planned to contain the KPA on Battle Mountain by artillery and mortar fire. The KPA on Battle Mountain attacked the lower US defensive position many times on subsequent nights, but all their attacks were driven off. After a month of almost constant battle the KPA gained and held possession of the crest of Battle Mountain. The defensive fires of the 24th Regiment and attached artillery, however, contained them there and they were unable to exploit the possession on the peak or attack further. With Battle Mountain in their possession, the KPA set out to gain control of P'il-bong to the southeast. In the predawn hours of September 14 a force of 400 to 500 KPA attacked I and L Companies, 24th Infantry, on P'ilbong. Several attacks were repulsed, but because of men leaving their positions L Company's strength dwindled from 100 to 40 men. The remnant of L Company withdrew toward I Company's position on the crest of P'il-bong, only to find that this company under a relatively minor attack had left the hill. They could not hold P'il-bong with the handful of men remaining and it was also lost. As soon as the heaviest attacks subsided against the 25th Division, Walker ordered it to release the 5th RCT on September 7 to move to other engagements along the Pusan Perimeter. The continuing fighting north of Taegu made it necessary to move reserves there. That evening the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 27th Infantry, moved from the Nam River battlefield to relieve the 5th RCT on the Masan front. 27th commander Colonel John H. Michaelis assumed command of the regimental zone at 15:00 on September 9. The 3rd Battalion, 27th Infantry, broke off its counterattacks on Battle Mountain that day, rejoined the regiment, and took its place in the southern end of the line on September 11. Meanwhile, the 5th RCT began moving to Samnangjin on the September 10. Upon arrival at Samnangjin, it passed to Eighth Army reserve. At mid-September the UN were still engaged with KPA forces at nearly all points of the Pusan Perimeter. After two weeks of the heaviest fighting of the war they had just barely turned back the KPA Great Naktong Offensive on the main axes of the attack around the approaches to Masan. Inchon landing and Pusan breakout The UN counterattack at Inchon collapsed the KPA line and forced them back on all fronts.