The Miracle at Gapyeong — 240 LDS Soldiers Defeat 4,000 Enemy Troops Without a Single Casualty (1951)

On May 26, 1951, during the Korean War, 240 soldiers of the 213th Armored Field Artillery Battalion found themselves surrounded and vastly outnumbered. Composed primarily of Latter-day Saints from southern Utah (including men from St. George, Cedar City, Richfield, Beaver, and Fillmore), the unit suddenly faced direct combat against approximately 4,000 Chinese and North Korean troops.

The odds were devastating: a 16-to-1 enemy numerical advantage. Yet the small band of young men fought valiantly, and miraculously, not a single soldier was killed in the battle. Some members were wounded, but despite being surrounded and outmanned, the unit held its ground and ultimately prevailed.

For their extraordinary bravery and the improbable nature of their victory, the 213th Armored Field Artillery Battalion received the Presidential Unit Citation from U.S. President Harry Truman—one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a military unit.

The remarkable survival of this unit drew immediate parallels to the Book of Mormon account of the 2,000 sons of Helaman, who fought to protect their families and their faith without losing a single soldier (Alma 57). In 2024, filmmaker Brad Taylor, a former missionary and mission president in Korea for the Church, created an 11-minute documentary titled "The Miracle at Gapyeong," explicitly drawing these parallels.

President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, contributed to and provided the introduction for the film, saying: "The lesson that we can take from the 'Miracle at Gapyeong' is that when we are true and faithful to the Lord, miracles of all different shapes, sizes and timing will happen in our lives."

President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, had trained with the 213th Artillery Battalion in the National Guard in Provo, Utah, and spent years interviewing the soldiers and collecting their stories and documents for the historical record.

The Miracle at Gapyeong stands as one of the most recent and historically documented miracles in Church history, representing the continued divine protection of faithful members in the modern era and validating the Nephite precedent recorded in the Book of Mormon itself.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Latter-day stripling warriors: The Korea Seoul Mission’s touching visit to sacred ground - LDS Living):

The battle is called the “Miracle at Gapyeong.” The heroic incident took place on May 26, 1951, in South Korea when a small battalion of 240 brave young soldiers from small-town southern Utah Latter-day Saint homes found themselves suddenly under attack by 4,000 Chinese and North Korean soldiers. It was a terrifying and completely unexpected attack. They were given the understanding that they were to provide artillery support to allied soldiers positioned ahead at the North Korean enemy line. But there were critical miscommunications and in fact, there was no buffer between the Utah soldiers and the enemy. They courageously fought their way through the Gapyeong Valley, destroying Chinese machine gun forts and inflicting hundreds of enemy casualties. “I just kept firing my .50 caliber (machine gun) until the barrel melted,” said artillery soldier Elmo Robinson. Despite having a better than 16x advantage (4,000 vs. 240), the Utah soldiers held their ground and won the battle without the loss of a single soldier.

Further documented details of the battle (from the Church News and Deseret News accounts of the 2024 film):

On the night of May 26, 1951, the 213th had been assigned to provide artillery support for an offensive by the 21st Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division, whose mission was to trap Chinese and North Korean forces. The infantry offensive worked — but when the infantry moved out, the artillery battalion's 240 men were left unprotected in the rear. In the middle of the night, 4,000 enemy soldiers trying to escape the American trap stumbled upon the unprotected Utah artillerymen and launched a surprise attack. Outnumbered 16-to-1, the young men — generally between the ages of 18 and 22, and chiefly Latter-day Saints — fought for their lives. One soldier, Elmo Robinson, manned a .50-caliber machine gun that he kept firing until the barrel melted; others were thrust into hand-to-hand combat.

Elements of the 213th successfully fought to maintain its line while its artillery guns continued firing missions to support the distant infantry units. When dawn broke, the enemy attack eased, and Capt. Ray Cox organized a combat patrol of 18 men to launch a counterattack centered around a self-propelled 105mm howitzer that the patrol used like a tank. For hours the patrol fought up the valley. Finally, as the Chinese and North Korean soldiers attempted to flee up the slopes surrounding the valley, the 213th unleashed an artillery barrage that caused 830 enemy soldiers to surrender; another 350 enemy soldiers died in the battle. Some members of the 213th were wounded, but none were killed.

Seven months later the Presidential Unit Citation praised the unit's "unshakable determination and gallantry," stating that "the extraordinary heroism displayed by the members of these units reflects great credit on themselves and upholds the highest traditions of the military service of the United States." In the decades since, the town of Gapyeong, South Korea, donated a stone marker honoring the 213th that stands at the Korean War Memorial in Cedar City, Utah, and in 2026 South Korea and southern Utah commemorated the 75th anniversary of the battle.

The Gapyeong War Memorial and the 2018 tribute ceremony:

Today the Gapyeong War Memorial site in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, stands as a loving, gratitude-filled monument to the 240 Latter-day Saint soldiers — its monument statues and plaques, inscribed in both English and Korean, have moved visiting veterans, descendants, and Church leaders to tears. On October 11, 2018, representatives of the Utah National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 222nd Field Artillery — the "Triple Deuce," successor to the 213th — were hosted at a ceremony at the U.S. Memorial in Gapyeong, where the South Korean government honored the Utah guardsmen and their vital role in preventing Seoul from falling into communist hands. "It has truly been an honor to walk the battlefield where our local heroes turned the tide of the Korean War," said Lt. Col. Cody Workman, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 222nd Field Artillery, whose own grandfather was drafted and wounded fighting in those same valleys and mountains. "It has been heartwarming to see the love and appreciation that the Korean people have for our soldiers and the sacrifices they made here. There is a very special place in their hearts for the men who fought with the 213th Armored Field Artillery Battalion."

The tribute also recalled the larger record of the 213th: trained and equipped as artillery and providing fire support for Australian, Canadian, and other allied troops, the battalion was suddenly forced to fight off advancing Chinese and North Korean infantry in direct front-line combat. By the end of the war, all of the original 600 southern Utah troops who served with the 213th returned home without one fatal casualty, and the battalion retired its guidon — the flag flown at the head of the unit during its deployment — having never lost a soldier.