Korean War | Animated History

the soldiers steady themselves against the sides of a higgins boat as another breaker pummels the landing craft in the back one poor man can't keep his chow down and in the front someone runs prayer beads through his fingers another salvo from the battleships surely nothing could have survived the bombardment the boat's helsman calls out time to go ashore the landing ramp collides with a concrete sea wall fragments of a ladder falling imply into the passenger bay the americans scramble out of the boat scaling the concrete as their enemy opens fire but it is not the chatter of an mg-42 that greets these united states marines but the slow chug of a soviet machine gun this is incheon south korea and like the normandy landings barely six years before this amphibious invasion will turn the tide of a war hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian the seeds that would grow into the korean war were sown in 1945 when the soviet red army invaded the peninsula following its declaration of war on imperial japan which had held korea since 1910 soviet forces advanced down the peninsula until they reached the 38th parallel then halted while the u.s troops landed in the south and moved to meet them splitting the peninsula in two the soviets established a communist provisional government in the north elevating kim il-sung a hero of the insurgency against japan to the head of government consolidating power sung declared the formation of the democratic people's republic of korea espousing democratic socialism but practicing brutal authoritarianism with north korea lost to communism the americans decided to push back by establishing the first republic of korea but this state was hardly a bastion of liberty and democracy if you're a regular viewer you no doubt enjoy quality historical content created with love care and attention to detail that's why i'm happy to announce that this video is sponsored by history courses a brand new website that provides in-depth courses on many different areas in history enjoy hours of carefully curated historical content and engage with the courses creator via the q and a feature full members can also choose between streamed lectures or downloads complete with comprehensively cited and annotated transcripts in downloadable pdf format with membership starting at just five dollars a month you'll get access to all of the content the site has to offer at the moment there are three courses on the site covering early roman history norman england and the american revolution and new content is added to the courses on a constant basis help support our community and encourage the creators of great historical content by signing up for history courses using our affiliate link in the description below [Music] south korea's first experience with democracy bore a disappointing resemblance to affairs in the dprk when elections were held in july of 1948 u.s backed candidate sigmund re just barely made it over the threshold with an entirely unsuspicious 92.6 percent of the popular vote both rei's administration in the south and song's administration in the north wanted nothing more than to reunite the two halves of the peninsula under their respective governments making conflict between north and south inevitable re declared his intent to reconquer the north to american envoys and followed up his statements with a soviet-style purge of ideological opponents including the chechu uprising by communist elements which led to between thirty thousand and sixty thousand casualties ree's roughshod approach caused his american backers to limit their investment in what they saw more akin to a diet democracy than a truly free state even if re had gotten his war american support would have been hard to come by the readiness of america's ground forces had dropped precipitously and by 1950 of the 10 combat divisions in the united states army only one the 82nd airborne was considered combat ready all u.s forces had also been evacuated in late 1949 leaving the south defended exclusively by the republic of korea army or rok army observing this weakness kim il-sung began to believe that he could rapidly invade and conquer south korea eventually song launched his invasion but claimed to his dying day that it was a righteous response to a surprise attack from the south which was conveniently defeated so decisively by the korean people's army that no evidence of the invaders was left meanwhile in his memoirs nikita khrushchev stated i must stress that the war wasn't stalin's idea but kim il-sung's kim was the initiator stalin of course didn't try to dissuade him the korean war was a very unique kind of proxy war where the larger us and ussr were mostly against a conflict that their clients in korea were all too keen to initiate and initiate what they did in the early hours of june 25th 1950 the korean people's army or kpa crossed the 38th parallel with an armored spearhead of 150 t-3485 rapidly pushing the rok army back towards seoul and capturing both kaesong and oijeongbu yet despite the dire situation it was late evening before news reached the secretary of defense who begrudgingly woke up long enough to leave orders for general douglas macarthur to investigate rumors of a disturbance along the 38th parallel before going back to sleep while he slumbered the rock army chief of staff chai pyeongduk was seemingly busy doing his best to lose the war as quickly as possible thanks to multiple communication failures his counter-attack with the second and seventh divisions east of oijongbu broke down in confusion the isolated first division put up fierce resistance but with limited anti-tank weaponry they could do little against the horde of t-34s with retreat as the only reasonable course of action general che instead ordered his troops to hold fast soon the first division was alone fighting a doomed last stand as the static south korean positions were systematically president reed then fled seoul and just two days after the invasion began the capital fell to the kpa general macarthur then ordered the commander of the eighth u.s army lieutenant general walton walker to prepare all available forces in the far east and immediately dispatch them to south korea this turned out to be a depressingly tiny force consisting of only the 24th infantry division armed with a charmingly vintage arsenal dating back from the second world war even worse only six transport planes were available which could carry a single battalion this battalion was designated task force smith and was quickly launched to secure the vital port of busan at dawn on july 5th task force smith engaged the kpa for the first time at the battle of osan but their equipment proved useless against kpa tanks and they were quickly overwhelmed however they did hold just long enough for the bulk of the 24th infantry division to secure busan unfortunately all other actions the 24th participated in afterward were abject failures and the unit eventually sustained over 6 000 casualties including its commander but these sacrifices bought time for the united states to mobilize its full military might within days america had established total air and naval superiority the korean sky constantly filled with withering bombing raids on both the invading army and north korean infrastructure yet kim il-sung refused to back down and on august 4th the kpa launched an all-out assault on the perimeter around busan the kpa found the americans well dug in and the assault morphed into a protracted battle of attrition but the perimeter came close to collapse on august 15th when a push across the naktong river by the kpa's elite troops managed to carve a salient known as the naktong bridge only the timely arrival of reinforcements averted disaster all while american air and naval assets kept the north koreans from consolidating their gains as they proceeded to devastate kpa supply lines while the battle for busan raged on general macarthur was busy coordinating an amphibious landing at incheon a hundred miles or 160 kilometers behind enemy lines when told that inchon was heavily defended and that adverse sea conditions made any landing a daunting prospect anyway macarthur responded thusly the very arguments you have made as to the impractic abilities involved will tend to ensure for me the element of surprise for the north korean commander will reason that no one would be so brash as to make such an attempt being so brash macarthur got the plan approved in late august and to everyone's surprise the landing at inchon proved a massive success this forced the kpa to pull forces away from busan allowing the defenders to stage a breakout on the 25th this was the last straw for the north koreans and their morale finally shattered with hundreds of soldiers surrendering on mass as the americans drove north and attracted the attention of chinese border troops at the yalu river with incheon secured u.n forces began their drive to liberate seoul the road to seoul was a grueling campaign which saw intense combat around airfields and strong points flamethrowers and massive bombardments played a key role in dislodging stubborn kpa troops the fighting only worsened when u.n troops met the kpa in the second battle of seoul brutal house-to-house combat saw thousands of kpa soldiers killed while american casualties hovered close to 300. un forces ultimately seized the city on september 28th the invasion of south korea had been defeated not just by american forces but by a coalition including thai ethiopian british canadian and dutch soldiers coming together for a truly international response morale was high victory was sweet and with your friend and mind douglas macarthur leading the charge the thought on the ground was what could go possibly wrong with south korea secured macarthur and his superiors were left debating whether or not to go for a killing blow against kim il-sung's regime singman re was still determined to reunite the peninsula under his rule and the men on the ground were eager to take revenge on the north for the casualties they had suffered during the brutal fighting around busan and the nakhdang river ultimately the joint chiefs authorized macarthur to invade north korea as long as such operations had a reasonable chance of success as the americans rested on their laurels and planned for their invasion of north korea the people's republic of china moved troops closer to north korea ultimately assembling a force of almost half a million men at the yalu river after the intense battles in the south pyongyang fell with astonishing ease the dispirited kpa offered virtually no resistance and the capital was taken on october 19th the u.s joint chiefs of staff ordered macarthur to prepare the way for unification of a free and independent korea unaware that u.n success had awakened a sleeping giant the people's republic of china china had watched the korean war with concern concerned that only grew as their ideological brethren in the north were routed by the capitalist forces the same day pyongyang was captured 300 000 soldiers of the people's army led by veterans of the chinese civil war crossed the border into korean territory and a whole new phase of the conflict began the first chinese offensive began on october 25th with an easy victory at the battle of unson but the people's army did not press its advantage withdrawing quickly back into the mountains then just a week after the first offensive the north korean winter set in with temperatures dropping to -8 degrees fahrenheit or minus 22 degrees celsius accompanied by howling gales in spite of these appalling conditions macarthur insisted that the offensive continue but the second encounter with the chinese at the changshan river on november 25th was a disaster with the rock second corps being wiped out and the us 8th army being thrown into a disorderly route then on the 27th the 30 000 strong us 10th corps was encircled by over 120 000 chinese soldiers near the chosan reservoir for 17 days the americans fought desperately to escape the trap before finally breaking out to the port of hangnam where they were evacuated the survivors were dubbed the chosen few in a bitter play on words chosan reservoir was a horrendous battle with chinese forces regularly offering no quarter to their american adversaries left with no choice the u.n coalition was forced to go on the defensive and pyongyang was abandoned on the 5th of december the rapid retreat saw both u.n forces and korean civilians withdraw before the chinese advance and the journey south was fraught with accidents and tragedies including the death of general walker commander of all u.s army forces in korea only a personal visit to the troops by walker's successor general matthew b ridgeway for stalled outright panic even so there was nothing the coalition could do to stop the enemy advance and in january seven chinese armies washed over seoul forcing the defenders to retreat and soul changed hands for the third time relief for the shell-shocked defenders only came when the chinese supply lines were broken by u.s air power forcing them to begin a slow withdrawal back to the 38th parallel the un's fortunes had well and truly turned yet general macarthur remained convinced that victory was possible and even pressured president truman to authorize the use of nuclear weapons on korean soil after weeks of enduring this insubordinate behavior truman sacked macarthur and promoted general ridgway in his place meanwhile the chinese were experiencing issues of their own coalition air superiority remained absolute and north korea now resembled a moonscape of craters from ceaseless u.s bomber attacks ridgeway undertook several initiatives in his new position operation wolfhound saw a massive air reconnaissance effort revealed the people's army were holding their positions if not withdrawing and ridgeway capitalized on this information to launch operation thunderbolt a new drive toward seoul thunderbolt brought the un forces to the city but the daring offensive operation ripper saw the capital change hands for the fourth and final time from this point on ridgeway and the un forces doubled down on their philosophy of overwhelming firepower leveraging superior american military technology to level the playing field with the overwhelming numbers of the people's army ridgeway became focused on destroying the chinese rather than retaking north korea but the war devolved into a stalemate of attrition with salience developing in the shifting lines and hardpoints like porkchop hill and white horse mountain changing hands in bloody tugs of war superior firepower or not the people's army was still in the fight and the us joint chiefs estimated that a renewed march on pyongyang would result in a minimum of 200 000 u.s casualties an utterly unthinkable price for the war-weary american public to be asked to pay as the u.n troops duked it out with the chinese politicians in washington began to push for a settlement they saw little chance of ending the conflict any other way peace talks began in mid-1951 while ridgway and his cohorts continued to battle the chinese but neither side wanted to risk admitting defeat fearful of the reaction from both their government and their constituents belligerent diplomats and petty cultural misunderstandings caused negotiations to stall on multiple occasions as a result there was also the thorny issue of pows over 60 000 korean and chinese prisoners refused repatriation preferring to stay in the south this would result in much bickering between the two sides dragging matters on for over a year until a ceasefire agreement was finally agreed on on july 27 1953 the deal established a demilitarized zone at the 38th parallel and set up a neutral nations repatriation commission to settle the ongoing pow issue sigmund re naturally refused to sign the agreement and officially north and south korea are still at war to this very day when all was said and done the status quo came at the cost of three million lives most of whom were civilians both sides committed a number of massacres but the united states denied their own war crimes in korea for many years while publicizing the brutality of their enemies from 2005 to 2010 a south korean commission conducted a large-scale investigation of war crimes concluding that 82 percent were perpetrated by south korean forces with 18 perpetrated by north korean forces many were motivated by fears of communist insurgents hiding among civilian populations like its cold war cousin the vietnam war the korean war was a long bloody and ultimately futile conflict the only difference was that the u.s succeeded in forgetting korea [Music]

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 1,936,042

Keywords: the korean war, korean conflict, north korea, south korea, cold war history, america in korea, united nations intervention, battle of chosin, battle of inchon, port of pusan, battle of seoul

Id: Tj7jXlr_M9w

Length: 20min 5sec (1205 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/MarkTheProKiller]

Quite a nice video.

Very good for people who want to initiate their interest on the lesser known Korean War.

I recommend it to anyone who doesn’t know anything about the Korean War but wishes to learn the basics. It isn’t only focused on the military stuff but also on the political part.