Blockade of Wonsan - Background - Operation Wonsan

Operation Wonsan

Wonsan was a strategic point during the war, located on North Korea's southeastern coast with a large harbor, an airfield, a petroleum refinery, 75,000 people, and as many as 80,000 troops, including several artillery batteries. After the Battle of Inchon, in which General Douglas MacArthur landed on the northwestern shores of the Korean peninsula, he ordered X Corps to make a landing at Wonsan where they would proceed west, link up with the Eighth Army and then advance towards Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

North Korean naval forces had been well supplied by the Soviet Union and China with all sorts of sea mines and they were used as much as possible to defend Wonsan. Soviet military advisors were also employed to create more effective mine fields. One of the first objectives of the blockade was to begin plotting the locations of mines and then destroy them. Because of this, the use of minesweepers became a necessity and eventually dozens would serve in the blockade. Operation Wonsan, or the Clearance of Wonsan, began on October 10 of 1950, ten days before the landing was scheduled to take place. Rear Admiral James H. Doyle commanded Task Force 90, a fleet of dozens of American warships which were used in the clearance.

Two days later on October 12, mines sank the sweepers USS Pledge and USS Pirate, killing twelve men and wounding dozens of others, all while under accurate fire from North Korean shore batteries. The United States Navy Pacific Fleet responded by starting the production of new minesweepers in the largest shipbuilding program since World War II. Other vessels were damaged by mines and battery fire as well but the loss of the Pirate and Pledge proved to be the major engagement during the operation.