THE KOREAN WAR 1950 - 53

MacArthur

 

Although the Allies had agreed during the second world war that Korea would become a free and independent state at wars end, the postwar tension between Moscow and the west divided the country into a northern communist state and a southern democratic republic.

The dividing line between North Korea (the Korean peoples republic) and South Korea (the republic of Korea or ROK) was the thirty eighth parallel of latitude. The intention had been that the two halves should be reunited following free elections.

However both the United States and the USSR disagreed with how the elections were to proceed and tensions between the two Korea's became apparent in 1948. In 1949 US forces were withdrawn from the south on the assumption the new republic with United Nations aid could take care of its own affairs.

 

 On June 25th 1950, North Korean leader Kim II-Sung decided to unite the two Korea's by force of arms and invaded the south. 200,000 men supported by 300 Russian built T-34 tanks and 180 self propelled guns advanced across the 38th parallel.

On June 27th the UN security council recommended that member nations send troops and military aid to South Korea and placed American general Douglas MacArthur as commander in chief of all UN forces.

On July 21st North Korean troops overwhelmed US forces at Taejon and pushed general Walton Walkers US 8th army southward to defensive positions a mere forty miles from the sea of Japan and the last remaining operational port in allied hands at Pusan.

 

The remnants of Walkers army held fast and defended the perimeter long enough for UN reinforcements to arrive and by September there was a stalemate all along the line, with the North Koreans unable to breach the allied defenses and the UN unable to advance northward.

General MacArthur now decided on a daring amphibious landing to break the deadlock. His plan was to land the 75,000 strong US 10th corps, one hundred miles behind the Pusan perimeter, seventeen miles west of Seoul at the port city of Inchon.

Involving 260 naval vessels the landings went forward on September 15th. This assault achieved complete strategic surprise and coincided with the breakout of the UN forces defending the Pusan pocket.

 

Caught between the hammer and the anvil, the North Korean army as a whole had been completely shattered by the end of September with its remnants driven back behind the 38th parallel.

This quick and overwhelming victory encouraged the American government and it’s United Nations allies to allow general MacArthur to advance beyond the 38th parallel into North Korean territory.

On October 20th UN forces captured the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and four days later an ROK division occupied the town of Chosan along the Yalu river, the natural border between Korea and China.

 

The Chinese Communist government became very alarmed at the presence of western backed armies along there southern border and feared the United Nations would continue northward in an attempt to topple there government.   

Therefore on October 25th China launched a full scale invasion of North Korea. Numbering 300,000 men supported by 500 tanks and 1,000 artillery pieces, the Chinese quickly overran the UN forward positions along the Yalu River.

The initial Chinese offensive quickly surrounded U.S. forces in several towns and cites with the American 8th army in serious danger of being outflanked and destroyed. General MacArthur had no choice but to order a general withdrawal all along the front lines.

 

Within two months of hard fighting the UN forces had been pushed from the Chinese border along the Yalu River back to the 38th Parallel. Only severe supply  problems prevented Chinese forces from advancing further into South Korea.

This gave the UN forces the respite they needed as urgent reinforcements arrived under General Matthew Ridgway and managed to hold the Chinese armies along the 38th parallel.

There was now the prospect of a long grinding war of attrition between the two combatants as both could call upon enormous reserves of manpower to continue the war.

 

For the next three years both sides would launch a series of massive offensives against one another to break the stalemate with each resulting in utter failure and horrendous casualties.

On Soviet Russia’s initiative, armistice talks began between the two sides in the city of Panmunjon in 1953. As the protracted negotiations carried on fierce fighting continued along the ceasefire line but only on a local and sporadic scale.

On July 27th a demarcation line based on the existing front line along the 38th parallel was agreed upon, the Korean war was over.

Casualties during the three year conflict were enormous. Three hundred thousand Chinese were killed with five hundred thousand wounded.

North Korea suffered two hundred thousand killed and four hundred thousand wounded.

American losses numbered forty thousand killed with one hundred thousand wounded.

South Korean casualties amounted to two hundred thousand killed and four hundred thousand wounded.

The United Nations lost ten thousand killed with fifty thousand wounded. Civilian deaths between the two Korea’s numbered almost one million people.