Guns Up, Naval Action in the Yellow Sea off Korea, 1950-1953

As the Korean Conflict wore on, frigates, destroyer escorts, cruisers, and battleships of the U.S. Navy, and combatant ships from eight other navies of the United Nations, plus the Republic of Korea Navy, fought a bitter war along the coastlines. Off the west coast of the peninsula, warships operated in treacherous waters of the Yellow Sea, navigating channels between tightly clustered islands close to the mainland. Fluctuating thirty-foot tides, sequentially hid and revealed mud banks, shoals, uncharted rocks, and mines laid in these dangerous coastal waters, covered by enemy shore batteries. The ships toiled to protect both the vital left flank of Allied combat forces ashore, and anti-Communist guerillas operating from nearshore islands to carry out raids behind enemy lines. During bitter armistice talks, these islands became bargaining chips and it was necessary to defend them from enemy shore bombardment and invasion by Chinese and North Korean forces. Through three years of ceaseless warfare, in bone-chilling winters that coated ships with tons of ice, and the sweltering heat of summer that made below-deck areas stifling, Allied sailors stayed the course. One hundred sixty photographs, maps, and diagrams; appendices; a bibliography; and an index to full names, places, and subjects add value to this work.

 

David D. Bruhn