Hungnam evacuation
evacuation of United Nations forces during the Korean War
The Hungnam evacuation or Heungnam redeployment (Korean: 흥남 철수 작전; Hanja: 興南撤收作戰), also known as the Miracle of Christmas, was the evacuation of United Nations (UN) forces and North Korean civilians from the port of Hungnam, Hamhung, North Korea, between 15 and 24 December 1950, during the Korean War. As part of the fighting withdrawal of UN forces against the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir (27 November to 13 December), they abandoned some 59,000 square kilometers of North Korean territory to enemy forces and retreated to Hungnam, from where they were evacuated to South Korea.
Background
On 8 December 1950, US X Corps commander General Edward Almond received UN Commander General Douglas MacArthur’s order to evacuate X Corps through Hungnam. Following the earlier decision to concentrate X Corps forces at Hungnam, the evacuation of Wonsan had begun on 3 December. In a week’s time, without interference from PVA or Korean People's Army (KPA) forces, the Regimental Combat Team 31 (RCT 31), US 3rd Infantry Division and a US 1st Marine Division shore party group totaling some 3,800 troops loaded themselves, 1,100 vehicles, 10,000 tons of other cargo, and 7,000 refugees aboard transport ships and LSTs provided by Admiral James H. Doyle’s Task Force 90.
One LST sailed north on the 9th to Hungnam, where its Marine shore party passengers were to take part in the forthcoming sealift. The remaining ships steamed for Pusan on the 9th and 10th. The Task Force 90 ships dispatched to Songjin on 5 December to pick up the tail-end troops of ROK I Corps meanwhile had reached their destination and by noon on 9 December had taken aboard the ROK 3rd Infantry Division (less the 26th Regiment, which withdrew to Hungnam as rearguard for the ROK 7th Infantry Division; the division headquarters, division artillery, and 18th Regiment of the ROK Capital Division; and some 4300 refugees. This sealift originally had been designed to assist X Corps’ concentration at Hungnam, but the intervening order to evacuate Hungnam changed the destination for most of the South Koreans to Pusan. On 10 and 11 December the convoy from Songjin anchored at Hungnam only long enough to unload the Capital Division's headquarters and artillery for employment in the perimeter and to take aboard an advance party of the ROK I Corps headquarters before proceeding to its new destination.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hungnam evacuation” as evacuation of United Nations forces during the Korean War. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as evacuation of United Nations forces during the Korean War. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12626180. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1950.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hungnam evacuation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.