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CCF 5th PHASE OFFENSIVE
1st STEP 22 APRIL
2d STEP 16 MAY
U. S. MARINE OPERATIONS IN KOREA
1950–1953
VOLUME IV
The East-Central Front
by
LYNN MONTROSS
MAJOR HUBARD D. KUOKKA, USMC
and
MAJOR NORMAN W. HICKS, USMC
Historical Branch, G-3
Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps
Washington, D. C., 1962
Preceding Volumes of
U. S. Marine Operations in Korea
Volume I, “The Pusan Perimeter”
Volume II, “The Inchon-Seoul Operation”
Volume III, “The Chosin Reservoir Campaign”
Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 55-60727
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D.C.—Price $2.25 (cloth)
III
Foreword
Americans everywhere will remember the inspiring conduct ofMarines during Korean operations in 1950. As the fire brigadeof the Pusan Perimeter, the assault troops at Inchon, and the heroicfighters of the Chosin Reservoir campaign, they established a recordin keeping with the highest traditions of their Corps. No less praiseworthywere the Marine actions during the protracted land battlesof 1951, the second year of the Korean “police action.”
The 1st Marine Division, supported wherever possible by the 1stMarine Aircraft Wing, helped stem the flood of the Chinese offensivein April. Then lashing back in vigorous and successful counterattack,the Marines fought around the Hwachon Reservoir to the mightyfastness of the Punchbowl. The Punchbowl became familiar terrainto Marines during the summer of 1951, and the Division sufferedits heaviest casualties of the year fighting in the vicinity of that aptlynamed circular depression.
The fighting waxed hot, then cold, as the truce teams negotiated.They reached no satisfactory agreement, and the fighting again intensified.Finally, after a year of active campaigning on Korea’s east-centralfront, the Marines moved west to occupy positions defending theapproaches to the Korean capital, Seoul.
The year of desperate fighting, uneasy truce, and renewed combatcovered by this volume saw the operational employment of a Marine-developedtechnique—assault by helicopter-borne troops. Tactics werecontinually being refined to meet the ever changing battle situation.However, throughout the period, the o