The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

INTRODUCTION

The Battle of the Chosin Resevoir was a pivotal battle in the Korean War. The battle was a brutal 17 day fight in bitterly cold weather fought from 27 November to 13 December 1950. During the battle the United States X Corps was attacked by the Chinese 9th Army in the vicinity of Changjin lake, which was refered to as Chosin reservoir on the US maps. The Chinese forces quickly surrounded the US troops and forced them to fight a retrograde attack in order to fight their way out to friendly lines to the south.

HISTORY

By the summer of 1950 after the successful landing at Inchon by the US X Corps which led to the destruction of the North Korean Army the Korean War seemed to be in the final phases of completion. United Nations (UN) forces spearheaded by the US Eighth army and X Corps were advancing northward with the goal of completely reuniting North and South Korea. The Taebaek Mountains which are an extremely rugged north –south oriented mountain range divide Korea. The UN forces split in to two groups during their advance with the Eighth Army advancing along the west coast and the US X Corps moving north along the east coast. On 19 October 1950 after repeated warnings to the United Nations Massive amounts of Chinese Forces crossed the border into North Korea. After several minor skirmishes with X Corps, the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army (PVA) decisevly engaged the US X Corps in the vicinity of Chosin Resevoir.

Chosin Reservoir is a man-made lake located in the northeast of the Korean peninsula. The battle was fought over some of the roughest terrain during some of the harshest winter weather conditions of the Korean War. The few roads that were in the area were created by cutting through the mountainous terrain of ...

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...e rear covering forces to call in night time air strikes to suppress the attacks.[86] The fighting lasted well into the morning of 2 December until all the Marines managed to withdraw from Yudam-ni.[86] At the same time, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7) also tried to break the Chinese blockade at Hill 1419 on 1 December. 1/7 finally captured the peak and started to march through the hills on the east side of the road.[88] On the morning of 2 December, a joint attack by Fox Company and 1/7 secured the Toktong Pass, thus opening the road between Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri.[90]Although the road had been opened between Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri, the convoy still had to fight through the numerous Chinese positions on the hills overlooking the road. The convoy reached Hagaru-ri in an orderly fashion on the afternoon of 3 December, with the withdrawal completed on 4 December.[93]