Battleground Korea

In June 1950 the Cold War suddenly became hot when Communist-backed North Korean forces invaded the US-protected South Korea, and Britain came into the war on the side of the United States.

Although suffering financially after the demands of the Second World War, the British government sent a poorly equipped brigade of troops to South Korea to help the beleaguered US forces.

Anti-war dissent at home and threats to use the Atom bomb added to the danger of the situation, threatening a Third World War.

The US General MacArthur launched a surprise amphibious assault at Inchon behind North Korean lines, but victory was snatched from the combined US/British force by the entry of 600,000 Chinese troops into the war on the side of North Korea. The British and American soldiers were routed and in the Battle of the Imjin River that ensued, the ‘Glorious Glosters’ were butchered.

Korea has been described as ‘the nastiest little war’.

Atrocities were committed on both sides, but for the next two years British and other Allied PoWs became the biggest pawns in the great peace talks. If they broke and confessed publicly that it had been an ‘Imperialist war’, as their captors fervently wanted them to, it would have been a great propaganda victory for the enemy.

Thus the final round of the Korean War was for the hearts and minds of British prisoners. A handful wavered, but not enough to tip the scales. As a result of the sacrifice in blood of the ordinary British squaddie the North did not achieve the victory it desired, the British won the day, and an all-out nuclear war was averted.

‘Battleground Korea’ provides a vivid account of the Korean War, in particular Britain’s involvement, and Charles Whiting’s compelling narrative is strongly supported with graphic eyewitness accounts. 

Charles Whiting is the author of numerous history books on the Second World War. Under the pen name of Leo Kessler he also wrote a series of bestselling military thrillers, including ‘Guns at Cassino’ and ‘Valley of the Assassins’.

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