The Pusan Perimeter: From Sachon to No Name Ridge

On August 10th, 1950, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade was three days into the Eighth Army's first sustained counterattack of the war, and it was winning. Two days later, it was ordered to turn around.

This episode covers the brigade's second week in Korea, from Taedabok Pass to a ridge above the Naktong River. It opens with two wounded Marines carried out from behind a wrecked jeep at dawn, the seizure of Kosong, and the Kosong Turkey Shoot, where Corsairs caught a North Korean motorcycle regiment in the open on the Sachon road.

Then the week turns. An ambush at Changchon springs early. Army artillery is overrun at Bloody Gulch, 25 miles behind the front, and a Marine battalion is pulled off the attack to rescue the survivors. Baker Company fights off a dawn assault on Hill 202 and is ordered to leave its dead on the hill. The brigade moves 75 miles in 26 hours to Miryang, rests one night, and attacks Obong-ni Ridge, where the enemy has crossed the last river before Pusan. The episode ends at first light on August 18th, with the Marines who held the ridge counting who could still fight.

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