page_title: Battle of Pusan Perimeter logistics
section_title: Movement to the front lines
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Pusan Perimeter logistics / United Nations logistics / Movement to the front lines
caption_attribution_description: The Pusan-Seoul road and railway, 1950
context_page_description: Logistics in the Battle of Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War played a decisive role in the battle. Efficient logistics, the management of personnel and materiel, supported United Nations supply lines while the North Koreans' routes of supply were steadily reduced and cut off. UN logistics improved throughout the Battle of Inchon and the defeat of the North Korean army at Pusan.
  UN forces, consisting primarily of troops from the Republic of Korea, the United States, and United Kingdom, enjoyed overwhelming air and sea superiority during the battle. The UN efficiently procured and transported supplies from a large stockpile of materiel in nearby Japan.
  In contrast, North Korean logistics were hampered by UN interdiction campaigns which slowed the flow of supplies from North Korea to the battle. Though supported logistically by the Soviet Union and China during the battle, North Koreans often had difficulties getting their supplies from depots to the front lines, leaving North Korean troops unsupported during several crucial engagements.
context_section_description: From Pusan a good railroad system built by the Japanese and well ballasted with crushed rock and river gravel extended northward. Subordinate rail lines ran westward along the south coast through Masan and Chinju and northeast near the east coast to P'ohang-dong. There the eastern line turned inland through the east-central Taebaek Mountains area. The railroads were the backbone of the UN transportation system in Korea.
  The 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of Korean vehicular roads were all of a secondary nature as measured by American or European standards. Even the best of them were narrow, poorly drained, and surfaced only with gravel or rocks broken laboriously by hand, and worked into the dirt roadbed by the traffic passing over. The highest classification placed on any appreciable length of road in Korea by Eighth Army engineers was for a gravel or crushed rock road with gentle grades and curves and one and a half to two lanes wide. According to engineer specifications there were no two-lane roads, 22 feet (6.7 m) wide, in Korea. The average width of the best roads was 18 feet (5.5 m) with numerous bottlenecks at narrow bridges and bypasses where the width narrowed to 11–13 feet (3.4–4.0 m). Often even on these roads there were short stretches having sharp curves and grades up to 15 percent. The Korean road traffic was predominately by oxcart. The road net, like the rail net, was principally north–south, with a few lateral east–west connecting roads.
  US Army logistics units worked continuously during July to organize the train movements from Pusan toward the rail-heads at the front. By July 18 they had established a regular daily schedule of supply trains over two routes, the main Pusan–Taegu–Kumch'on line with a branch line from Kumch'on to Hamch'ang; and the Pusan–Kyongju–Andong single track line up the east coast with a branch line from Kyongju to P'ohang-dong. As the battle front moved swiftly southward, trains after the end of July did not run beyond Taegu and P'ohang-dong. After the North Korean threat developed in the Masan region, a supply train ran daily from Pusan to that city. On July 1 the UN Command controlled 1,404 miles (2,260 km) of rail track in South Korea. By August this had shrunk to 431 miles (694 km) of track.
  In July, 350 mixed trains moved from Pusan toward the front. These included 2,313 freight cars loaded with 69,390 short tons (62,950 t) of supplies. Also leaving Pusan for the front were 71 personnel trains carrying military units and replacements. Among the trains returning to Pusan from the forward area were 38 hospital trains carrying 2,581 patients, and 158 freight cars loaded largely with personal belongings taken by unit commanders from their men in trying to strip them down to only combat needs. Since the Korean railroads had been built by Japan, repair and replacement items could be borrowed from the Japanese National Railways and airlifted to Korea within a very short time after the need for them became known. One of the largest and most important of rail purchases in Japan for use in Korea was 25 standard-gauge locomotives. By August 1 the ROK National Police was responsible for protecting all rail bridges and tunnels. Armed guards, their number varying with the importance of the structures, were stationed at each of them.
  Occasionally, guerrillas would attack trains in rear areas of the Pusan Perimeter, usually in the Yongch'on–Kyongju area in the east or along the lower Naktong in the Samnangjin area. These attacks generally resulted in small numbers of UN casualties and minor damage to rail equipment. The most successful guerrilla attack behind the lines of the Pusan Perimeter occurred on August 11 against a VHF radio relay station on Hill 915, 8 miles (13 km) south of Taegu. A guerrilla force, estimated at 100 men attacked at 05:15, drove off the ROK police and set fire to the buildings. American casualties were two killed, two wounded, and three missing. When a ROK police force reoccupied the area later in the day the guerrillas had pulled back.
  In August the UN also began using K
caption: The main Seoul–Pusan railway and road was integral in bringing supplies to the front.
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