4+Advancing+in+Another+Direction

Eventually the demons of MacArthur's arrogance would catch up with him. In October of 1950, with U.N. troops nearing its border, the Chinese sent a vast number of "volunteer" troops to aid the North Koreans. As one historian noted, "By mid-October, just across the Yalu River from North Korea, Peng Dehuai had assembled about 400,000 troops from the CCFs Third and Fourth field armies. On October 18, with his command staff, he crossed the Yalu River to join Kim at Sheng Fang Tung, about fifteen miles south of Kanggye. From here, Peng and Kim would direct the war against the U.N. forces" (Wainstock 75).
 * China Enters the War**



With the massive addition of Chinese troops in Korea U.N. troops were taken entirely by surprise. All across the allied lines near the Yalu River troops were in retreat. The Chinese troops were brutally effective in overrunning U.N. forces as, "Their goal was to "fractionalize" (break into smaller units) the enemy force" (Wainstock 76). Few troops remained in tact, and at one point an entire Marine division was surrounded at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. As one officer reported, " Snow blanketed the plateau, canteens froze and burst, and night temperatures plummeted to -25° F. The extreme cold brought frostbite and respiratory disease, adversely affected the operation of weapons and equipment, and made digging foxholes in the frozen earth a six-to-eight-hour affair" (Wainstock 80). For two weeks allied troops struggled through the harsh conditions until they managed to break free and reach other U.N. troops who had retreated to the south. General MacArthur called the organized retreat by U.N. forces as, "Advancing in another direction." In time the Chinese would cross the 38th Parallel only to be repelled by a regrouped allied force. Eventually, the war would become a seesaw stalemate across the 38th Parallel.