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A column of the US 1st Marine Division moves through Chinese lines during its breakout from the Chosin Reservoir with a M46 Patton medium tank. Date. 27 November – 13 December 1950. Location. Chosin Reservoir, in present-day Changjin County, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. 40°29′N 127°12′E.
- Battle of Chosin Reservoir Order of Battle
Battle of Chosin Reservoir order of battle is a list of the...
- Oliver P. Smith
Oliver Prince Smith (October 26, 1893 – December 25, 1977)...
- David G. Barr
Barr thought poorly of the Republic of China and often came...
- Battle of Chosin Reservoir Order of Battle
- Overview
- Crossing into North Korea
- Advancing to Chosin
Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, campaign early in the Korean War, part of the Chinese Second Offensive (November–December 1950) to drive the United Nations out of North Korea. The Chosin Reservoir campaign was directed mainly against the 1st Marine Division of the U.S. X Corps, which had disembarked in eastern North Korea and moved inland in severe...
Following the successful landing of the X Corps at Inch’ŏn in September 1950, the United Nations Command (UNC), under the direction of U.S. Pres. Harry S. Truman’s administration and the UN General Assembly, pursued the remnants of the communist Korean People’s Army into North Korea. On the orders of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of all allied forces in the UNC, the U.S. Eighth Army crossed the 38th parallel (the prewar border) on October 7 and advanced up the western side of the Korean peninsula toward P’yŏngyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. At the same time, MacArthur redeployed the X Corps on amphibious ships around the peninsula to Korea’s east coast. The X Corps (commanded by Maj. Gen. Edward M. Almond) included the 1st Marine Division (Maj. Gen. Oliver P. [“O.P.”] Smith), the 7th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. David G. Barr), and the 3rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Robert H. Soule). The corps also had control of the Capital and 3rd divisions of the South Korean I Corps, which was already crossing the 38th parallel on the east coast highway.
What MacArthur did not know was that the Chinese had feared such an offensive since the Inch’ŏn landing. The Chinese began preparations to enter the war by sending supplies and support troops into North Korea. Meanwhile, Chinese combat divisions, some 21 in number but expanding to 33 by December, remained in Manchuria ready to move against the UNC ground forces. On October 18–19, Chinese leader Mao Zedong, after considerable debate, ordered the Chinese People’s Volunteers Force (CPVF), under the command of General Peng Dehuai, to move against the Eighth Army, whose lead elements had advanced beyond P’yŏngyang and were marching along two separate routes toward the border with China at the Yalu River.
Underestimating the fighting ability of the CPVF, MacArthur ordered Almond to advance inland with the 1st Marine and 7th Infantry divisions to the Chosin Reservoir. From there the two divisions would move west toward Kanggye, a mountain mining town where the Chinese and North Korean armies seemed to be concentrating—a maneuver that would place the X Corps north of and behind the CPVF armies facing the Eighth Army. MacArthur’s scheme required an 88-km (55-mile) advance over a single unpaved road through the heart of the T’aebaek Mountains in freezing weather and blinding snowstorms. Smith told Almond the plan was rash, but Almond, operating directly under MacArthur, ordered the Marines forward.
The X Corps’ first objective, the village of Hagaru-ri, rested near the southern tip of the reservoir, a narrow mountain lake that provided hydroelectric power to the mining industries of northern Korea. The lake’s proper name is the Changjin Reservoir, but, during Japan’s annexation of Korea (1910–45), its name had been changed to Chōsen, the Japanese name for Korea. Through successive translations and hurried mapmaking, the reservoir became known as Chosin and remains so to this day for American veterans of the Korean War. By any name it was a cold barren battleground where deep foxholes could be dug into the frozen earth only with the help of explosives and bulldozers.
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With its supplies moving by truck, the 1st Marine Division established battalion-sized bases at Chinhŭng-ni and Kot’o-ri, villages along the Main Supply Route (MSR), the X Corps’ name for the road to the reservoir. The division began its final march to the reservoir on November 13, with two of its reinforced regiments, the 7th and 5th Marines, in column and moving cautiously. Each regiment was a regimental combat team with attached artillery battalions, a tank company, engineers, and headquarters and service units. On November 15 lead elements of the 7th Marines reached Hagaru-ri. From there the regiment prepared for its next advance, west of the reservoir to Yudam-ni, 22 km (14 miles) away, while the 5th Marines moved cautiously up the reservoir’s right bank.
General Smith, unhappy with this risky deployment, persuaded Almond to allow the Marines to concentrate at Hagaru-ri and replace the eastern force with a unit from the 7th Infantry Division. Almond ordered General Barr to form a regimental combat team of two infantry battalions, an artillery battalion, and other troops. The 31st Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. Allan D. MacLean and known as Task Force MacLean, numbered 3,200 Americans and Koreans. It replaced the Marines east of the reservoir on November 25. Smith used this operational pause to strengthen the defenses of Hagaru-ri and build a rough airfield for emergency resupply and medical evacuations. A battalion of Marines manned the most vulnerable part of the perimeter, but much of the position had to be manned by noninfantry units. The Marine Corps’ investment in making “every Marine a rifleman” would soon pay dividends.
- Allan R. Millett
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A column of the US 1st Marine Division moves through Chinese lines during its breakout from the Chosin Reservoir. Date. 27 November – 13 December 1950. Location. Chosin Reservoir, in present day Changjin County, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. Result. See Aftermath section. Territorial. changes.
Dec 4, 2020 · Let Us Survive': Remembering Korean War's Chosin Battle And Evacuation. Marines of the 5th and 7th regiments who hurled back a surprise onslaught by three Chinese communist divisions wait to ...
Jun 23, 2022 · The Battle of Chosin Reservoir (Changjin) was fought in Northern Korea in late 1950. This major battle took place in the rugged mountains around the frozen Chosin reservoir, and was the first significant engagement between the US X Corps and the recently arrived People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) 9th Army. This fierce battle led to the withdrawal of all United Nations forces from North Korea and ...
Korean War. Chinese soldiers taken prisoner by the U.S. 7th Marine Regiment south of Kot'o-ri, North Korea, during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, December 9, 1950. (more) The reassembled 1st Marine Division reorganized, tried to eat and sleep in warming tents, and prepared to fight south to the coast.
Ground Operations, October–November 1950 The Battle of Chosin is illustrative of the shifting tide of the Korean War in the wake of the Chinese Communist infiltration and, then, outright invasion across the Yalu River into North Korea. After the successful Inchon landings in August 1950, just two months prior to the confrontation with Chinese forces at the Chosin Reservoir, it appeared that ...
