June 25, 1950 - North Korean People's Army invades across the 38th Parallel.
The South Korean people simply say "6-2-5"(pronounced yoo-gee-o),
June-25th, to remember the beginning of the war
that divides their homeland to this day. We salute the thousands of American
and allied veterans who served and fought in war-torn Korea in 1950-1953
and beyond. Today's Soldiers are inspired by their courage and sacrifices
as they too defend our freedoms around the world.
Timeline
June 25, 1950
North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) invades across the 38th Parallel
with 135,000 men. The outnumbered Republic of Korea
Army (ROKA), which does not have effective anti-tank weapons, field
artillery, or combat
aircraft, suffers heavy casualties. North Korean
forces
enter
Seoul on June 28.
July 5, 1950
First battle between the U.S. Army and the NKPA. The
24th Infantry Division’s
Task Force Smith, a battalion combat team deployed
from Japan, attempted to delay the advance of a NKPA
division
near Osan.
Outnumbered and
poorly equipped, Task Force Smith delays the North
Koreans for only a short
period before retreating with heavy casualties.
Aug. 6 - Sept. 12, 1950
Defense of Pusan Perimeter. After a series of costly
delaying actions during July, the U.S. Eighth Army
withdrew on Aug.
1 into a final defensive line
around the key port city of Pusan. After deploying
from Japan the previous month, Eighth Army had assumed command
of all
U.S.,
ROKA,
and other
nations’ ground
combat units fighting to defeat the North Korean invasion.
As reinforcements from the United States and several
other nations
arrive at the
port, Eighth Army directed the successful defense of
the perimeter against
major NKPA
attacks in August and September.
Sept. 15, 1950
X Corps amphibious assault at Inchon, Seoul’s port city. General
of the Army Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of
Far East Command and commander-in-chief of United Nations Command,
plans to liberate
Seoul and
crush the NKPA between X Corps and Eighth Army begins
its
breakout
from the Pusan Perimeter on Sept. 16.
Sept. 28, 1950
X Corps completes liberation of Seoul. Eighth Army
has linked up with X Corps, and while many North
Korean soldiers escape, most NKPA units are
destroyed.
Oct. 19, 1950
Eighth Army seizes Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic
People’s
Republic of Korea, after UN forces shift from the defense
of South Korea to the destruction of the North Korean regime.
The NKPA can
mount only
very limited and generally ineffective opposition.
Meanwhile, X Corps has been withdrawn from Seoul to land in northeastern
Korea.
November 26-30, 1950 - Two army groups of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army (PLA) attack and defeat outnumbered UN forces
in North Korea, inflicting
heavy casualties. The People's Republic of China
(PRC), after warning the UN, intervenes to prevent the destruction
of the North Korean regime and
the establishment of an American-allied Korea on
its border. After the attack, the Eighth Army breaks contact
with the Chinese and retreats into
South Korea; X Corps is withdrawn by sea to South
Korea where it joins Eighth Army. Two significant battles
during this period include the 2d
Infantry Division's harrowing withdrawal through
the Kunu-ri gauntlet and the 1st Marine Division's heroic
efforts in the Chosin Reservoir battle.
Jan. 4, 1951
U.N. forces evacuate Seoul after the Chinese and
NKPA launch another major offensive. Eighth Army
breaks contact with the enemy and withdraws to a
new defensive line south of the Han River.
Jan. 24, 1951
Eighth Army begins a counter-offensive with an emphasis
on using its superior firepower to inflict heavy
casualties on the enemy. After defeating another
major enemy attack in February, the counter-offensive
continues.
March 14, 1951
Eighth Army retakes Seoul against light enemy resistance.
March
27, 1951
Eighth Army reaches 38th Parallel. Enemy resistance
continues to be light, but intelligence indicates
that the Chinese are massing their forces for
another major offensive.
April 11, 1951
President Truman relieves Gen. MacArthur as CINCFEC
/CINCUNC after MacArthur had publicly and repeatedly
questioned President
Truman’s
strategy for the war.
April 22-29, 1951 & May 16-20, 1951
Chinese Spring Offensives. After forcing the outnumbered
Eighth Army to make tactical withdrawals, Chinese
and North Korean
units in April
and
May are decimated by superior UN firepower. This
is the last attempt by either side to win the war
by inflicting
a crushing
battlefield
defeat on the enemy’s army.
July 10, 1951
Armistice negotiations begin as both the US and the
PRC decide that the costs are too high to unify the
peninsula under their Korean ally, and
they instead settle for a continuation of a Korea
divided between two regimes. To pressure the communists
and to seize better terrain for defensive lines,
Eighth Army mounts a series of limited-objective
attacks during the summer and autumn that are successful,
but very costly because of fierce enemy
resistance.
Nov. 12, 1951
Eighth Army assumes the “active defense” as the UN’s
objectives in the armistice negotiations, and the growing
unpopularity of the war in the United States, rule out major
offensives with high casualties. In the active defense, UN forces
hold a
main line
of
resistance, protected
by fortified outposts, from which units patrol and
conduct raids against enemy positions.
May 7 - June 10, 1952
On May 7, NKPA prisoners-of-war at the UN POW camp on Koje Island
capture the camp commander. He is released unharmed after an American
officer signs
a statement admitting to the mistreatment of POWs.
A great propaganda victory for the communists, this incident is
the most notable example of the communist
strategy to turn POW camps into another battlefield
of the war. During June, the UN POW camp system is reorganized
to improve security, although
communist POWs will continue to provoke violent incidents
until the end of the war.
July 17 - Aug. 4, 1952
Battle for Outpost Old Baldy. The 2nd Infantry Division
loses the outpost to a Chinese attack that demonstrates
the enemy’s
greatly expanded artillery force, mounts several unsuccessful
counterattacks, and then
finally retakes the outpost. While patrolling is now
the most common form of combat,
the Chinese for the next year will attempt to pressure
the UN at the armistice negotiations by inflicting
heavy casualties
on UN
units
with
attacks on
outposts.
Oct. 6 - 15, 1952
Battle for White Horse Mountain. The successful defense
of this position by the ROKA 9th Division, with the
assistance of U.S. artillery and air
strikes, against heavy Chinese attacks signals the
great improvements the ROKA has made, with the aid
of American advisers, in its tactical and technical
competence since the first year of the war.
Oct. 8,
1952
Armistice negotiations recessed because of a deadlock
on the issue of repatriation of POWs. While the Geneva
Convention of 1949 mandates immediate repatriation
of POWs after hostilities end, the United States
decides to press for allowing
POWs to choose whether they will be repatriated.
The U.S. takes this position because screening of
enemy POWs has revealed that tens of thousands of
them are either South Koreans conscripted into the
NKPA or Nationalist
veterans of the Chinese Civil War drafted into the
PLA after the communist victory in that war. These
POWs do not want to go to North Korea or the
PRC after hostilities end.
April 26, 1953
Armistice negotiations resume. While both South and
North Koreans still desire to defeat each other and
unify the peninsula, the UN and the PRC
wish to end what has become a bloody and expensive
war whose objective, the status quo ante bellum,
is for them not worth the cost of continuing.
May 28-29, 1953
25th Infantry Division battle for Nevada outpost
complex. The Chinese repeatedly attack to take these
outposts, suffering
very heavy casualties, until Eighth
Army decides to abandon the outposts. With an armistice
agreement in sight, senior UN commanders conclude that holding
an outpost,
after
the Chinese
have demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice whatever
number of soldiers required to take it, is not worth the cost
in UN
soldiers’ lives.
The Chinese take several other outposts with this tactic,
which is designed to distract from their concessions at the
armistice negotiations and
to keep pressuring the UN during the final stage of
the negotiations.
June 8, 1953
Agreement reached at armistice negotiations on repatriation
of POWs. All POWs will choose whether they will be repatriated,
and both sides will
be allowed an attempt to persuade its POWs to choose
to be repatriated.
July 13-19, 1953
Chinese offensive against ROKA units in Kumsong Salient.
A major attack breaks through ROKA lines and inflicts
heavy losses, but the Chinese do
not attempt to exploit the breach even though they
also have suffered heavy casualties. The purpose
of the attack is to punish the South Koreans for
unilaterally releasing 27,000 POWs who had refused
repatriation and to distract world attention from
the concessions made at the armistice negotiations.
July 27, 1953
Armistice signed at Panmunjom. Both sides then withdraw
slightly to create a demilitarized zone between the
two Korean regimes.
Aug. 1953 - Feb. 1954
Exchange of POWs. A total of 82,493 Koreans and Chinese
POWs are repatriated, as are 13,444 UN POWs (3,746
of which are Americans). 21,839 communist
POWs refuse repatriation, as do 347 UN POWs, including 21 Americans.
Image Gallery (cutlines)
An American mortar crew fires on Communist North Korean invaders near
Chochiwan, Korea, July 11, 1950. Photo by Turnbull, U.S. Army Signal
Corps Photo.
Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division wade ashore in Korea, July 18, 1950.
Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Pfc. Letcher V. Gardner fires on an emplacement of the Communist-led
North Koreans along the Naktong River near Chingu, Korea, Aug. 13, 1950.
Gardner is assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division's Company D, 8th Cavalry
Regiment. Photo by Meyers, U.S. Army Signal Corps.
A grief-stricken American infantryman, whose buddy has been killed in
action, is comforted by another Soldier. In the background a medic methodically
fills out casualty tags, Haktong-ni, Korea, Aug. 28, 1950. Photo by Sgt.
1st Class Al Chang, U.S. Army.
Pfc. Robert Smith of Springfield, Colo., left, and Pvt. Carl Fisher
of Ponca, Okla., 27th Infantry Regiment, are dug in and firing at Communist-led
North Korean positions, Sept. 4, 1950. Photo by Pfc. Thomas Nebbia U.S.
Army Signal Corps.
Sgt. 1st Class Louis F. Walz, left, a member of the 1st Cavalry Division's
Company E, 5th Cavalry Regiment, and Pfc. Raymond M. Szukla, a member
of the 24th Infantry Division's Company G, 5th Regimental Combat Team,
receive medical aid at the 8063rd Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, attached
to I Corps in Korea. Sgt. 1st Class Walz is recovering from a head wound,
and Pfc. Szukla suffered a wound in the right leg while engaging Communist-led
North Korean forces, Nov. 4 1950. Photo by McIntosh, U.S. Army Signal
Corps.
Fighting with the 2nd Infantry Division north of the Chongchon River,
Sgt. 1st Class Major Cleveland (left), weapons squad leader, points out
Communist-led North Korean position to his machine crew, Nov. 20, 1950.
Photo by James Cox, U.S. Army.
Men of the 25th Infantry Division's Company K, 35th Regimental Combat
Team, fire a light machine gun in support of a rifle platoon attacking
Chinese Communist positions north of the Han River, Korea, March 7, 1951.
Photo by Fox, U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Pinned down by Chinese Communist fire, Soldiers of 3rd Infantry Division's
15th Regimental Combat Team take cover during the drive against the Communist
forces near the 38th Parallel, March 23, 1951. Photo by U.S. Army Signal
Corps.
Second Lt. Ralph Barnes throws a hand grenade at Chinese Communist positions,
as UN troops launch an offensive attack against the Communists near Uijong-Bu,
Korea, March 23, 1951. Barnes, of Arlington, Va., is a platoon leader
in the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Platoon, Company C, 15th Infantry
Regiment. Photo by Welter, U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Battalion Combat Team drop in near
Munsan, Korea, March 23, 1951. Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Men of the 3rd U.S. Rangers, 3rd Infantry Division, advance north of
the Imjim River across the 38th Parallel in Korea, while under heavy
mortar fire from the Chinese Communists, April 11, 1951. Photo by Welter,
U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Men of the 1st Cavalry Division bring in Chinese Communist captives,
north of the Imjin River, Korea, June 1951.
A 105-mm self-propelled howitzer, manned by five Soldiers from Cody,
Wyo., speeds another projectile into Red lines in Korea, July 1, 1951.
The men, all artillerymen in Battery B, 300th Armored Field Artillery
Battalion, X Corps, are (left to right); Sgt. 1st Class Allen J. Helms,
section chief; Cpl. Joseph Stair, gunner; Sgt. Richard N. Null, lanyard
man; Cpl. Robert C. Smith, artilleryman. Photo by Durcansky, U.S. Army
Signal Corps.
Sgt. Douglas D. Tompkins of the 24th Infantry Division's Tank Company,
5th Regimental Combat Team, fires a .50-caliber machine gun at Communist-held
positions during an assault against the Chinese Communist forces along
the east central front, Korea, July 14, 1951. Photo by U.S. Army Signal
Corps.
Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division fight in a train yard in Pyongyang,
Korea, October 1950. Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Soldiers of Battery C, 936th Field Artillery Battalion, U.S. Eighth
Army, fire the 100,001st and 100,002nd shell at Chinese Communist position
near Choriwon, Korea, Oct. 10, 1951. Photo by Kostner, U.S. Army Signal
Corps.
Tanks and infantrymen of the 1st Cavalry Division pursue Communist-led
North Korean Forces approximately 14 miles north of Kaesong, Korea, Oct.
13 1950. Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Powder, smoke and dust billow as a recoilless rifle team of the 3rd
Infantry Division's Company D, 7th infantry Regiment, fire their weapon
at a Chinese Communist position on Hill 200, near Qnmong-Myon, Korea,
Nov. 9, 1951. Photo by Scheinker, U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Searchlights of the 86th Engineer Searchlight Company, cut the darkness
as they probe for signs of Communist forces in Korea, Feb. 24, 1952.
Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Soldiers of Company C, 14th Engineer Combat Battalion, 8th U.S. Army,
ground the M-1 "VLA" barrage balloon, which is used to mark
the Panmunjon Military Armistice Conference perimeter in Korea, March
22, 1952. The balloon is 35 feet long and 14 feet in diameter. It holds
3,000 cubic feet of helium gas, and is elevated to a height of 1200 feet.
Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Soldiers of the 81-mm Mortar Platoon, Co. D, 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry
Regiment, U.S. Eighth Army, blast Communist positions in the "Punchbowl",
Korea, Aug. 12, 1952. Photo by Kelemanik, U.S. Army Signal Corps.
A helicopter of the 6th Transportation Helicopter Company, U.S. Eighth
Army, delivers C-rations to the 25th U.S. Infantry Division's 35th Infantry
Regiment, near Panmunjom, Korea, May 23, 1953. Photo by U.S. Army Signal
Corps.
The Port of Inchon, Korea, is a hub of activity on Jan. 25, 1953. A
landing beach and two finger piers for dispatching small craft are visible.
There is open storage area in foreground and a tank farm in background.
Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Capt. Sylvia Pavolvich, an Army nurse of the 8209th Mobile Surgical
Hospital, U.S. Eighth Army, administers whole blood to a wounded U.S.
X Corps Soldier. Photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Maj. Michael J. Stoke, executive officer, 79th Ordnance Aircraft Maintenance
Battalion, U.S. Eighth Army, and Capt. Charles C. Blake, a chaplain known
as the "flying chaplain," depart by helicopter to visit 79th
Ordnance units in Korea, June 8, 1953.
First Lt. William Millward of Baltimore,a civil assistance officer assigned
to the 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, distributes candy
to Korean children at a refugee Collecting Point in western Korea. Photo
by U.S. Army Signal Corps.