60th Anniversary of Korean Armistice

[undercoverbrother]

Tomorrow, July 27, will be the 60th Anniversary of the "end" of the Korean war.

It is often a forgotten conflict, but Canada had around 26,000 serve and suffered 516 deaths.

The war saw the 2nd Battalion PPCLI fight an engagement (Kapyong) which resulted in them being awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

[CaptainCrunch]

Not really a forgotten conflict. People forget how brutal that war was, especially in the winter months.

The war was pretty much over and North Korea was done until MacArthur threatened the Chinese and bought them actively into the war.

People tend to forget that the American and South Korean forces were pretty much beaten and pushed back to Pusan. If not for the incredible Inchon landing this war would have ended far differently.

75,000 troops were put on the ground and over 250 naval vessels participated including three Canadian destroyers that participated in the close in beach bombardment.

this probably represented one of the most innovative and gutsy war time strategies in the history of warfare.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Not really a forgotten conflict. People forget how brutal that war was, especially in the winter months.
.

Undercover Brother is posting a tribute to our fallen heroes and your first sentence is a disagreement with him?

I google the words "the forgotten conflict", the 3rd result is:Korea: Forgotten Conflict, from a website labeled "http://www.koreaforgottenconflict.com/"


As for the rest of post, I didn't know that, interesting.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Kavy

Undercover Brother is posting a tribute to our fallen heroes and your first sentence is a disagreement with him?

I google the words "the forgotten conflict", the 3rd result is:Korea: Forgotten Conflict, from a website labeled "http://www.koreaforgottenconflict.com/"


As for the rest of post, I didn't know that, interesting.

I apprecaite the support, but your website if for a videogame.

The rest of your post:

As for the rest of post, I didn't know that, interesting

Kind of supports my thoughts about it being a forgotten conflict. CC is a history buff, nut, obsessed, those might describe him. I doubt the average Joe on the street would know much about the Korean War beyond Hawkeye, Trapper and Hot Lips.

The point of the thread was to point out the sacrifice.

[CaptainCrunch]

jeez now I feel like a heel.

This country has done a decent job of saluting the vets of the Korean War (not conflict). Its in the lexicon of Canadian History, it was taught in school when I went to school, and while you didn't get moments of silence there was always knowledge that Canadian troops supporting the UN mission punched above their weight.

There are a lot of really good books on the Korean conflict. Peter Worthington the great journalist and a veteran of that conflict talked about it a lot.

globally your right its a forgotten war even though it was a massive turning point in the cold war as feelings hardened and the relationship between China and the Soviet Union began to accelerate its slow deterioration.

Sorry about hijacking your post and sentiments UB

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

jeez now I feel like a heel.

B

i rage posted, sorry. Must of had a bad day or something.

Best part is the site is a video game, didn't know that

[CaptainCrunch]

btw ub have you ever read Deadlocked in Korea by Barris, its a fairly recent release and a very interesting read.

[jofillips]

heck I find most people don't even know MASH was set in korea....

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

btw ub have you ever read Deadlocked in Korea by Barris, its a fairly recent release and a very interesting read.

Been wanting to read this one myself. My Grandfather fought in Korea.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

Been wanting to read this one myself. My Grandfather fought in Korea.

Really a great book. It even talks about the Christmas incident which is kind of cool.

[sclitheroe]

I always enjoyed this book, written by a USAF F-86 Sabre pilot:
http://www.amazon.com/Sabre-jets-ove...ets+over+korea

[Flash Walken]

Damn, I was eating and posting and threw up that lazy garbage instead of a better post. I don't want to kill this thread, so here's some stuff:

Three War Marine is a goddamned awesome book. Don't bother reading it if you are more into -- and I don't say this disparagingly -- more of a superficial or literary look at history. It is a combination of not being terribly well written while being vivid and insightful, but it's not 'literature' in the sense that most would enjoy. It's specific. If you want to know what sort of night displacement they used, you're in for some good stuff. Periodically, though, are these sorts of insightful accounts:

On the night of November 12, the first icy blasts of winter swirled down from Manchuria. The temperature dipped to -25 degrees, and the wind-chill factor was indescribable. During the interludes of cold weather that followed, the effectiveness of our fire support decreased. To combat this penetrating chill, each firing battery was allowed about ten tents to serve as havens where gunners could warm their hands from the burn of icy metal. An Extra tent and stove added no appreciable weight to the truck's load, but the need to deploy and use the warming tents and the fact that the men were bundled in parkas, shoe-pacs, and mittens greatly decreased mobility. In addition, diggin in trails--even with axes--became a heroic task. Shifting them after they had frozen in was almost impossible. These conditions called for an adjustment in time-and-space computation. Instead of being able to displace the advance echelon as late as 2:00 PM., I had to give the order by noon if the rear echelon was to be in position by dark. To meet this condition, I had to reconnoiter aggressively, often with the infantry point and, on occasion, in front of it.

Basically the whole chapter on Korea is RECON RECON RECON. -21 Fahrenheit = -31 Degrees celsius.

Here's another glorious passage:

Our surgeon, Bob Shoemaker, was a youngster of twenty-five who had not even completed his intership. He and Reds Miller, our compassionate, peripatetic executive, had befriended one another. Each was somewhat new at his job, and they gave each other support. For his part, Reds had endeavored to instill in the young doctor the confidence to perform in the field when the occasion arose. Shoemaker had said. "They didn't tell me about battle wounds at medical school."

The occasion arrived the night of november 27, and the apple-cheeked surgeon rose to the challenge. Blood-spattered and exhausted, he grew inches in stature that night as the men of 3/11 led or carried into the tent that was our sick bay many of Dog and Easy comapny's wounded. These men had stopped the Chinese from pouring down into our position--but just barely. During the morning of November 27, over seventy casualties, mostly from D/2/7, were in 3/11's sick bay.

Captain Milt Hill, Dog Company's bull-like commander, was one of the casualties, with head wounds and a bullet hole clear through his upper arm. Wounded as he was, Milt had led a counter attack to retake the hill behind us.

Heavy fighting. It's not korea related, but his descriptions of the naval bombardments during the second world war pacific theatre in the previous chapter is an example that really sets the stage for some of the passages about the heavy fighting encountered later on.

Korea (and about early 1900th century America) is pretty fuzzy for me, so if anyone has some science to drop, let's do this thing.