The Battle of Inchon, 15 to 19 September 1950, was a decisive United Nations victory in the Korean War. General Douglas MacArthur landed a large amphibious force at Inchon, far behind the North Korean army that had nearly overrun the south. Despite extreme tides that made the landing risky2, it succeeded, led to the swift recapture of Seoul, and collapsed the North Korean position, reversing the war.
In the summer of 1950 the North Korean army had driven the defenders into a tiny corner of the peninsula. Then General Douglas MacArthur gambled on a landing where no one expected it, at Inchon, and turned the war around in a week.
Part of The greatest battles in American history · Next: The Battle of Chosin Reservoir
A war nearly lost
By September 1950 the North Korean invasion had pushed UN and South Korean forces into the small Pusan Perimeter2 in the far southeast. Rather than grind forward from there, MacArthur proposed a bold stroke: an amphibious landing far up the west coast, behind the enemy, at the port of Inchon near Seoul.
The gamble at Inchon
Inchon was a planner's nightmare, with huge tides, narrow approaches and sea walls that left only brief windows to land. Many officers thought it too risky.3 MacArthur insisted that its very unlikeliness was why it would surprise3 the enemy, and he got his way.
The landing
On 15 September 1950 the UN force seized the harbour island of Wolmido and then stormed ashore2 at Inchon against light opposition, exactly as MacArthur had bet2. Within days a secure beachhead was established and the drive inland began.
The recapture of Seoul
From Inchon the UN forces pushed on to retake the South Korean capital, Seoul, in hard urban fighting4. With the UN now astride their supply lines and the Pusan defenders breaking out to the south, the North Korean army in the south collapsed and fled north2.
Why Inchon mattered
Inchon transformed a war of near-defeat into one of pursuit, and stands as a textbook example of a decisive amphibious operation. The UN advance that followed carried deep into the north, until Chinese intervention and the ordeal at the Chosin Reservoir turned the war again.