The Chosin Reservoir breakout
A UN taskforce faced annihilation after a sudden and massive encirclement by Chinese troops in the freezing mountains of North Korea
UN troops faced disaster after a sudden and massive encirclement by Chinese forces
Located in North Korea’s South Hamgyong Province, the Changjin Reservoir had been renamed the Chosin Reservoir by the Japanese. The ‘Frozen Chosin’ became the setting for a remorseless siege and breakout during the winter of 1950, when the US Army’s X Corps and US Marines faced the full might of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (PVA), sent into Korea on the orders of Chairman Mao.
The PVA’S Ninth Army Group was led by General Song Shi-lun and was comprised of around 120,000 troops. Facing them was a force of around 30,000 UN troops comprised of American, South Korean and British forces, with General Edward Almond in charge of X Corps while General Oliver Smith commanded First Marine Division.
Following the Inchon landings, North Korea’s armies had been cut in half: after weeks of siege, the US Eighth Army was able to break out of the Pusan Perimeter in south east Korea. The North Koreans fell back as X Corps and Eighth Army marched north towards the Yalu River, which forms the Chinese-north Korean border. By late October 1950 Mao’s forces were about to intervene on the side of North
Korea. The PVA would rely on tactics that had served them well during the civil war against China’s Nationalists: human wave attacks, ambushes and rapid mobility. Although the UN march north was thrown into reverse, the Chosin campaign was a pyrrhic victory for the Chinese. The PVA had 50,000 casualties to 17,000 UN casualties, and the Chinese Ninth Army was crippled, not returning to battle for nearly two years. Thereafter, the original UN objective of a unified non-communist Korea was abandoned in favour of defending South Korea against a renewed communist occupation.
Prior to the battle, the UN supreme commander Douglas Macarthur anticipated ending the Korean War by Christmas. With Eighth Army moving towards the Yalu River and clashes taking place, a plan was formed to position X Corps around the reservoir, north of and behind the PVA as it moved to face Eighth Army.
But PVA’S Ninth Army attacked at four points. They laid siege to the First Division at the villages of Yudam-ni, Hagaru-ri and Koto-ri, but the marines held out for three days. East of the reservoir, however, a Us-south Korean contingent called ‘Taskforce Mclean’ was overrun, with just a few hundred survivors making it to Hagaru-ri, some crossing the ice of the reservoir.
On 29 November Macarthur decreed that Almond and Smith’s forces needed to break out and make a 78-mile (125 kilometre) trek to the port city of Hungnam on the east coast. Backed up by massive airstrikes, the breakout commenced 6 December with US marines fighting their way from Yudam-ni and Hagaruri to reunite at Koto-ri. The fighting took place in temperatures that approached minus 40
degrees Celsius, and X Corps recorded 7,338 cases of frostbite. The soil was so hard that the construction of dugouts was only possible with dynamite. Moreover, in places the mountain passes were only wide enough for a single vehicle to pass. At the village of Koto-ri the troops discovered that the PVA had blown up the bridge over the crucial Funchilin Pass. The US Air Force was able to parachute-drop eight portable bridge sections to allow for a temporary working bridge to be assembled.
Thousands of Korean civilians accompanied X Corps and First Marines as they approached Hungnam. The UN forces reached the port city on 11 December, by which time the PVA had fallen back, having failed in the objective of surrounding and annihilating the enemy. An armada of 193 ships waited to evacuate the UN forces and 98,000 civilians. Within days, ‘Operation Christmas Cargo’ evacuated them en masse to South Korea. Chinese troops entered the city on Christmas Day.
With Eighth Army also in retreat further west, the UN would not return to North Korea. But the escape from Chosin had avoided a far greater rout. It was famously described by General Smith: “Retreat Hell! We’re not retreating. We’re just advancing in a different direction.”
“THE FIGHTING TOOK PLACE IN TEMPERATURES THAT APPROACHED MINUS 40 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, AND X CORPS RECORDED 7,338 CASES OF FROSTBITE”