Allied Surge: Pyongyang Falls, UN Sweep to the Yalu October 1950

In the author’s first three volumes in a series on battles of the Korean War, North Korean forces illegally cross the 38th Parallel, rolling back US and South Korean forces into a small corner of the Korean peninsula. Months later, commander of the United Nations Command (UNC) forces in Korea, General Douglas MacArthur, launches a daring counter-offensive invasion at Inch’ŏn, enveloping North Korean forces and liberating Seoul. Despite a warning from Beijing that it would intervene if US forces crossed the 38th, MacArthur used the UN’s conditional authorization to land elements of the US X Corps at Wonsan and Riwon in North Korea.

The Eighth Army and South Korean forces captured the North Korean capital, P’yŏngyang, while American paratroops made the first combat jump of the conflict at Sunch’ŏn and Sukch’ŏn, cutting the road to the Chinese border.

Towards the end of September, the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR), arrived for attachment to the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, joining the first battalions of the Middlesex Regiment, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Leicestershire Regiment.

While MacArthur’s ground forces edged closer to the Yalu River, and the general having designs of chasing the retiring North Koreans across the river into China, in October 1950 the Chinese politburo deployed 200,000 members of the 13th Army Group of the newly titled People’s Volunteer Army (PLA) on a pre-emptive ‘defensive’ operation into North Korea.

Albeit that the Soviet Union refused to become directly involved in the Korean fight, the imminent arrival of more than a million Chinese troops onto the North Korean battlefield would inexorably tilt the outcome against the UN forces as fierce battles ensued. The resultant fallout would manifest itself on the Korean Peninsula to this day.