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113th Mechanised Infantry Division

The 113th Mechanised Infantry Division is subordinated to the 38th Group Army in the Beijing Military Region. At the time of the Korean War, the 113th Division was part of the 38th Army. The Division had a standard strength of approximately 8,000-10,000 men, and consisted of the 337th, 338th, and 339th Regiments, each with a standard strength of approximately 8,000-10,000 men. Despite China's non-interference policy, since the end of WWII, more Chinese soldiers have died on foreign soil than Russia, France, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) combined. These casualties are mainly suffered during two wars, the Korean War (1950-1953) and the First Sino-Vietnam War (1979). Despite Chinese claims of brilliant strategic performances, the high casualty rates suggest severe tactical failings.

China's entry into Korea on 19 October 1950 marked one of the highlights in PLA history. The Chinese managed to field the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 42nd Armies largely undetected and laid a trap for the US/UN forces. The People's Volunteer Army (PVA) managed to destroy several elements of the South Korean army as well as inflicted large damages on several international brigades. Yet, the operational requirements were far more ambitious. They meant to destroy the American 8th Army and the First Marine Expeditionary Force (1st MEF).

Combat operations commenced on 25 October 1950. The brunt of the renewed Chinese attacks fell on the exposed US 2d Infantry Division. The 2d Division alone took almost 4,500 battle casualties from 15 to 30 November, most occurring after the twenty-fifth. It lost almost a third of its strength. In a series of brilliant covert placements, the PLA managed to capture Unson on 02 November 1950 at a cost of around 10,000 casualties. However, significant American and United Nations (UN) Forces, the South Korean 8th Division and the US 24th Infantry Division escaped the traps.

The battles along the Ch’ongch’on River were a major defeat for the US Eighth Army and a mortal blow to the hopes of MacArthur and others for the reunification of Korea by force of arms. On 25 November 1950, the PLA began their ambitious campaigns by surrounding both the 8th Army and the 1st MEF. By 27 November 1950 two Chinese Armies, the 42d and 38th, were pouring through the broken ROK lines to US Eighth Army’s east and threatening to envelop the entire force.

The US 5th Cavalry started the morning of the 29th, moving south over a road from Kaech'oh, five miles east of Kunu-ri. Near the village of Samsori, seven miles below Kaech'on, about a hundred Chinese of the PLA's 113th Division in the bordering high ground opened small arms and machine gun fire on the intelligence and reconnaissance platoon leading the regiment. Only the platoon sergeant and three men escaped. The 2d Battalion, following the platoon, deployed in the high ground on both sides of the road and attacked south to clear the enemy block but encountered an even larger force and failed to advance. Reforming on the road, the cavalrymen bypassed the enemy roadblock and proceeded toward Sunch'on. Because of this entanglement at Samso-ri, the regiment was still assembling near Sunch'on long after dark on the 28th.

The cavalrymen estimated the force they had encountered at anywhere from a battalion to a regiment, but even the top estimate was only half what the Chinese intended to emplace there. When the 38th Army had turned west to exploit the collapse of the ROK II Corps, Li had ordered the entire army to occupy the Samso-ri area and cut off UNC forces withdrawing via roads leading south out of Kunu-ri. Colonel Peploe's quick action in turning the 38th Infantry to refuse the army flank and General Walker's employment of the Turkish brigade at Wawon apparently had pulled most of the 38th away.

On the 28th, in any event, just two regiments of the 113th Division remained under orders to block the roads below Kunu-ri. But two regiments in a well-set ambuscade could raise havoc with any withdrawing US Eighth Army column, and their most likely victim, since it probably would move south from Kunu-ri in any future withdrawal, was the 2d Division. The PLA's 113th Division captured Samso-ri, soth of the Ch'ongch'on River, on 28 November, cutting the UN's retreat to Sunchon while the Marines were surrounded at Choisin, in an attempt to surround and destroy all UN forces in North Korea. Neither action was successful in containing the American forces. The UN forces were able to fight their way through Chinese lines and evacuate. The 8th Army broke through and regrouped south of the 38th Parallel and the Marines escaped via sealift.