The 1st Marine Regiment spent much of its time strengthening the beachhead and preparing for the inland invasion. Initially the aircraft were thought to be friendly until they dropped four bombs over the American ship. All but one missed and the one that did hit dented Rochester ' s crane and failed to detonate. There were no American casualties in the skirmish and they painted a Purple Heart on the crane as a reminder of how close the ship had come to being heavily damaged.
After the bombing of Rochester , she and the nearby Jamaica opened fire on the attacking aircraft with their guns. The North Korean II-2 then strafed the British cruiser, resulting in one sailor killed and two wounded.
At about the same time, fire from Jamaica hit the II-2 and it crashed into the water. The Yak-9 fled after losing its partner. The M26 Pershing enjoyed domination over T tanks at Inchon. Immediately after North Korean resistance was extinguished in Incheon, the supply and reinforcement process began. 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. Documents written by Kim Il-sung and recovered by UN troops soon after the landing said, " The original plan was to end the war in a month, we could not stamp out four American divisions The 1st Marines and 5th Marines began moving along the Inchon-Seoul road.
On September 16, the North Koreans, realizing their blunder, sent six columns of T tanks to the beachhead. They were quite alone, without infantry support. The armored columns suffered extensive damage and the U. A quick counter-attack by M26 Pershing tanks destroyed the remainder of the North Korean armored division and cleared the way for the capture of Incheon.
The Kimpo airfield was the largest and most important in Korea. On September 17, General MacArthur was extremely urgent in his request for early capture of Kimpo airfield for it was the largest air base in all of Korea. Once it was secured, the Fifth Air Force could bring fighters and bombers up from Japan to operate more easily against North Korea. Kimpo was under the command of Brigadier General Wan Yong. The North Korean's defense was almost as bad as the morale of the men who realized that they were not going to get any help from the North Korean officials in Seoul.
By morning the enemy were all gone, and Kimpo airfield was securely in the hands of the Marines. Kimpo airfield was in excellent shape; the enemy had not had time to do any major demolition.
In fact, several enemy planes were still on the field. So Kimpo now could become the center of Allied land-based air operations. On September 19, the U. Army Corps of Engineers repaired the local railroad up to eight miles 13 km inland.
After captured of Kimpo airfield, transport planes began flying in gasoline and ordnance for the aircraft stationed there. The Marines continued unloading supplies and reinforcements. By September 22, they had unloaded 6, vehicles and 53, troops, along with 25, short tons 23, tonnes of supplies. In the foreground, United Nations troops round up North Korean prisoners-of-war.
Marines engaged in urban warfare during the battle for Seoul in late September On the street are Korean civilians who died in the battle. In the distance are M4 Sherman tanks. In contrast to the quick victory at Incheon, the advance on Seoul was slow and bloody. The NKPA launched another T attack, which was trapped and destroyed, and a Yak bombing run in Incheon harbor, which did little damage. On the second day, vessels carrying the U.
Army's 7th Infantry Division arrived in Incheon Harbor. General Almond was eager to get the division into position to block a possible enemy movement from the south of Seoul. On the morning of September 18, the division's 2nd Battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment landed at Incheon and the remainder of the regiment went ashore later in the day.
The next morning, the 2nd Battalion moved up to relieve an U. Marine battalion occupying positions on the right flank south of Seoul. Meanwhile, the 7th Division's 31st Regiment came ashore at Incheon. Responsibility for the zone south of Seoul highway passed to 7th Division at on September The 7th Infantry Division then engaged in heavy fighting with North Korean soldiers on the outskirts of Seoul.
Before the battle, North Korea had just one understrength division in the city, with the majority of its forces south of the capital. General Almond was in an enormous hurry to capture Seoul by September 25, exactly three months of the North Korean assault across the 38th parallel.
Casualties mounted as the forces engaged in house-to-house fighting. During this fight about 12 North Korean P. General Almond declared the city liberated on September 25 even though Marines were still engaged in house-to-house combat. Meanwhile, 5th Marines came ashore at Inchon. Of the 70, NKPA troops around Pusan, in the aftermath of the Pusan Perimeter battle, North Korean casualties from September 1 to September 15 could range from roughly 36, to 41, killed and captured, with an unknown total number of wounded.
The allied assault continued north to the Yalu River until the intervention of the People's Republic of China in the war in November Most military scholars consider the battle one of the most decisive military operations in modern warfare. However, Russell Stolfi argues that the landing itself was a strategic masterpiece but it was followed by an advance to Seoul in ground battle so slow and measured that it constituted an operational disaster, largely negating the successful landing. The process of getting the Inchon plan to fruition was not easy.
Military authorities at the highest level of the U. Marine Corps strategists worried about the difficulty in having Marines scale the large sea walls that surrounded Inchon.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff were concerned by what would happen if the operation failed. They knew the U. Douglas MacArthur, head of the Far Eastern Command, viewed the plan for the landing as a great opportunity to change the course of the war. MacArthur activated the X Corps to take part in the landings. Even though the Inchon plans had been leaked in U. Key objectives were taken with far fewer casualties than past U. After the fall of Inchon, U.
The Han River and over 20, North Korean soldiers occupying the city made capturing it more difficult. A hard fight for the city ensued. On September 29, , the city fell to U.
A brief ceremony gave control of the city to South Korean president Syngman Rhee. The Eighth Army broke out from the Pusan Perimeter.
The North Korean army had been decimated. On September 29, Syngman Rhee was restored to power in Seoul. Rather than stopping at the 38th Parallel, MacArthur, with American support, sent his forces north of the dividing line.
Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, was captured on October However, as the Americans moved north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, their advance was halted when China entered the fray that fall.
In late November, a massive force of Chinese troops sent the Allies into retreat. In early January , the Communists recaptured Seoul, only to have the Allies reoccupy it in March. Truman feared that an escalation of fighting with China would draw the Soviet Union into the Korean War. By May , the communists were pushed back to the 38th parallel, and the battle line remained in that vicinity for the rest of the war. On July 27, , after two years of negotiation, military leaders from China, North Korea and the United Nations signed an armistice that ended the fighting and created a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea some additional territory and established a 2.
Because North Korea and South Korea never signed a permanent peace treaty, they are technically still at war today. More than , American, South Korean and other U. By some estimates, civilian deaths were at least equal to the combined number of military casualties. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Roughly following the 38th parallel, the mile-long DMZ incorporates territory on both sides of the cease-fire line as it existed at the end of the Korean War North Korea is a country with a population of some 25 million people, located on the northern half of the Korean Peninsula between the East Sea Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.
0コメント