The Chinese in the Korean War

One of the projects I’m working on these days is a documentary film about a Utah National Guard battalion that fought several major battles in the Korean War and yet returned home miraculously with no fatalities. I’ve written about the 213 Field Artillery Battalion here before, but today, I thought I’d bring you up-to-date on what we are finding in our background research for the film.

Lately, we’ve been looking at the “enemy” — the Chinese unit that was so beaten up by the Utah National Guard. In one battle, the Second Battle of Gapyeong, on May 26, 1951, the Utah battalion, actually two batteries of the battalion, faced a surprise attack from a Chinese division, or at least a regiment or two of that division, maybe 4,000 soldiers. There were 240 on the Utah side, and though greatly outnumbered and caught off-guard by the surprise attack in the middle of the night, and though they had to fight with their small arms and machine guns — they couldn’t use their artillery in those close quarters — the Utah soldiers were able to kill 350 Chinese and capture 831 prisoners, without a single fatality on the Utah side — “the Miracle of Gapyeong.”

In doing the research on the film, we were struck by the statement of one of the Utah soldiers in regard to the Chinese prisoners. He said they had called the Chinese by a pejorative word and dehumanized the enemy — which is common in war. But he said when they took the prisoners, they looked at their belongings and found many had a wallet with pictures of family at home. There was a mother, father, brothers and sisters and sometimes a picture of a girlfriend. The Utah National Guard soldier said, “They were just like us.”

This was a rare touch of humanity amid the chaos and violence of war. “They are just like us.” A true revelation.

In looking at the unit from which most of the soldiers were captured we found remarkable parallels in the Chinese unit and the Utah unit. The Chinese division was the 180th. They were from rural Sichuan province, western China. Utah is in the western United States and is rural.

The Chinese unit was mobilized in October 1951. The Utah National Guard was called up, mobilized, in October 1951. The Chinese unit was sent from Sichuan to Hubei for training in preparation for entering the Korean War. The Utah unit was sent to Seattle for training to go to Korea. The Chinese unit appeared on the north of the Amnok River in January 1951. The Utah unit arrived in Busan in January 1951.

Then, as part of the Chinese Spring Offensive, also called the Fifth Offensive, the Chinese 180th Division and several other divisions of the 60th Chinese Army met in combat in April and May of 1951. The Chinese broke through the defenses set up by the ROK 6th Infantry Division, north of Gapyeong in late April. The Chinese were trying to retake Seoul — they had taken Seoul in January and lost it in February. Gapyeong was the easternmost of four natural “avenues” into Seoul. And though the Chinese broke through, they could not make the right-hand turn into Seoul but rather pushed a little further south, crossing the Bukhan River, where, in May, they were met by the ROK 6th Division and several U.N. units and severely beaten up.

The defeat of the Chinese Army at Mount Yongmun, southeast of Gapyeong, is one of the great stories of victory by the ROK forces and the U.N. Forces. The 6th Division, which had collapsed and ran in April, was able to reconstitute itself and gain reinforcements such that it was they who led the charge against the Chinese in May. The story of the Sixth Division is one of the great stories of the Korean War. The defeat of the Chinese forces at Mount Yongmun in May marked the last great effort of the Chinese in the war. Thereafter, they made no other significant attacks until one last futile effort in July 1953, just before the armistice was signed.

It was retreating Chinese forces that ran into the 213th Field Artillery Battalion of the Utah National Guard. Fighting for their lives, they must have fought harder than in the thrust of the first invasion. Though retreating, they had seen many comrades fall and knew that they must fight or die when they ran into the 213th. However, the boys of the 213th fought ferociously through the night so that by morning light, many of the Chinese were killed, and one escaping group faced fire in the path of its retreat. They had to put up their hands and hope they could survive as prisoners — 831 of them.

It was these prisoners, who, opening their belongings and revealing pictures from home that made the Utah soldier say, “They’re just like us.” A touch of humanity amidst the brutality of war.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is a professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.