Task Force Faith

Task Force Faith (also called Task Force MacLean/Faith, or the 31st Regimental Combat Team) was a U.S. Army unit destroyed in fighting at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War between 27 November and 2 December, 1950. Initially known as Task Force(TF)MacLean, for its first commander, Colonel Allan MacLean, it was composed primarily of infantry, artillery, and tank units from the U.S. 7th Infantry Division, numbering approximately 3,000 soldiers.

Purpose and Composition

The task force was created as part of the final U.N. offensive to occupy all of North Korea and end the war. In the X Corps area of northeastern Korea, the main effort would be made by the 1st Marine Division, attacking northwest from the Chosin Reservoir. The 7th Infantry Division was ordered by Lieutenant General Ned Almond, X Corps commander, to provide a regiment sized force to guard the Marines' east(right)flank, by occupying the east side of the reservoir. This force would also attack north to the Yalu River, the boundary between North Korea and China, once the offensive began.

In earlier operations 7th Division units had become widely spread out and isolated from each other in the rugged, mountainous terrain and primitive road network of the region. This made it impossible to assemble a full-strength task force in time, or to effectively coordinate its operations with the Marines on the south and western sides of the Chosin Reservoir.

Nevertheless, by November 27th, TF MacLean had arrived in positions along a ten mile stretch down the east side of the reservoir. Comprised of the 3/31st and 1/32nd infantry battalions, two batteries of the 57th Field Artillery Battalion, and one platoon of D Battery, 15th Antiaircraft Battalion, it was short one infantry battalion and a tank company, both of which were expected to arrive soon. Basic defensive positions were established, but the Americans, not expecting enemy activity, did not set up a tight perimeter with 360 degree security. Colonel MacLean planned to attack north the following morning.

Chinese attacks / Isolation

However, during the night of 27/28th November, powerful Chinese forces - which had infiltrated the area undetected - made a surprise attack on the task force as well as the Marines, inflicting heavy casualties and forcing the postponement, though not the cancellation, of the planned offensive. The following afternoon General Almond visited the task force by light plane. Dismissing the Chinese as "laundrymen," he re-scheduled the attack for the 29th, and handed out a few medals. Although large numbers of Chinese troops were seen moving south all day, on the hills east of the task force position, it did not cause U.S. officers to change their view of the situation. MacLean still expected reinforcements: his third infantry battalion and the 31st Tank Company.

The reinforcements did not arrive. The Chinese had - unbeknownst to MacLean - completely surrounded the task force, cutting it off from the south, where they established a strong roadblock a few miles north of the Marine base at Hagaru-ri. When the tank company reached the south end of the reservoir, and moved north past Hagaru-ri, it was stopped by the Chinese roadblock, losing several tanks to enemy fire. The next day, it tried again, this time with scratch infantry support from headquarters and service troops of the 31st Infantry and 57th Field Artillery, but was again beaten back. This force then returned to the position they had occupied at Hudong, north of Hagaru-ri, about four miles south of Task Force MacLean.

The Marines - surrounded and under heavy attack themselves - had been unable to give assistance to the Army relief effort. MacLean's expected infantry battalion never made it to the Chosin area at all. Radio communications between the task force and the outside world failed completely. MacLean, unaware that reinforcements were not coming, also had no way of telling higher headquarters his situation.

During the night of 28/29 November, the Chinese again struck the task force, overruning several positions, again inflicting many casualties. Conditions were rapidly deteriorating, including the weather. The temperature plunged as low as 30 degrees below zero, as heavy snow fell, impeding mobility. Visibility was low and the troops were suffering from the intense cold(several men froze to death in their foxholes). Colonel MacLean decided to pull his lead battalion, the 1/32 Infantry, back into the perimeter of his other units a few miles to the south, to provide a stronger defense.

During the course of the withdrawal, MacLean saw what he thought were his long awaited reinforcements, but as he approached them they turned out to be Chinese, who shot MacLean several times and took him prisoner. He died several days later. Lieutenant-colonel Don Faith, commander of the 1/32nd, now took command. Reaching the southern position, he consolidated the task force into one defensive perimeter as the Chinese intensified their attacks. With the assistance of Marine Corps air support - without which it would have been overwhelmed - the task force fought off heavy Chinese assaults for another two days, inflicting severe losses on the communist forces, who left many hundreds of bodies in the snow around the Army position.

Breakout attempt

However, the Americans were running low on ammunition and over half their number had been killed or wounded, including a high proportion of key leaders. Faith, realizing he was surrounded and outnumbered(the Chinese 80th Division, opposing TF Faith, comprised 7,000 to 8,000 troops), decided to attempt a breakout to the south, toward Marine lines. The situation was now so desperate that only a minimum of equipment and sufficient vehicles to carry the wounded would be taken, freeing more soldiers to fight as infantry. The rest would be destroyed in place, including the artillery's howitzers after they fired their last rounds.

The breakout began on December 1st, greatly aided by Marine F4U Corsair fighter-bombers which strafed and bombed Chinese positions as the American truck column, encumbered with hundreds of wounded and under constant attack, made its way down a gravel road on the east side of Chosin Reservoir.

The march south was interrupted when the Corsairs mistakenly bombed too short, spraying the lead platoons of the task force with napalm, killing and burning a number of troops. In the late afternoon, Faith got the column moving again, albeit slowly, until it approached a Chinese position on a hill which overlooked a strong roadblock. Several units attacked the hill trying to clear it. As Faith organized an assault on the roadblock, he was hit by an enemy grenade and badly wounded.

Destruction

At this point, darkness closed in. Task Force Faith began to disintegrate. Almost all of its officers and sergeants were dead or seriously wounded. An attack was made on the hill which cleared part of it, but many of the leaderless soldiers, instead of returning to the column, continued out onto the frozen reservoir, immediately behind the hill, and walked on the ice toward Marine positions several miles to the south, seeking safety.

The roadblock at the base of the hill was finally removed and the truck column again crept forward in the dark, but was finally halted by another Chinese roadblock just north of Hudong. The U.S. troops previously occupying Hudong - who might have saved the task force - had been ordered back to Hagaru-ri the previous day(an action which remains controversial).

Here the Chinese renewed their attack, swarming among the trucks, throwing white phosphorus grenades into vehicles loaded with wounded, setting many of them on fire, killing hundreds. Lieutenant-colonel Faith, hit again by rifle fire, died of his wounds around this time(he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor). The remaining American soldiers abandoned the truck convoy and attempted to escape individually, many crossing onto the ice of the reservoir.

Casualties

During the night of 1/2 December, several hundred survivors of the task force reached Marine positions south of the reservoir at Hagaru-ri. More were rescued the following day by Marine jeep patrols. Of the 2,500 troops trapped by the Chinese north of the roadblock, about 1,500 eventually made it back to American lines, the large majority of them wounded or badly frostbitten. Roughly 300 able-bodied survivors were formed into a provisional battalion which was attached to the Marines and fought with them in the breakout of the 1st Marine Division during the remainder of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. Over 1,000 soldiers of Task Force Faith were killed or died in Chinese captivity.

Casualties for the Chinese 80th Division are not known with precision, but are believed to be extremely heavy, numbering in the thousands. The division did not reappear on the battlefield until March, 1951.

Aftermath / Significance

Task Force Faith was the largest American unit destroyed, and Colonel MacLean was the highest ranking American officer killed in action, in the Korean War.

The majority of survivors, suffering from wounds and/or frostbite, were evacuated to hospitals in Japan. 7th Division units comprising the task force were soon reconstituted, going back into battle in February, 1951.

The presence and fate of the Army troops east of Chosin in November/December, 1951, is not well known. Many works on the Chosin Reservoir campaign tend to overlook or minimize their role. Also overlooked is that Task Force MacLean/Faith accomplished its mission. It successfully guarded the right flank of the 1st Marine Division, protecting it from Chinese attack for four days. If not for the presence of the task force, the Chinese 80th Division might have captured the key Marine base and air-strip at Hagaru-ri before the Marines had concentrated sufficient units to defend it. This would have blocked the only escape route for the Marines and other Army forces, leading to a significantly different outcome for the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.

Sources

• Appleman, Roy, EAST OF CHOSIN: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950, Texas A&M University Press, College Station(1987)

• Blair, Clay, THE FORGOTTEN WAR, Times Books, NY(1987)