page_title: UN offensive into North Korea
section_title: Advance to Ch'ongch'on (22–24 October)
hierarchical_section_title: UN offensive into North Korea / Offensive / Advance to Ch'ongch'on (22–24 October)
caption_attribution_description: English: UN offensive into North Korea, 20-24 October 1950
context_page_description: The UN offensive into North Korea was a large-scale offensive in late 1950 by United Nations forces against North Korean forces.
  On 27 September near Osan UN forces coming from Inchon linked up with UN forces that had broken out of the Pusan Perimeter and began a general counteroffensive. The North Korean Korean People's Army had been shattered and its remnants were fleeing back towards North Korea. The UN Command then decided to pursue the KPA into North Korea, completing their destruction and unifying the country. On 30 September Republic of Korea Army forces crossed the 38th Parallel, the de facto border between North and South Korea on the east coast of the Korean peninsula and this was followed by a general UN offensive into North Korea. Within one month UN forces were approaching the Yalu River, prompting Chinese intervention in the war. Despite the initial Chinese attacks in late October-early November, the UN renewed their offensive on 24 November before it was abruptly halted by massive Chinese intervention in the Second Phase Offensive starting on 25 November.
context_section_description: Even as the 187th RCT landed at Sukch'on, the Eighth Army intelligence officer was preparing his estimate that the North Koreans would be incapable of making more than a token defense of the Ch'ongch'on River barrier, 45 miles (72 km) north of Pyongyang. He predicted that the KPA withdrawal would continue on to the north along the axes of two rail and highway routes, the first bending to the right and leading northeast from Sinanju and Anju on the Ch'ongch'on through Huich'on to Kanggye deep in the rugged mountains of central North Korea, 22 miles (35 km) from the Yalu River; and the second, the west coastal route, bending left and running northwest from the Ch'ongch'on River to Sinuiju near the mouth of the Yalu River at the Manchurian border.
  North Korean radio on 21 October announced that Premier Kim Il Sung's government had established a new capital at Sinuiju, on the south bank of the Yalu and opposite the Chinese city of Andong on the north bank. But the North Korean capital soon moved on to Kanggye, and it was there in the mountains that the remnants of the North Korean Government and military power assembled. The Kanggye-Manp'ojin area, mountainous in the extreme and heavily wooded, was an ideal area in which to fight defensive delaying actions. It had been a stronghold of Korean guerrilla operations during Japanese rule. Many crossings of the Yalu were near at hand, it was centrally located, and it had lateral road communications to both northeast and northwest Korea.
  On 22 October, C Company, 6th Medium Tank Battalion, designated Task Force Elephant, started from Pyongyang by way of Sunch'on for Kujang-dong to block the railroad there. Passing through Sunch'on, the task force arrived at its objective at 22:00 and then turned west to Kunu-ri, 20 miles (32 km) downstream in the valley of the Ch'ongch'on. The ROK 1st Division followed behind the task force. The ROK recovered 40 escaped American prisoners whom they evacuated at once to Pyongyang. Two more escaped prisoners came in at Kunu-ri the next morning, 23 October. That afternoon, a sergeant of the ROK 6th Division found the bodies of 28 American prisoners on the railroad track, and 3 men still alive, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Kujang-dong. On 23 October General Paik led his division from Kunu-ri down the valley of the Ch'ongch'on. Near Anju, D Company tanks knocked out two T-34 tanks and two self-propelled guns, and captured one tank intact. Just before noon, a platoon of tanks seized the damaged wooden bridge over the Ch'ongch'on River 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Anju. A tank patrol continued downstream to Sinanju, which it found deserted and the bridges there across the Ch'ongch'on destroyed. Repair of the Anju bridge began at once and continued through the night. By 09:00 on 24 October wheeled traffic, including 2½-ton trucks, could cross on it. During that morning a reconnaissance party found a tank ford 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the bridge, and the 6th Medium Tank Battalion crossed the river there. All three regiments of the ROK 1st Division crossed the Ch'ongch'on on 23–24 October. The division then attacked northeast toward Unsan.
  Complying with I Corps' order to continue the advance beyond Pyongyang, advance elements of the 24th Division arrived in an assembly area north of the city on the evening of 22 October, and there the division assumed control of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, the 89th Medium Tank Battalion, and the 90th Field Artillery Battalion. Meanwhile, the British Brigade had hurried on northward from Sukch'on. On 23 October it arrived at Sinanju only a few hours after the ROK 1st Division tank patrol entered the town. It also secured the airstrip 5 miles (8.0 km) to the southwest. By this time the 24th Division completed
  its move to Sunan, 12 miles (19 km) north of Pyongyang. The Ch'ongch'on River at Sinanju, not far from the sea, is wide, has 12 feet (3.7 m) tides, and deep mud along its edges. On the 24th the British Middlesex 1st Battalion started crossing in assault boats. The rest of the brigade and the vehicles crossed tha
caption: UN offensive into North Korea, 20–24 October 1950
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