Sometimes
Google fails you. A couple of weeks ago I found a reference to an
amphibious invasion during the Korean war in a document. Any combination
of Googling brings up one of two results. The Inchon landings or modern
stories about North Korea. Luckily,
I managed to get back down to the archives and get some more documents
and details. What follows is the Communist amphibious invasion of Changin Do.
Changin
Do is one of the many islands in the estuary of the Yalu River. At sea
the Communist forces didn't have much to challenge the UN naval power,
although these ships couldn't be everywhere. On land the allies used advisor's
to lead local Korean guerilla forces. These US Special forces
reconnaissance teams were run under an operation codenamed HEMONG.
Irritatingly the reports all use period terminology and codenames, and
one of the leaders of an operation in the area is only referred to as
"LEOPARD", without giving a clue who LEOPARD is. Equally there are areas
of operation and they're all referred to by their code names, same with
locations, which makes the modern-day
historian really confused. Which, I guess is the entire point, you
don't want the uninitiated from guessing what you're talking about.
The communist forces were conducting an island hopping campaign using three motor and eleven sailing Junks, with about a battalion of troops to fight for control of the islands. These had by July 1952 pushed the HEMONG teams back.
Changin
Do lay near the mainland, and was considered a prime place by LEOPARD
as a jumping off point for his teams and agents. Equally if it was
captured the neighbouring islands of Kirin Do, Ohwa Do and Sunwi Do (I'm sure you've spotted it, but Do = Island) would be unsupportable and fall. Changin Do had already changed hand several times. If this cluster of islands fell then the strategically important Paingyong Do would be under threat.
About 0200, 15th of July about 300 North Korean Army troops had landed on Changin
Do. Although after the battle it was estimated that the number was half
the reported 300. The landing force was carried in two sailing Junks
and four foldable boats. The latter were about 15 feet long, 5 feet wide
and just three feet deep. They were made out of rubber and light woods,
with an outboard motor on them. An LMG could be mounted forwards. To
carry them eight men would be needed per craft, or three could be loaded
into an Ox cart. The outboard motor was too
powerful for the construction however, and caused the boat to shake and
leak as it was used. These had been used elsewhere and were of interest
to the Allied intelligence as they'd never ever recovered a sample.
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| HMS Belfast |
The first reports of the islands capture reached Allied naval forces about 0915, the two nearest ships were quite famous ones. HMS Belfast, whom had been heading back to base to refuel, and HMS Amethyst, of the River Yangtze fame. These two ships immediately steamed at best speed for the captured island, with HMS Belfast arriving first at 1000 and HMS Amethyst arriving shortly afterwards. Both ships launched a boat apiece, armed with machine guns and a few Royal Marines. They were dispatched towards the beach where the enemy were estimated to have landed, with the intention of obtaining a sample of the folding boats. As the two boats approached they saw a large number of civilians taking cover in caves, and turned towards them, however the communist forces were also there. The communists were on the top of the cliffs above the caves, and they began to fire at the boats with everything they had including mortars. The Royal Marine boats broke away and returned to their parent ships, with only one marine wounded through the leg.
On its way back,
the boat for HMS Belfast picked up a naked Korean from a small rocky
islet. He was a local who had ferried DONKEY agents about. He had been
carrying two agents overnight
and had run into the Communist forces just after landing the agents,
they had chased him, and to escape he had swum out to the rock where he
had lain exhausted.
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| HMS Amethyst |
At this point LEOPARD decided to mount an operation to re-capture the island with local forces, but it wouldn't be ready until the morning of the 16th. The Royal Navy ships
were asked to hold station and keep the sea lanes secure. About 1645
while sailing around the island, a battery of 76mm guns on the mainland
began to fire at HMS Amethyst. Sensibly she retreated, while returning
fire. One of her shells caused a secondary explosion and one hostile gun
ceased to fire on her. During the run to be outside the batteries
range, which was some 12000 yards, about 45 rounds were fired at her,
some landing as close as 20 yards. In return HMS Amethyst sent back some
78 rounds. HMS Belfast in the meantime couldn't see the battery, due to Changin
Do being in the way. But she could reach the site with her main guns.
HMS Amethyst walked the fire onto the target and with just 26 silenced
the battery.
A
similar incident occurred about 1945, when a battery began to fire
directly onto HMS Belfast, getting some twenty rounds off, but the
nearest was seen to land about 200 yards away. HMS Belfast didn't miss,
and one salvo silenced the enemy battery.
As darkness began to approach the South Korean patrol boat 702 (Named the Kum Kang San) appeared. Belfast had ordered her to attend to help with the blockade as shallows between the island and the mainland were no go areas for HMS Belfast or HMS Amethyst. The PC 702 along with HMS Belfast's armed boats blockaded this area all night.
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| Patrol Boat 702 |
The next morning was planned for the 200 guerillas to land from Ohwa Do. Transport problems occurred straight away. The guerillas only had one motor junk, and it was only using 1.5 of its normal cylinders, the others being broken, and was being used to tow sailing junks. The previous night the two US advisors had arrived and asked for a tow from the British ships, but they'd all been needed to blockade the island. As dawn broke the channel element couldn't remain under the enemy guns and so was withdrawn, with PC702 being sent to tow the junks. The tow rope however, was rubbish. Rotted through it kept on breaking as soon as PC702 started to move, as she couldn't actually go slow enough to pull the other junks. So LEOPARD's motor junk had to resume meaning that the landing was some 3.5 hours past its time. This actually proved a boon as due to the delay planes from the USS Bataan were able to arrive to provide close air support. The guerrillas split up into two companies and began to move opposite ways around the island, supported all the way by air strikes and point-blank gun fire from the warships. This liberal amount of support actually worked against the counter attack, when about 1000 the main defensive position was reached. The North Koreans were dug in on ah hill that dominated the entire island. Both HMS Belfast and the air strikes tried to blast the communists out of their position but failed. However, the guerillas wouldn't assault as they thought it wasn't their job. To that end after two hours of bombardment, at 1200, the planes from the USS Bataan were called off, and HMS Belfast left the area to complete her refuelling. The withdrawal of most of the support had the desired effect, one of the companies of guerillas encircled the enemy position and then both attacked. After five hours of fighting the position was silenced and the island was back in Allied hands.
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| USS Bataan |
HMS
Belfast was back on the scene about 1800, and overnight she and HMS
Amethyst provided medical support to the wounded from the fighting. HMS
Amethyst even had a US doctor flown on board to assist the ships medical
personnel, and some fifteen personnel (including one of the US
advisor's and a female) were treated. There was one more incident, PC702
was back patrolling the channel overnight when she found six North
Korean soldiers swimming for the mainland. In an incredible quirk of fate, the captain
of PC702 knew the officer in charge of the group, they had gone to
school together, however as he was an ardent communist he had joined the
North Koreans. Of the 156 North Koreans landed, 80 were killed, 42
captured, thirty drowned while trying to regain the main land by
swimming, and five unaccounted for.
Now
I'm going to try something different. Sometimes I have extra
information related to a story. But it would make the article too long.
For that reason, I have set up a Patreon
where I can put the bonus material. This is in part to deal with some
of the costs of this work (which up until now I've been paying out of my
own pocket).
Don't
worry I'm not going to put the ending of the article behind a pay wall
or anything like that. You will still get a complete story every week
free. However occasionally I will stick some extra details up on the Patreon.
Today is a perfect example of what I mean. The main article above is
already nearly 1500 words long, which is close to the point when I'd cut
it into two articles. However, I still have the story of an earlier invasion of Korean islands by communist forces,
the fate of LEOPARD's motor junk and HMS Belfast getting ambushed a
week later. While related, they are not part of this story, and too short to make a full article out of. Therefore I've placed the stories of LEOPARD's junk and the earlier North Korean Amphibious raid on Patreon. Later this week, Wednesday most likely, I'll post up the HMS Belfast incident on my Facebook page (which I recommend you follow as there are changes afoot).
