Half the Marines went to sleep in heavy sleeping bags while the other half kept watch. The front units laid out foxholes in a standard formation of two foxholes with one behind. The Fox Company Marines deployed in a horseshoe formation around the perimeter of the hill, anchored to a high embankment in the road. They arrived on November 27 and immediately started digging in, despite biting temperatures of ?25☏ with strong winds. Fox Company was given the critical job of occupying a hill next to Toktong Pass, the only road linking Hagaru-ri to Yudam-ni, so their fellow Marines could be supplied and would not be cut off. Marine infantrymen of the 7th Regiment Easy Company marched 14 miles to the northwest, to Hill 1282, which had a commanding view of the village of Yudam-ni. Smith sent Marines to cover East Hill, the heights overlooking the village. He ordered the artillery to deploy their batteries and the engineers to build an airstrip and supply depot. General Smith selected Hagaru-ri village as a forward base on the southeastern tip of the Chosin Reservoir. and South Korean armies elsewhere in the area. The enemy disappeared after the probing attack, having gained valuable information about the Marines’ capabilities as well as about U.S. The Marines killed almost 1,000 Chinese and lost only 61 of their own. The Chinese forces surged in human waves that were annihilated by Marine machine guns, rifles, and mortars. Just before midnight on November 2, the Chinese attacked the 3,000 Marines of the 7th Regiment under Colonel Homer Litzenberg at the village of Sudong, on the road to Hagaru-ri. General Song Shilun, center, was the commander of the Chinese Ninth Army Group at Chosin, Korea, in 1950. The Chinese planned to use their numbers to overwhelm the Marines, who had superior firepower. They camouflaged their movements by traveling at night and covering themselves with white sheets in the snow. The Chinese Ninth Army Group, 120,000 soldiers strong, swarmed into the Taebaeks. He was also concerned about Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and military reports of contact with the Chinese, but MacArthur was unworried and urged the Marines forward.įrom October 19 to 25, approximately 300,000 battle-hardened Chinese troops who had fought in the Chinese Civil War crossed the Yalu. General Smith opposed the plan to march through the Taebaeks because of the arctic temperatures, narrow roads vulnerable to ambush, and thin supply lines likely to be cut. The Marines and Army troops sailed to Wonsan in North Korea, where they disembarked 100 miles north of the 38th parallel. locked in a silent death grip of snow and ice.” ![]() MacArthur described the area as a “merciless wasteland. The plan was for the First Marine Division to push its way to the objective of the Yalu along the northeastern part of the peninsula, through the forbidding Taebaek Mountains and supported by the 1st Marine Air Wing and the 11th Artillery. forces past the 38th Parallel toward the Chinese border. The map shows the northern advance of U.N. MacArthur then sent his forces farther north in several columns toward the Yalu River, on the border with China. ![]() forces took the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, two weeks later. MacArthur shrugged off the warning, and U.N. troops crossed the 38th Parallel into North Korea, China would intervene in the war. On October 5, Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-lai warned that if U.N. ![]() Joint Chiefs of Staff, and permission from President Truman to send American and allied troops past the 38th parallel and into North Korea. Not satisfied with regaining South Korea, General MacArthur secured support from the U.N. On September 15, 1950, the First Marine Division under General Oliver Prince Smith made an amphibious landing at Inchon behind enemy lines and quickly took control of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, with the X Corps of the U.S. armies counterattacked the North Koreans and gained back much of the territory belonging to the South. coalition of forces led by the United States as the nation went to war. He secured an authorization of force from the United Nations rather than Congress because he considered his planned intervention in South Korea to be a “police action.” General Douglas MacArthur was named supreme commander of a U.N. President Harry Truman was concerned about containing Soviet expansion because of the Russian explosion of an atomic bomb and the fall of China to communism the year before. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea and rapidly swept through the nation until it controlled all but a small perimeter around Pusan at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Truman, “Truman Doctrine” Address, March 1947 Primary Source to have students analyze the United States’ involvement in the conflict. Use this narrative with the Truman Intervenes in Korea Decision Point, the Truman Fires General Douglas MacArthur Decision Point, and the Harry S.
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