Korea and Murchison
Page 2
Murchison's
story — One of the naval highlights
of the Korean War -- began on 4 July 1951 when, after two monotonous
months of patrols in the Yellow Sea, she riddled a Chinese tank, at
a mile and a half, on the west coast of Haeju Peninsula. She was then
patrolling on what was known as the "Cigarette Route"—all offshore
channels were named after brands of cigarettes or tobacco—up the coast
to Chinnampo. This was the first time the frigate had fired in anger.
It was also the prelude to point-blank land-water battles to come,
for the following day Lieutenant-Commander Dollard was ordered to
join the English frigate Cardigan Bay, the South Korean frigate No.
61 and three patrol launches, to move into the Han.
Although theoretically
the Han was a suicide place for any kind of craft, and although there
were no modern charts of the capricious river, the frigates and launches
went in. They first tried what they thought was the entrance to the
estuary. They moved in at night among the shallows, but in the morning
found they were at a dead-end with mud banks almost surrounding them.
They were forced to turn and try to get out but were soon lost among
the sand, mud and conflicting channels. Cardigan Bay, which was leading,
grounded three times before she finally called for carrier aircraft
which came in from the Yellow Sea and sat above them and talked them
between the banks and back to open water.
Next day, after
being joined by another English frigate, Morecambe Bay, they tried
what looked like the true entrance and with the ships' boats and South
Korean motor launches in a fan ahead of them, sounding all the time,
and with their own echo sounders double-checking, they moved slowly
into the estuary. They had to tap their way along the winding practically
uncharted channels like a blind man with a stick. And on a river which
flooded and ebbed at eight knots and more, it took this little armada
40 hours to navigate 30 miles. No wonder the Admiralty later called
this penetration of the Han "a daring operation under the noses of
the enemy", and "one of the navigational feats of the, Korean War".
Of course, against an enemy strong in the air these ships would never
have survived even the entrance to the river. But fortunately the
Allies owned the sky above the winding Han.
