Second Phase Offensive Reconsidered
What. A. Mess.
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Now, most of you have been scratching your heads, wondering, “what Second Phase of what?” Well, it’s that Forgotten War, Korea, and it’s known as the Second Phase Offensive because it was the second phase of China’s plan to push the UN back from the Yalu River. Ringing any bells?
Background
Remember, a few weeks ago, we talked about the Naktong River/Pusan Perimeter? Well, that was successful at holding the attention of the North Koreans so the US could hit the beaches at Inchon on 15 September 1950. That end-run disjointed the North Korean logistical system and triggered their withdrawal from the southern part of the peninsula. On 1 October, Douglas MacArthur, commanding the UN forces in Korea, called for North Korea’s surrender. This call went unanswered. China, with its civil war still smoldering in the background, became alarmed when UN forces crossed the 38th parallel at about the same time.
What happened next has had several interpretations since.
Mao is said to have informed Stalin that China was concerned about the “freedom of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” to pursue its polity (of suppression). While possible, it is likely that China was more alarmed about the status of the Chosin Reservoir hydroelectric complex in northeastern Korea, which supplied about 40% of Manchuria’s power, China’s industrial heartland. Indian diplomats warned their Western counterparts that China would intervene if UN forces crossed into North Korea because they did not believe MacArthur would leave their lights on. MacArthur, of course, didn’t care about Chinese warnings. Nor did he believe in the intelligence reports of Chinese troops crossing the Yalu on 19 October. And the Western leaders didn’t seem to care, either, since the North Korean Army was no longer offering substantial resistance.
First Phase Offensive
The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (PVA, the name for Chinese troops in Korea) ambushed South Korean forces on 25 October near Onjong, in the lower Ch'ongch'on River Valley, 10 miles northeast of Unsan. By 29 October, the Chinese had shredded four South Korean regiments, rendering a division combat-ineffective. On 1 November, the US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division was under attack by Chinese forces near Ulsan, and by the morning of 3 November, its 8th Cavalry Regiment was only known as casualties.
Still, MacArthur dismissed the very idea of Chinese intervention.
These battles cost the Chinese and the Americans and South Koreans dearly. Chinese logistics comprised porters carrying supplies on their backs, and there were over 300,000 Chinese south of the Yalu by mid-November. Like the North Koreans, every fight relied on preciously hoarded supplies that burned up at a prodigious rate. Yet, the PVA, like the Immun Gun (North Korean People’s Army) before them, learned two valuable lessons: the UN forces were roadbound, and their supporting firepower was devastating. To compensate, the PVA would trap UN forces on the roads by taking the hills and ridges around them while staying too close to their troops to call for artillery or airstrikes. And, despite losing the element of surprise, MacArthur’s arrogance negated any advantage the UN might have had.
Second Phase Offensive
MacArthur and the UN forces launched their “Home-By-Christmas” offensive on 24 November, meant to push the UN lines all the way to the Yalu River and “liberate” North Korea. In the early hours of 25 November, the PVA’s Second Phase Offensive struck all along the UN lines, infiltrating deep behind the UN forces in both the Eighth Army (western Korea) and X Corps (eastern) areas, causing more confusion than casualties…at first. The Americans, especially, became confused because, after all, they had just celebrated Thanksgiving on the 23rd, with highly publicized turkey and all the trimmings for all the troops. The war was just about over…wasn’t it?
Rarely has so large an army had such an element of surprise against its adversary. The Americans on the west coast...were essentially blind to the trap they had walked into…
David Halberstam
While Eighth Army fought for its life against the Chinese in temperatures that hovered around 0F, X Corps in the mountainous highlands around the Chosin Reservoir fought against the Chinese and temperatures that dropped to around -20F and less. Wounds froze, saving a few lives from bleeding out if the cold didn’t stop their hearts. The cold made entire Chinese divisions (about 10,000 men) casualties. While the UN forces fought their way south—X Corps to the port of Hungnam for evacuation—the Chinese fought largely at night and almost entirely at ranges of less than 300 yards to take advantage of their limited small-arms range and to try to negate UN long-range firepower.
Still, one UN airstrike could destroy an entire Chinese regiment…and did at least once.
On 28 November, MacArthur told his masters in Washington, “We face an entirely new war.” By 1 December, the US 2nd Infantry Division was combat-ineffective as it pulled back south. In the meantime, deeply shocked politicians in Washington gave up on the “reunited Korea” idea they’d dreamed of since late summer. By 8 December, when Walton Walker, Eighth Army commander, ordered the retreat to continue beyond Pyongyang, 7th Division, too, was a shadow of its former self. The Pentagon, meanwhile, was cautioning MacArthur not to take any “precipitous action” but to preserve his troop’s lives. By 20 December, Eighth Army could slow their retreat around the 38th parallel, but could not stop it until the end of December. The X Corps began evacuating from Hungnam, finally departing 25 December.
The cost was horrendous for everyone.
The numbers are fuzzy, but Chinese/North Korean forces suffered 80k casualties of the 380k engaged. For the first time since WWI, non-combat casualties exceeded combat (35k combat; 50k non-combat). The same for the UN forces, with 350k engaged, and 24k US and 12k ROK (the proportion of non-combat casualties was probably similar). Other UN casualties (British Commonwealth and Turkish) are unknown, but probably proportional.
The Wrong War
MacArthur’s precipitous action—moving into North Korea—while militarily sound, did not comport with the UN mandate to secure South Korea…period. He had no brief to “liberate” anything but push the North Koreans north of the 38th parallel. Furthermore, his myopia and arrogance cost tens of thousands of lives. Myopia, in thinking that his was the only front of this Cold War that had just begun with the Berlin blockade. As Omar Bradley would say in a different context a few months later, it was also in the wrong place and against the wrong enemy. But now, they were stuck with a war that would be hard to “win”…
But they would fulfill the UN mandate to keep a South Korea.
Sergeant’s Business And Other Stories
Sergeant’s Business has two stories that take place in Korea. “Hold the Line” is a second-person tale about a guy in a hole on a hill facing a night attack. “To Rest with Long Ears” is an epistolic account where a writer tries to figure out just what that old police chief meant when he said he wanted to “rest with long ears.”
There’s another dozen or so stories in it about…well, lots of stuff. Available from your favorite bookseller or from me if you want an autograph.
Coming Up…
Falklands 1914: The Zenith of the Battlecruiser
The Great Machine Gun War
And Finally...
On 7 December:
1787: Delaware became the first state to ratify the US Constitution by unanimous vote at Battell's Tavern in Dover. The convention clerk hand-wrote the Ratification Document, and the delegates signed it. A duplicate copy was made and sent to the national government in New York.
1941: During a friendship flyover of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by Japanese aircraft, American warships began firing on the airplanes, leaving the peaceful, otherwise unarmed aircraft no choice but to attack the perfidious Americans, twice. An American declaration of war upon the unassuming rice farmers of Japan followed this precipitous and unwarranted attack on peaceful Japanese aircraft.
And today is NATIONAL PEARL HARBOR REMEMBRANCE DAY. The real one, not the fake one I describe above.