The Battle of Hamhung

A geography lesson - Hungnam is an industrial port city. It has a large ammonia manufacturing factory. Eight miles northwest of Hungnam is Hamhung, the capital city of the Ham-kyong-nam-do Province. Both cities are located on the Hamhung valley. Oro-ri is at the northern tip of the valley and the Sungchung River starts at Oro-ri, flows through Hamhung, and into the East Sea at Hungnam.

A two-lane highway runs northwest from Oro-ri all the way to the Chosin Reservoir. The highway passes through Majong-dong, Sudong, Kotori, and Hagaru. Yudampo sits high in the rugged mountain terrain, some 60 miles from the East Sea. The so-called "highway" is nothing but a dirt track cut on the side of vertical cliffs. Many Soviet vehicles have fallen off the road in 1945.

Photo: Hamhung area map

Oct. 12, 1950 - I wake up in the morning to find the city completely deserted. The communists have left the town during the night. The air raid sirens are left wailing continuously - a prearranged signal for all party cadres to leave town immediately.

One week earlier, all cadres were issued one Russian army survival kit and ordered to head toward Manchuria upon hearing the signal. Each man is allowed to carry only one knapsack and to hide or destroy important documents or equipment. I wonder how they managed to move all those wounded soldiers from the army hospitals in one night and where to?

Our old family friend Comrade Chu (the former boss of the Hamhung Communist Party and my history teacher - the man from China) stops by our country home in Oro-ri (about 40 min. walk from our main house in Hamhung) to chat with my father. He is carrying one knapsack on his back and nothing else - probably, all of his earthly possessions are in his bag. Chu tells my father that the Chinese troops are already in N Korea.

They have reached as far south as Kotori only a few miles north of Hamhung. It is only a matter of time when Gen. Peng's gigantic trap is closed shut and the UN forces annihilated. My father believes him - but I and Gen. MacArthur (whose agents have reported the same info) don't believe it; or rather we don't want to believe it. My father gives Chu a list of contacts in Kapsan and an envelop containing some money. The old comrade Chu walks northward as he had done years ago when the Japanese were about to arrest him.

My father counsels those non-communists who held minor positions in the village government to go into hiding for a month or so. He figures that the UN forces will be gone by then. My father himself fled Wonsan where he ran a small state dairy farm and is lying low in Oro-ri. We have an apple orchard here. His wife #1 and wife #2, with their kids, are staying together for the duration of the war. His wife #3 is staying out in Hamhung - she is caring for her sick mother who cannot be moved.

Oct. 13 - The Battle of Hamhung begins with an artillery duel. A lone N Korean howitzer fires on the column of S Korean troops approaching our city from Wonsan. S Korean artillery returns fire and kills the N Korean officer directing the shelling. All this activity is happening on the other side of Mt. Un Hung close to my house.

A bunch of us watch the 'show' from the top of the mountain. Three men in civilian cloth race toward our city in an American jeep. It is a S Korean scout car looking for enemy units. No resistance - not a single N Korean soldier is to be seen. The jeep bypasses our city and heads north toward Oro-ri and disappears from our view.

Nothing happens for an hour or so. We can see clearly the dead N Korean artillery officer still lying next to his howitzer. Then all of a sudden, the scout car reappears racing south. The men are frantically waving and shouting - tanks ! tanks !. We wait and wait - but no tanks appear. The sun sets and we all go home. I more or less run by the howitzer (and the dead body) and reach my house in Oro-ri in less than 25 min.

On the way, I pass the S Korean guerrilla unit of Commander "X" (more on later) resting behind a farm building. The commander is exhorting his troops - mostly wearing high school student uniforms. It seems that everyone has a Russian Maxim machine gun, a heavy piece of machinery. I wonder how they manage run with the gismo.

My father is mad at me for running around while there is a battle blazing outdoors. He orders everyone into our bomb shelter - actually our kim-chee storage cave. Every Korean house has a kim-chee cave, a large underground cavity used to keep kim-chee during winter. It is a large cavity dug deep in the ground with a thick earthen roof over it. Kim-chee caves double as bomb shelters - dating back to WW2.

It is dark and damp inside the cave - besides all kinds of worms - ants, spiders, cockroaches, etc. -crawl all over us. The air is foul and hard to breathe - but my father is adamant that we all stay put. My sister blabbers - "Dad, Young Sik has a pistol in his school bag !". First, my father thinks she means a toy gun but soon he realizes that it's real thing. He takes my gun away and buries it.

He says we will be all shot if either N Korean or S Korean soldiers find the gun. I don't want to tell him that I belong to an anti-Communist group - lest he may have a heart attack. Lucky for me, my mother is staying at our house in Hamhung and I have to put up with only one parent. My mother does not like hanging around my father's 2nd wife and spends as little time as possible in Oro-ri.

During the night, S Korean troops in N Korean uniforms move in Oro-ri - unopposed. We can tell that they are S Koreans from their southern accent, US army issues and their hair (N Korean soldiers shave their head). They are going from house to house looking communists. Two soldiers burst into our house and ask us to line up. They are looking for military age men for questioning. One soldier stares at my teenage half system who is half naked. The soldiers move on and we go back to bed.

Oct. 13, 1950 - Mao Zedong tells Peng and Chou Enlai (still in Moscow) -

"As the result of an emergency agreement of all the various members of the Politburo, we have reached the unanimous opinion that it is advantageous for us to send troops to Korea. In the initial period, they will attack the ROK forces. In this regard, we have considerable confidence.

First of all, we will put bases in the mountainous areas north of the line joining Pyongyang and Wonsan and rouse the Korean People even more. In Period 1, if only possible to annihilate several South Korean divisions, the situation in Korea will turn in an advantageous direction for us."

Mao Zedong continues -

"With regard to the adoption of the positive policies described above, for China and Korea and Asia and even going out to world as a whole, this is very advantageous. If we do not send troops, the enemy will control all the way up to the environs of the Yalu River, and, as far as the boasts of the reactionary forces within China are concerned. they would gradually grow higher and it would be disadvantageous for us in various respects.

Oct. 13, 1950 - N Korean government moves to Kanggye, a remote mountain village near the Yalu.

Oct. 14,1950: Andong (Korea-China border): Peng Dehuai sends the first train load of Chinese soldiers - the 334th Regiment, the 112th Division, the 38th Field Army - across the Yalu. Marching bands and school children give the soldiers a fine farewell. Soon after, the 42nd Field Army cross the Yalu at Manpojin. Peng's advance army is designated as the 13th Army Group under Li Tianyu.

The 13th is ordered to stop MacArthur at a line just north of Chungchon River. Another field army, the 42nd, would move into regions east of the 13th to protect its flank and the temporary capital of N Korea, Kangye. Two additional field armies, the 50th and the 66th would move into Korea to reinforce the advance units. The latter armies would be designated as the 9th Army Group under Song Shilun. Peng has a total of 380,000 men under his control. The advance units cross the Yalu undetected by MacArthur. The Chinese intelligence has been monitoring American radio traffic and no mention is made of the crossing.

Oct. 14, 1950 - During the night, S Koreans mine the road and wait for the enemy tanks heading in our direction. Early in the morning, three light tanks approach Oro-ri. The lead tank hits a mine and bursts into flames. One of the crew members manages to get out but shot right away. The remaining two tanks turn around and flee northward. We are happy to see S Korean troops. There is no formal welcoming party.

We hang around the soldiers, trying to find out what is going on. I spot the ruined tank and decides to take a closer look - a bad mistake. A S Korean soldier grabs me from behind and threatens to shoot me. Lucky for me, the officer in charge stops the madman. It turns out the road is full of land mines and I was about to step on one - I guess the guy has saved my life and those of the soldiers nearby. I see that the mines are clearly marked and I am so stupid.

Oct. 14, 1950 - Wake Island: MacArthur assures Pres. Truman that no Chinese would dare to face his army; that the Korean War is practically over now. MacArthur tells Truman that:

"formal resistance will end throughout North and South Korea by Thanksgiving...We are no longer fearful of Chinese intervention. ..The Chinese have 300,000 men in Manchuria. Of these probably not more than 100,000 to 125,000 are distributed along the Yalu River. Only 50,000 to 60,000 could be gotten across the Yalu River. They have no air force. Now that we have bases for our air force in Korea, if the Chinese tried to get down to Pyongyang, there would be the greatest slaughter.".

MacArthur continues his fairly tale to his rapt audience:

"With the Russians, it is a little different. They have an air force base in Siberia and a fairly good one, with excellent pilots equipped with some jets and B-25 and B-29 type planes. They can put 1,000 planes in the air with some 2,000 to 3,000 more from the Fifth and Seventh Soviet Fleets. They are probably no match for our air force. The Russians have no ground troops available for North Korea. They would have difficulty in putting troops into the field. It would take six weeks to get a division across the border."

Soviet archives show that some 100,000 Russian ground troops were packed and ready to move; and that Russian war planes were already operational in Manchuria. It is not clear if MacArthur was telling a white lie or was living in the fantasy world of a megalomaniac.

Oct. 14, 1950 - Wake Island: Dean Rusk is not convinced and asks MacArthur point-blank - "What about the Chinese threat?". MacArthur answers: "I do not fully understand why the Chinese have gone out on such a limb and they must be greatly embarrassed by the predicament in which they find themselves." Truman believes every word of the great general - "Good-bye, sir. Happy landing. It has been a real honor to talk to you... I've never had a more satisfactory conference since I've been President,,,".

Oct. 15, 1950 - Hamhung is secured and some form of life begins to return to the city. The radio station is back in business. City water is flowing again and we have the electricity back. The American engineers are superb! Its citizens are returning home by the thousands. Because of the American bombing raids and more importantly, due to severe food shortages, most citizens have left the city for the relative safety of the countryside. S Korean troops are under strict orders not harm any civilians.

Any soldier who harms a civilian will be shot on the spot - "jik-kyok-chue-bun": so orders the commanding general who is originally from N Korea. These troops don't know a thing about the Chinese trap being set for them. Even now the Chinese are watching from their mountain positions and laughing to themselves.

S Korean psychological war teams spring into action. Convoys of army trucks bring in loads of flour and other food items. They are piled high at several locations. Captured enemy supplies are added to the piles. Everybody is welcome to it. This is indeed unbelievable. These guys know how to win the heart and soul of our hungry citizens. Free concerts by the army bands are given daily.

For the first time, since the days of the Korean People's Republic, we hear Korean folk songs - arirang, dara-dara, etc. No more Stalin songs! The general himself gives the welcome speech. He is a great speaker and talks about the ills of communism and peddles the virtues of Syngman Rhee. He says the war is almost over.

Oct. 15, 1950 - US Navy Lt. Eugene Clark leads his second CIA OPC mission of the war (the first was at a scouting mission for the Inchon landing). Clark's first objective is to find friendly islands off the coast of N Korea where American pilots can find rescue teams. His second objective is to locate the lone N Korean radar site near the Yalu. His third objective is to pinpoint the source(s) of mines floating down from the Yalu estuary into the Yellow Sea. And, lastly and most importantly, he is to gather hard intelligence on the Chinese buildup in N Korea.

Hans Tofte of the CIA OPC assigns 150 Korean guerrillas and 20 agents along with arms, food and gold bars. Clark and a radio team boards a S Korean Navy speed boat and the Koreans board 4 "fishing" boats maintained by the CIA. On the way to the Yalu, Clark loses two of the fishing boats and 75 guerrillas. He sets up a base on an isolated beach near Sinuiju. The Korean agents are sent out to find the N Korean radar site; a handful return (no radar is found) with reports of 300,000 Chinese soldiers south of the Yalu. Clark radios this information to Tofte. For some reason, Clark's report does not reach MacArthur.

Oct. 16, 1950 - Happiness turns into ugliness. The communists guards at the Hamhung Reformatory (the same prison where my father was jailed by the Japanese) killed all political prisoners and dumped the bodies into wells. They poured gallons of acids into the wells in order to make identification difficult. More bodies are found at other sites. This is utterly unbelievable - how could they have done this to their own countrymen? The bodies are dragged up and laid out in an open field for the relatives to reclaim.

The news of the massacres hits the news worldwide and trigger anti-red witch hunts. Anybody who had any connection with the communists is hunted down, beaten up and often killed - students are beating up their teachers, neighbors are accusing each other, school friends are accusing each other - the whole damn place becomes an inferno. The bad days of post-liberation when unruly mobs hunted down Jap-lovers are back again.

Oct. 18, 1950 - Beijing: Mao orders Peng to start his move next day (Oct. 19, 1950). Chou Enlai informs Stalin that

"I have just received a telegram from Mao Zedong and the Politburo. Our Central Committee has taken the decision to march troops into Korea at once!"

Stalin is impressed - "The Chinese comrades are good after all". Stalin promises to send 2 air divisions as soon as he can.

Photo: Political pisoners murdered by retreating communists in Hamhung

Oct. 18, 1950 - The S Korean Army Command steps in and forms a civilian police unit. Everybody who is some body is trying to join the unit. Me and a close class mate Lee Chin Oh walk into a police station and apply for the job. The guy in charge looks at our papers (ID's) and tells me to get lost. He is angry at us and says - what a hell are you kids doing here?

You have to be at least 18 years old. We realize how dumb the idea was and apologize for the inconvenience. We are about tail out there when a man walks in carrying a burp gun. He stares at my friend for a second and then grabs him by the neck - 'Hey, this boy is a communist spy!' I am shocked.

I have known Chin Oh for three years now. His family used to own land (just like mine) and his father was killed by communists. His older brother fled to S Korea but he and his mother were left behind. He came to my house on the day Hamhung fell and has been staying with me since. It turns out that my friend was an informant of the Political Security Unit (jung-chi-po-wi-dae).

The man with a gun takes my friend outside and I decide to split. I have not seen Chin Oh since that day - I presume that he was taken to a ditch and shot to death. (a few days later, Chin Oh's brother, a S Korean army captain, came looking for his family and it was my sad duty to tell him about his brother's final day.). One thing about my friend Chin Oh: I have confided to him my secret (and idiotic) plans for fighting communists but he did not betray me to the police.

My brother and I join the Student Volunteer Army (SVA). SVA is made of boys (14 to 18 years) who are too young to serve in the regular army and also, older kids whose parents have the right connection. It's basic doctrine is 'Wha-Rang-Do' - the nationalistic youth movement during the Silla dynasty.

SVA members help with civilian security, traffic control and occasionally work as guerrillas or intelligence agents. My father is against my joining SVA, but he knows how stubborn I am. He is sad with tears in his tired eyes. He must have realized that his #3 son is about to be lost to him forever. Indeed, this is to be the last time I see him.

Oct. 19, 1950 - The N Korean capital Pyongyang falls to the ROK 1st Division commanded by Gen. Paik Sun Yup. This man was a lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Army in 1945. His home town Pyongyang mistreated Paik and his family for their pro-Japanese actions. Paik Sun Yup and his brother Paik In Yup fled to S Korea, but several members of his relatives were killed - including Paik's son, whose head was sawed off. Gen. Paik enters Kim Il Sung's office. Kim's office has no less than 5 portraits of Stalin and one statue of himself.

Oct. 19, 1950 - The Chinese Volunteer Army begins to cross the Yalu into N Korea. Some 250,000 Chinese troops move into positions in N Korea to surround the unsuspecting UN troops. Unbelievably, neither the US intelligence nor the air reconnaissance flights detect the movement of an entire field army.

Photo: Chinese Volunteers Army marches into N Korea

Peng Tehuai follows Sun Tzu's dictum:

"The general who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth; he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven. Thus on the one hand we have ability to protect ourselves; on the other, a victory that is complete."

Peng figures that MacArthur's ego and arrogance will cloud his visions and he would either ignore or fail to see the Chinese hordes waiting for him.

Oct. 20, 1950 - Tokyo: MacArthur's intelligence chief issues an "end-of-war" announcement: -

"Organized resistance on any large scale has ceased to be an enemy capability. Indications are that the North Korean military and political headquarters may have fled to Manchuria. Communications with, and consequent control of, the enemy's field units have dissipated to a point of ineffectiveness. In spite of these indications of disorganization, there are no signs, at the moment, that the enemy intends to surrender. He continues to retain the capability of fighting small scale delaying actions against UN pressure."

Oct. 21, 1950 - Kim Il Sung meets with Peng Tehuai and works out common understandings on Sino-Korean war objectives. Peng and Kim agree to wage a guerrilla warfare if Peng failed to stop MacArthur. Peng's first objective is to stop further advances by the US forces and then envelope them into a giant trap and kill as many Americans as he can.

As things have developed, MacArthur's forces collapsed faster than Peng expected and Peng decides to chase the Americans across the 38th parallel well beyond what Mao hoped for. Mao thought that it would take 3-4 months to establish a defensive line along the Wonsan-Pyongyang axis and to re-equip the N Korean Army and his Army with the Russian modern weapons promised by Stalin. He would have air cover provided by two Russian air divisions. He would then be ready to push the Americans as far south as he can.

During the Cultural Revolution in China, Peng was accused of insulting and ordering around Kim Il Sung among other "crimes" and driven to a horrible death. Some Red Guards attacked Kim Il Sung's self-adulation and lavish life style. Peng wrote memoirs before his death. After Mao's death, Peng was restored to his former place of honor posthumously.

Photo: Peng and Kim Il Sung