Causes of the Korean War. Korea - the unknown war of the USSR
Outwardly, it looked like a local conflict, but in essence it was a proxy war between the Soviet and American military-political blocs.
Capitalist countries provided all possible assistance to South Korea.
On North Korea's side were the USSR and China, which did not officially participate in the war; The Chinese military fought on the side of the DPRK under the guise of volunteers, and the USSR provided the Koreans and Chinese with material assistance and supplied them with weapons and ammunition.
Causes of the Korean War
The main prerequisite for the start of the war is the division of the Korean Peninsula. Before Korea was a colony of the Japanese Empire. In this war, Japan sided with Hitler's Germany.
Having declared war on it as the last of the Axis countries, the main countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR and the USA - began military operations, occupying the Korean Peninsula from different sides.
Japan hastily capitulated, resulting in the formation of two Koreas - “Soviet” and “American”; These countries were independent only formally. It was assumed that such a division would be temporary, but the outbreak of the Cold War changed the situation.
South Korea became a capitalist state, oriented towards the United States, and North Korea - the DPRK - became communist, developing with the support of the Soviet Union.
1. But this situation did not suit the leaders of the two Koreas - Kim Il Sung and Syngman Rhee: each wanted to unite the peninsula under their rule.
2. Another reason is that the North Korean authorities intended to free their capital from capitalist influence: according to the country’s Constitution, the capital of the DPRK was Seoul, located on the territory of South Korea; Pyongyang, according to the plan, was a temporary capital.
3. Finally, the third reason is the desire of world powers to make the Korean Peninsula their strategically important point. It was they who largely led the military operations.
War participants
As already mentioned, the USSR and China fought on the side of the DPRK. The Chinese Peng Dehuai was appointed commander-in-chief of the “volunteer detachments”, under the name of which, in fact, parts of the Chinese army operated. On the side of South Korea, in addition to the United States, there were a number of European and American states, as well as Turkey, the Philippines, Ethiopia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
It is curious that in the United States the conflict in Korea was officially considered not a war, but a police operation, and therefore martial law was not declared in the country. In China, the Korean War is referred to as “a war against America to support the Korean people,” thereby confirming that the main driving forces in the conflict were world powers, and not the Korean authorities and armies.
Progress of the war
The war, however, began suddenly for the world community: on June 25, North Korean troops crossed the border with their southern neighbor. North Korea had significant fighting forces - soldiers trained by Soviet specialists, a huge number of Soviet tanks and aircraft. The army of the southerners was much more modest in number of fighters, and had almost no armored vehicles and aircraft.
On June 28, the northerners captured Seoul, and a little later some other cities. However, Syngman Rhee and a significant number of government members managed to leave the capital; There was no mass uprising of “workers and peasants”, which the DPRK authorities were counting on. There was no lightning victory, despite the fact that the DPRK controlled 90% of the territory of South Korea.
The UN Security Council was urgently convened in New York, by decision of which significant military forces were sent to help South Korea. The UN troops that arrived initially met with setbacks; One of these failures was the capture of the commander of the 24th US Infantry Division, Major General Dean. However, in September 1950, UN troops launched a counteroffensive.
Now the DPRK army was significantly inferior in numbers to international troops. Soon UN forces captured Pyongyang. At first, China did not want to get involved in the conflict. The Chinese government has said the country will enter the war when any non-Korean forces cross the 38th parallel, the border separating North Korea from its southern neighbor.
Harry Truman believed that China was simply threatening the international community, and ordered his troops to cross the border of the DPRK. After which he realized how much he was mistaken: the PRC troops, numbering 270 thousand people, under the leadership of the aforementioned Peng Dehuai, went on the offensive.
The Chinese did not have aircraft; they were armed only with rifles, grenades, mortars and machine guns. However, they chose a winning strategy - they acted at night, attacking small enemy units and winning due to numerical superiority. Moreover, the Soviet Union, which had both planes and tanks, provided more significant support to the North Korean-Chinese troops.
A protracted war began, each side in which acted with varying degrees of success.
Results of the war
- The Korean War was the very first major conflict in the history of the Cold War; starting with it, the confrontation between the two world blocs took on a more acute form.
- The territory of the Korean Peninsula remained divided between two Koreas - capitalist and communist.
- Both countries suffered huge economic losses; roads, residential and government buildings, and enterprises were destroyed.
- Paradoxically, the war turned out to be beneficial for Japan; during the conflict, Americans began to purchase Japanese-made goods and became convinced of their fairly high quality; Soon Japanese zaibatsu (corporations) began to actively move into the world market.
- For the USSR, the war was generally unsuccessful, since it was not possible to create a “friendly” state on the entire Korean Peninsula. However, Soviet officers and military leaders gained significant experience in the war.
Until the mid-70s, the Soviet Union did not officially recognize its participation in the Korean War of 1950-1953. The award lists and death notices spoke of “a particularly important task for the party and government.” And today few people know about this domestic page. But in the skies of Korea, for 3 years, Soviet and American pilots waged a real war for possession of the sky, figuring out “who is who.” The sky remained with the Soviet aces. This article is dedicated to the memory of Soviet pilots who fought and died in Korea.
"Hot" episodes of the Cold War
After representatives of Japan signed the act of surrender on September 2, 1945, the USSR and the USA again became rivals. The confrontation between the two world superpowers and the economic and military blocs they led remained in history as the Cold War. But the war was not always “cold”. Often the confrontation turned into a “hot” phase. Numerous military conflicts in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East were based on the desire of the USSR or the USA to establish their control, their hegemony in a certain point of the world. The territories of many countries became testing grounds where the USSR and the USA tested their military equipment, tested new methods of warfare in practice, where officers acquired and improved their combat experience.
Korean "mess"
On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army crossed the 38th parallel, the former border between the two Koreas, and began to rapidly advance south. By mid-August, about 90% of the territory of South Korea was under the control of North Korean troops. The American military decided that this was a very suitable occasion for conducting large-scale military field exercises in conditions as close as possible to combat. In order to provide political cover, the United States “pushed” through the UN a resolution on the introduction of peacekeeping forces into Korea, and already on July 1, the first American military units landed on the Korean peninsula. To the great surprise of the American military, North Korean troops broke through the defenses of their 24th Infantry Division and stormed the city of Cheonan, which it defended. The division, which did not have time to retreat, was surrounded and soon ceased to exist; its commander, Major General Dean, surrendered.
"Peacemakers"
The United States began to urgently increase the number of peacekeepers in Korea. Soon the American military was joined by combat units from Canada, Australia, Great Britain and other countries. 15 states sent their military contingents to Korea. By September 1, the number of “blue helmets” in Korea exceeded 180 thousand, half of them were Americans. On September 15, this entire colossus, twice the size of the DPRK army, went on the offensive and literally crushed the North Korean army into powder. The superiority of the “peacekeepers” in weapons, military equipment and, above all, aviation played a decisive role in the success of the offensive.
B-29
UN troops against the DPRK army
The strike force of the “UN peacekeepers” was the B-29 strategic bombers – “Flying Fortresses”, inaccessible to anti-aircraft artillery, capable of carrying up to 9 tons of bomb load. They were covered by F-80 Shooting Star jet fighters. 835 aircraft of the 5th Air Force of the US Air Force were opposed by 200 piston LA-9, LA-11 and IL-10 attack aircraft. The North Korean Air Force was doomed. By September 20, only 20 attack aircraft and 1 fighter remained, and they survived simply by miracle. In this situation, American pilots, “showing courage and selfless courage,” began the methodical destruction of the North Korean armed forces from the air, dropping tons of bombs on them, thereby ensuring the success of ground tactical operations. By October 1950, UN troops were already approaching the Chinese border.
North Korean leaders turned to China and the USSR for help. China sent 270 thousand “volunteers” to help its southern neighbor, and the USSR took over air cover for the troops.
Chinese pilots Li Si Qing and Wang Yu Shin
At the end of October 1950, the first pilots arrived in Korea from the USSR. They were dressed in Chinese military uniforms and given documents with new names, without photographs. This is where the origins of jokes about Chinese pilots with the surnames Li Xi Qing and Wang Yu Shin (Lisitsyn, Vanyushin) come from. MIG-15 jet fighters arrived along with the pilots. The planes bore North Korean or Chinese markings. In the air it was prescribed to conduct negotiations only in Chinese. The pilots wrote down the texts of the main commands in Russian letters and fastened these pieces of paper on their knees, but in the very first battle they switched to Russian, widely using profanity. The management very soon realized the absurdity of the order and canceled it. The group was called the 64th Fighter Corps.
The air group was commanded by Three Times Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozhedub. On November 8, the pilots for the first time “tested their teeth” with American pilots, who proudly called themselves “knights of the sky.” The meeting ended with the Yankees losing one F-80 fighter. The peacekeepers' air force began to suffer serious losses. To establish parity, the United States sent the latest F-86 Saber fighters to Korea.
US Air Force Black Thursday
But the real test of who was worth what was the battle of April 12, 1951, which went down in the history of the US Air Force as “Black Thursday.” On this day, 48 B-29 bombers, accompanied by 80 F-86 fighters, flew to bomb the railway bridge over the Yalu River, through which the entire flow of military supplies flowed from China to Korea. 44 Soviet MIG-15s flew to intercept. The fighters were met by a dense fire curtain from B-29s and F-86s. Soviet pilots, many of whom had also shot down Luftwaffe pilots, went straight into the fire. Subsequently, up to several dozen holes were counted on each of these fighters. Breaking through the wall of fire, the MIGs attacked the B-29s. In less than 20 minutes, the US Air Force lost 10 bombers and 4 fighters. The 64th Fighter Wing returned to the airfield that day without losses. The US Air Force declared a week of mourning for the victims. For three months, the bombers of the “UN peacekeepers” did not take to the skies. All subsequent time, the fearless Yankees preferred to fly out for bombing missions at night. After April 12, Soviet pilots christened “flying fortresses” into “flying barns.”
The American Truth
In an effort to “save face,” the American press wrote about the “superior forces of the enemy,” increasing the number of MIGs participating in the battles by 2-3 times, and cited exorbitantly inflated data on losses among Soviet pilots. Even then, this caused violent indignation among Soviet pilots, direct participants in the battles. So, if you want to know the truth about those events, you should not look for it based on American sources - it is not there.
Results
Over almost three years, pilots of the 64th Fighter Wing shot down 1,525 aircraft, 170 of them B-29s. 52 Soviet pilots returned from Korea as aces. E. Pepelyaev, who shot down 23 aircraft in the skies of Korea, is considered ace No. 1, followed by N. Sutyagin, who has 21 victories. Many returned home with orders and medals, and the chest of 35 pilots was decorated with the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In total, about 1,200 pilots passed the test of the Korean War.
As in any war, there were losses. American pilots were by no means cowards, and were not afraid to engage in battle. The air corps lost 319 aircraft over three years of fighting, and 120 pilots died in battle. Almost all of them are buried in the Chinese city of Dalian (formerly Dalny), in the Russian cemetery, next to the defenders of Port Arthur.
Eternal memory to them!
Korean War. Results and consequences
Statistics
Number of troops (people):
Southern Coalition (so-called “UN troops”):
South Korea - 590 911
USA - from 302,483 to 480,000
UK - 14,198
Philippines - 7000
Canada - from 6146 to 26,791
Türkiye - 5190
Netherlands - 3972
Australia - 2282
New Zealand - 1389
Thailand - 1294
Ethiopia - 1271
Greece - 1263
France - 1119
Colombia - 1068
Belgium - 900
Luxembourg - 44
Total: from 933,845 to 1,100,000.
Northern Coalition (data approximate)
North Korea - 260,000
China - 780,000
USSR - up to 26,000, mostly pilots, anti-aircraft gunners and military advisers
Total: about 1,060,000
Losses (counting both killed and wounded):
Southern Coalition
from 1,271,000 to 1,818,000
Northern coalition
1,858,000 to 3,822,000 Chinese and North Koreans
315 USSR citizens who died from wounds and illnesses (including 168 officers)
War in the air
The Korean War was the last armed conflict in which piston aircraft such as the F-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair, A-1 Skyraider, as well as the Supermarine Seafire and Fairy Firefly aircraft used from aircraft carriers played a prominent role " and the Hawker "Sea Fury", owned by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. They began to be replaced by the F-80 Shooting Star, F-84 Thunderjet, and F9F Panther jets. Piston aircraft of the northern coalition included the Yak-9 and La-9.
In the fall of 1950, the Soviet 64th Fighter Air Corps, armed with new MiG-15 aircraft, entered the war. Despite secrecy measures (the use of Chinese insignia and military uniforms), Western pilots knew about this, but the UN did not take any diplomatic steps so as not to aggravate already tense relations with the USSR. The MiG-15 was the most modern Soviet aircraft and was superior to the American F-80 and F-84, not to mention the older piston engines. Even after the Americans sent the latest F-86 Saber aircraft to Korea, Soviet aircraft continued to maintain an advantage over the Yalu River, since the MiG-15 had a greater service ceiling, good acceleration characteristics, climb rate and armament (3 guns versus 6 machine guns), although the speed was almost the same. The UN troops had a numerical advantage and soon this allowed them to level the air position for the rest of the war - a determining factor in the successful initial offensive to the north and confrontation of Chinese forces. Chinese troops were also equipped with jet aircraft, but the quality of training of their pilots left much to be desired.
Among other factors that helped the southern coalition maintain parity in the air were a successful radar system (due to which the world's first radar warning systems began to be installed on MiGs), better stability and controllability at high speeds and altitudes, and the use of special suits by pilots . A direct technical comparison of the MiG-15 and F-86 is inappropriate, due to the fact that the main targets of the former were heavy B-29 bombers (according to American data, 16 B-29s were lost from enemy fighters; according to Soviet data, 69 of these aircraft were shot down), and the targets of the second are the MiG-15s themselves. The American side claimed that 792 MiGs and 108 other aircraft were shot down (although only 379 American air victories were documented), with the loss of only 78 F-86s. The Soviet side claimed 1,106 air victories and 335 MiGs shot down. Official Chinese statistics indicate 231 aircraft (mostly MiG-15) shot down in air battles and 168 other losses. The number of North Korean air force losses remains unknown. According to some estimates, it lost about 200 aircraft in the first stage of the war and about 70 after China entered hostilities. Since each side provides its own statistics, it is difficult to judge the real state of affairs. The best aces of the war are considered to be the Soviet pilot Yevgeny Pepelyaev and the American Joseph McConnell. The total losses of South Korean aviation and UN forces (combat and non-combat) in the war amounted to 3,046 aircraft of all types.
Throughout the conflict, the US Army carried out massive carpet bombing, mainly with incendiary bombs, throughout North Korea, including civilian settlements. Despite the fact that the conflict lasted relatively short, significantly more napalm was dropped on the DPRK than, for example, on Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Tens of thousands of gallons of napalm were dropped on North Korean cities every day.
In May and June 1953, the US Air Force aimed to destroy several key irrigation structures and hydroelectric dams in order to cause significant damage to agriculture and industry in the north of the peninsula. The dams on the Kusongan, Deoksangan and Pujongang Rivers were destroyed and vast areas of land were flooded, causing severe famine among the civilian population.
Consequences of the war
The Korean War was the first armed conflict of the Cold War and was the prototype for many subsequent conflicts. She created a model of local war, when two superpowers fight in a limited area without the use of nuclear weapons. The Korean War added fuel to the fire of the Cold War, which at that time was more associated with confrontation between the USSR and some European countries.
Korea
According to American estimates, about 600 thousand Korean soldiers died in the war. About a million people died on the South Korean side, 85% of whom were civilians. Soviet sources say 11.1% of North Korea's population died, which is about 1.1 million people. In total, including South and North Korea, about 2.5 million people died. More than 80% of the industrial and transport infrastructure of both states, three quarters of government institutions, and about half of the entire housing stock were destroyed.
At the end of the war, the peninsula remained divided into zones of influence of the USSR and the USA. American troops remained in South Korea as a peacekeeping contingent, and the demilitarized zone is still littered with mines and weapons caches.
USA
The US initially announced 54,246 deaths in the Korean War. In 1993, this number was divided by the country's Defense Committee into 33,686 combat deaths, 2,830 non-combat casualties, and 17,730 non-Korean theater incident deaths during the same period. There were also 8,142 missing persons. US losses were less than during the Vietnam campaign, however, it should be taken into account that the Korean War lasted 3 years versus the 8 year Vietnam War. For military personnel who served in the Korean War, the Americans issued a special medal “For the Defense of Korea.”
The subsequent neglect of the memory of this war in favor of the Vietnam War, World War I and World War II has led to the Korean War being called the Forgotten War or the Unknown War. On July 27, 1995, the Korean War Veterans Memorial was opened in Washington.
As a result of the Korean War, the insufficient preparedness of the American military machine for combat operations became obvious, and after the war the US military budget was increased to $50 billion, the size of the army and air force was doubled, and American military bases were opened in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia.
A number of projects for the technical re-equipment of the US Army were also launched, during which the military received at its disposal such types of weapons as M16 rifles, 40-mm M79 grenade launchers, and F-4 Phantom aircraft.
The war also changed America's views of the Third World, especially in Indochina. Until the 1950s, the United States was very critical of French attempts to restore its influence there by suppressing local resistance, but after the Korean War, the United States began to help France in the fight against the Viet Minh and other national communist local parties, providing up to 80% of the French military budget in Vietnam .
The Korean War also marked the beginning of efforts at racial equalization in the American military, in which many black Americans served. On July 26, 1948, President Truman signed an executive order requiring black soldiers to serve in the military under the same conditions as white soldiers. And, if at the beginning of the war there were still units only for blacks, by the end of the war they were abolished, and their personnel merged into the general units. The last black-only special military unit was the 24th Infantry Regiment. It was disbanded on October 1, 1951.
The United States still maintains a large military contingent in South Korea in order to maintain the status quo on the peninsula.
People's Republic of China
According to official Chinese statistics, the Chinese army lost 390 thousand people in the Korean War. Of these: 110.4 thousand were killed in battles; 21.6 thousand died from wounds; 13 thousand died from disease; 25.6 thousand were captured or missing; and 260 thousand were wounded in battle. According to some, both Western and Eastern, sources, from 500 thousand to 1 million Chinese soldiers were killed in battle, died from disease, hunger and accidents. Independent estimates suggest that China lost nearly a million people in the war. Mao Zedong's only healthy son, Mao Anying, also died fighting on the Korean Peninsula.
After the war, Soviet-Chinese relations seriously deteriorated. Although China's decision to enter the war was largely dictated by its own strategic considerations (primarily the desire to maintain a buffer zone on the Korean Peninsula), many in the Chinese leadership suspected that the USSR was deliberately using the Chinese as “cannon fodder” to achieve its own geopolitical goals. Dissatisfaction was also caused by the fact that military assistance, contrary to China's expectations, was not provided free of charge. A paradoxical situation arose: China had to use loans from the USSR, initially received for economic development, in order to pay for the supply of Soviet weapons. The Korean War made a significant contribution to the growth of anti-Soviet sentiments in the leadership of the PRC, and became one of the prerequisites for the Soviet-Chinese conflict. However, the fact that China, relying solely on its own forces, essentially entered into a war with the United States and inflicted serious defeats on American troops, spoke of the growing power of the state and was a harbinger of the fact that China would soon have to be reckoned with in a political sense.
Another consequence of the war was the failure of plans for the final unification of China under the rule of the CCP. In 1950, the country's leadership was actively preparing to occupy the island of Taiwan, the last stronghold of the Kuomintang forces. The American administration at that time was not particularly sympathetic to the Kuomintang and did not intend to provide direct military assistance to its troops. However, due to the outbreak of the Korean War, the planned landing on Taiwan had to be cancelled. After the end of hostilities, the United States revised its strategy in the region and made clear its readiness to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by communist armies.
Republic of China
After the end of the war, 14 thousand prisoners of war from the Chinese army decided not to return to the PRC, but to go to Taiwan (only 7.11 thousand Chinese prisoners returned to China). The first batch of these prisoners of war arrived in Taiwan on January 23, 1954. In official Kuomintang propaganda they began to be called “anti-communist volunteers.” January 23rd has since become known as “World Freedom Day” in Taiwan.
The Korean War had other lasting effects. By the outbreak of the Korean conflict, the United States had effectively turned its back on the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek, which by then had taken refuge on the island of Taiwan, and had no plans to intervene in the Chinese civil war. After the war, it became obvious to the United States that in order to globally oppose communism, it was necessary to support anti-communist Taiwan in every possible way. It is believed that it was the dispatch of the American squadron to the Taiwan Strait that saved the Kuomintang government from the invasion of the PRC forces and possible defeat. Anti-communist sentiments in the West, which sharply increased as a result of the Korean War, played a significant role in the fact that until the early 70s, most capitalist states did not recognize the Chinese state and maintained diplomatic relations only with Taiwan.
Japan
Japan was politically influenced by both the defeat of South Korea in the first months of the war (this threatened its political security) and the emerging leftist movement in Japan itself in support of the northern coalition. In addition, after the arrival of American army units on the Korean Peninsula, Japan's security became doubly problematic. Under US supervision, Japan created an internal police force, which then developed into the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The signing of the peace treaty with Japan (better known as the Treaty of San Francisco) accelerated Japan's integration into the international community.
Economically, Japan received considerable benefits from the war. Throughout the conflict, Japan was the main rear base of the southern coalition. Supplies to American troops were organized through special support structures that allowed the Japanese to effectively trade with the Pentagon. About 3.5 billion dollars were spent by the Americans on the purchase of Japanese goods during the entire war. Zaibatsu, which at the beginning of the war were distrusted by the American military, began to actively trade with them - Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo were among those zaibatsu that prospered by profiting from trade with the Americans. Industrial growth in Japan between March 1950 and March 1951 was 50%. By 1952, production had reached pre-war levels, doubling in three years. By becoming an independent country after the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan also eliminated some unnecessary expenses.
Europe
The outbreak of the Korean War convinced Western leaders that communist regimes posed a serious threat to them. The United States tried to convince them (including Germany) of the need to strengthen their defense. However, Germany's armament was perceived ambiguously by the leaders of other European states. Later, rising tensions in Korea and China's entry into the war forced them to reconsider their position. To contain the emerging German army, the French government proposed the creation of the European Defense Committee, a supranational organization under the auspices of NATO.
The end of the Korean War marked a decline in the communist threat and thus the need for the creation of such an organization. The French Parliament has postponed the ratification of the agreement on the creation of the European Defense Committee indefinitely. The reason for this was the fear of de Gaulle's party about the loss of sovereignty by France. The creation of a European Defense Committee was never ratified, and the initiative failed in a vote in August 1954.
USSR
For the USSR, the war was politically unsuccessful. The main goal - the unification of the Korean Peninsula under the Kim Il Sung regime - was not achieved. The borders of both parts of Korea remained virtually unchanged. Further, relations with communist China seriously deteriorated, and the countries of the capitalist bloc, on the contrary, united even more: the Korean War accelerated the conclusion of the US peace treaty with Japan, the warming of relations between Germany and other Western countries, the creation of the military-political blocs ANZUS (1951) and SEATO (1954) ). However, the war also had its advantages: the authority of the Soviet state, which showed its readiness to come to the aid of a developing state, seriously increased in third world countries, many of which, after the Korean War, took the socialist path of development and chose the Soviet Union as their patron. The conflict also demonstrated to the world the high quality of Soviet military equipment.
Economically, the war became a heavy burden for the national economy of the USSR, which had not yet recovered from the Second World War. Military spending has increased sharply. However, despite all these costs, about 30 thousand Soviet military personnel who participated in the conflict in one way or another gained invaluable experience in fighting local wars; several new types of weapons were tested, in particular the MiG-15 combat aircraft. In addition, many samples of American military equipment were captured, which allowed Soviet engineers and scientists to apply American experience in the development of new types of weapons.
Today, Koreans celebrate the end of the war that divided the people into two unequal halves 60 years ago. I would like to recall the main lines of that half-forgotten war in which our compatriots fought...
This war is called "forgotten". In our country, before the collapse of the USSR, nothing was written or spoken about it at all. Our compatriots who happened to participate in this war (pilots, anti-aircraft gunners, searchlight operators, military advisers and other specialists) gave a subscription obliging them to remain silent. In the West, many documents are also still classified, there is clearly not enough information, historians are constantly arguing about the events of that war.
“The myth is broken. Our country was not as strong as others thought,” admitted Marshall, the American Secretary of Defense at the time. In the Korean War, the myth of American power was shattered to smithereens.
There are several reasons for this silence. The most important thing is that the war is still not over. Formally, it continues, only a truce has been concluded, but even this is periodically violated. The peace treaty has not yet been signed; the border between the two Korean states is one of the most fortified, most tense places on our planet. And while the war is not over, censorship cannot be completely absent, and, therefore, there is no need to talk about the objectivity and completeness of the presentation of information. The second reason is the ratio of the number of human lives lost and the political and military results achieved - this war is probably the most cruel and senseless that has ever taken place on Earth. A real carnage. The number of victims of the war is still not known exactly; the range is gigantic: you can find data from 1 to 10 million people. Most sources agree on the figures - 3-4 million dead, and the result is the return of the opposing forces to their original positions. That is, millions of people were completely senselessly killed, almost the entire Korean Peninsula was turned into ruins, but no one suffered any punishment for this. Agree, in such a situation it’s somehow awkward to talk about your victories and defeats, it’s better to just try to forget about everything. There is also a third reason - the war was extremely cruel on both sides. Massive use of napalm, burning people alive, torture and cruel treatment of prisoners of war, a large number of casualties among the civilian population. In general, many war crimes were committed, but nothing like the Nuremberg trials happened, politicians remained in power, generals remained in office. And no one wants to stir up the past.
Key dates and events of the Korean War.
North Korean troops began a military operation against South Korea, developed jointly with Soviet specialists and approved by the Soviet leadership. From the published documents it is clear that Stalin did not give consent for a long time, paying attention to the insufficient training and weapons of the North Korean army and fearing a direct conflict between the USSR and America. But, in the end, he still gave the go-ahead. According to US Assistant Secretary of State D. Webb, President Truman's first reaction was the words: "In the name of the Lord God, I am going to teach them a lesson."
June 27, 1950 - The UN Security Council passes a resolution approving the use of American UN forces in Korea, and also recommends the voluntary support of these actions by UN member states in accordance with Article 106 of the UN Charter.
The Soviet Union could not veto the resolution because it had been absent from the Security Council since January 1950 to protest China's representation at the UN by the Kuomintang regime. What was it? Was it a diplomatic miscalculation or simply that the left hand of the Soviet government did not know what the right hand was doing? The resolution was adopted unanimously, with only Yugoslavia abstaining. The entire operation to capture South Korea was designed to be lightning fast, so that the Americans would not have time to enter before it was all over. Therefore, stalling for time and vetoing the resolution could have contributed to the success of the campaign. But the Americans also understood this, everything was done in two days, their participation in military operations became completely legitimate. The joint participation of the armed forces of many states in this war gave it some diversity, mixing the military traditions of different armies. Here is a list of participants from the UN troops (by the end of 1951):
USA - 302.5 thousand; South Korea - 590.9 thousand; Great Britain - 14.2 thousand; Australia - 2.3 thousand; Canada - 6.1 thousand; New Zealand - 1.4 thousand; Türkiye - 5.4 thousand; Belgium - 1 thousand, France - 1.1 thousand; Greece - 1.2 thousand; Netherlands - 0.8 thousand; Colombia - about 1 thousand, Ethiopia - 1.2 thousand, Thailand - 1.3 thousand, Philippines - 7 thousand; South Africa - 0.8 thousand
June 28 - Seoul is captured by North Korean troops.
The long-suffering city changed hands four times during the three years of war. You can imagine what was left of it at the end of the war. The northerners hoped that the fall of Seoul would be tantamount to the surrender of the South Korean army. However, the leadership of the Republic of Korea managed to evacuate, encirclement and the end of the war did not work out.
September 15th. UN forces landing at Inchon, beginning of the counter-offensive.
By this time, the South Korean army and UN forces controlled only a small area of the country around the city of Busan, the so-called Busan Bridgehead. However, they managed to hold the bridgehead and accumulate forces for a counteroffensive, timed to coincide with the landing at Inchon. By this time, the North Korean army was greatly exhausted by the continuous raids of American aviation, the Americans completely dominated the air, and there was nothing to repel air attacks.
October 2, 1950 - Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai warned that if Allied forces (except South Korean) crossed the 38th parallel, Chinese volunteers would enter the war.
October 7, 1950 - American and British divisions began to advance to the north of Korea.
October 16, 1950 - the first Chinese units (the so-called “volunteers”) entered Korean territory.
The first blow was delivered on October 25, but then the Chinese went into the mountains, and there was a month-long lull at the front. By this time, almost the entire territory of the country was controlled by the army of South Korea and its allies.
The DPRK troops have only a small bridgehead left near the border with China.
The pendulum of war has swung in the other direction. The Allied retreat in some places resembled a flight.
December 17, 1950 - the first meeting of Soviet MIGs and American Sabers in the skies of Korea.
January 4, 1951 - recapture of Seoul by North Korean troops and Chinese "volunteers".
April 10, 1951 - General MacArthur resigned, Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway was appointed commander of the troops.
An important event of this war, since MacArthur pursued a pronounced “hawkish” line, insisting on expanding the war into Chinese territory and even on the use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, he spoke with these ideas in the media without notifying the president. For which he was rightly removed.
During the negotiations, hostilities continued, the parties suffered heavy losses.
This event was decisive for the completion of hostilities. Published documents allow us to conclude that Stalin deliberately delayed the war in the last months of his life. The reasons for this can now only be guessed at.
The exchange began with sick and crippled prisoners. Military operations continued.
India made a ceasefire proposal, which was accepted by the UN. General Clark represented the Southern Coalition because South Korean representatives refused to sign the document. The front line remained in the area of the 38th parallel, and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was proclaimed around it. The DMZ runs slightly north of the 38th parallel in the east and slightly south in the west. Kaesong, the city where the negotiations took place, was part of South Korea before the war, but is now a city in the DPRK with special status. A peace treaty ending the war has not yet been signed.
Here's the story. Let's add small, not very well-known touches to it.
The threat of using atomic weapons in the Korean War.
This was the first war on the planet that began when the warring parties had nuclear weapons. We are talking, of course, not about Korea, but about the USA and the USSR - active participants in the campaign. And, paradoxical as it may be at first glance, what was especially dangerous was that by the time the war began, the two great powers possessed these weapons far from parity: the USA had already produced about 300 atomic bombs, and the USSR had only about 10 . Successful tests of the first atomic bomb in the USSR - an exact copy of the first American one - took place quite recently, at the end of August 1949. This inequality of nuclear forces created a real danger that in a critical situation the American side could use this last decisive argument in a military conflict. Documents have been published from which it is clear that some American generals (including the commander, General MacArthur) persuaded the country's leadership not only to use nuclear weapons in Korea and China, but also against the USSR. If we add to this that President Truman did not have a psychological barrier of novelty in this matter (it was he who gave the order to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki), then it should be clear on what terrible brink the world was balancing in these years.
How, given this balance of power, did Stalin still agree (albeit after much hesitation) to develop and launch a military operation against South Korea? This is one of the mysteries of the 20th century; maybe the leader really was not completely mentally healthy in the last years of his life? Or is it all because of the words of US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, spoken in January 1950? Acheson then said that the American defense perimeter in the Pacific included the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese Ryukyu Islands and the Philippines. From this statement one could conclude that South Korea is not within the zone of US strategic interests, and the Americans will not interfere in the conflict between the North and the South.
One way or another, the possibility of using nuclear weapons was considered quite seriously by the American side. In October 1951, the Americans carried out a simulated atomic bombing approved by President Truman, a “practice atomic strike” on North Korean positions. Dummies of real atomic bombs were dropped on North Korean sites in several cities. “Port Hudson” was the name of this intimidation operation. Fortunately, the American leadership still had enough wisdom and restraint not to start a third, nuclear world war, in comparison with which the terrible second would seem like something like a military exercise.
The hunt for "live" fighters during the Korean War.
By the beginning of hostilities, both the USA and the USSR had first-generation jet fighters, slightly different in design, but quite comparable in their flight and combat characteristics. The Soviet MIG-15 is a famous aircraft; it holds the record for the number of aircraft produced (more than 15 thousand) - it is the most massive jet combat aircraft in the history of aviation, which was in service with many countries. And in terms of service life, it probably also has no equal - the last such vehicles were withdrawn from service with the Albanian Air Force in 2005! The American F-86 Saber is the first swept-wing jet fighter adopted by the US Air Force.
It must be said that in the USSR, the leadership often preferred not to design a new one, but to copy already developed military equipment, so as not to waste time and money on creating a new path to the same goal. Thus, the Soviet bomber of that time TU-4 was an exact copy of the American Boeing “flying fortress” (B-29 “Superfortress”), the same one that bombed Hiroshima. But it didn’t work out that way with the fighters. They were completely different machines, each had its own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, both warring sides were very interested in obtaining and studying a “living”, not destroyed enemy vehicle. The Americans were interested in the MIGA armament, technical solutions that allowed it to have a take-off weight significantly lower than that of the Saber. The American MiG engine, according to Apparently, he was not very interested, since it was a copy of English jet engines, which the USSR managed to purchase before the start of the Cold War.
Our military designers were interested in engines, electronic flight and navigation equipment, as well as an active anti-g suit. The latter was of particular interest, since pilots flying MIGs in combat experienced overloads of up to 8g, this could not but affect the results of aerial duels. If the F-86 managed to be shot down, the pilot ejected into a special plane. suit, but the most complex part of the structure - the apparatus that was connected to it and regulated the pressure - remained on board the falling plane.
In April 1951, the “group of Comrade Dzyubenko” arrived at the Andong airfield in Manchuria - a group of 13 pilots with a secret mission to capture a “live” Saber. However, it was technically impossible to force a serviceable Saber to land using MIGs: it had a higher maximum speed than the MIG. The group was unable to complete the task, but chance helped. On October 6, 1951, the best ace of the Korean War, commander of the 196th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Colonel Pepelyaev, damaged a Saber, whose pilot was unable to eject, apparently due to a broken ejection seat. As a result, the plane made an emergency landing on the low tide strip of the Korean Gulf. The operation of pulling the plane ashore, loading its parts onto vehicles and delivering it to Moscow was very difficult, since the Americans at some stage spotted the work. But everything ended well, the “live” Saber was delivered for study by Soviet military specialists. In May 1952, the second F-86 was received, shot down by anti-aircraft artillery fire.
In the summer of 1951, American attempts to take possession of the Soviet MIG-15 also ended in success. The scenario was similar: the plane also fell into the shallow waters of the Korean Gulf and was raised by American and British military specialists. True, the specimen was badly damaged and was not suitable for flight research. A year later, another car was found in the mountains of North Korea and taken out, cut into pieces. Well, a completely intact, “living” plane came to the Americans after the end of hostilities, on September 21, 1953, when one of the DPRK Air Force pilots, Lieutenant No Geum Sok, flew to the South on it. Perhaps this was facilitated by the $100 thousand reward promised by the Americans for such a flight, although the pilot himself claimed that the motive for his action was not money. Later, No Geum Seok emigrated to the United States, taking the surname Kenneth Rowe, graduated from the University of Delaware, married and became a US citizen. He worked for a long time as an aeronautical engineer for various American companies, and for 17 years as a professor of aeronautical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. wrote a memoir, “On the MiG-15 to Freedom.” The hijacked MIG was used for training air combat, which helped American pilots improve combat tactics in future wars involving Soviet-made aircraft.
SA
China
USSR
Douglas MacArthur
Matthew Ridgway
Mark Clark
Kim Il Sung
In South Korea the war is called the June 25th Incident. Yugioh sabyon(Kor. 6·25 사변) (according to the date of the start of hostilities) or Hanguk Jeongjen(Korean: 한국전쟁). Until the early 1990s, it was also often called the “Troubles of June 25” Yugioh ran(Kor. 6·25 란).
In the DPRK the war is called the Patriotic Liberation War Jeoguk Haebang Jeongjeng(Korean: 조국해방전쟁).
Historical background
Despite the post-war demobilization of the US Army, which significantly weakened its strength in the region (with the exception of the US Marine Corps, the divisions sent to Korea were at 40% strength), the US still maintained a large military contingent under the command of General Douglas MacArthur in Japan. With the exception of the British Commonwealth, no other country had such military power in the region. At the beginning of the war, Truman ordered MacArthur to provide military equipment to the South Korean army and carry out the evacuation of US citizens under air cover. Truman did not heed the advice of his entourage to start an air war against the DPRK, but ordered the Seventh Fleet to ensure the defense of Taiwan, thus ending the policy of non-intervention in the struggle of the Chinese Communists and the forces of Chiang Kai-shek. The Kuomintang government, now based in Taiwan, asked for military assistance, but the US government refused, citing the possibility of interference in the conflict by Communist China as the reason for its refusal.
Other Western powers sided with the United States and provided military assistance to American troops who were sent to help South Korea. However, by August, Allied forces had been driven far south into the Pusan area. Despite the arrival of assistance from the UN, American and South Korean troops were unable to break out of the encirclement known as the Busan Perimeter, they were only able to stabilize the front line along the Nakdong River. It seemed that it would not be difficult for the DPRK troops to eventually occupy the entire Korean Peninsula. However, the Allied forces managed to go on the offensive by the fall.
The most important military operations in the first months of the war were the Daejeon offensive operation (-July 25) and the Naktong operation (July 26 - August 20). During the Daejeon operation, in which several infantry divisions of the DPRK army, artillery regiments and some smaller armed formations took part, the northern coalition managed to immediately cross the Kimgan River, encircle and dismember into two parts the 24th American Infantry Division and capture its commander , Major General Dean. As a result, American troops lost 32 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 220 guns and mortars, 20 tanks, 540 machine guns, 1300 vehicles, etc. During the Naktong operation in the Naktong River area, significant damage was caused to the 25th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions Americans, in the southwestern direction, the 6th Infantry Division and the motorcycle regiment of the 1st Army of the KPA defeated the retreating units of the South Korean army, captured the southwestern and southern parts of Korea and reached the approaches to Masan, forcing the 1st American Division to retreat to Busan Marine Corps. On August 20, the North Korean offensive was stopped. The Southern Coalition retained the Busan bridgehead up to 120 km along the front and up to 100-120 km in depth and defended it quite successfully. All attempts by the DPRK army to break through the front line were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, in early autumn, southern coalition troops received reinforcements and began attempts to break through the Busan perimeter.
UN counter-offensive (September 1950)
Although the northerners, at a feverish pace, built two defensive lines at a distance of 160 and 240 km north of the 38th parallel, they clearly did not have enough forces, and the divisions that completed the formation did not change the situation. The enemy could conduct hourly or daily artillery bombardment and airstrikes. To support the operation to capture the capital of the DPRK, on October 20, 5,000 airborne troops were dropped 40-45 kilometers north of the city. The capital of the DPRK has fallen.
Intervention by China and the USSR (October 1950)
By the end of September, it became clear that the North Korean armed forces were defeated, and that the occupation of the entire territory of the Korean Peninsula by American and South Korean troops was only a matter of time. Under these conditions, active consultations between the leadership of the USSR and the PRC continued throughout the first week of October. In the end, the decision was made to send parts of the Chinese army to Korea. Preparations for such an option had been going on since the late spring of 1950, when Stalin and Kim Il Sung informed Mao of the impending attack on South Korea.
However, the USSR limited itself to air support, and the Soviet MiG-15s were not supposed to fly closer than 100 km to the front line. New jet aircraft prevailed over the outdated American F-80 until more modern F-86 aircraft appeared in Korea. The military assistance provided by the USSR to the United States was well known, but in order to avoid an international nuclear conflict, no retaliatory measures were necessary from the Americans. At the same time, throughout the entire period of hostilities, Soviet representatives publicly and officially assured that “there are no Soviet pilots in Korea.”
Total: about 1,060,000
Losses of the parties: according to the Chinese version, 110 thousand Chinese volunteers, 33 thousand American soldiers and 14 thousand soldiers from the UN contingent died during the hostilities
War in the air
The Korean War was the last armed conflict in which piston aircraft such as the F-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair, A-1 Skyraider, as well as the Supermarine Seafire and Fairy Firefly aircraft used from aircraft carriers played a prominent role " and the Hawker "Sea Fury", owned by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. They began to be replaced by the F-80 Shooting Star, F-84 Thunderjet, and F9F Panther jets. Piston aircraft of the northern coalition included the Yak-9 and La-9.
In the fall of 1950, the Soviet 64th Fighter Air Corps, armed with new MiG-15 aircraft, entered the war. Despite secrecy measures (the use of Chinese and Korean insignia and military uniforms), Western pilots knew about this, but the UN did not take any diplomatic steps so as not to aggravate already tense relations with the USSR. The MiG-15 was the most modern Soviet aircraft and was superior to the American F-80 and F-84, not to mention the older piston engines. Even after the Americans sent the latest F-86 Saber aircraft to Korea, Soviet aircraft continued to maintain an advantage over the Yalu River, since the MiG-15 had a larger service ceiling, good acceleration characteristics, climb rate and armament (3 guns versus 6 machine guns), although the speed was almost the same. The UN troops had a numerical advantage and soon this allowed them to level the air position for the rest of the war - a determining factor in the successful initial offensive to the north and confrontation of Chinese forces. Chinese troops were also equipped with jet aircraft, but the quality of training of their pilots left much to be desired.
Among other factors that helped the southern coalition maintain parity in the air were a successful radar system (due to which the world's first radar warning systems began to be installed on MiGs), better stability and controllability at high speeds and altitudes, and the use of special suits by pilots . A direct technical comparison of the MiG-15 and F-86 is inappropriate, due to the fact that the main targets of the former were heavy B-29 bombers (according to American data, 16 B-29s were lost from enemy fighters; according to Soviet data, 69 of these aircraft were shot down). and the targets of the second are the MiG-15s themselves. The American side claimed that 792 MiGs and 108 other aircraft were shot down (although only 379 American air victories were documented), with the loss of only 78 F-86s. The Soviet side claimed 1,106 air victories and 335 downed [ specify] MiGah. Official Chinese statistics indicate 231 aircraft (mostly MiG-15) shot down in air battles and 168 other losses. The number of North Korean air force losses remains unknown. According to some estimates, it lost about 200 aircraft in the first stage of the war and about 70 after China entered hostilities. Since each side provides its own statistics, it is difficult to judge the real state of affairs. The best aces of the war are considered to be the Soviet pilot Yevgeny Pepelyaev and the American Joseph McConnell. The total losses of South Korean aviation and UN forces (combat and non-combat) in the war amounted to 3,046 aircraft of all types.
Throughout the conflict, the US Army conducted massive carpet bombings, primarily with incendiary bombs, throughout North Korea, including civilian settlements. Even though the conflict lasted relatively short, significantly more napalm was dropped on the DPRK than, for example, on Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Tens of thousands of gallons of napalm were dropped on North Korean cities every day.
A number of projects for the technical re-equipment of the US Army were also launched, during which the military received at its disposal such types of weapons as M16 rifles, 40-mm M79 grenade launchers, and F-4 Phantom aircraft.
The war also changed America's views of the Third World, especially in Indochina. Until the 1950s, the United States was very critical of French attempts to restore its influence there by suppressing local resistance, but after the Korean War, the United States began to help France in the fight against the Viet Minh and other national communist local parties, providing up to 80% of the French military budget in Vietnam .
The Korean War also marked the beginning of efforts at racial equalization in the American military, in which many black Americans served. On July 26, 1948, President Truman signed an executive order requiring black soldiers to serve in the military under the same conditions as white soldiers. And, if at the beginning of the war there were still units only for blacks, by the end of the war they were abolished, and their personnel merged into the general units. The last black-only special military unit was the 24th Infantry Regiment. It was disbanded on October 1, 1951.
The United States still maintains a large military contingent in South Korea in order to maintain the status quo on the peninsula.
According to official Chinese statistics, the Chinese army lost 390 thousand people in the Korean War. Of these: 110.4 thousand were killed in battles; 21.6 thousand died from wounds; 13 thousand died from disease; 25.6 thousand were captured or missing; and 260 thousand were wounded in battle. According to some, both Western and Eastern, sources, from 500 thousand to 1 million Chinese soldiers were killed in battle, died from disease, hunger and accidents. Independent estimates suggest that China lost nearly a million people in the war. Mao Zedong's (Chinese: 毛澤東) only healthy son, Mao Anying (Chinese: 毛岸英), also died in combat on the Korean Peninsula.
After the war, Soviet-Chinese relations seriously deteriorated. Although China's decision to enter the war was largely dictated by its own strategic considerations (primarily the desire to maintain a buffer zone on the Korean Peninsula), many in the Chinese leadership suspected that the USSR was deliberately using the Chinese as “cannon fodder” to achieve its own geopolitical goals. Dissatisfaction was also caused by the fact that military assistance, contrary to China's expectations, was not provided free of charge. A paradoxical situation arose: China had to use loans from the USSR, initially received for economic development, in order to pay for the supply of Soviet weapons. The Korean War made a significant contribution to the growth of anti-Soviet sentiments in the leadership of the PRC, and became one of the prerequisites for the Soviet-Chinese conflict. However, the fact that China, relying solely on its own forces, essentially entered into a war with the United States and inflicted serious defeats on American troops, spoke of the growing power of the state and was a harbinger of the fact that China would soon have to be reckoned with in a political sense.
Another consequence of the war was the failure of plans for the eventual unification of China under the rule of the CCP. In 1950, the country's leadership was actively preparing to occupy the island of Taiwan, the last stronghold of the Kuomintang forces. The American administration at that time was not particularly sympathetic to the Kuomintang and did not intend to provide direct military assistance to its troops. However, due to the outbreak of the Korean War, the planned landing on Taiwan had to be cancelled. After the end of hostilities, the United States revised its strategy in the region and made clear its readiness to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by communist armies.
The Korean War had other lasting effects. By the outbreak of the Korean conflict, the United States had effectively turned its back on the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek, which by then had taken refuge on the island of Taiwan, and had no plans to intervene in the Chinese Civil War. After the war, it became obvious to the United States that in order to globally oppose communism, it was necessary to support anti-communist Taiwan in every possible way. It is believed that it was the dispatch of the American squadron to the Taiwan Strait that saved the Kuomintang government from the invasion of the PRC forces and possible defeat. Anti-communist sentiments in the West, which sharply increased as a result of the Korean War, played a significant role in the fact that until the early 70s, most capitalist states did not recognize the Chinese state and maintained diplomatic relations only with Taiwan.
The end of the Korean War marked a decline in the communist threat and thus the need for the creation of such an organization. The French Parliament has postponed the ratification of the agreement on the creation of the European Defense Committee indefinitely. The reason for this was the fear of de Gaulle's party about the loss of sovereignty by France. The creation of a European Defense Committee was never ratified, and the initiative failed in the August 1954 vote.
USSR
For the USSR, the war was politically unsuccessful. The main goal - the unification of the Korean Peninsula under the Kim Il Sung regime - was not achieved. The borders of both parts of Korea remained virtually unchanged. Further, relations with communist China seriously deteriorated, and the countries of the capitalist bloc, on the contrary, united even more: the Korean War accelerated the conclusion of a peace treaty between the United States and Japan, the warming of relations between Germany and other Western countries, and the creation of the military-political blocs ANZUS () and SEATO (). However, the war also had its advantages: the authority of the Soviet state, which showed its readiness to come to the aid of a developing state, seriously increased in third world countries, many of which, after the Korean War, took the socialist path of development and chose the Soviet Union as their patron. The conflict also demonstrated to the world the high quality of Soviet military equipment.
Economically, the war became a heavy burden for the national economy of the USSR, which had not yet recovered from the Second World War. Military spending has increased sharply. However, despite all these costs, about 30 thousand Soviet military personnel who participated in the conflict in one way or another gained invaluable experience in fighting local wars; several new types of weapons were tested, in particular the MiG-15 combat aircraft. In addition, many samples of American military equipment were captured, which allowed Soviet engineers and scientists to apply American experience in the development of new types of weapons.
Description of the war
Trace in art
"Massacre in Korea" by Pablo Picasso (1951; located in the Picasso Museum, Paris)
Painting by Pablo Picasso "Massacre in Korea"(1951) reflects military atrocities against civilians that occurred during the Korean War. There is reason to believe that the motive for painting was the war crimes of American soldiers in Sinchun, Hwanghae Province. In South Korea, the film was considered anti-American, which was taboo for a long time after the war, and was banned from showing until the 1990s.
In the United States, the most famous depiction in art was the story “The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” by Richard Hooker (pseudonym of Richard Hornberger). The story was then used to make the film “MASH” and the TV series “MASH”. All three works of fiction depict the misadventures of army hospital staff against the backdrop of the absurdities of war. Both the films and the book are permeated with rude, often black humor.
Although MES gives a fairly accurate description of field hospitals during the Korean War, several omissions were made in the television series. For example, in the MES units there were much more Korean personnel than is shown in the series, where almost all the doctors are American. The first few episodes feature a black doctor, Spearchucker Jones. However, after it was revealed that blacks were prohibited from serving in such hospitals, the character was removed from the series. Further, the television series lasted for eleven years, while the war lasted only three years - the characters aged much more during its run than could have aged in three years, even during the war. In addition, the series was filmed in
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