With the surrender of Japan in World War II, the Korean peninsula, occupied by the Japanese since 1910, was divided at the 38th Parallel:the north occupied by the Soviets and the south by the Americans. The prevailing tension exploded when North Korean troops invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The Americans, with the support of the UN, led an army of allies to drive out the North Koreans.
In September 1950, after the successful landing of the X US Marine Corps in Inchon , commanded by General Douglas MacArthur , and the decisive victory over the Korean People's Army, Seoul was liberated and the direction of the war changed in favor of the allies. It seemed that the war was coming to an end...
Douglas MacArthur
A month later, in what was thought to be the final offensive, a force of some 20,000 United Nations troops, made up mostly of members of the X Marine Corps and some British Army troops, fanned out around the reservoir Chosin , an artificial lake located in the northeast of the Korean peninsula in the Hamgyong mountains that supplied hydroelectric power. What the allies didn't know was that China had moved...nearly 100,000 troops from the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) they had crossed the border to help North Korea. The United Nations troops deployed in Chosin were surrounded by eight Chinese divisions (some 80,000). To the numerical superiority we had to add a Siberian cold front with extreme temperatures of up to -37°; food, medical supplies and batteries froze, weapons jammed, soldiers froze to death...
The Allies defended themselves time and again against Chinese offensives. The shells were running out and they radioed for more Tootsie Rolls to be sent. (code name of the projectiles) launched by parachute. When the boxes fell from the sky…
Some rookie supply trooper had taken Tootsie Rolls' request literally instead of his codename, and he had sent candies instead of projectiles. After the surprise and outrage when opening the boxes, those chocolate candies became a godsend for the hungry troops and for some days they were their only food - chocolate provides fats, proteins, carbohydrates and minerals. Also, MacGyver style , they heated and molded them to plug holes in drums or fuel tanks that, when frozen, sealed the leaks.
According to Ray Downs, a veteran of the Korean War…
There isn't a single Marine who served in Korea who doesn't tip his hat to a Tootsie Roll.
After 16 days of siege, the allied troops managed to break the siege and retreat to the port of Hungnam. Although for China it was a victory, the casualties suffered by the Chinese were much higher than those of the United Nations.
Sources:CNN, American Handgunner