Inchon Landing: MacArthur’s Korean War Masterstroke, September 1950

In the first two volumes in the author’s series on battles of the Korean War, North Korean ground forces, armour and artillery crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea, inflicting successive ignominious defeats on the ill-prepared US-led UN troops as they pushed them ever southward into a tiny defensive enclave—the Pusan Perimeter—on the tip of the Korean Peninsula. General Douglas MacArthur, Second World War veteran of the South East Asia and Pacific theatres of war, met with considerable resistance to his plans for a counteroffensive from both the corridors of power in Washington and from his staff

In South Korea and Japan: it was typhoon season, the approaches to the South Korean port city of Inch’ŏn were not conducive to amphibious assault, and it would leave the besieged Pusan Perimeter in great danger of being overrun.

However, the controversial MacArthur’s obstinate persistency prevailed, and with a mere three weeks to go, the US X Corps was activated to execute the invasion on D-Day: 15 September 1950.

Elements of the US Marine Corps landed successfully on the scheduled day, and with the element of surprise on their side, immediately struck east to Seoul, only 15 miles away. The next day, General Walker’s Eighth Army broke out of the beleaguered Pusan Perimeter to complete the southerly envelopment of North Korean forces.

Seoul fell on the 25th. MacArthur’s impulsive gamble had paid off, and the South Korean government moved back to their capital. The North Koreans had been driven north of the 38th Parallel, effectively bringing to an end their invasion of the south that started on 25 June 1950.