Upon the initial count, Task Force Smith suffered 20 KIA, 130 WIA or MIA and around 36 captured. After the end of the war, the figures were revised to 60 dead, 21 wounded and 82 captured, 32 of whom died in captivity. That casualty count accounted for 40% of Task Force Smith. SPOILER ALERT
The US troops advancing northward during the Pusan breakout offensive would later discover a series of shallow graves containing the bodies of several soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division, being Task Force Smith. All of them had been shot in the back of the head, with their hands bound behind their backs with communications wire. The North Koreans executed many US troops of Task Force Smith after they had surrendered at the battle of Osan.
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Add to that the US military was stuck in denial that their forces could have suffered such a defeat. North Korea still denies to this day that they executed UN POWs and that in many cases the NKA states that most of the American men were shot by their own commanders for dereliction of duty. This is something that to this day North Korea still says that Americans shot their own men.
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My brother’s father in law was one of the Task Force Smith men that survived the prison camps. He refused to ever speak about the experience. You could see that he was very hurt over what he went thru and what it meant to him.
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