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THE KOREAN WAR
T
HE
C
HINESE
I
NTERVENTION
3 November 1950–24 January 1951
Introduction
The Korean War was the first major armed clash between Free
World and Communist forces, as the so-called Cold War turned hot. The
half-century that now separates us from that conflict, however, has
dimmed our collective memory. Many Korean War veterans have consid-
ered themselves forgotten, their place in history sandwiched between the
sheer size of World War II and the fierce controversies of the Vietnam
War. The recently built Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National
Mall and the upcoming fiftieth anniversary commemorative events
should now provide well-deserved recognition. I hope that this series of
brochures on the campaigns of the Korean War will have a similar effect.
The Korean War still has much to teach us: about military prepared-
ness, about global strategy, about combined operations in a military
alliance facing blatant aggression, and about the courage and persever-
ance of the individual soldier. The modern world still lives with the con-
sequences of a divided Korea and with a militarily strong, economically
weak, and unpredictable North Korea. The Korean War was waged on
land, on sea, and in the air over and near the Korean peninsula. It lasted
three years, the first of which was a seesaw struggle for control of the
peninsula, followed by two years of positional warfare as a backdrop to
extended cease-fire negotiations. The following essay is one of five
accessible and readable studies designed to enhance understanding of
the U.S. Army’s role and achievements in the Korean conflict.
During the next several years the Army will be involved in many
fiftieth anniversary activities, from public ceremonies and staff rides to
professional development discussions and formal classroom training.
The commemoration will be supported by the publication of various
materials to help educate Americans about the war. These works will
provide great opportunities to learn about this important period in the
Army’s heritage of service to the nation.
This brochure was prepared in the U.S. Army Center of Military
History by Richard W. Stewart. I hope this absorbing account, with its
list of further readings, will stimulate further study and reflection. A
complete listing of the Center of Military History’s available works
on the Korean War is included in the Center’s online catalog:
www.army.mil/cmh-pg/catalog/brochure.htm.
JOHN S. BROWN
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History
The Chinese Intervention
3 November 1950–24 January 1951
They came out of the hills near Unsan, North Korea, blowing bugles
in the dying light of day on 1 November 1950, throwing grenades and
firing their “burp” guns at the surprised American soldiers of the 8th
Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Those who survived the initial
assaults reported how shaken the spectacle of massed Chinese infantry
had left them. Thousands of Chinese had attacked from the north, north-
west, and west against scattered U.S. and South Korean (Republic of
Korea or ROK) units moving deep into North Korea. The Chinese
seemed to come out of nowhere as they swarmed around the flanks and
over the defensive positions of the surprised United Nations (UN)
troops. Within hours the ROK 15th Regiment on the 8th Cavalry’s right
flank collapsed, while the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 8th Cavalry fell
back in disarray into the city of Unsan. By morning, with their positions
being overrun and their guns falling silent, the men of the 8th Cavalry
tried to withdraw, but a Chinese roadblock to their rear forced them to
abandon their artillery, and the men took to the hills in small groups.
Only a few scattered survivors made it back to tell their story. The
remaining battalion of the 8th Cavalry, the 3d, was hit early in the morn-
ing of 2 November with the same “human wave” assaults of bugle-blow-
ing Chinese. In the confusion, one company-size Chinese element was
mistaken for South Koreans and allowed to pass a critical bridge near
the battalion command post (CP). Once over the bridge, the enemy com-
mander blew his bugle, and the Chinese, throwing satchel charges and
grenades, overran the CP.
Elements of the two other regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division,
the 5th and 7th Cavalries, tried unsuccessfully to reach the isolated
battalion. The 5th Cavalry, commanded by then Lt. Col. Harold K.
Johnson, later to be Chief of Staff of the Army, led a two-battalion
counterattack on the dug-in Chinese positions encircling the 8th
Cavalry. However, with insufficient artillery support and a determined
enemy, he and his men were unable to break the Chinese line. With
daylight fading, the relief effort was broken off and the men of the 8th
Cavalry were ordered to get out of the trap any way they could.
Breaking into small elements, the soldiers moved out overland under
cover of darkness. Most did not make it. In all, over eight hundred men
of the 8th Cavalry were lost—almost one-third of the regiment’s
strength—in the initial attacks by massive Chinese forces, forces that
only recently had been considered as existing only in rumor.
Hyesanjin
R
MANCHURIA
Ch’osan
CHANGJIN
(CHOSIN)
RES
Hagaru-ri
Iwon
Unsan
Sinuiju
T
ae
Hungnam
Chongju
SEA
Sinanju
OF
Wonsan
JAPAN
P’YONGYANG
Kosong
P’yonggang
Kansong
Kumhwa
Ch’orwon
Yangyang
38
Kaesong
38
°
Munsan-ni
Uijongbu
Ch’unch’on
Hongch’on
SEOUL
Samch’ok
Wonju
Inch'on
Suwon
YELLOW
Chech’on
Osan
Ulchin
Ch’ungju
SEA
Andong
Taejon
P’ohang-dong
Kunsan
Taegu
Miryang
Masan
KOREA
High
G
round
Above 200 Meters
PUSAN
Mokp’o
0
50 MILES
U.S. soldiers with tank make their way through the rubble-strewn
streets of Hyesanjin in November 1950.
(DA photograph)
Other elements of the Eighth Army were also attacked in the ensu-
ing days, and it fell back by 6 November to defensive positions along
the Ch’ongch’on River. However, as quickly as they had appeared, the
Chinese Communist Forces
(
CCF
) disappeared. No additional attacks
came. The Chinese units seemed to vanish back into the hills and val-
leys of the North Korean wastelands as if they had never been. By 6
November 1950, all was quiet again in Korea.
Strategic Setting
The large-scale Chinese attacks came as a shock to the allied
forces. After the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter and the Inch’on
landings, the war seemed to have been won. The desperate defensive
fighting of June was a distant memory, as were the bloody struggles to
hold the Naktong River line in defense of Pusan in August and early
September. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the Far Eastern
Command Theater Commander, had triumphed against all the odds by
landing the X Corps, consisting of the 1st Marine Division, the 7th
Infantry Division, and elements of ROK Marines at the port of Inch’on
5
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