In which the USSR, China and the USA were involved, was Korean War (1950-1953).
Causes of the Korean War
Until 1945, Korea was under Japanese rule for 40 years. The inhabitants of the Korean peninsula dreamed of creating a national state. The agreements of the countries of the "Big Three" provided for the liberation of Korea from Japanese rule by the forces of the USSR and the USA, pushing the enemy from the north and south. The boundary of the advance of Soviet troops from the north and American troops from the south was to be the 38th parallel. In August 1945, with the entry of Soviet troops into the territory of the Korean Peninsula, a pro-communist government was created, headed by Kim Il Sung On September 6, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed in the north of the peninsula. In the south, the American military authorities achieved the creation of a government headed by a professor Lee Seungman pro-American. Both governments claimed power over all of Korea. In 1948-1949. Soviet and American troops left the Korean Peninsula.
| Kim Il Sung |
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| Lee Seungman |
Course of the Korean War
June 25, 1950 North Korean troops crossed the demarcation line (38th parallel). On June 27, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, in the absence of a representative of the USSR, a resolution was adopted on rendering assistance to South Korea as a victim of aggression and on sending US troops to Korea under the command of General D. MacArthur and under the UN flag. On June 28, the North Korean Red Army captured the capital of South Korea, Seoul.
By mid-August, almost the entire peninsula was in the hands of the DPRK army, but then the American troops managed to stop the enemy’s advance. The counteroffensive of the American troops began on September 15, at the same time, an American landing force landed near Seoul, the North Korean troops in the south of the peninsula were under the threat of encirclement and fled. By October 8, 1950, American troops reached the 38th parallel and continued their offensive against Pyongyang (the capital of the DPRK). The North Korean armed forces were defeated, and only the decision of the Chinese Communist government to send troops under the guise of volunteers in October 1950 saved the North Korean regime from defeat. The USSR limited itself to providing assistance to military aviation. In battles with the Chinese army of 270,000, American troops retreated. material from the site
In January 1951, Chinese and North Korean troops entered Seoul. The American General MacArthur seriously proposed the use of nuclear weapons. In March 1951, the American army recaptured Seoul, the front line stabilized along the 38th parallel. Only after the inauguration of the new US President (Republican Dwight Eisenhower) and the death of Stalin, the leadership of the USSR and the USA decided to end the hopeless military conflict. July 27, 1953 a truce was concluded, a demilitarized zone was established in the region of the 38th parallel. The war that cost the lives of 4 million Koreans and 1 million Chinese is over. However, a peace treaty between the DPRK and South Korea was signed only on May 29, 2013, although tensions remain to this day.
During the Korean War, the world was close to the transition of the confrontation between the USSR and the USA from the state of the "cold war" to the state of a full-scale military conflict, but the mutual threat of the use of nuclear weapons and colossal casualties among the citizens of the USA and the USSR did not give the local military conflict to escalate into a third world war.
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Between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
The war was fought with the participation of the Chinese military contingent and military specialists and units of the USSR Air Force on the side of the DPRK, and the armed forces of the United States and a number of states as part of the UN multinational forces on the side of South Korea.
The prerequisites for the Korean War were laid in the summer of 1945, when Soviet and American troops appeared on the territory of the country, at that time completely occupied by Japan. The peninsula was divided into two parts along the 38th parallel.
After the formation of two Korean states in 1948 and the withdrawal of first Soviet and then American troops from the peninsula, both Korean sides and their main allies, the USSR and the USA, were preparing for a conflict. The governments of the North and South intended to unite Korea under their own rule, which was proclaimed in the Constitutions adopted in 1948.
In 1948, the United States and the Republic of Korea signed an agreement to create a South Korean army. In 1950, a defense agreement was concluded between these countries.
In North Korea, with the help of the Soviet Union, the Korean People's Army was created. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from the DPRK in September 1948, all weapons and military equipment were left to the DPRK. The Americans withdrew their troops from South Korea only in the summer of 1949, but left about 500 advisers there; military advisers of the USSR remained in the DPRK.
The mutual non-recognition of the two Korean states by each other, their incomplete recognition on the world stage made the situation on the Korean Peninsula extremely unstable.
Armed skirmishes along the 38th parallel took place with varying degrees of intensity until June 25, 1950. Especially often they happened in 1949 - the first half of 1950, numbering in the hundreds. Sometimes more than a thousand people from each side participated in these skirmishes.
In 1949, the head of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, asked the USSR for help in invading South Korea. However, considering the North Korean army insufficiently trained and fearing a conflict with the United States, Moscow did not comply with this request.
Despite the start of negotiations, hostilities continued. A large-scale air war broke out in the air, in which the main role was played by the US Air Force and aviation from the South, and the Soviet 64th Fighter Air Corps from the North.
By the spring of 1953, it became obvious that the price of victory for either side would be too high, and, after Stalin's death, the Soviet party leadership decided to end the war. China and North Korea did not dare to continue the war on their own. Opening of a memorial cemetery in memory of those killed in the Korean WarIn the capital of the DPRK, as part of the celebration of the anniversary of the end of the Patriotic War of 1950-1953, a memorial cemetery was opened in memory of the dead. The ceremony was attended by the highest party and military officials of the country. The truce between North Korea, China and the UN was documented on July 27, 1953.
The human losses of the parties in the armed conflict are estimated differently. The total losses of the South in killed and wounded are estimated in the range from 1 million 271 thousand to 1 million 818 thousand people, the North - from 1 million 858 thousand to 3 million 822 thousand people.
According to official US figures, the US lost 54,246 killed and 103,284 wounded in the Korean War.
The USSR lost in Korea a total of 315 people killed and died from wounds and diseases, including 168 officers. The 64th Air Corps lost 335 MiG-15 fighters and over 100 pilots in 2.5 years of participation in hostilities, shooting down over a thousand enemy aircraft.
The total losses of the air forces of the parties amounted to more than three thousand aircraft of the UN forces and about 900 aircraft of the air forces of China, North Korea and the USSR.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
After Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 Korea became part of the Japanese empire. At the end of World War II, the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition came to an agreement that the Russians would disarm the Japanese troops in the northern part of the country, and the American ones in the south. The United Nations was going to give Korea full independence. To this end, at the end of 1947, a UN commission was sent to the country to organize national elections. But by this point, cold war The conflict between the western and eastern blocs was already in full swing, and the USSR refused to recognize the authority of the commission in its zone of occupation.
Elections were held in the south of the Korean Peninsula under the supervision of a UN commission, and in August 1948 the state of South Korea was established, headed by the President Lee Seungman. The USSR held its own elections in North Korea, and in September 1948 Stalin's protege came to power Kim Il Sung, who remained the leader of the country until his death in July 1994. Soviet troops were withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula, and in July 1949 the Americans did the same. Stalin, however, left the North Korean army much better armed than its southern neighbor. Relations between the two Koreas were very tense.
Less than a year later, on June 25, 1950, North Korean troops launched the war with a surprise attack. They crossed the 38th parallel, which was the state border between the two Koreas. Their goal was to overthrow the South Korean government and unite the country under the rule of Kim Il Sung.
Poorly armed and poorly trained South Korean troops failed to repulse the aggression from the north. Three days later, the capital of the country, Seoul, surrendered to North Korean troops, who continued to advance south on a broad front. South Korea turned to the UN for help. Since January 1950, the Soviet Union refused to participate in the work of the UN due to the presence there as a permanent member of the Security Council from China, the ambassador of the nationalist regime Chiang Kai-shek, not from the communist government of Mao. Therefore, the USSR was unable to veto the UN ultimatum to North Korea on the withdrawal of troops. When this ultimatum was ignored by Kim Il Sung, the Security Council called on the member states of the Council to provide military and other assistance to South Korea.
The US Navy and Air Force immediately began deploying. On July 1, 1950, the first contingents of US ground forces under the NATO flag, airlifted from Japan, arrived at the front of the war in Busan, a port on the extreme southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Additional contingents arrived by sea over the next few days. However, they were too weak and soon, along with the South Korean troops, fled. By the end of July, all of South Korea, with the exception of a small southeastern foothold around the port of Busan, was captured by North Korean troops.
The general, who had previously led the Allied fight against the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific, was named UN Supreme Commander in the Korean War. He organized the defense of the Pusan Perimeter and by the end of August had achieved a double numerical superiority against the North Koreans, preparing a decisive counteroffensive.
MacArthur came up with a daring plan. He ordered an amphibious landing at Inchon in the northwest of the Korean Peninsula to divert the attention of the North Koreans of the Busan bridgehead and facilitate its breakthrough.
The Inchon landing operation began on September 15, 1950. American and South Korean marines participated in the landing, which caught the North Koreans by surprise, and the next day Inchon was taken. Then an American infantry division was transferred to the war zone. The Americans launched an offensive deep into Korea and liberated Seoul on September 28.
On September 19, 1950, the Pusan Perimeter was breached. This offensive finally brought confusion to the ranks of the North Koreans, and on October 1, their troops turned into a disorderly flight across the 38th parallel. But the UN forces did not stop at the border of North Korea, but rushed deep into its territory. On the 19th, they entered the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Nine days later, UN forces reached the Yalu River, on the border between North Korea and China.
Counterattack by anti-communist forces in 1950. Incheon landing site shown
Such a rapid change in the situation worried the communist government Mao Zedong, which was one of the main organizers of the Korean War. During October 1950, 180,000 Chinese soldiers were secretly and quickly transferred across the border. The bitter Korean winter has arrived. On November 27, 1950, the Chinese carried out a surprise attack on UN forces, quickly putting them on a rout. The lightly armed Chinese were accustomed to the winter cold, and by the end of December 1950 they had reached the 38th parallel. Unable to hold them here, the UN forces retreated even further to the south.
Seoul fell again, but by this point the Chinese offensive had lost its momentum, and the UN troops managed to launch a counteroffensive. Seoul was again liberated, and Chinese and North Korean troops were expelled beyond the 38th parallel. The front of the Korean War has stabilized.
At this stage, a split occurred in the camp of the UN forces. General MacArthur, who was considered the best soldier in the history of America, wanted to strike at what he called the Chinese "sanctuary" - the area north of the Yalu River, which served as an outpost for Chinese offensive operations. He was even ready to use nuclear weapons. President of the U.S.A Truman was horrified by this prospect, fearing that it would provoke the Soviet Union to launch a nuclear strike on Western Europe and start a third world war. MacArthur was recalled and replaced by US General Matthew Ridgway, commander of the US Eighth Army in Korea.
By the end of April 1951, the Chinese launched another offensive. They managed to infiltrate South Korea despite heavy losses. Once again, UN forces counterattacked and drove the Chinese and North Koreans twenty to thirty miles north of the 38th parallel.
Front line changes during the Korean War
At the end of June, there were first signs that the Chinese were ready for peace talks. On July 8, 1951, a meeting of representatives of the warring parties took place aboard a Danish ambulance ship in Wonsan Bay on the east coast of North Korea. However, it soon became clear that the Chinese were in no hurry to end the Korean War, although the UN was ready to agree to a permanent division of Korea along the 38th parallel. However, after a serious defeat, the Chinese needed time to recuperate. Therefore, they favorably met the refusal of the UN to further offensive operations.
So both sides switched to positional warfare, which resembled the situation on the Western Front World War I in 1915 - 1917. The defensive lines on both sides consisted of barbed wire barriers, trenches with parapets made of sandbags, deep dugouts. A major difference between the Korean War of 1950-1953 and the First World War was the widespread use of minefields. The UN forces had a significant advantage over the enemy in firepower, but the Chinese and North Koreans were outnumbered.
At least sixteen countries sent troops to fight under the UN flag in Korea, and five more countries provided medical assistance. America made the largest contribution, and among the countries that sent their troops were the United Kingdom, Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Colombia, India, the Philippines and Thailand.
At sea, UN forces had an overwhelming advantage. Aircraft from aircraft carriers attacked the territory of North Korea. And in the air, the UN troops had superiority. The Korean War of 1950-1953 was marked by the first air battles using exclusively jet aircraft - American F-86 Sabers fought Soviet MiG-15s. Allied bombers, including the giant B-29s that dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, attacked North Korean communications. Attack aircraft were also widely used, often with napalm bombs.
In the Korean War, attack helicopters first spoke a weighty word. During the Second World War, helicopters were rarely used - mainly for rescue missions. Now they have demonstrated their full effectiveness as a means of conducting reconnaissance and detecting enemy artillery, as well as transport for the transfer of personnel and evacuation of the wounded.
There was no progress in the negotiations until mid-1953. Difficulties in finding a compromise were created not only by the Chinese. The South Koreans opposed the idea of creating two Koreas. In response, the Chinese launched a new decisive offensive in June 1953. Then the UN began to act over the head of South Korea, and while the Chinese offensive was still ongoing, on July 27, 1953, a ceasefire agreement was signed in Panmunjom.
The Korean War of 1950-1953 cost both sides nearly two and a half million dead and wounded, including nearly a million Chinese. She was unable to end the enmity between the two Koreas that persists to this day.
In the Korean War, Mao Zedong's son, Mao Anying, was killed during an American air raid.
Today, North Korea, which possesses nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, is considered by Washington to be an "evil empire." The Americans are deploying missile defense systems on the Pacific coast, sending B-2 bombers to South Korea. And against this background of information, there is an excellent reason to recall the war that 60 years ago was already blazing on the Korean Peninsula. This article provides facts thatinYou may not have known about the Korean War.
A Korean girl with her brother on her back wearily walks past an American M-26 tank.
June 9, 1951
1. Origin of the 38th parallel
In 1896, the governments of Japan and the Russian Empire signed an agreement on Korea, according to which the zone of influence of each side was limited to the 38th parallel. True, after the Russo-Japanese War in 1910, the Japanese captured the entire Korean Peninsula. After the end of World War II, the American State Department, when dividing spheres of influence with Moscow, without further ado, returned to the 38th parallel again without further ado. It was the crossing of this conditional line by North Korean troops in 1950 that led to the war. Today, it is the 38th parallel that is the border between the two Korean states.
2. For Americans, this is not a war.
Officially, the Korean War was little more than a police operation, as President Harry Truman never even bothered to ask Congress for permission to formally declare war.
3. The threat of the use of nuclear weapons
By 1950, the history of nuclear weapons was only five years old. And the parties that had it had plans to use it in future local conflicts - such as, for example, the war in Korea. Thus, in the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff developed a plan for delivering nuclear strikes against China in the event of a full-scale intervention of this country in the Korean conflict. There was also a plan of attack by the Soviet Union, but it was rejected due to the opposition of the European allies, who feared the escalation of the situation in Europe. In any case, the American plans were to use nuclear weapons only in the event of "final military defeat."
4 North Koreans Capture An American General
A month after the start of fighting on August 25, 1950, during a skirmish in the Tajon area, Major General William Den, commander of the 24th Infantry Division, was shell-shocked while assisting wounded soldiers. The general was sent to the mountains, where he spent 36 days. Here he was given all possible medical assistance, as he was wounded. During the offensive, he was repulsed by South Korean soldiers, but during the evacuation to the rear he was again captured by the enemy. He remained in captivity until the end of the war.
5. Participation of women
About 86,300 Korean War veterans are women. This is approximately 7% of all veterans of this conflict.
6. There were partisan units in the American army during the war
With the outbreak of the Korean War, the American command had the idea of organizing a partisan movement behind enemy lines. Unofficially, from the "rangers" and other special forces, a secret army unit No. 8240 was formed. All instructors had experience in guerrilla warfare during World War II and were deployed behind the front line to organize resistance units. At the same time, they were without documents and were formally dismissed from the ranks of the armed forces. Only in 1952 did soldiers and officers officially become part of the American Army's Psychological Warfare Center. By that time, they managed to prepare about 38 thousand partisans.
7. Use of dogs
During the Korean War, the US Army used about 1,500 specially trained dogs.
8. Drugs at War
In the Western press of that period, there are references that the first venous injections of amphetamine date back to the Korean War. Some soldiers made a mixture of amphetamine and heroin before the injection. A large number of participants in the military conflict returned to their homeland as drug addicts.
In the sky over Korea
It is well known that Soviet pilots participated in combat operations in Korea as part of air regiments based in China. Less well known is that Soviet pilots had direct encounters with the Americans on several occasions. So, in battles in the skies of Korea, as well as over the waters of the Yellow and Japan Seas, 13 pilots of naval aviation were killed. The first such case was noted on November 18, 1952, when four MiG-15s flew from Vladivostok to the Sea of Japan. The task of the group was to monitor the strike force of the aircraft carriers Oriskani and Princeton. In the maneuvering area of American ships, Soviet aircraft were suddenly attacked by four Panther carrier-based fighters from the Oriskani aircraft carrier. The plane of Senior Lieutenant Pakhomkin Vladimir Ivanovich was the first to be shot down. The pilot tried to reach the airfield, but the plane crashed into the sea and the pilot died. By this time, the Americans had brought 8 more vehicles to the battle area: 4 Panthers and 4 Banshees. As a result of a fierce battle in the face of the enemy's numerical superiority, two more MiG-15 pilots of Captain Nikolai Mikhailovich Belyakov and Senior Lieutenant Alexander Ivanovich Vandaev were shot down, since Soviet pilots were forbidden to open fire outside the combat zone, the pilots – died. Only Senior Lieutenant Pushkarev returned to the airfield. On the American side, one Panther fighter was damaged. Immediately after the battle, the commander of the fighter corps, General Mironenko, sent a fighter regiment to the battle area. But the aircraft carrier, without waiting for an answer, gave full speed and disappeared.
And on July 27, 1953, a transport Il-14 of the Pacific Fleet Air Force was shot down in the sky over the Yellow Sea in the territorial waters of China. The crew and all passengers died, a total of 25 people, whose remains were buried in the capital of Primorye – Vladivostok.
However, the Soviet pilots also had successes, which, unfortunately, have not yet been declassified to this day. The most famous was only the case of July 29, 1953 - formally after the end of the Korean War. On that day, an American RB-50 reconnaissance aircraft from the 55th US Air Force reconnaissance wing in the Vladivostok region was intercepted by a pair of MiG-17 fighters from 88 IAP. As a result of an attack by a pair of Rybakov - Yablonovsky, the plane was shot down. From the Japanese Misawa airfield, 4 aircraft of the American rescue squadron took off on alert towards the scene of the incident. Toward evening, American planes sent to search for the downed reconnaissance aircraft noticed two groups of three or four people in the water. The presence of 12 fishing boats was also recorded nearby.
Throughout the day, American ships searched for pilots, covering an area of 3,300 square miles. But, despite all efforts, out of 11 crew members and 6 electronic intelligence specialists, only one was found - co-pilot John Roche.
10. The Korean War is still not over
On July 27, 1953, American Lieutenant General William Harrison and North Korean General Nam Il signed an armistice agreement in Panmenchon. Then it was sealed with their signatures by the Commander-in-Chief of the People's Army of North Korea Kim Il Sung, the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army Peng Dehuai and the Commander-in-Chief of the UN Forces Clark.
The document stated that the truce is valid until "the signing of the final peace treaty." Thus, the conflict has not formally ended for more than sixty years.
Before talking about the causes of the Korean War of 1950-1953, it is necessary to understand the definition of this conflict, learn about the parties involved in the conflict.
The Korean War is the fighting between the forces of North and South Korea, in which Chinese, American, Soviet troops and military equipment also participated. The war began in June 1950 and ended in July 1953.
Background and causes of the Korean War
During the Second World War, the entire territory of Korea was conditionally divided along the 38th parallel: the northern part was received by the USSR, and the southern part by the USA. Got it, in what sense? They had to get rid of the presence of the Japanese army, the USSR in the north, and the US in the south.
After the war, the governments of the United States and the USSR signed an agreement on the temporary administration of these territories in order to restore the country and maintain peace.
The UN assumed that after the war, Korea would again become united, but a cold war broke out between the USSR and the USA. There was a problem - the countries could not agree on the details of the unification of the country. In 1947, the United States declared to the whole world that it would itself be responsible for the fate of Korea.
Meanwhile, the communists also wanted to unite the country under one flag, but not the American one. Thus, a pro-American Korea was formed in the south, and a pro-communist one in the north, each side wanted to subjugate the whole of Korea.
In 1949, South Korean soldiers and policemen committed about 2,000 crimes in North Korea, and the air and land borders of the state were violated dozens of times. This gave rise to growing discontent and tension between the two camps.
North Korea began preparing for war as early as 1948. But the final decision to attack South Korea was made in 1950 when the North Korean government met with Stalin. North Korea requested military assistance as early as 1949 in the event of a full-scale war against South Korea. But Stalin refused this - the Soviet army would not take part in the hostilities against South Korea, for which the United States would stand up, because this could lead to the Third World War. But he agreed to help supply supplies, equipment, and training for the North Korean army. The Chinese military were defecting to North Korea and were ready to enter the war.
These are the causes of the Korean War of 1950-1953. were key, and it was they who led to its beginning.
The military conflict began on June 25, 1950 with a large-scale offensive by North Korea against South Korea. The beginning of the war was successful for North Korea, they pushed through all directions and won before the UN forces entered the war.
In total, about 1 million fighters participated in the hostilities from South Korea, most of whom were South Korean fighters - about 600 thousand fighters and the United States - about 300 thousand fighters.
Approximately the same number of fighters participated for South Korea, among them 800,000 Chinese troops and 260,000 North Korean fighters.
