On 27 November 1950 the US X Corps began an offensive west from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. After dark, in subzero cold, Chinese divisions struck the 1st Marine Division at Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri and the Army's Task Force MacLean east of the reservoir. The Army task force was destroyed, but the Marines fought their way back to the coast, and the Chinese failed to destroy the division.
An offensive into the mountains
After the Inchon landing, X Corps had landed in northeastern Korea in late October. General Douglas MacArthur ordered it to push inland with the 1st Marine and 7th Infantry Divisions to the Chosin Reservoir, the Changjin of Korean maps, and then west, an advance of 55 miles over a single unpaved road through the mountains in freezing weather. The Marine commander, Major General Oliver P. Smith, called the plan rash and used every pause to strengthen the base at Hagaru-ri and build an airstrip there.1
Chinese armies had already struck the Eighth Army in the west on the night of 25 November, but the X Corps offensive went ahead on 27 November as planned. The 5th and 7th Marines attacked from Yudam-ni on the west side of the reservoir and gained only about 1,500 yards against stiff resistance. East of the reservoir stood Task Force MacLean, the Army's 31st Regimental Combat Team, some 3,200 men including about 700 South Korean soldiers.2 › Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River, 1950
The night attack
After dark the Chinese struck. The Army Historical Foundation's account, by Matthew Seelinger, relates that three Chinese divisions hit the Marines at Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri, two of them attacking the 5th and 7th Marines head-on while a third cut the road between the two places, and a fourth division, the 80th, fell on Task Force MacLean at about ten at night. East of the reservoir the task force was virtually annihilated over the following days: Colonel Allan MacLean was lost, and Lieutenant Colonel Don Faith, who took over, was mortally wounded leading the breakout and later received the Medal of Honor. Seelinger writes that just over 1,000 survivors reached the Marine lines, only 385 of them fit to fight, and that the task force had held up the Chinese east of the reservoir for five days.3
Britannica notes that the Chinese did not achieve their aim of isolating and destroying the 1st Marine Division, which instead carried out one of the most storied fighting withdrawals in American military history, and that the campaign forced X Corps to evacuate to South Korea. The whole campaign is told in our article on the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.4
