Battleground Korea: Episode III - The Tide Turns

Battleground

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The only way out is with a gamble. In Episode 3, the Korean War narrative shifts from desperate survival to audacious counter-attack. The Allied line is breaking, the port of Pusan is on the verge of collapse, and the entire war rests on the success of General Douglas MacArthur's ambitious plan. Ignoring every warning, MacArthur stakes the entire conflict on a single, risky amphibious assault: Operation Chromite at the tidal port of Inchon. We explore the incredible strategic audacity, the geographical obstacles, and how this audacious flanking maneuver shatters the North Korean People's Army (NKPA). But victory is brief. As the 27th "Fire Brigade," the first British Commonwealth ground troops, advance north from the Pusan Perimeter, they confront the brutal reality of coalition warfare. We detail the intense and tragic Battle of Hill 282, where a catastrophic moment of friendly fire costs the lives of Commonwealth soldiers and forces the rapid formation of the resilient Commonwealth Brigade. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson X (Twitter): @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Oral B. Working hard for cleaner teeth. With Oralb
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0:26.3	Offer valid first to the 28th of November, first-time shoppers only, T's and C's Apply. General Douglas MacArthur was immovable. When confronted by his most senior advisors, he replied,
0:49.8	The very arguments you have made as to the impracticabilities involved will tend to ensure for me
0:55.8	the element of surprise, for the enemy commander will reason that no one would be so brash as to make
1:01.6	such an attempt. We shall land at Incheon and I shall crush them.
1:07.3	Hello and welcome to Battleground Korea with me Saul David and Roger Morehouse.
1:12.3	That was Roger giving a quote from Douglas MacArthur, the UN commander, about what he hoped to do next,
1:18.9	which of course is very germane for this episode, which is subtitled The Tide Turns.
1:24.7	Last time we looked at the early stages of the war, at the North Korean invasion, and
1:29.4	pushing back the South Korean forces and their American allies all the way back into the
1:35.1	Pusan perimeter, where there was a lot of desperate fighting towards the end of August to repel
1:40.7	the North Korean assaults. It must have looked at that stage to all the world as if the
1:45.7	Korean War was lost, and it was only a matter of time before the South Koreans. The Americans and
1:51.1	some British should have been rushed there too were overwhelmed entirely. But Douglas MacArthur
1:56.5	had a great plan, Roger, didn't he? It wasn't a plan that all the senior members of the American
2:02.4	military, the UN senior commanders, agreed with, but it was one that he was determined to put into
2:08.5	action because he felt it could, as we say, turn the tide. He did, and it's a remarkable story
2:14.7	with so many, as we heard from the quote. I mean, there's so many sort of rather obvious negatives to the choice of Inchon as a landing site.
2:22.2	But I think that the personality of MacArthur as well is really significant in this, isn't it?
	...

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