The Korean War

The end of the Second World War saw the world divided into two camps: Soviet Union and The USA. Former allies turned into foes. The Cold War had begun.

In 1950, the Cold War turned hot when North Korea (instigated by the Russians) invaded the American controlled South Korea. China too entered the fray as the Allied forces started pushing the North Koreans up North.

 STATE OF KOREA AFTER WW2 ENDED

During the world war of 1939-45, the future of the Japanese empire was decided at Allied summit meetings. In the short term, pending the return of Korean independence, Korea, a Japanese colony since 1910, was to be occupied north of the 38th parallel by Soviet Russia. To the south, a United States military administration under the direction of General Douglas MacArthur would control the area from its headquarters in Tokyo.

Source: BBC

 HOW IT STARTED

After several years of increasingly bloody frontier incidents along the 38th parallel, the Republic of Korea was invaded by the North Korean Peoples' Army on 25 June 1950. Despite earlier indications, the Pentagon was caught off-guard. As the North Koreans swept south, overwhelming all opposition, the US called on the Security Council to invoke the United Nations Charter and brand the North Koreans as aggressors. This was done and member states were called on to send in military assistance.

CHINA JOINS THE WAR
In mid-September, General MacArthur brought off a masterstroke by landing two divisions 240km (150 miles) in the enemy rear at the port of Inchon. Their communications cut, and under heavy aerial bombardment, the North Koreans broke and fled back north; MacArthur ordered a hot pursuit which led across the 38th parallel and deep into North Korea. As the victorious UN forces drew near to the Manchurian border, there were ominous signals from Peking that communist China would intervene to defend its territory. In mid-October, MacArthur met President Harry Truman on Wake Island in their first encounter to assure him that a massive UN offensive was about to conclude the war victoriously by Christmas. No sooner had this been launched in November than the Chinese unleashed their armies.

 ROLE OF THE AIRPLANES

Throughout the war, air power was decisive. The North Korean air force was driven from the skies by US Air Force, Navy and Marines, using their superior equipment and training. Heavy bombers razed the cities and industrial plants of North Korea. Continuous attacks on the transport system forced the Chinese to rely on the packhorse for much of their logistical support. A new phase of air war opened when American B-29 bombers and their fighter escorts were challenged by Russian-built MiG-15 fighters flown by Chinese airmen. The MiG-15's outflew first-generation American jet fighters until the introduction of the swept-wing F-86 Sabre tipped the balance. In the world's first supersonic air combats, the Americans prevailed.

 HOW IT ENDED

 In mid-1951, with the land battle in stalemate, both sides agreed to go to the conference table and armistice talks began. They dragged on for two years. The main haggling point was the future of the tens of thousands of communist prisoners held in camps on Koje Island off the coast of South Korea. While the communist negotiators were adamant that all were to be returned to their country of origin, thousands of prisoners were unwilling to be repatriated. There were several great mutinies in the Koje camps before a satisfactory formula enabled those who wished to be repatriated to go home and for asylum to be granted to those who wished otherwise. In July 1953, a great calm descended over the battlefields and in Operation Big Switch, thousands of former prisoners on each side were returned. A Demilitarised Zone or DMZ was established on the border. Both sides withdrew from their fighting positions, and a UN commission was set up to supervise the armistice.

 AMERICAN AND ALLIES' CASUALTIES

No one knows exactly how many people died in this war. In a sense it was a civil war fought out with foreign participation on both sides. It was the first military test of the United Nations and also the last martial adventure of the old Commonwealth. The American Department of Defence acknowledges that almost 40,000 of its servicemen died, either in battle or of other causes. British casualties were 1,078 killed in action, 2,674 wounded and 1,060 missing or taken prisoner.

 CHINESE AND KOREAN CASUALTIES

The true casualty figures for the North and South Koreans and Chinese will never be known. It is estimated that some 46,000 South Korean soldiers were killed and over 100,000 wounded. The Chinese are estimated by the Pentagon as having lost over 400,000 killed (including Mao Tse-tung's son) and 486,000 wounded, with over 21,000 captured. The North Koreans lost about 215,000 killed, 303,000 wounded and over 101,000 captured or missing.

KOREAN WAR VIDEOS

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PART 2



PART 3



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PART 13



PART 14



PART 15

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GREAT VIDEOS

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This video presents the personal accounts and recollections of Korean War veterans, both the famous and the ordinary. The Korean War, the first skirmish of the cold war in the 1950s, took a deadly on American and U.N. troops and the Korean forces, which included the Chinese. Yet it is known as the "Forgotten War." This video pays tribute to those who served there.

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General Douglas MacArthur: 

Return Of A Legend DVD General Douglas MacArthur was one of America's greatest and most complex commanders a warrior so tough and determined that he helped win World War II with a simple promise: I shall return. MacArthur was a soldier's soldier: the son of an officer the star of West Point and the Army's youngest-ever full general. He was already a retired hero when he was recalled in 1941 to face his biggest challenge--defending an unprepared Pacific force against a seemingly unstoppably Japanese war machine. But everything about MacArthur's life was extraordinary; his army brat childhood to his rogue war in Korea and his magnificent stand in the Philippines to his head-to-head confrontation with an angry Harry Truman.With rare footage and interviews with MacArthur's comrades family and friends this compelling BIOGRAPHY program reveals the man who remains a hero to millions.  

Korea: The Forgotten War 

DVD Personal stories and sensational combat footage make this the definitive account of the war that many feared would erupt into WWIII. At the end of World War II few Americans dreamed that less than five years later the nation would once again be involved in a bloody overseas conflict. Yet June 25 1950 marked the beginning of a war like no other America had ever fought. KOREA: THE FORGOTTEN WAR explores the long struggle half a world away from the forces that shattered the postwar peace to the delicate resolution which set the stage for many of the tensest moments of the Cold War. See dramatic footage of US forces in action as Marines execute a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon. Follow the troops as they push the North Koreans to the Yalu River then face overwhelming odds as China sends hundreds of thousands of soldiers over the border in a move that many thought might signal the beginning of World War III. With dramatic footage captured by combat cameras and first person accounts from soldiers this is a fascinating examination of one of the most important events of modern times

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