The Battle of Hwacheon was fought between 22 and 26 April 1951 during the Korean War between United Nations Command (UN) and Chinese forces during the Chinese Spring Offensive. The US 1st Marine Division successfully defended their positions and then withdrew under fire to the No-Name Line.
Background
In mid-April 1951 UN forces in the central front in Korea were engaged in Operation Dauntless to advance UN positions from the Kansas Line north of the 38th Parallel to positions north of the 38th Parallel designated the Wyoming Line which would threaten the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) and North Korean Korean People's Army (KPA) logistics hub marked out by the towns of Pyonggang, Ch'orwon and Kumhwa named the Iron Triangle. The advance by US I and IX Corps was to menace the Triangle, not invest it and if struck by strong enemy attacks during or after the advance, the two Corps were to return to the Kansas Line.
US Eighth Army intelligence on 18 April warned that a PVA/KPA attack was likely any time between 20 April and 1 May, but on 21 April Eighth Army commander General James Van Fleet decided to continue the Dauntless advance.
Leading the IX Corps' advance were the Republic of Korea Army (ROK) 6th Division and the US 1st Marine Division. In their sector the Wyoming Line curved southeast from the Kumhwa area to the Hwacheon Reservoir. On 21 April the two divisions moved above the Kansas Line against almost no opposition. The absence of opposition in the IX Corps' zone only confirmed the recent patrol reports of PVA/KPA withdrawal.
On the 21st, the Eighth Army G-2 (intelligence officer) reported that his information still was not firm enough to "indicate the nearness" of the impending enemy offensive with any degree of certainty. A worrisome fact, as he earlier had pointed out to Van Fleet, was that a lack of offensive signs did not necessarily mean that the opening of the offensive was distant. In preparing past attacks, PVA forces had successfully concealed their locations until they moved into forward assembly areas immediately before they attacked.
Aerial reconnaissance after daybreak on 22 April, reported a general forward displacement of enemy formations from rear assemblies northwest of I Corps and north of both I and IX Corps, also extensive troop movements, both north and south, on the roads above Yanggu and Inje east of the Hwacheon Reservoir. Though air strikes punished the moving troops bodies, air observers reported the southward march of enemy groups with increasing frequency during the day. On the basis of the sightings west of the Hwacheon Reservoir, it appeared that the enemy forces approaching I Corps would mass evenly across the Corps' front while those moving toward IX Corps would concentrate on the front of the ROK 6th Division.
On 22 April, as I and IX Corps continued their advance toward the Wyoming Line. The progress of the attack resembled that on the previous day, IX Corps' forces making easy moves of , the two I Corps divisions being limited to shorter gains by heavier resistance. On the east flank of the advance, the Hwacheon Dam, defended so stoutly by PVA 39th Army forces only a few days earlier, fell to the 1st Korean Marine Corps Regiment (1st KMC) without a fight. But a PVA captive taken elsewhere in the 1st Marine Division zone during the afternoon told interrogators that an attack would be opened before the day was out. In mid-afternoon the ROK 6th Division captured several members of the PVA 60th Division and, immediately west, the US 24th Infantry Division took captives from the PVA 59th Division. These two divisions belonged to the fresh 20th Army. The full IX Army Group had reached the front. In the US 25th Infantry Division zone on the west flank of the advance, six PVA who blundered into the hands of the Turkish Brigade along Route 33 during the afternoon were members of a survey party from the 2nd Motorized Artillery Division. The division's guns, according to the officer in charge, were being positioned to support an attack scheduled to start after dark.
Battle The first blows of the Chinese Spring Offensive on US IX Corps’ front were directed at the ROK 6th Division which simply evaporated as its frightened soldiers fled the field of battle. Facing only token resistance, the PVA 40th Army was on its way south in full gear by midnight. Soon, a penetration was created and the 1st Marine Division was in serious jeopardy. At 21:30 the duty officer at the 1st Marine Division command post was informed that the PVA had penetrated ROK defenses and were headed toward Marine lines. Not long after the message arrived the vanguard of a long line of demoralized ROK soldiers began filing in. By midnight, the Reconnaissance Company and the Military Police Company were rounding up stragglers and placing them under guard at the ferry site just south of the 5th Marine Regiment's command post. These soldiers reported the 6th Division was in full retreat and that thousands of enemy troops were rapidly moving south. Despite attempts to reconstitute the 6th Division as a fighting force, the 1st Marine Division's liaison officer called and said: “to all intents and purposes, the 6th ROK Division had ceased to exist.” This was alarming news because the Marine left flank was wide open, and the division's main supply route and all crossing points of the Pukhan River were at great risk. The first US troops to confirm the disaster on the left were cannoneers from Army artillery units that earlier had been sent west to support the ROK. Elements of the battered 987th Armored Field Artillery came pouring back into the Marine lines after being ambushed. The unit had lost about half of its 105 mm howitzers to the ambush, and the 2nd Rocket Artillery Battery lost all of its weapons when its defensive position was overrun. As Lieutenant colonel Leon F. Lavoie, commanding officer of the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion acidly observed: "there had been more artillery lost in Korea up to that point than there was lost in the whole of the European theater in the last war by American forces."
By 22:24, the impact of the disaster on the left was apparent, so all plans to resume the Operation Dauntless attack the next day were abruptly canceled. Units along the forward edge of the battlefield were placed on full alert. Commanders hurriedly sent out combat patrols to locate the enemy and to try fix his line of march, while the Marines at the Main line of resistance dug in deep and nervously checked their weapons. In addition, General Oliver P. Smith ordered Colonel Robley E. West's 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, up from Chuncheon to tie in with the artillery and tanks located in the valley on the far west flank. West's battalion was soon on trucks headed for its new position, but the convoy could only creep along over roads choked with panic-stricken ROK soldiers escaping the battle zone. Captain John F. Coffey's Company B led the way. At about 01:30, while still short of its assigned position, the long column of vehicles stopped at the tight perimeter formed by the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, which a short time before had established a roadblock, collected more than 1,800 ROK, and attempted by machine gun and bayonet with little success to deploy them to slow the PVA advance. Moving west, Coffey's company assisted in the extricating the 987th Artillery's 105 mm howitzers that were stuck in the mud. After as many guns as possible were freed, Coffey returned to friendly lines where the 1st Battalion was manning a wooded semi-circular ridge with Company A on the right, Company C in the center, and the 81 mm mortars of Weapons Company on relatively level ground in the immediate rear. Company B was promptly assigned the battalion left flank. The PVA began probing Marine lines around 23:00 on 22 April and then mounted an all-out assault to turn the Marine flanks about three hours later. The 7th Marine Regiment on the left was the hardest hit unit. PVA mortar, automatic weapons, and small arms fire began at about 02:00 on the 23rd. This reconnaissance by fire was followed by a very determined ground assault an hour later. Shrieking whistles, clanging cymbals, and blasting bugles signaled the onslaught. At least 2,000 PVA troops hit the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, full force. That attack by the PVA 358th Regiment, 120th Division, primarily directed at Company C and Company A, was repulsed by hand-to-hand fighting that lasted almost until dawn. Private First Class Herbert A. Littleton, a radioman with the forward observer team attached to Company C, was standing the mid-watch when the PVA appeared. He sounded the alarm then moved to an exposed position from which he adjusted supporting arms fires despite fierce incoming machine gun fire and showers of PVA grenades. Forced back into a bunker by enemy fire, Littleton threw himself upon a grenade to save his comrades in that crowded space at the cost of his own life. He was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for his actions that night. Heavy fighting—much of it grenade duels and close quarters combat—lasted several hours. PVA mortar fire and small arms continued throughout the night and into the next day. As always, supporting arms were a critical Marine advantage. The 11th Marine Regiment ringed the endangered position with artillery fire, and Marine tanks successfully guarded the lowland approaches. In the division's center, PVA infiltrators silently slipped through the 5th Marines’ outpost line to occupy Hill 313. A futile counterattack was quickly launched, but the assault platoon was held in check and suffered heavy casualties. It was not until the next morning that elements of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 5th Marines, retook the hill.
At around 03:00, the 1st KMC on the right came under heavy attack in the vicinity of Hill 509 (). The Koreans threw back successive PVA attacks throughout the long night and had ejected the PVA by the next morning. Particularly hard hit was a single rifle company holding the left flank. The 150-man company was reduced to only about 40 men ready for duty by daylight. The timely arrival of the reserve 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, eased the pressure on 1/7 Marines, and solidified the division west flank, but fierce fighting continued into the next morning. The PVA, well aware that they would be pounded from the air during the day, hurriedly retreated at dawn. Eight Marine F4U Corsairs swooped over the battlefield guided onto their targets by aerial observers flying vulnerable OY observation aircraft; VMF-323 flew in support of the 5th Marines while VMF-214 attacked the PVA in the 7th Marines’ zone. PVA casualties by all arms were estimated to be well above 2,000 men. By noon on the 23rd, it was obvious the Marines had won the first round, but it was also obvious that the fight was far from over. For his leadership in securing the division's vital flank, 1/7 Marines commander, Lieutenant colonel Webb D. Sawyer was awarded a Navy Cross.