X Corps landed behind the North Korean
lines at Inchon on September 15, 1950. Within two
weeks, the North Korean army was largely destroyed or
made ineffective. Of the 70,000 NK who had been
attacking UN forces at the Pusan perimeter, only about
30,000 made it back to North Korea, mostly over roads
on the east coast which our generals neglected to
block. The way to the Yalu, and total destruction of
North Korea's military power, seemed virtually
unopposed.
Indeed, the ROK 3rd division attacked
across the 38th parallel up the east coast on September
30, with the ROK 6th division crossing to attack the
Iron Triangle of Chorwon, Kumwha and Pyonggang on
October 6, and Eighth Army crossing near Kaesong on
October 8. October 10 Wonson, and October 19 Pyongyang,
had fallen. ROK units had reached Chosan on the Yalu
river, the border between North Korea and China's
Manchuria.
The 1st Marine Division had been withdrawn
from the Seoul area, and sailed around the peninsula.
3,000 mines had been laid in the muddy, shallow
environs of Wonsan, which took two weeks to clear
before the division could land. They spent that time
circling around off-shore losing, for a time, the
finely honed physical condition they had won in the
battles around Seoul. October 26, they landed,
apparently into a safe and secure world, on the same
day elements of the ROK II Corps reached the Yalu. The
war seemed almost over.
But, it was actually only starting.
October 25, Chinese Communist Forces
(CCF) struck
China's first blow in support of the KPA. Units of
the CCF 39th army destroyed a battalion of the ROK 6th
division near Onjong. The CCF infiltrated past the
ROKs, set up road-blocks behind them, and brought them
under enfilading fire. The ROKs panicked and fled any
way they could (one indication of how little they
actually fought before running, over 2700 of their 3100
men escaped to the Chongchon). Next day a single
battalion, the CCF 373/125, foot infantry with only
mortar support, routed the entire mechanized 7th
regiment of the ROK 6th division, capturing all their
vehicles and artillery. Here, KMAG advisors and many of
the ROKs stayed in their positions and fought to the
end. Only 875 men survived of the 3,552 in the
regiment, with all American advisors being killed in
place except one, who was captured after being wounded
in 15 places. By October 30, the ROK 6th division was
finished.
By November 2, the US 1st Cav's 8th
Cavalry Regiment had lost half its strength and most of
its vehicles and equipment, as well. When all
stragglers returned, over 800 men of the Regiment had
been lost.
To the wild sound of Chinese bugles and
the shrilling of whistles (which actually was the only
communications available to the CCF below the regiment
level), the entire Eighth Army had been driven back to
the Chongchon by the CCF 39th Army, consisting of only
3 divisions, a total of about 30,000 foot-infantry,
supported only by 70mm howitzers, mortars, and a few
Katyusha rockets. (A month later, attacking only one
single American Marine division, but a resolute
division that was well led, it would take over 3 times
as many CCF to force a retreat. Moreover, the 10 CCF
divisions would be so badly hurt while pushing back 1st
Mar Div that they would never go into combat
again.)
In the east, 1st Mar Div's 7th
Marines were sent to relieve the ROK 26th Regiment at
Sudong-ni, and found themselves fighting the CCF 124th
division. Unlike the 26th, and our Eighth Army in the
west, the 7th Marines won in a vicious fight. Because
of the mountainous terrain, the 124th had left their
artillery behind them and joined the battle supported
by nothing heavier than 82mm mortars. The Marines not
only fought and defeated them as individual units, they
used the full coordinated artillery and air support of
an American infantry regiment with maximum effect. The
7th Marines essentially destroyed the CCF 124th as a
fighting unit.
On 10 November, the Marines entered
Koto-ri.
The CCF 39th which routed Eighth Army
was just part of Lin Piao's Fourth Field Army; a
force 600,000 strong, an army which had fought from
Manchuria to Hainan Island in China's civil war,
without losing one major battle. During the last half
of October Piao's XIIIth Army Group, six armies,
each of 3-10,000 man Infantry divisions, had crossed
the Yalu undetected, at Sinuiju and Manpojin. 180,000
veteran troops were positioned to attack Eighth Army,
and more were coming.
X Corps had captured prisoners from the
CCF 89th, part of an entirely new force, the Third
Field Army, believed by Far East Command to be
stationed in Shanghai.
But ... Far East Command, without air
intelligence of the CCF strength, with ground patrols
seeing only the light screening forces CCF tactics
placed ahead of their main armies, estimated CCF
strength at 70,000 total. FEAC believed even this small
estimate was composed of Chinese
"Volunteers".
High Command simply refused to accept
that China had entered the war, and was doing so in
great force.
Instead of preparing interlocking
defensive positions, in depth, and securing its flanks
with reliable troops, instead of ensuring that its
forces on the two coasts were capable of meeting any
assault the Chinese were known to be capable of, Far
East Command decided to address only the force they
thought the Chinese were willing to commit. That's
the difference between a bold stroke, and a gamble.
General Walker's Eighth Army was
ordered to prepare for a final offensive to end the
war. About 200,000 CCF were moving to meet them.
In the east, instead of concentrating
on interlocking defenses around Hamhung, and Wonsan, X
Corps was divided. 1st Marine Division was ordered
further into the wild, isolated, wintery northern
Taebaek mountains of the Chosin Reservoir. The 1st was
to link with Eighth Army, and then race on to the Yalu.
7th Infantry Division was sent on a parallel course,
further north and east.
But the CCF IXth Army Group, 3 Field
Armies with 12 infantry divisions, a total of about
120,000 veteran troops, were moving to meet them.
Far East High Command believed they
were sending our armies to finish a mop-up operation
and put a final end to North Korea's military
threat. In fact, they were sending unprepared troops
into conflict with a large, veteran army of determined
fighting men.
Our troops, accustomed to the
mechanized and strong-point positions of Western wars,
were being sent into savage conflict of a totally
different kind. Into a massive infantry war, against a
combat-hardened enemy which would employ flexible
guerilla tactics, in the dead of an arctic
winter.
Personally, I have always thought that
the two weeks the Marines spent circling off Wonsan
while we cleared the mines blocking their
landing, may have saved the 1st Division. Possibly all
of X Corps. With the 1st ashore earlier X Corps
commander, aggressive army General Almond, would surely
have extended X Corps into the Taebaek earlier. And
further.
Whatever. The troops were definitely
not going to make it home by Christmas.