Walton H. Walker

Walton H. Walker (born Dec. 3, 1889, Belton, Texas, U.S.—died Dec. 23, 1950, near Seoul, S.Kor.) American army officer, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the difficult opening months of the Korean War.

Walker attended the Virginia Military Institute (1907–08) and then entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in 1912 and receiving his commission in the infantry. He took part in the occupation of Veracruz, Mex., in April 1914, and received a number of routine garrison assignments. With the entry of the United States into World War I, he went to France in April 1918 with a machine-gun battalion, seeing action in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives.

Britannica Quiz

Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About World War II

Following the occupation period, Walton spent the next two decades of his military career in various posts, including serving as instructor at the Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, and at West Point. In 1936 he graduated from the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and in 1937–40 he was attached to the War Plans Division of the General Staff in Washington, D.C. From 1941 to 1943 (during which time the United States entered World War II), he was given command, in succession, of an infantry division, an armoured brigade, an armoured division, and finally an armoured corps. His IV Armored Corps, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, trained at the Desert Training Center on the California-Arizona border, originally established to prepare armoured units for combat in North Africa. It was redesignated the XX Corps in October 1943 and was ordered to England in February 1944. The XX Corps landed in France in July 1944 and, as an element of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, captured Reims, crossed the Moselle River, reduced the fortress complex at Metz, and broke through the Siegfried Line, earning the nickname “Ghost Corps” for the speed of its advance.

After postwar assignments in the United States, in September 1948 Walker was transferred to Japan to command the Eighth Army, which constituted the ground arm of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Far East Command. Following the North Korean invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, Eighth Army headquarters transferred to Taegu, S.Kor. Walker also received command of the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) and of other United Nations forces as they arrived. With most of his U.S. units understrength, his ROKA forces demoralized, and tactical air support insufficient, Walker was forced to fight a stubborn withdrawal into the southeast corner of the Korean peninsula. On July 29 he issued a “stand or die order,” declaring that “there will be no Dunkirk, there will be no Bataan.” Nevertheless, his defensive line continued to contract until the arrival of reinforcements, heavy armaments, and increased air support enabled him to establish a 225-km (140-mile) “Pusan Perimeter,” centred on the port of Pusan. His skill in shifting reserves to blunt North Korean attacks on the perimeter held the line and gained time for the organization of the X Corps under Edward M. Almond and its landing at Inch’ŏn on September 15. The pressure thus relieved, Walker was able to go on the offensive and push north. The Eighth Army made contact with the X Corps on September 26, and, with some reluctance on Walker’s part but on the orders of MacArthur, they pushed together into North Korean territory. The ROKA I Corps took Wonsan, and the U.S. I Corps took the North’s capital, P’yŏngyang. Then on November 25 a massive offensive by Chinese forces on UN lines at the Ch’ŏngch’ŏn River quickly turned the tide. Falling back under extreme pressure, Walker abandoned P’yŏngyang on December 5 and 10 days later established a new line roughly on the 38th parallel, the original dividing line between North and South Korea. He was killed in a jeep accident on the road between Seoul and the new front. Walker was succeeded as commander of the Eighth Army by Matthew B. Ridgway.