One Night Two Day Exploration for US Marines at Hwacheon and Punchbowl

I and my wife hit the road in 3 Nov. 2021 to explore the battle places of Hwacheon and the Punchbowl and to visit Sangnam-myon where there was King Kimbu-ro road and some historical relics related with him. Sangnam was very near to Hyun-ri where Korean 3^rd Corp was collapsed by Chinese army in May 1951. It was good before getting cold.

I am a member of Kim’s family whose ancestor can be back upward to King Kyungsun’s 4^th son according to the family tree addressed by my deceased father. The grave of King was located near the Nevada hills(Koranpo-ri) where US Marines were fought off in the western front line after relocating from the Punchbowl in time of final stage of Korean war.

This visit could be leisurely carried out as I had booked one night stay in a small inn in Seohwa-ri, Inje county near Punchbowl. The first day had been idealistically scheduled for Sangnam Area visit, and the second day for Punchbowl and Hwacheon exploration.  

From the survey result of a map application, it was taken the absolute 6 hours to drive for the total distance of 320 km. My driving route was roughly drawn from home, Hongcheon, Wontong and the Inn on the first day, and Punchbowl, Blood Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, Yanggu and Hwacheon would be in the second itinerary.    

At 09:00, We drove the car from my house on the Kangbyun road, passing by Yangpyong, and arrived at Mugunghwa Park in Hongcheon to take a break. Here I bought a autumn jacket near a cloth outlet store(Crack Jack) as my wife advised me to take one seasonal mountaineer jacket. It’s size was 95 in consideration of my height 165 cm and paid 39,000 Won as the bargaining price that was indicated 69,000 Won on the brand tag.

We drove on to Inje direction, bounding for Sangnam, taking the number 44 road and arrived Omijae pass just above Sangnam, where we decided to have a lunch packed at home at around 13:00. It was so good to have a meal on the summit of high pass swept by a stream of chilly wind and surrounded by deep green trees along the road. I could find the monument for the Inje Hyun-ri Battle for the history of ROK 3^rd Corp.

Sangnam village was annexed with the multi-purposed Korean style building and tried to address its location that was in center of Prince Maeui’s hiding place, whose name was Il(Bu) Kim. He was known to reject his father King Kyungsun’s surrendering suggestion making his Silla dynasty yielded to Koryo and the prince parted with his father in his own will. There were the relics of Kim Bu monument, Kapdun-ri 5 stories tower for memorial service for Kim Il(Bu) or Prince Maeui and King’s stamp rock in which Kim Il had hidden a king’s stamp of Silla dynasty. The road stretched to the number 44 road to west from Sangnam was named after the prince as King Kim Bu road. It is believed that the prince could not find any opportunity to recover his dynasty and should be so regrettable that he went deep into Kumkang mountain and lived to death, leaving from this area. It is known that he raised army and trained them to attack Koryo dynasty merging Silla peacefully upon the yield of his father King KyungSoon. The land name Kabdun-ri had understood for Kim Bu’s force to wear armor for readness of fighting if attacked.

After visiting the village, I drove northward(to Hyun-ri) a little from Sangnam to go the Omi-jae pass. This pass was tunneled now and not used so I took the old road accessible with the pass.  This Omijae pass was tactically critical to the 3^rd Corp in time of Chinese offensive in May 1951 because it was the only retreat exit enabling to carry the Corp’s heavy military gears when needed. The Korean forces was intensively attacked by Chinese night time and got panic to be surrounded by Chinese. That’s why the Korean big forces consisting of two divisions lost their fighting will and were destroyed at single onslaught. It is known Corp commander had flied to meet the divisional commander when his divisions were surrounded and, without specific direction, simply delegated all his authority of Corp commander to a divisional commander to fly back at the critical surrounded moment. One divisional commander did not order his troops to occupy the Omijae pass but did order to flee individually toward the mountain, detaching his rank invisibly in case of his captivity,

While this Korean forces were destroyed and fled from the middle and eastern front line, the neighboring one regiment of the US 2^nd division was struggling to fight off Chinese attack at Bunker Hill (Suri-san mountain) and gallantly succeeded to stop the Chinese infiltration under the Soyang river. This gap occurred in Korean 3^rd Corp had to force all UN front line retreated and readjusted to fill the gap in May 1951. The picture below shows the pass and un-honorable monument.

After exploring the pass, we drove to take King Kimbu road from Sangnam to the junction to change the road 44 to Inje and dropped by the Soyang-gang river service area. We could see a tour post for introducing the Soyang-gang river hiking course around here and took a little work along the trail instructed by the post. At 16:30, I needed to identify a restaurant before checking in the inn at appointed 18:00 and drove to Inje for having dinner. At 17:00, we sat and had a dinner made of tofu stew which costed 9,000 won per dish. Actually, there was no choice of a dish in this small village but mostly available menu were chicken barbeque, assorted vegetable mixed rice and tofu. The picture below is the post of Soyang-gang River Trails.

*

After dinner, we started to drive to the inn booked on phone and in consideration of location it would be expected to arrive 18:10 or a little late. The inn in Seohwa-ri, Inje was quite far north from Inje and located eastern side of Taeam-san mountain(bottom part of the Punchbowl area) and upstream of Soyang-gang river(Inbuk-cheon creek) where US marines were struggled to occupy in May 1951 to esta⁵blish a bridge head for the Punchbowl offensive.              

We could arrive the inn at about 18:30 through the roads from Wonpyong to Seohwa-ri & Cheondo-ri, Inje on which search lights on the opposite lane disturbed my eye sights enough to bring a car collision fear up. There were strangely many cars on the opposite lane and it was assumed military officers returning to their homes.

We spent a night in the inn which title was the Inn away from Home. It was just a small ondol system without sofa and table but TV was available. Toilet was installed and a microwave range was available. Tarif 30,000 won a night was cheap and reasonable at this condition while most of the similar accommodations were priced 50,000 Won or more. For example, a hotel in Inje posted the price 70,000 Won per night. On ondol system, the floor of the room was very warm and air was so cold that I tried to pull blanket up overnight. “The tourist visiting nearby creek in summer time were major customers”, said the inn owner.

The Cheondo-ri just below Seohwa-ri was the place where my youngest brother stayed in his military service for a member of 155 mm artillery unit in 1980. It is very near to the Punchbowl ridges and can support fires with their guns, I guess.

At 08:00, we drove to the Punchbowl but the North Korean Tunnel and Observatory Tower were shut down due to COVID 19 and revamping work. Taking a cup of hot coffee for me and chocolate for my wife at a CVS and, instead, we went into War Memorial Hall and saw the poems describing the sacrifices of UN and Korean soldiers fallen in this area. The pictures below were the scenes of the facility and poem.  

2

To explore the US marines fierce battle places, we drove to the east ridge of the Punchbowl in Wolsan-ri. This ridge are were called by US marines the Yoke Ridge in time of the battle in Sep. 1951 for the Van Fleet’s order to take the Badger Line from the Kansas Line. We were standing a hill pass linking The Punchbowl and Seohwa-ri and a Kansas Line. Here are the pictures of the pass and its valleys.

I could see patties where a lot of beets had planted or harvested. These products of dried beet stems are quite famous for its soft taste in Korea and it was sold in the brand name of Punchbowl Dried Beet Stems.

At 10:30, we drove south-westward to explore the Blood Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge where US 2^nd Army Division and annexed Korean Army fought fiercely on the left side of Punchbowl and US marines. Passing through Dolsan-ryong tunnel under Dosol-san mountain, a left rim of the Punchbowl, we changed the road 31(Kumkangsan-ro) stretching northward at a junction and arrived at the Wolun reservoir to see the monument of Blood Ridge on the left hill. On the monument, we paid our prayer to the fallen soldiers sacrificing their young lives for us and our country and carefully read the introducing posts. Here are pictures of the Blood Ridge.

Leaving from the ridge, I tried to go further northward for the Heartbreak Ridge and drove till the paved road was gone and unpaved lane was laid where a military truck was parked. I thought we were on the end of deep valley between the Heartbreak Ridge and the left rim of the Punchbowl ridge and expected soon this lane was stopped by the military. There were only military vehicles boarding infantry soldiers on its rear bumps. Due to turning back my car, I could not visit the Heartbreak Ridge Monument.

Next destination was now Yanggu where I planned to have a lunch preferably made of a dried beet stem produced here. On the way of Yanggu, the traffic sign board was identified for Bangsan-myon and the Peace Dam on the east direction. Yanggu is located at the eastern end of Soyang reservoir and nested on the left side of Inje and Wontong villages. This was the area US marines had occupied at the end of May 1951 after fighting off Chinese Spring Offensives to prepare for launching its offensive to the Punchbowl. We searched and found a restaurant that was serving the dish made of Yanggu dried beet stems and located 4 km out of Yanggu to the east-south direction. We enjoyed the dishes at 12,000 Won per dish and took a walk around the town on the road of the center of the peninsular as indicated. This was Dochon-ri and very isolated area on north of Soyang reservoir.

After having a lunch, at around 13:30, we took the road 46 for Horseshoes Ridge, north of Chuncheon city and drove west-southward to Chuncheon direction. At the Sinbuk junction on the north of Chuncheon, we changed the road to take the road 5. a circular road out of city. We drove on the road where US marines had marched toward Hwacheon and crossed Chuncheon dam for the Horseshoes Ridge. On the way of the ridge, I turned into the old road called Mal Pass(Horse Pass) at Wonpyong-ri where the 38^th parallel line was drawn. As soon as our entrance, there was the stone post, the 38^th parallel, and Mojin bridge was sunken under the Pukhan river. This bridge was the critical facility to the marines because there was no way to carry their heavy gears up. The battle of Horseshoes Ridge might be necessary not only to blockade Chinese rush after destroying the ROK 6^th division at Sachang-ri but to protect the bridge, securing the major retreating route and critical facility Chinese might target to occupy. I dropped by a store indicated as Mal Pass Grocery Store by the road to buy a pack of snack and followed the road to think of the trail along which US marines had walking to establish their resistance line to protect the main retreat line. On the pass and Hwaak-san mountain summit, US 1^st Marine had fought very bravely as ordered and carried out their mission to protect other marines.

We passed by the Horseshoes Ridge as we had visited many times before and because of many fast cars following me. The road 56 linking Sachang-ri and Horseshoes Ridge was busy by many cars and quite risky to pull a car suddenly.

We arrived Sachang-ri and tried to find the way back home now. I decided to take the Hwaak-ro just by Hwaak-san from north to south to Kapyong rather than the road 75 because it was the first time to drive as it had been stopped as a blind road before construction of the Hwaak tunnel. The pictures is showing Horseshoes Ridge(Doryun-san) in Sachang-ri.

It was very stiff and high pass road so much harder to drive than expected but to arrive the Mok-myon, north of Kapyong where the British Brigade had ordered to resist Chinese rushing onslaught from Sachang-ri due to collapse of the ROK 6^th division. Here the battalions of Australia and Canada fought bravely under support of US tanks unit in emergency situation.

We dropped by Canadian Battle Monument and kept on driving to Kapyong where we took a brief rest and crossed the Cheongpyong bridge to take the riverside road to Yangsu and Seoul. There was no car while driving as wished. As we were approaching to Seoul, it was quite late so dropped by a restaurant in Deokso to have dinner(as recommended by my wife, the dishes was cold noodles at 7,000 Won per dish) and safely arrived home at around 21:00, finishing one night and two days exploration of US marines on north trails.