At nightfall, another intense artillery barrage began. A mortar attack followed as Chinese troops launched a fierce attack on the lines. Once again, the attack was just an attempt to test the defensive positions. The main attack came at midnight when the Chinese launched a concentrated attack against A Company. Meeting fierce resistance, the Chinese broke off and began assaulting the French units farther down the line. In spite of attempts by the Air Force to resupply the soldiers, ammunition was still dangerously low. And the Chinese attacks began to wear down their positions.
At 2:30 AM, the Chinese attack broke through the lines. With one more push, the Chinese could shatter the defenses and begin cutting off each company from their allies. Once again, the defenders launched a daring counter-attack with machine gun support. Over the next three hours, the UN troops fought desperately as Chinese soldiers swarmed into the gap. Fighting broke down in hand-to-hand combat with rifle butts, bayonets, and even the shovels the troops were issued to dig foxholes. By dawn, the situation looked bleak. The Chinese still held their positions past the perimeter.
The counter-attack had been driven back. After a few hours, Freeman threw everything he could spare at the Chinese positions, including four tanks. Now the Chinese were the ones under siege. For the next two hours, the Chinese managed to hold off the tanks and attack soldiers. Then at 2 PM, the Air Force arrived. American planes began raining napalm from the sky onto the Chinese troops. At the same time, B Company began an all-out attack on their positions. Soon, the Chinese unit had lost almost half of its men. Still, they held out for another two and a half hours.
By late afternoon, twenty tanks from a nearby cavalry regiment arrived to flank the Chinese. In the face of overwhelming odds, the Chinese units finally withdrew. The larger Chinese force began a retreat from Chipyong-ni as UN troops began arriving to reinforce the 23rd. The battle was finally over. The 23rd had somehow managed to survive. 51 men had been killed, and another 250 were wounded. 42 were missing in action. Meanwhile, the Chinese had lost 1,000 killed and 2,000 wounded. The defense was a resounding victory. More importantly, word of the 23rd’s success helped boost morale for the rest of the army.
The Chinese had steadily been driving the UN troops south since they entered the war. With the defense of Chipyon-ni, the allies now knew that the Chinese could be beaten. The Chinese now found themselves being driven back. Over the next year, UN offensives forced the Chinese to the negotiating table. In the years after the war, many historians have argued that the force at Chipyong-ni was exaggerated and that only around 8,000 Chinese troops were actually at the battle. But even if that’s true, the courage shown by the men at Chipyong-ni was still one of the finest defensive actions in military history and in many ways helped save the entire war effort for the South Korean cause.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Leadership in Battle: The Siege At Chipyong-ni”. Lt. Col. Keith Alan Landry. Army Magazine. September 2002.
“Korean War”. Allan R. Millett. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. September 27, 2017
“The Korean War: Restoring the Balance 25 January 8 July 1951”. John J. McGrath. US Army Center of Military History. October 3, 2003.