|
The FReeper Foxhole Revisits
INCHON - Operation Chromite -
15 September 1950
OVERVIEW
On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans (NK) invaded the South
Striking in overwhelming force, without warning, they crushed the unprepared Republic of Korea (ROK) army. The NK were only contained by the entry of the United States, quickly supported by the United Nations.
For a time, the issue was in doubt. Although the NK had virtually annihilated the ROK forces, the surprised ROKs had resisted desperately, and the NK had suffered grave losses in men and material in the savage fighting. When the NK first met our own army, and realized the US had really entered the conflict, they paused for a few weeks to re-group. This gave the US and UN time to build up our own forces, and to finally stop the NK completely, in the battle of the Pusan Perimeter.
On September 15, 1950 Joint Task Force Seven, with more than 320 warships including 4 aircraft carriers, carried the nearly 70,000 man strong force of X Corps into the dangerous tides of Inchon harbor. Preceded by heavy naval bombardment and under a blanket of fighting aircraft, led by the veteran 5th Marines, elements of the 1st Marine Division were landed 100 miles behind the North Korean lines and fought their way on to take Seoul, by 9/25. The newly reinforced 7th Infantry Division protected its flank. The stroke was decisive.
Conceived and directed by our brilliant general Douglas MacArthur, the assault at Inchon was a strategic masterpiece. The invasion had suddenly positioned some of our finest fighting men across the main NK lines of supply, and retreat, far in the rear of their attacking armies. Within two weeks, the North Korean army was largely destroyed or made ineffective.
The way to the Yalu, and total destruction of North Korea's military power, seemed virtually unopposed.
PREPARATION
With the North Korean invasion hardly a week old, and their armies running amok down the Peninsula, General MacArthur began planning an amphibious assault to retake the communications center at Seoul. This would trap the main NK combat forces, and permit us to destroy them at leisure.
MacArthur placed army Major General Edward M. Almond in charge of X Corps, with the responsibility of carrying out this operation. The Marine Corps were expert in amphibious assault, so this was a surprising move. It led to serious problems from the beginning, and was almost fatally damaging later in the rugged Taebaek mountains.
For the assault to have maximum effectiveness, a strong military force was required on the southern part of the Peninsula to keep the NK fully engaged. However, the violence of the NK attacks was menacing their very existence. A series of military defeats, and organizational difficulties, repeatedly delayed formation of a strong enough reserve force to stage such a daring amphibious counter-stroke.
5th Marine Regiment
Originally selected by MacArthur for the amphibious operation, early Eighth Army defeats made the need for reliable infantry in the perimeter paramount. 5th Marines formed the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade and landed at Pusan 8/3, serving with distinction at the Naktong Bulge, well supported by their M26 Pershings and Marine Corsairs. By "distinction", the 5th Marines typically won their engagements with the NK forces whereas Army units did not, and half the Army casualties were usually MIAs whereas the 5th usually had none. On 9/12, the 5th mounted out from Pusan to help form the rest of 1st Mar Div and X Corps at sea.
1st Marine Regiment
1st Marines were activated in August, and staged in Japan. 1st joined the Inchon invasion in the afternoon of the first day, assaulting Blue beach.
7th Marine Regiment
7th Marines were activated around 9/1, staged at Kobe around 9/9, and on 9/21 were landed at Inchon to join 1st Mar Div.
7th Infantry Division
7id had been drained piecemeal to supply replacements for 8th Army losses in the perimeter. By August, it was under half strength, with critical shortages in NCO weapons leaders. By augmenting the division with over 8,000 inexperienced ROKs, but with high quality artillery and infantry crew-served weapons troops, 7id was at full strength (24,845) on embarkation 9/11 at Yokohama for Inchon.
General Almond wanted to substitute the 32nd Infantry for the 5th Marines, in the actual landings. 32nd had about 40% raw ROK recruits, with no amphibious training. 1stMarDiv commander General O. P. Smith refused to comply with Almond's directive, and the order was eventually rescinded.
7id landed on 9/18, and mounted out to block NK threats from the south.
AT THE POINT
About one week prior to the invasion, a joint CIA-military operation "Trudy Jackson" sent in a tough guerilla unit led by Navy Lt. Eugene Clark, an Old China hand ex-CPO. His team included an Army captain, three EMs and two Korean military specialists, and landed on Yonghung-do, a small island at the mouth of the channel, ten miles from Inchon. Helped by the small civilian population, Clark's men scouted the tides, mud-flats and seawalls, getting vital last minute information for the assault. They were completely successful in this, even reconnoitering fortified Wolmi-do!
The NK soon found the guerillas were there, and sent an assault craft with 16 infantrymen to attack them, but Clark met them in the channel with a .50 machine gun on a sampan, and sank them all. In a major accomplishment, Clark got an old light-house working on Palmi-do, which provided a critical navigation point for our Naval forces.
The down side, when Clark moved his small unit to Palmi-do, the NK came back unopposed to Yonghung-do, lined up 50 South Koreans who had helped Clark, and murdered them. A favorite NK tactic. (My major personal regrets about the KW are that we never rounded up the guys who did tens of thousands of murders like those, and hanged them all. )
THE ASSAULT
Wolmi Do
The assault at Wolmi-Do was preceded by two days of bombardment by 4 cruisers and 5 destroyers, and violent air attacks from TF77. Destroyers Collett and Gurke were hit, and Swenson took casualties from a near miss. At 0500 on the third day after a final barrage by three LSMRs, LCVPs and LSVs from three high speed transports (APDs) and one LSD loaded 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines and nine M26 Pershing tanks from A company, 1st Tank Battalion. These marines led the 9/15 Inchon invasion with a dawn assault on Green beach, at Wolmi-do Island, killing over 200 enemy troops and capturing 136 more, with only 17 casualties themselves.
In the afternoon, after the tides had gone out and then back in, the rest of the 5th Marines took Red beach. The enemy now fully alerted, the 5th lost 8 killed and 28 wounded in forcing the NK to surrender. At about the same time, the 1st Marine Regiment assaulted Blue beach, taking it with relatively few casualties.
All these attacks were spearheaded by LCVPs, each carrying 22 men who swarmed up the sea walls over assault ladders. In between the morning and afternoon landings, with the tides out, the Marines on Wolmi-do were surrounded by a sea of mud.
By evening, 9/18, the Marines were at the edge of Kimpo air field, 6 miles from Inchon, capturing the 6,000 foot runway the next day. Although often displaying great individual valor, we had suffered fewer than 300 casualties, with fewer than 30 KIA, including one corsair pilot. For their loss, besides winning a major sea port, killing many hundreds of enemy soldiers, destroying 12 of their T34 tanks, and capturing a major airport, we were positioned to cut off the retreat of their 70,000 assault troops in the south, and move on to capture Seoul itself.
Whatever his critics may say about General MacArthur, this was a brilliant strategic concept. Driven home through the strength and courage of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, it resulted in a brilliant victory. It was truly a remarkable military accomplishment.
By any standards.
|
|
