About 260 ships of Joint Task Force 7: US (226 ships) South Korea (15 ships) UK (12 ships) Canada (3 ships) Australia (2 ships) New Zealand (2 ships) France (1 ship) Netherlands (1 ship)
[7]
South Korean capital of Seoul two weeks later.[9] The code name for the Inchon operation
was Operation Chromite.
The battle began on 15 September 1950 and ended on 19 September. Through a surprise amphibious assault far from the
Pusan Perimeter that UN and Republic of Korea Army (ROK) forces were desperately defending, the largely undefended city of Incheon was secured after being bombed by UN forces. The battle ended a string of victories by the North Korean Korean People's Army (KPA). The subsequent UN recapture of Seoul
partially severed the KPA's supply lines in South Korea.
The UN and ROK forces were commanded by General of the ArmyDouglas MacArthur of the United States Army. MacArthur was the driving force behind the operation, overcoming the strong misgivings of more cautious generals to a risky assault over extremely unfavorable terrain. The battle was followed by a rapid collapse of the KPA; within a month of the Incheon landing, the Americans had taken 135,000 KPA troops prisoner.[10]
Background
Pusan Perimeter
Main articles:
The Great Naktong Offensive
From the outbreak of the Korean War following the invasion of South Korea by North Korea on 25 June 1950, the KPA had enjoyed superiority in both manpower and ground combat equipment over the ROK and UN forces dispatched to South Korea to prevent it from collapsing.
superior UN logistical system brought in more troops and supplies to the UN forces.[14]
When the KPA approached the Pusan Perimeter on 5 August, they attempted the same frontal assault technique on the four main avenues of approach into the perimeter. Throughout August, they conducted direct assaults resulting in the
Korean Peninsula, the ROK repulsed three KPA divisions at the Battle of P'ohang-dong.[22] The KPA attacks stalled as UN forces repelled the attack.[23] All along the front, the KPA reeled from these defeats, the first time in the war North Korean tactics had failed.[24]
By the end of August the KPA had been pushed beyond their limits and many of the original units were at far reduced strength and effectiveness.[14][25] Logistic problems wracked the KPA, and shortages of food, weapons, equipment and replacement soldiers proved devastating for their units.[12][26] However, the KPA retained high morale and enough supply to allow for another large-scale offensive.[13] On 1 September the KPA threw their entire military into one final bid to break the Pusan Perimeter, the Great Naktong Offensive, a five-pronged simultaneous attack across the entire perimeter.[27] The attack caught UN forces by surprise and almost overwhelmed them.[28][29] KPA troops attacked Kyongju,[30]surrounded Taegu[31] and Ka-san,[32] recrossed the Naktong Bulge,[33] threatened Yongsan,[34] and continued their attack at Masan, focusing on Nam River and Haman.[35] However, despite their efforts, in one of the most brutal fights of the Korean War, the KPA were unsuccessful.[36] Unable to hold their gains, the KPA retreated from the offensive a much weaker force, and vulnerable to counterattack.[37]
Planning
Days after the beginning of the war,
Kunsan as the landing site. He had originally envisioned such a landing, code-named Operation Bluehearts, for 22 July, with the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division landing at Incheon. However, by 10 July the plan was abandoned as it was clear the 1st Cavalry Division would be needed on the Pusan Perimeter.[41] On 23 July, MacArthur formulated a new plan, code-named Operation Chromite, calling for an amphibious assault by the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division and the United States Marine Corps (USMC)'s 5th Marine Regiment in mid-September 1950. This, too fell through as both units were moved to the Pusan Perimeter. MacArthur decided instead to use the US Army's 7th Infantry Division, his last reserve unit in East Asia, to conduct the operation as soon as it could be raised to wartime strength.[42]
In preparation for the invasion, MacArthur activated the US Army's
Korean Augmentation To the United States Army (KATUSA) troops, ROK conscripts assigned to US Army units, to reinforce the 7th Infantry Division, while allocating all equipment coming into Korea to X Corps, despite it being crucially needed by the US Army's Eighth Army on the Pusan Perimeter.[45]
MacArthur decided to use the
Taejon, but MacArthur did not think landing there would produce a sufficiently decisive victory.[47] He also felt that the KPA, who also thought the conditions of the Incheon channel would make a landing impossible, would be surprised and caught off-guard by the attack.[48][49]
On 23 August, the commanders held a meeting at MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo.
Lieutenant General Idwal H. Edward all flew from Washington, D.C., to Japan to take part in the briefing; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General Hoyt Vandenberg did not attend, possibly because he "did not want to legitimize an operation that essentially belong[ed] to the Navy and the Marines." The Marine Corps staff, who were to be responsible for leading the landing at Incheon, were not invited, which became a contentious issue. During the briefing, nine members of the staff of US Navy Admiral James H. Doyle spoke for nearly 90 minutes on every technical and military aspect of the landing.[50] MacArthur told the officers that although a landing at Kunsan would bring a relatively easy linkup with the Eighth Army, it "would be an attempted envelopment that would not envelop" and would place more troops in a vulnerable pocket of the Pusan Perimeter. MacArthur won over Sherman by speaking of his affection for the US Navy and relating the story of how the Navy carried him out of Corregidor to safety in 1942 during World War II. Sherman agreed to support the Incheon operation, leaving Doyle furious.[51]
MacArthur spent 45 minutes after the briefing explaining his reasons for choosing Incheon.[52] He said that, because it was so heavily defended, the North Koreans would not expect an attack there, that victory at Incheon would avoid a brutal winter campaign, and that, by invading a northern strong point, UN forces could cut off KPA lines of supply and communication.[53] Sherman and Collins returned to Washington, D.C., and reported back to Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson. The Joint Chiefs of Staff approved MacArthur's plan on 28 August. President Truman also provided his approval.[54]
The landing at Incheon was not the first large-scale amphibious operation since World War II. That distinction belonged to the United Nations landing that took place on 18 July 1950 at Pohang, South Korea. However, that operation was not made in KPA-held territory and was unopposed.[55]
Before the main land battle, UN forces landed spies in Incheon and bombarded the city's defenses via air and sea. Deception operations were also carried out to draw North Korean attention away from Incheon.
Maintaining surprise
With men, supplies, and ships obviously concentrating at Pusan and in Japanese ports for a major amphibious operation and the press in Japan referring to the upcoming landings as "Operation Common Knowledge," the UN command feared that it would fail to achieve surprise in the Incheon landings. Exacerbating this fear, the leader of a North Korean-Japanese spy ring arrested in Japan in early September 1950 had a copy of the plan for Operation Chromite, and the UN forces did not know whether he had managed to transmit the plan to North Korea before his arrest. US Navy
A-20 Havoc bomber after it opened fire on them over the Yellow Sea as it flew toward the UN naval task force there.[56]
In order to ensure surprise during the landings, UN forces staged an elaborate deception operation to draw North Korean attention away from Incheon by making it appear that the landing would take place 105 miles (169 km) to the south at Kunsan. On 5 September 1950, aircraft of the USAF's
B-29 Superfortress bombers joined the aerial campaign, bombing military installations in the area.[56]
In addition to aerial and naval bombardment, UN forces took other measures to focus North Korean attention on Kunsan. On the docks at Pusan, USMC officers briefed their men on an upcoming landing at Kunsan within earshot of many Koreans, and on the night of 12–13 September 1950 the
Royal Marine Commandos on the docks at Kunsan, making sure that North Korean forces noticed their visit.[56]
UN forces conducted a series of drills, tests, and raids elsewhere on the coast of Korea, where conditions were similar to Incheon, before the actual invasion. These drills were used to perfect the timing and performance of the landing craft,[55] but also were intended to confuse the North Koreans further as to the location of the invasion.
Separately, 1 September 1950, UN reconnaissance team (members were from US military intelligence Unit including KLO, CIA) also infiltrated in Yonghung-do (Yeongheung Island) to obtain information on the conditions there.[59][60][61][62]
The team, led by US Navy Lieutenant Eugene F. Clark,[63] landed at Yonghung-do (Yeongheung Island), an island in the mouth of the harbor. From there, the team relayed intelligence back to the UN Command. With the help of locals, Clark gathered information about tides, beach composition, mudflats, and seawalls. A separate reconnaissance mission codenamed Operation Trudy Jackson (ko:트루디 잭슨 작전),[64] which dispatched Youn Joung (former ROK Navy Lieutenant) and Ke In-ju (former ROK Army Colonel) to Incheon to collect further intelligence on the area, was mounted by the US military.[65]
The tides at Incheon have an average range of 29 feet (8.8 m) and a maximum observed range of 36 feet (11 m), making the tidal range there one of the largest in the world and the littoral maximum in all of
naval mines, but, critically to the future success of the invasion, Clark reported that the North Koreans had not in fact systematically mined the channels.[67]
When the KPA discovered that the agents had landed on the islands near Incheon, they made multiple attacks, including an attempted raid on Yonghung-do with six junks. Clark mounted a machine gun on a sampan and sank the attacking junks.[68] In response, the KPA killed perhaps as many as 50 civilians for helping Clark.[69]
Bombardments of Wolmido and Incheon
On 10 September 1950, five days before the Incheon landing, 43 American warplanes flew over Wolmido, dropping 93 napalm canisters to "burn out" its eastern slope in an attempt to clear the way for American troops.[70]
The flotilla of ships that landed and supported the amphibious force during the battle was commanded by
Destroyer Squadron 9, headed by Mansfield, steamed up Flying Fish Channel and into Incheon Harbor, where it fired upon KPA gun emplacements on Wolmido and in Incheon. Between them, two British cruisers and six American destroyers fired almost a thousand 5-inch (127-mm) and 6-inch (152-mm) shells onto the fortifications. The attacks tipped off the KPA that a landing might be imminent, and the KPA officer in command on Wolmido assured his superiors that he would throw their enemies back into the sea.[73] North Korea's 918th Coastal Artillery Regiment returned fire, hitting Collett seven times, Gurke three times, and Lyman K. Swenson twice. Aboard Lyman K. Swenson, Lieutenant (junior grade) David H. Swenson was killed and eight others were wounded.[56]
: 26
The American destroyers withdrew after bombarding Wolmido for an hour and Rochester, Toledo, Jamaica, and Kenya proceeded to bombard the KPA batteries for the next three hours from the south of the island. Lieutenant Clark and his South Korean squad watched from hills south of Incheon, plotting locations where KPA machine guns were firing at the flotilla. They relayed this information to the invasion force via Japan in the afternoon.[74]
During the night of 13–14 September, Struble decided on another day of bombardment, and the destroyers moved back up the channel off Wolmido on 14 September. They and the cruisers bombarded the island again that day, and planes from the carrier task force bombed and strafed it.[56]: 26
At 00:50 on 15 September 1950, Lieutenant Clark and his South Korean squad activated the lighthouse on the island of Palmido.[75] Later that morning, the ships carrying the amphibious force followed the destroyers toward Incheon and entered Flying Fish Channel, and the US Marines of the invasion force got ready to make the first landings on Wolmido.[76]
Naval mine clearance
Within weeks of the outbreak of the Korean War, the Soviet Union had shipped
contact mines in the channel at low tide and destroyed them with gunfire. When the invasion force passed through the channel at high tide to land on the assault beaches, it passed over any remaining mines without incident.[78]
Battle
Green Beach
At 06:30 on September 15, 1950, the lead elements of X Corps hit "Green Beach" on the northern side of Wolmido. The
bulldozer blades. The battle group landed from tank landing ships (LSTs). The entire island was captured by noon at the cost of just 14 casualties.[79]
The KPA defenders were outnumbered by more than six to one by the UN troops. KPA casualties included over 200 killed and 136 captured, primarily from the 918th Artillery Regiment and the
226th Independent Marine Regiment.[80] The forces on Green Beach had to wait until 19:50 for the tide to rise, allowing another group to land. During this time, extensive shelling and bombing, along with anti-tank mines placed on the only bridge, kept the small KPA force from launching a significant counterattack.[citation needed
] The second wave came ashore at "Red Beach" and "Blue Beach".
The North Koreans had not been expecting an invasion at Incheon.[81] After the storming of Green Beach, the KPA assumed (probably because of deliberate American disinformation) that the main invasion would happen at Kunsan.[citation needed] As a result, only a small force was diverted to Incheon. Even those forces were too late, and they arrived after the UN forces had taken Blue Beach and Red Beach. The troops already stationed at Incheon had been weakened by Clark's guerrillas, and napalm bombing runs had destroyed key ammunition dumps. In total, 261 ships took part.[citation needed]
For Red Beach and Blue Beach, Vice Admiral
H-Hour
, time of landing, would be 17:30.
The KPA 22nd Infantry Regiment had moved to Incheon before dawn on September 15, 1950, but retreated to Seoul after the main landing that evening.[82]
Red Beach
The Red Beach forces, made up of the
Raymond L. Murray, serving as commanding officer of the 5th Marines, had the mission of seizing an area 3,000 yards (2,700 m) long and 1,000 yards (910 m) deep, extending from Cemetery Hill (northern) at the top down to the Inner Tidal Basin (near Tidal Basin at the bottom) and including the promontory in the middle called Observatory Hill. (See Map) The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines would be on the left, against Cemetery Hill and northern half of Observatory Hill. The 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines would take the southern half of Observatory Hill and Inner Basin.[84]
Late on the afternoon of September 15, the LSTs approached Red Beach and as the lead ships, they came under heavy mortar and machine gun fire from KPA defenders on Cemetery Hill. Despite the concentrated fire, they disembarked assault troops and unloaded vital support equipment. In addition, their guns wiped out KPA batteries on the right flank of Red Beach. Three (USS King County, USS Lafayette County, and LST 973) of the eight LSTs took some hits from mortar and machine gun fire, which killed a sailor and injured a few others.[85] The LSTs completed unloading and cleared the beach at high tide early on 16 September.
After neutralizing KPA defenses at Incheon on the night of September 15, units from Red Beach opened the causeway to Wolmi-do, allowing the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines and the tanks from Green Beach to enter the battle for Incheon.
Blue Beach
The 1st Marine Regiment, under the command of Colonel Lewis "Chesty" Puller, landed at Blue Beach, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of Red and Green beaches. Their mission, once the beach was secure, was to capture the suburb of Yongdungpo, cross the Han River, and form the right flank of the attack on Seoul itself. As the 1st Marine Regiment approached the coast, the combined fire from several KPA gun emplacements sank one LST. Destroyer fire and bombing runs silenced the KPA defenses. When the Blue Beach forces finally arrived, the KPA forces at Incheon had already surrendered, so they met little opposition and suffered few additional casualties. The 1st Marine Regiment spent much of its time strengthening the beachhead and preparing for the move inland.
Immediately after KPA resistance was extinguished in Incheon, the supply and reinforcement process began. Seabees and Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) that had arrived with the US Marines constructed a pontoon dock on Green Beach and cleared debris from the water. The dock was then used to unload the remainder of the LSTs. Early that morning of September 16, Lieutenant Colonel Murray and Colonel Puller had their operational orders from 1st Marine Division commander General Oliver P. Smith. The 1st Marines and 5th Marines began moving along the Incheon-Seoul road.
Early morning on September 16, the 5th Marines (from Red and Green Beaches) started generally east along the Incheon-Seoul road, intending to link up with the left of the 1st Marine Regiment so both regiments could move on Seoul. Six solitary
VMF-214
attacked the tanks, destroying two and driving the others off. M26 Pershing tanks of the 1st Tank Battalion destroyed three more KPA tanks shortly thereafter. South of the 5th Marines, the 1st Marines, having spent most of the day consolidating its scattered units, did not move east until about 16:00 hrs.
Just before dawn on September 17, two companies of the 5th Marines, supported by artillery and M26 tanks, defeated a counterattack by a column of six T-34 tanks and two hundred infantry, inflicting heavy casualties.
Air attack on USS Rochester and HMS Jamaica
Just before daylight at 05:50 on 17 September, two Soviet-made North Korean aircraft—probably Yakovlev Yak-9s—were seen overhead from Jamaica, and while trying to identify them any doubts about their allegiance and intentions were resolved by the explosion of a bomb close to the port side of Rochester. Four bombs were dropped, one hitting and denting Rochester's crane but not exploding. There were no American casualties. As the aircraft turned away Jamaica opened fire with her port 4-inch (102 mm) battery on the leading aircraft. The second aircraft then turned to port to strafe Jamaica, scoring several hits: one armor-piercing round entering Y turret through the armor at the back of the gun house and wounding a man in the leg; one chipping the side armor of the ship; one exploding round burst on the plate surrounding the loaders of a quadruple pom-pom, wounding three men (one of whom died later of his wounds after being transferred to the hospital ship USS Consolation); and one on the foremast at the level of the gun direction platform, scattering small splinters. Every close range weapon available opened fire on this aircraft, which disintegrated as it went over the ship, crashing close to the starboard side of Jamaica.[citation needed]
Breakthrough
Kimpo Airfield
The 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines flared off to the left (north) on September 17 to secure