abilities, he instructed Byers to use ROK units in the assault. Byers, in turn, attached the ROK 36th Regiment, 5th Infantry Division to the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division. The objective was an east-west ridge with three peaks, the highest at the western end rising to 983 meters. The ridge formed the crossbar of an H-shaped hill mass that overlooked the forward positions of the 2nd Division some south of Hill 983. Battle The battle began on 18 August and after five days of repeated frontal assaults the ROK 36th Regiment took the ridge, later called Bloody Ridge, but then had to withdraw under heavy KPA pressure. General Clark L. Ruffner, the 2nd Infantry Division commander, had to commit elements of the U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment to support the South Koreans, but still the KPA refused to give ground. The North Koreans were protected by thick mine fields and strongly built bunkers that resisted destruction by anything less than accurate direct fire. With ample supplies of automatic weapons and hand grenades, they waited in their bunkers until the UN artillery and air