Combat· Korean War
Wonsan Landing
The Wonsan landing was meant to put the 1st Marine Division ashore on Korea's east coast to support the drive north, but it became an anticlimax.
The harbor was so heavily sown with sea mines that weeks of dangerous minesweeping were required before the transports could enter, and the ROK Army advancing overland captured the port from the landward side long before the Marines could land tactically. The result was the troops circling offshore for days awaiting a clear channel, an ordeal the Marines wryly dubbed "Operation Yo-Yo." When the division finally went ashore it was an administrative landing against no opposition, the comedians Bob Hope and his troupe having already performed in the town. Marine aircraft were the first element of the division to reach the objective. The landing's only real cost was the time lost, though it positioned the division for the advance inland that would lead to the reservoir.
Record no. 611