The Battle of Chumonchin Chan or the action of 2 July 1950 was the battle fought between

surface combatants Surface combatants (or surface ships or surface vessels) are a subset of naval warships which are designed for warfare on the surface of the water, with their own weapons and armed forces. They are generally ships built to fight other ships, subma ...

during the main phase of the Korean War. It began after an Allied

flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' (fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class ...

encountered a

Korean People's Navy The Korean People's Army Naval Force (KPANF; Korean: 조선인민군 해군; Hanja: 朝鮮人民軍海軍; ''Chosŏn-inmingun Haegun''; ) or the Korean People's Navy (KPN), is the naval service branch of the Korean People's Army, which contain ...

supply fleet.

Battle

On 2 July 1950, , , and were sailing along the coast of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

(East Sea) when they encountered four North Korean torpedo and gunboats that had just finished escorting a flotilla of ten ammunition ships up the coast. The North Korean torpedo boats began an attack on the allied ships. Before their torpedoes could be fired however, they were met with a salvo of gunfire from the United Nations ships which destroyed three of the torpedo boats. The surviving North Korean craft fled. Later in July, ''Juneau'' encountered the same ammunition ships and destroyed them.

Sinking USS Baltimore

The Victorious War Museum in Pyongyang, North Korea, has several exhibits that claim the USS ''Baltimore'' (CA-68) was sunk by the motor torpedo boats belonging to the Korean People's Navy. Exhibits include a poster and the "actual" boat which supposedly sank the American cruiser. However, the ship was in the U.S. Navy’s decommissioned reserve from 1946 to 1951 before being recommissioned and assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. In 1955, the Baltimore was transferred to the Pacific Fleet two years after the end of the Korean War.

Sources

Battles and operations of the Korean War in 1950 Battles of the Korean War involving North Korea Battles of the Korean War involving the United States Battles of the Korean War involving the United Kingdom Chumonchin Chan Chumonchin Chan Chumonchin Chan History of Gangwon Province, South Korea July 1950 events in Asia {{Korea-War-stub