Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 17, 2022

The Hill 303 massacre was a war crime that took place during the Korean War on August 17, 1950, on a hill above Waegwan, South Korea, when forty-one US Army soldiers held as prisoners of war were murdered. Troops of the North Korean People's Army (KPA) surrounded elements of the US 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter. Most of the US troops escaped but one platoon misidentified KPA troops as South Korean reinforcements and was captured. US forces counterattacked and as the KPA began to retreat one of their officers ordered the prisoners to be shot so they would not slow them down. US commanders subsequently broadcast radio messages and dropped leaflets demanding that senior KPA commanders be held responsible. The KPA commanders, concerned about the way their soldiers were treating prisoners of war, laid out stricter guidelines for handling captives. Memorials were later constructed on Hill 303 to honor the victims of the massacre.