Interesting article from Robert Neff posted at Oh My News International about the first American GI defector to North Korea in 1962 that is worth a read. Even more interesting is that one K-blogger is from the same hometown as the defector. Small world.
The United States has a long history of sharing the sacrifices of war with our northern neighbor of Canada and the Korean War was no different. With the outbreak of the Korean War the Canadian government did not immediately deploy troops to fight in the Korean War. The far east had never served any strategic national interest for Canada, especially a small, very poor country like Korea, which very few people had ever heard of before. Plus even if the Canadian government wanted to deploy soldiers to Korea, they simply did not have the manpower to do so. The Canadian military was not large enough for a deployment and maintain troop strength at home as well. After World War II, Canada had drastically reduced it’s military to a peace time size that was only interested in home land defense. With the United States as their southern neighbor and only Native American tribes as their northern frontier it didn’t take a very large military to compose a home land defense force.
As the fighting in Korea escalated and the United Nations put out a call to arms from it’s members to defend Korea, the Canadian government began to seek volunteers for what they called the Canadian Army Special Force (CASF) and was to be commanded by Brigadier General J.M. Rockingham. The CASF was to be composed of a full combat brigade of soldiers and it was going to take a few months to raise and train that many soldiers to fight in Korea. While the force was being formed the Canadian government had cargo planes from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) begin transport duty for the UN forces between Ft. Lewis, Washington State and Haneda Airfield in Japan. Ft. Lewis was the major dispatch point of troops and supplies to fight in Korea. The RCAF contributed a total of 22 planes to help transport the needed supplies into the combat theatre. Additionally the Canadian government dispatched three naval destroyers to Korea. The destroyers arrived in July 1950 and would later serve during the September 1950 Inchon Landing Operation.
After General Douglas MacArthur’s successful Inchon Landing Operation it appeared that the Korean War was winding down and that full combat brigade of soldiers was not needed. So instead of deploying an entire brigade it was decided that only one infantry battalion would be deployed to Korea. That battalion would be the second battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel J.R. Stone.
The second battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment sailed from the port of Seattle to Korea on November 26, 1950 and didn’t arrive into the port of Yokohama, Japan until December 20, 1950. However, by the time the ship arrived in Japan the course of the war had changed dramatically. The Chinese military had entered the war and the UN forces were in full retreat from the Chinese onslaught. The Canadians had expected to take part in mop up and peacekeeping duty when they left Seattle, but by the time they reached Japan they discovered they were going to fight in a bloody, full scale war. The battalion was quickly rushed to the Korean peninsula and their first base camp would be in the city of Miryang near Daegu. Here the battalion would conduct training to prepare them for combat conditions in Korea. However, the battalion quickly found themselves in combat against South Korean communist guerrilla forces located in the southern mountains of Korea. After completing it’s actions against the guerrillas the PPCLI was assigned to the British led 27th Commonwealth Brigade which also included units from Australia and New Zealand plus one company of American tanks from Alpha Company 72nd Armor Regiment.
The PPCLI joined the 27th Brigade in mid-February and the Canadians saw their first combat action of the Korean War in late February during the UN offensive to the 38th parallel following the Chinese defeat at Chipyong-ni by the US 23 Infantry Regiment and their attached French Battalion. It was during this advance that the Canadians also received their first combat casualties of the Korean War. In April of 1951 the 27th Brigade was assigned to move south and construct blocking positions in the hills of Myeongjisan mountain just north of the city of Kapyong. The Chinese had launched their Spring Offensive of 1951 to recapture Seoul and the Kapyong valley was one of three high speed avenues of approach to capture Seoul. The other two were the Uijongbu and Munsan corridors. The Chinese had decided that the Kapyong Valley would be where they would concentrate their attack to recapture the Korean capitol. The Chinese command figured that if they recaptured Seoul they could negotiate a ceasefire from a position of strength since they controlled the South Korean capitol.
The Chinese main effort during much of the Korean War focused on attacking South Korean frontline units first and then attacking American and UN units from the flanks after crushing the South Koreans. The Battle Kapyong would be no different. On the night of April 22, 1951 the Chinese 60th and 118th Division attacked the ROK 6th Division near the Hwacheon Reservoir just North of the Kapyong valley. The ROK 6th Division folded almost immediately into a full scale retreat back down the valley towards the 27th Regiment. The first column of ROK Army vehicles, equipment, and men flooded the 27th’s line before they had even been able to construct adequate fighting positions. What little obstacles and most importantly the communications wire the 27th had been able to put up were tore down as the South Koreans stormed South down the valley. As the South Koreans passed the 27th lines the retreat was able to be halted 5 miles south of Kapyong. The ROK 6th Division commander reported the next day that he was able to round up and organize 5,000 of his men or about 50% of his combat power from the day before.
After the two Chinese divisions had routed the ROK 6th Division, the CCF 118th Division was chosen to continue the attack down the Kapyong valley to finish off the ROK division. On the night of the April 23, 1951 the lead elements of the CCF 118th had hit the frontlines of the 27th Commonwealth Brigade, which the Chinese commanders had not even realized were there. Thus the 27th though greatly out manned by about 3 to 1 by the Chinese had one advantage and that was surprise, which would help them fend off the Chinese attack.
The first Chinese units moved quickly down the valley floor in pursuit of the retreating ROK units and smashed into Australian positions on each side of the valley augmented with the American tanks from Alpha Company 72nd Armor Regiment. The initial contact was chaotic because the Aussies and the Americans at first thought the soldiers coming down the valley were more retreating South Koreans. The fighting that erupted was ferocious, but the Australians and their American allies continued to hold on despite the huge disadvantage of limited obstacles and having no artillery support. The Australians could not communicate with their supporting New Zealand artillery battalion because of the retreating South Koreans ripping out the communications lines. Quickly the Australians were surrounded and the New Zealand artillery had to withdraw from their positions South of the Australians once they came into contact with the enemy. The New Zealand artillery withdrew further south down the valley and set up an artillery support position behind the British Middlesex Regiment.
The Australians requested reinforcements from the British, but the British company sent forward to reinforce the Australians took fire from the Chinese not to far North of the Middlesex Regimental lines and instead of fighting through the fire to aid the Australians the company took up defensive positions on the hillside. Seeing that no help was coming the Australian commander ordered his men and the supporting American tanks to conduct a tactical withdrawal south towards the Middlesex Regimental lines. As the Australians moved southward other supporting elements located behind the Australian lines confused the tactical fighting withdrawal southward as a full scale retreat and began running down the valley leaving their equipment behind. Their was a growing sense of impending disaster as panic mounted. As the Australians moved southward this caused the Chinese to come into increasing contact with the men of the Canadian Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry on Hill 677 commanded by Lieutenant Colonel J.R. Stone.
LTC Stone seeing the increasing amounts of Chinese soldiers trying to encircle his unit decided to move Bravo company which was located near the valley floor and the only road access into the area further up the hillside to protect the battalion’s rear. LTC Stone had turned Hill 677 into a virtual Canadian island surrounded by a sea of Chinese soldiers. Throughout the remaining daylight of April 24th and into the night the Chinese continued to attack the Canadian positions with no success. The commanders of the Chinese units attacking the Canadian lines requested additional manpower to over run the Canadians. Additional Chinese troops that had been pursuing the Australians along the eastern hillsides of the valley came off the hills and began to wade across the Kapyong River to launch an overwhelming assault on the PPCLI’s Eastern flank. LTC Stone seeing the masses of Chinese soldiers fording the Kapyong River in the moonlight called in an artillery strike. Due to their position the Canadian’s communications lines had not been snapped by the retreating South Koreans. The New Zealand artillery pounded the advancing Chinese soldiers that were exposed in the open river valley. The Chinese soldiers that survived the artillery barrage advanced up the eastern hillside where they were met with overwhelming Canadian machine gun fire.
While the Chinese were launching their attack on the East another large Chinese force pressed their attack on the PPCLI’s Western flank by infiltrating along a high saddle that connected to the ridge line that PPCLI’s Delta Company occupied. Unlike the eastern attack, the Chinese forces in the west were attacking from only a slightly lower elevation than the Canadians and had not been degraded by artillery fire before launching their attack. Hundreds of Chinese soldiers poured into the Canadian defensive lines. The fighting became so desperate that the Delta Company commander called in New Zealand artillery fire on his own position. Artillery rained down on the Canadian position. The artillery fire suppressed the Chinese attackers enough for the Canadians to reestablish their defensive lines and begin directing artillery fire on the advancing Chinese units outside of the Canadian lines.
That night, the mighty Chinese Army that had caused an entire 10,000 man ROK Army division to retreat a day prior, had given their best effort to destroy one Canadian battalion and the Canadians did not budge. The heroic defense of Hill 677 allowed the withdrawing Australians and the American tank company to reorganize and rearm behind the Middlesex Regimental lines. At dawn on April 25, 1951 an Australian counterattack led by the American tanks slammed into the eastern flank of the Chinese forces. As the battle continued to rage the surrounded Canadian commander LTC Stone radioed in a resupply request since his men were running short of supplies and ammunition. In an amazing feat of logistical brilliance six hours later an American resupply plane from Japan flew over the Canadian lines and air dropped in fresh stocks of supplies and most importantly ammunition.
The newly resupplied Canadians combined with the Australian and American counterattack was too much for the Chinese to overcome. Their defeat at Kapyong combined with their additional defeat by the British and American units during the Battle of the Imjim led to overall failure of the Chinese Spring Offensive of 1951 to capture Seoul. If it wasn’t for the leadership of LTC J.R. Stone and his brave men from Canada holding Hill 677 the Chinese may have captured Seoul and that would have possibly led to an embarrassing cease fire where the North Korean communists controlled the South Korean capitol. The modern existence of the Republic of Korea would not have been possible without their current capitol city of Seoul. The Canadians had 10 soldiers killed in action and 23 wounded after the battle, while over an estimated thousand Chinese corpses littered the hillsides from the combined Canadian, Australian, and American defenders. For their actions during the Battle of Kapyong the second battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Royal Australian Regiment including their attached American tank company were awarded the prestigious US Presidential Unit Citation.
After the Battle of Kapyong the remainder of the Canadian forces had arrived in Korea after completing their initial training at Ft. Lewis, Washington. They were at first assigned to the US 25th Infantry Division and participated in a number of battles to shore up the UN frontline positions just North of the 38th parallel. By August of 1951 the entire Canadian brigade was consolidated into the newly formed British Commonwealth Division. The British Commonwealth Division was assigned the task of holding and patrolling the lower Imjim River as cease fire negotiations dragged on for two more years. During this time the Chinese had challenged the Commonwealth Division a number of times, but just like during the Spring Offensive of 1951 the Commonwealth forces held their ground until the cease fire was signed. Today the strategic, sliver of land on the North side of the lower Imjim River held by the Republic of Korea that borders the DMZ was only made possible by the blood, sweat, and tears of the brave men of the Commonwealth Division.
In total 26,791 Canadian soldiers participated in the Korean War. Of those soldiers 1,558 soldiers were wounded and 516 Canadians were killed fighting for the freedom of the Korean people.
Note: You can read more of the ROK Drop featured series Heroes of the Korean War at the below link:
If anyone is interested, Sandra Oh is back on the market after her divorce was finalized this week from director Alexander Payne.
Is there any doubt about the Canadian military’s resolve in Afghanistan? Canadian soldiers are reenlisting in droves to go back to Afghanistan and to keep taking the fight to the enemy.
Here is my first ever attempt at fortune telling. It will be interesting to see how my predictions turn out at the end of the year. If I hit on half of them I will be pretty impressed. Anyway here are my bold and on a few of them not so bold predictions for 2007:
South Korea
– President Roh Moo-hyun will not resign. (Damn)
– Lee Myung-bak will win the South Korean presidency. (Yeah!)
– President Roh will continue to squash the spy scandal investigation.
– Ban Ki-moon will have little impact on the UN. (UN has little impact with or without Ban)
– Zaytun unit will be redeployed from Iraq. (Pretty much assured.)
– Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe does not visit war shrine. (I think 50-50 chance)
– There will be no Japanese invasion of Dokdo. (You wouldn’t know it talking to some Koreans.)
North Korea
– Six party talks will make about as much progress next year as it did this year (not exactly a bold prediction).
– North Korea will do something before the South Korean election in order to sway the vote towards whoever is running on the Sunshine Policy platform. (Could be a inter-Korean summit or a armed confrontation depending on the current political situation.)
– North Korea will not conduct another nuclear test (It won’t make as much headlines as the first test did; best to save what little nuclear material they have.)
– North Korea will conduct another missile test (Last test seen as failure, a successful ICBM test across Pacific would make huge headlines.)
– Kim Jong-il will not name a successor (Kim Jong-il won’t name successor until he is really ill.)
– Kim Jong-il won’t get a hair cut anytime soon (Goes without saying.)
Korea-US Issues
– Some kind of anti-US incident will happen that will be manipulated for political purposes (It’s an election year, something absurd will happen).
– USFK will handle it much better than they did in 2002 (Lot’s of lessons learned from previous anti-US hatefests).
– The Camp Humphreys location will officially be delayed by the Pentagon.
– US announces further reductions of forces on the peninsula (Will be influenced by operational control and Camp Humphreys issues).
– Operational control will be handed to the ROK Army at 2009 (No matter if they are ready or not).
– There will be no FTA (another not so bold prediction).
– US beef will continued to be blocked from the South Korean market.
– South Korea will not get a visa waiver (Too much visa fraud).
Like I said, some bold and some not so bold, but I am confident that it will be an interesting year on the peninsula due to the impending presidential election and the North Korea and USFK issues that are still unresolved. Anyone else have any predictions they want to make?Â
I really wish someone would make a final decision on this:
Mandatory anthrax vaccinations for some troops are expected to resume in late January, said Defense Department spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton on Friday.
Meanwhile, an attorney representing six Defense Department employees who refuse to take the vaccine has vowed that he will try to stop the mandatory vaccination program.
In October, the Defense Department announced it was making anthrax vaccinations mandatory for U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula and in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.
(…)
But Mark Zaid, a Washington, D.C., attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit against the DOD over the program, has vowed to try to block mandatory shots in court.
“We are well-prepared to challenge the Defense Department each time it exercises poor judgment involving AVIP (Anthrax Vaccine and Immunization Program), and will file a Temporary Restraining Order in January to attempt to prevent any unlawful inoculations,†Zaid said in a Friday e-mail to Stripes.
Here is how the anthrax injection schedule works:
I started taking anthrax injections in 2000 when I went to Korea and I received up to four out of the six required shots before the DOD ran out of vaccine. Then I went back to the states and there the program restarted again. My division deployed to Kuwait to fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and I had to restart from shot number one again due to the time in between my first injections in Korea. Once again I made it up to four shots when the court ruling came out that the DOD could not give anthrax shots anymore. So now I am hoping my unit doesn’t have to take anthrax shots until the court decision is made. I would hate to have to take more anthrax shots without having to. If they do uphold the ruling for people to take anthrax shots, let me complete the cycle so I don’t have to keep taking unnecessary anthrax shots. I have had eight anthrax injections total and will have to take 6 more again if the court allows anthrax shots again.  That would mean that by the time I get done with the next cycle of anthrax shots, I would have taken 14 anthrax shots in 4 years.Â
Maybe that explains my receding hair line?
Last week the good news of the week was the arrival of Hooters to Korea. The news got even better this week when it was announced that the Korean government may even pay you to go to Hooters instead of buying a prostitute. Then some bad news came towards the end of the week when it was announced that the Hooters was going to have less cleavage. At least it will still have the wings or will that be Koreanized too and cooked in a batter of corn and kimchi?Â
The ironic news of the week has to be that the South Korean government is demanding Japan improve legal rights for ethnic Koreans in Japan while at the same time deporting foreigners in South Korea for things such as volunteering at orphanages.Â
In K-blog news, one K-blogger has lost his job after blogging about Dokdo, while another found out he doesn’t live in the blast zone, and another discovered that a Korean wine tunnel is not all it was cracked up to be. One of the most prominent K-bloggers is pondering giving up blogging all together. Additionally, after reading some of the Marmot’s Stupid Foreigner Tricks, I really think someone should create the Korea version of the Darwin Award. I would have to think that this guy would be one of this year’s finalists.
Than finally in Milblog news, here is the headline you will not read anytime soon, Number of US Troops Wounded, KIA Down from Last Year, then there is this story of a true American hero you will also never hear about, while Michael Yon is back in Iraq and makes some interesting comments about "sagging" morale.
Have a happy and most importantly a safe New Year everyone.
Environmentalists have lost their court case against the US Army:
A Stryker Brigade, the Army’s most modern fighting unit, had been ordered to halt training after a federal appeals court in October found that the Army had acted illegally when it decided to set up the brigade in the islands. The Army already has set up the brigades at bases in Alaska and Washington state.
The environmental group Earthjustice sued the Army on behalf of three Native Hawaiian groups who argued the Stryker vehicles and their training grounds would harm cultural sites and the environment.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra said in his ruling that his court has profound respect for Hawaii’s cultural history and its unique environment. But, he said, "In this court’s view, there are few things that are more important than the lives of those men and women who serve in the armed forces."
The ruling allows the Army to train with new equipment and exercise both individual Stryker soldiers and units. It must also take extra steps to protect the environment.
For those who don’t know what a Stryker is here is a picture of one:
This law suit is IMHO is completely ridiculous because the Stryker is basically an armored truck with a machine gun. If this wheeled vehicle is a danger to the environment than all trucks in Hawaii should be considered a danger to the environment. Yet you don’t see anyone trying to ban armored trucks used by banks or large delivery trucks in Hawaii.Â
Why I bring this up is because it has been speculated before that there is a possibility of Stryker based units conducting regular rotations to Korea if the Second Infantry Division is completely pulled off the peninsula. This would allow the US military to keep a force projection on the peninsula without keeping permanently stationed troops there. The US military has already on multiple occasions deployed Strykers to Korea to test this concept.Â
If Strykers do make regular rotations to Korea, than a court ruling against the Stryker Brigade in Hawaii could become significant because anti-US groups like Green Korea can use that court ruling as justification to remove Strykers from Korea because if they harm the environment in Hawaii they must also harm the environment in Korea. Yes I know this is ridiculous but this is Korea where anti-US groups successfully started an anti-US hatefest in 2000 over the dumping of formaldehyde down the drain in Yongsan, which supposedly harmed the environment while Korean companies continue to dump incredible amounts of industrial waste into the country’s rivers polluting them and no one cares.
So fortunately the Hawaii court case was dismissed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the environmentalists come back with something else. Environmentalists have long loved to go after the military. If it wasn’t woodpeckers on Ft. Bragg it was turtles on Ft. Irwin they are suing the army over. US environmentalists have much in common with Korean environmentalists in the regard that they don’t really care about the environment as much as using environmental issues to push their own political goals. In the case of the environmentalists, they use the environmental issues to draw a wedge between the general public and the US military and shutting down training land in order to effect the readiness of the US military. They do this because they are fundamentally opposed to the US military more so than protecting the environment.
Does it concern anyone when first President Roh downsizes the Korean military by nearly 200,000 soldiers, than reduces mandatory military service by 6 months, while also removing landmines from the DMZ and taking down key defensive obstacles along the roads, combined with creating great distrust and possible withdrawal of Korea’s key ally the United States? Than to top it off he sends over a billion dollars in "aid" to North Korea to help them feed and equip their military.
What’s next, a Kim Il-sung statue in the new Gwanghwamun Plaza?
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has announced plans to further green Seoul:
A plaza will be established in the middle of Sejongno Street in downtown Seoul by 2008. It will be named Gwanghwamun Plaza.
The Cultural Heritage Administration administrator, Yoo Hong-joon, and Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the final decision at Seoul City Hall on Wednesday (Dec. 27).
The city has collected public opinion on three ideas: setting up the plaza in the middle of Sejongno Street, on both sides of the street or on one side of the street.
More than 44 percent of people preferred a square in the middle, a city official said. The authorities also confirmed the name Gwanghwamun Plaza.
“The central position has a weak point in not greatly increasing sidewalks for pedestrians. But it allows an open view from the plaza to Gwanghwamun, Gyeongbok Palace and Mt. Bukak behind the palace,†the official said.
The plaza will make the street look similar to how it did during the Joseon Kingdom, the official said. Major government offices were located along with the street on both sides during the time.
The plaza will be 27 meters wide, and the number of car lanes there will be cut from the current 16 to 10.
According to the plans, the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin will remain in place, but the final decision of whether to relocate it will be made after further discussion. The statue of King Sejong that is currently in Deoksu Palace will be moved to the plaza.
