Canadian Naval Operations in Korean Waters, 1950-1955
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CANADIAN NAVAL OPERATIONS IN KOREAN 1950 WATERS – 1955 BY THOR THORGRIMSSON AND E. C. RUSSELL THE NAVAL HISTORICAL SECTION CANADIAN FORCES HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE OTTAWA 1965 NOTE In the writing of this volume the authors have been given full access to relevant official documents in possession of the Department of National Defence; but the inferences drawn and the opinions expressed are those of the authors themselves, and the Department is in no way responsible for their reading or presentation of the facts as stated. © Crown Copyrights reserved Available by mail from the Queen’s Printer, Ottawa, and at the following Canadian Government bookshops: OTTAWA Daly Building, Corner Mackenzie and Rideau TORONTO Mackenzie Building, 36 Adelaide St. East MONTREAL AEterna-Vie Building, 1182 St. Catherine St. West WINNIPEG Mall Center Bldg., 499 Portage Avenue VANCOUVER 657 Granville Avenue or through your bookseller A deposit copy of this publication is also available for reference in public libraries across Canada Price $6.00 Catalogue No. DB3-9265 Price subject to change without notice ROGER DUHAMEL, F.R.S.C. Queen’s Printer and Controller of Stationery Ottawa, Canada 1965 ii Table of Contents PAGE Preface....................................................................................................................... v Bibliographical notes................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER I “Three Ships West”................................................................................................... 1 II From Pusan to the Yalu............................................................................................. 11 III The Chinese Intervention .......................................................................................... 29 IV Stopping the Chinese................................................................................................. 39 V Offensive and Counter Offensive Ashore ................................................................. 49 VI The Island Campain Begins ...................................................................................... 59 VII Defending the “Friendly Islands”.............................................................................. 67 VIII Mainly in the Haeju-Man .......................................................................................... 87 IX Stalemate on the “Island Front” ................................................................................ 103 X “Trainbusting” on the East Coast .............................................................................. 117 XI The Uneasy Truce ..................................................................................................... 129 APPENDIX A Organization, Administration and Supply of the RCN Destroyers in Korean Theatre.................................................................................................................. 135 B Senior Officers of the Canadian Destroyers in the Far East 1950-1955.................... 140 C Service of HMC Ships in Korean Waters.................................................................. 141 D Honours and Awards for Service by Officers and Men of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Korean Theatre, 1950-1955 ........................................................................ 142 E The Command Organization, UN Naval Forces, Korea, 19 February to 3 April, 1951 ...................................................................................................................... 144 F The Command Organization, UN Naval Forces, Korea, 10 April, 1951 .................. 145 G Organization of Task Group 95.1 on the West Coast of Korea, Effective 1 January, 1953 ...................................................................................................................... 146 H Biliography................................................................................................................ 147 I DiagramPeriods of Service of HMC Destroyers in Korea Waters........................ 154 J Glossary of Technical Terms and Abbreviations ...................................................... 155 INDEX ................................................................................................................................... 157 iii Preface On 30 July, 1950, the three Canadian destroyers however been kept as much as possible in the Cayuga, Athabaskan and Sioux arrived at Sasebo, background, and this in spite of the fact that a small Japan, under orders to join the United Nations forces naval force operating at a great distance from its home fighting in Korea. Under the conditions that existed in bases is inevitably faced with many problems which the Korean theatre during almost the entire period of would not be encountered, at least in so acute a form, active hostilities, it would often have been most under ordinary conditions of service. inconvenient to maintain the three Canadian destroyers But one very important feature of RCN activities in as a single operational formation, and hence it came Korean waters cannot be entirely neglected, and that is about that seldom did HMC ships there operate as a the problem of supply. The difficulties caused by a division under their own divisional commander. shortage of certain radar or sonar parts or the lack of a Necessary as this arrangement may have been, it particular nut or bolt usually loomed much larger than makes things rather awkward for the historian. When such administrative problems as pay, discipline and writing of the role of the Royal Canadian Navy in the drafting. A short chapter on Canadian naval logistics in Korean operations, instead of dealing with the activities the Far East has therefore been written and is included of a single force, he must perforce, if he aspires to as an appendix. completeness, tell the stories of all the individual ships. The completed manuscript was read by a large Such a history would be very long and often, it must be number of persons, most of them naval officers who admitted, exceedingly tedious, since much of the served in the Korean theatre, and to these we owe a destroyers’ time was taken up in entirely uneventful large debt. Their constructive criticisms have escort duties, carrier screening and inshore patrol appreciably decreased the number of errors both of fact missions. One way of solving the problem would be to and interpretation in the book. Those errors that remain make the history episodic in nature, consisting of a are of course the sole responsibility of the authors. series of descriptions of the more noteworthy episodes Because the officers to whom we are indebted are so in which our ships were involved. But interesting as very many, it is impracticable to list them all. But the some of the episodes might be, even a very large fact that we do not thank them by name does not mean number of anecdotes strung together would not that our gratitude to them is the less. constitute a history of the Royal Canadian Navy’s destroyers in Korea. We thank also our colleagues and the clerical staff in the Naval Historical Section for the help they have The logical solution of the difficulty, and the one given. that has been adopted, is to compromise. In the following pages an attempt will be made to provide, within the framework of a general account of the main THOR THORGRIMSSON, conflict, both an episodic account of the activities of Naval Historical Officer. the individual destroyers, including a proportion of the routine operations, and a general outline of the history E. C. RUSSELL, of the Destroyer Division itself. The Naval Historian. This history of the Canadian destroyers in Korea is primarily an operational history, but of course it has Naval Historical Section, been necessary to mention on occasion such aspects Ottawa, as administration and logistics. These features have Canada. v Bibliography MANUSCRIPT SOURCES involved, the aim of keeping the footnotes to a minimum has been adopted. The source for any The principal sources for this account of the Canadian statement of fact concerning the Canadian destroyers destroyers in Korean waters are the volumes of is, unless otherwise stated, the relevant Report of manuscript reports, letters, memoranda and messages Proceedings. held by the Department of National Defence, Ottawa. The most useful single series of files is that PRINTED SOURCES containing the Reports of Proceedings of the individual ships, supplemented by the Reports submitted at the For that part of the text which deals with the end of each tour of duty by the various Commanders of Korean conflict as a whole, a considerable number the Canadian destroyer force. The reports of printed sources have been consulted, and these are submitted by Captain (now Rear-Admiral) J. V. all, together with others that have come to our Brock, D.S.O., D.S.C., C.D., RCN, and Captain attention, listed in the bibliography included as (now a retired Commodore) James Plomer, O.B.E., Appendix J. D.S.C. and Bar, C.D., RCN, are particularly The bibliography of printed sources does not aim at informative. Several general Reports on Korean completeness as naturally it is heavily weighted on the experiences submitted by individual Commanding naval side. Little use, for instance, has been made of Officers are also of great historical value. Army and Air Force periodicals, while naval In addition to these sources the Korean files of such periodicals have been extensively