 The latest weapons, coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier, stand ready on the alert all over the world to defend this country. View the American people against aggression. This is the Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. The fighting in Korea is over. The last gunshot of that epic struggle has long since echoed through the scarred hills, adding the final period to another chapter in history. Out of that struggle have come many accounts of great suffering and even greater heroism. But fewer of them can match the story you are about to see. For this is the story of the famous Indian Heads, the men of the United States Second Infantry Division and the vital role they played in Korea. The date? June 28th, 1950. The place? Fort Lewis, Washington. You're passing in review with the Second United States Infantry Division, second to none. Behind you lay months of intensive training and now the whole outfit is razor sharp. But there's something in the air today and everyone feels it. Three days earlier, North Korean communists crossed the 38th parallel in an all-out invasion of South Korea. Yesterday, President Truman with UN consent ordered American air and sea power to aid the South Koreans. At this very moment, U.S. troops stationed in Japan were being alerted for combat. But they were few and would need support. They would need you. One month later, advance elements of the Second Division arrived at Busan, Korea. The first reinforcements to come directly from the United States. The situation at that time was critical. Overwhelming enemy forces had compressed the UN defenders into a tight ring around the port of Busan. Desperately holding the western sweep of this perimeter were understrength units of the 25th, 24th and 1st Cavalry Division. Republic of Korea troops guarded the northern sector. Second Division troops were soon taking part in this heroic defense. The earlier arrivals were rushed to bolster 24th Division units along the Nakdong River Line, southwest of Taegu. This was the payoff for those long months of training. The communists had forced a bulge across the Nakdong River. The newly arrived men of the Second Division teamed up with other units to flush the reds out of the rice paddies and push them back across the river. By August 17th, the line was again intact, August 24th. With all its regiments now in Korea, the Second Division took over the 24th sector along the Nakdong River. Seven battalions had to defend the line 40 miles long. All signs indicated a massive enemy buildup. The reds were preparing for an all-out attempt to crush the Busan perimeter. With Republic of Korea troops attached, the men of the Division steeled themselves for their first real test of fire in the Korean War. The attack came on August 31st. For a week, the enemy tried fanatically to push through the Second Division sector. The thinly held line bent and wavered under the pressure, but held. The North Koreans' last major effort to push us into the sea had failed. Then the rains came, turning foxholes into waterholes, roads into quagmars. But morale was high, for the enemy had been stopped and the UN breakout was pending. Then, on September 15th, 1950, the tide of battle turned. Following in the wake of a terrific naval bombardment, troops of the U.S. 10th Corps stormed the shore at Incheon, deep in red territory. The amphibious assault threatened to split the enemy forces in two. This was the signal for the breakout from the Busan perimeter. After crushing heavy initial resistance, the men of the Second Division pushed across the Noctong River, the first U.S. soldiers to do so. One by one, the men and the vehicles made their way across the swollen river that had served them so well as a natural defense line. But that was behind them now. The time had come to take the offense. Off from the Busan perimeter, the entire 8th Army moved out in a coordinated, overland drive. The men of the Indian Head Division pushed northward, sweeping the scattered remnants of the once powerful North Korean army before it. Tank infantry teams spearheaded the drive, bypassing thousands of trapped North Koreans in the south. Gaining momentum with each yard, units of the Second Division steamrolled as much as 73 miles in less than 10 hours. The retreat of the North Korean army had degenerated into a rout. By the end of September, organized resistance in South Korea had ceased. But numerous enemy pockets had been bypassed and were still waging guerilla-type action behind our lines. The men of the Indian Head Division began to fan out rapidly in search of these bands. Clearing out these pockets of resistance was slow and dangerous work. The enemy was trapped and desperate, but showed little inclination to surrender. He had to be blasted out, hole by hole, hut by hut. The mopping up operations continued into October with excellent results. Before they were through, the men of the Second Division alone had killed or wounded almost 18,000 Reds with another 7,000 captured. This represented two and a half North Korean divisions. The Republic of South Korea once again stood free as the Red invaders were pushed back across the 38th parallel. This group of South Koreans left no doubt as to whose side they were on. Raged in the north, a special combat group dubbed Task Force Indian Head moved into Pyongyang under fire. Their mission? To secure the airfields and guard vital installation. With Pyongyang in UN hands, plans were being formulated for a final war-ending offensive to the Yalu River. Hopes ran high that the war would be over by Christmas. But alarming reports were coming in from all sectors. Reports of Chinese troops massing along the Manchurian border. On November 27th, the reports became reality as thousands of Chinese troops attacked across the Yalu River. Five Chinese divisions hit the Indian heads near Kunu-ri, succeeding in cutting them off from the rest of the 8th Army. The situation was desperate. Soon every unit in the division was under fire. The weather added to their miseries as the temperature began dropping rapidly. But the worst was still ahead. While rear-guard troops fought fiercely on all sides, the Second Division began a general withdrawal. The Chinese, however, had established a long gun-studded roadblock between the division and friendly lines. At regular intervals along this fire recorder, the columns came under the crossfire of red machine gun traps. Nothing to do but fight it out. Growing every man and weapon into the battle, the Indian Head division finally broke through. Together with the rest of 8th Army, the division commenced pulling all its units back for reorganization. It was winter now, with a thermometer down to minus 20. By New Year's, they had reached the banks of the Han River near Seoul. The fall of the South Korean capital was imminent, as 18 full Chinese divisions poured down from the north. The fight around Kunu-ri had cost the Second Division nearly a third of its strength in casualties, but the warriors still had plenty of fight left in them. The men of the division enjoyed a belated New Year's dinner before starting south again. Road movement was hampered by thousands of refugees fleeing before the advancing Chinese. By mid-January, U.N. forces had reorganized along a defense line extending from Pyong-Tek, well below Seoul on the west coast, northeast to Wanju. It was toward Wanju that the Second Division now headed. Once in the new sector, the engineers immediately set to work, leveling a division airstrip. There was no time to waste, but the Chinese were remassing their armed hordes for a new attack. The men of the Second Division knew this, but they were more aware of another factor of the importance of Wanju itself. Wanju represented the right flank of the bulk of U.N. forces, the cornerstone that had to be held at any cost. Here the Chinese would strike with everything they had in an attempt to envelop the entire Eighth Army. Here the men of the Second Division made their stand. January and again in February, the Indian heads hurled back wave after wave of frenzied attacks from Wanju to Chipyeong-ni. The enemy trying to smash through the Second Division ran head-on into a solid wall of fire, Chinese winter offensive ground to a halt. The Second Division had stopped the Chinese for the first time since they had crossed the Yalu from Manchuria. Following the decisive victory at Wanju, the Second Division in conjunction with other units of the Eighth Army made ready to launch a slow, methodical counter-offensive against the Reds. All across the peninsula, the U.N. forces ground northward in the face of stubborn enemy resistance. They called it Operation Killer, for the main objective was not real estate, but communist casualties. General Ridgway, the Eighth Army commander, put it this way. We are interested only in inflicting maximum casualties to the enemy with minimum casualties to ourselves. To do this, we must wage a war of maneuver, slashing at the enemy when he withdraws and fighting delaying action when he attacks. The men of the Indian Head Division did just that, and with great success. While the Second Division made its way up the Korean Peninsula, the Chinese main forces were beginning to gather their strength for a new offensive, behind a thin screen of resistance. Those Reds left behind to stop the U.N. troops had only one way out and knew it. The enemy buildup continued so that by mid-May, the Chinese were ready to turn the full force of their offensive power against the warriors in the vicinity of Inje. Destroy the Second Division. That was the enemy's stated purpose. The division prepared to meet this challenge. For six days, the enemy tried vainly to overrun the Second Division troops. It was to be the worst defeat suffered by the Chinese, as 19,000 casualties fell before the Indian headguns. The Reds had been pushed back well north of the line from which they had launched their attack. For its heroic stand during the May action, the Second Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, highest decoration the United States can bestow upon a unit. In part, the Citation read that the division demonstrated superb battlefield courage, knowledge and discipline and displayed such gallantry, determination and esprit de corps as to set it apart and above other units participating in similar operations. The men of the division had succeeded in shattering the Chinese offensive power for months to come in the action always to be remembered as the May Massacre. June and July represented a change of pace for the men of the Second Division as they went into reserve for a well-earned rest. Some of the units were assigned guard duty at various prisoner of war enclosures, playing military nursemaid to an enemy who, but a few weeks earlier, had tried to destroy them. Even in reserve, the bulk of the division underwent a program of intensive training designed to maintain their sharp combat edge. By late July, the division was again heading for the front, now well north of the 38th parallel. Meanwhile, significant developments were taking place on the diplomatic front. After the United Nations had crushed the Chinese spring offensive during the May Massacre, the Reds suddenly decided it was time to talk peace. Thus, on July 10th, at a place called Quesong, UN and communist delegates met to lay the groundwork for armistice talks. Once again, hope ran high that the end of the war was near. The world waited anxiously while the delegates conferred. They didn't realize at the time that the communists intended to drag the talks through two years of propaganda speeches and impossible demands. Now the war was far from over in the summer of 1951, and no one knew it better than the men of the Second Division. While the talks bogged down, the men of the Indian Head Division advanced. The object now was commanding terrain from which enemy movements could be observed. With Fools Mountain began the first in a series of battles for control of the ridges. After thousands of artillery and mortar rounds were poured into the Red Implacements, Second Division infantrymen moved out to take the hill. The Indian Head troops found the enemy well entrenched. The distance increased steadily as they neared the crest of the hill. Fools Mountain was in Second Division hands. Flying boxcars immediately rushed food and supplies to the hilltop defenders, who were then able to ward off the counter-attacking Reds. With Fools Mountain secured, Division engineers moved in to clear the area of mines. The dispossessed Reds had left a great many of these calling carts behind. Then the engineers fell to the task of repairing the roads, paving the way for the infantrymen to assault their next objective, Bloody Ridge. Once again, artillery, tank and mortar fire overtured the attack. For three weeks, the enemy clung stubbornly to Bloody Ridge, as tons of artillery and small arms fire blanketed his position. The battle for Bloody Ridge raged on throughout the hot month of August, as Indian Head units followed each other in attempt after attempt to capture the crest. Then on September 5th, they succeeded, and Bloody Ridge fell to the troops of the Second Division. But the smoke had hardly cleared over this hard-bought terrain when a bigger and bloodier battle began shaping up on the horizon. This piece of high ground now threatened the UN command in the Second Division sector. General Omar Bradley, visiting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, received a briefing of the situation from Generals Ridgway and Van Fleet. The enemy, organizing three battalions from his survivors of Bloody Ridge, was making a last ditch stand at this jagged range, soon to be known to the world as Heartbreak Ridge. Indian Head tanks, still action warm from the previous battle, loaded up and made ready to take part in the bitter struggle ahead. Facing four Communist divisions in the vicinity, the warriors set out to begin Operation Touchdown, as every regiment in the division was ordered to lay siege on Heartbreak Ridge. Month, the siege continued, as the Air Force teamed up with Second Division units to blast the Reds from the top of the hill. Finally, on October 13th, after 30 consecutive days of constant bombardment, the Reds completely withdrew from the crest of Heartbreak Ridge. After a brief period in reserve, the men of the Second Division soon found themselves at the front again. This was the sector known as the Iron Triangle, so-called because it was formerly used by the Reds as a supply and assembly area during previous attacks against UN positions. Action now settled down to aggressive patrolling, designed to keep close tabs on all enemy movements. But the enemy didn't seem inclined to do much moving, except when pushed. In April 1952, the division was again pulled off the line and assigned various rear area duties. Some of the units assumed the thankless job of screening and guarding the diehard Communist prisoners on the island of Koji Do. Others pitched in willingly to establish the Second Infantry Division friendship home near Kapyong to care for children orphaned by the war. When they returned to the line in late July, the men of the Indian Head Division discovered they were sitting right on top of a keg of dynamite by the name of Old Baldi. The Reds wanted the Baron Mountain as badly as we did, and for the next two months, the crest changed hands several times. On August 1st, Indian Head troops were in possession of the crest. Then on September 18th, the Reds recaptured Old Baldi. Heavy air and artillery fire was immediately focused on the enemy. Second Division infantrymen retake the crest of Old Baldi and successfully beat off enemy counterattacks. Indian Head troops dig in to stay. With Old Baldi once again in Second Division hands, the Reds shifted their attacks to the nearby ridges known as Arahead, Porkchop and T-Bone Hill. From October through December, the troops defending these three strongholds were under constant alert as the Communists tried again and again to overrun the positions. Each time the Reds were stopped and turned back short of the top, leaving hundreds of their dead and wounded behind to litter the hillside. In December of 1952, the men of the Second Division played host to two distinguished visitors. The first was President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower. Then came Francis Cardinal Spellman, who visited the warriors on Christmas Day. Later, the Cardinal held a Christmas Mass and ate dinner with soldiers representing each of the Indian Head units. All prayed that the war would be over by next Christmas. Seven months later, the war in Korea ended with the signing of the Armistice at Panmunjom. The United Nations had proven to the world its determination to defend free men against all armed aggression. It was proof which would make the Communists think twice before starting another fight. The date? December 25th, 1953. The place? An elementary school, 20 miles east of Seoul. You're with the Second Infantry Division, playing Santa Claus to a few hundred Korean kids. This party marks your fourth Christmas in Korea. These are the moments when you can forget names like the Busan perimeter, Kunu-ri, Wonju, Inje, Bloody Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, Old Baldi, Arrowhead Ridge, the Pork Chop, T-bone Hill, and the places in between. You're with the Second Infantry Division, and now, after four years in Korea, you're finally going home. Your job has been done and done well. You know it, and so does the nation that had counted on you. You're with the Second United States Infantry Division, second to none, and proud to be aboard. And that is the story. The story of the United States Second Infantry Division in Korea. Truly, the men of the Indian Head Division have lived up to their motto, second to none. Now, this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us next week for another look at the United States Army in action on The Big Picture. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the Army at home and overseas. Produced by the Signal Corps' Pictorial Center. Presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station. You too can be an important part of The Big Picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.