This fine and popular Cold War Series takes the Korean War on from the fall of the Gloucesters to the ending fighting. The Korean War has received far less coverage by historians than it deserves and this new book adds greatly to the telling of the story. – Very Highly Recommended
NAME: Cold War 1945-1991, Korean War Imjin River, Fall Of The Gloucesters To The Armistice FILE: R3305 AUTHOR: Gerry van Tonder PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword BINDING: soft back PRICE: £14.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Cold War, Korean War, Chinese Army, North Korean Army, United Nations Army, wave attacks, attrition, air war, helicopters, vertical insertion, infantry helicopter movement, naval bombardment, carriers, Glorious Gloucesters, Imjin River ISBN: 1-52677-813-0 PAGES: 128, extensive b&w and full colour photographs through the body of text IMAGE: B3305.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y3sft25z LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This fine and popular Cold War Series takes the Korean War on from the fall of the Gloucesters to the ending fighting. The Korean War has received far less coverage by historians than it deserves and this new book adds greatly to the telling of the story. – Very Highly Recommended
The Cold War was a very new form of warfare that was forced by the potential for development into a nuclear conflict. The seizure of central and Easter Europe by the Soviets after WWII carried the same potential for war as had the German expansion before the start of WWII and the Western nations had to resist any temptation to slip back into the failed policy of appeasement that had only delayed the start of WWII and given Germany advantages that did not need to be gifted.
Stalin was encouraged initially as not action was taken to his absorption of central Europe into the Soviet sphere of political control. The Berlin airlift was the first occasion when the Western Allies drew a line and resisted Soviets attempts for fully expansion. It came as a nasty shock to the Soviets and they turn to surrogate wars and subversion. The Korean War was the first time they encouraged a client state to embark on a full armed invasion of a neighbour. They were supported by the Chinese although it was an alliance with internal tensions.
The initial moves by the North Koreans threatened to make this a blitz krieg where their troops would rapidly take control of South Korea. Once more the Communists experienced a nasty shock. The Americans struck back and won international support to lead a United Nations Force to take back full control of South Korea. The critical problem for the Communists was that the UN Force could use the unique experience built up by Britain and the US in amphibious warfare and their supremacy at sea. This meant that they could land troops behind North Korean positions and use aircraft operating from carrier forces at sea and from land bases in Japan, beyond the reach of the Communists.
The author concludes the books in this series by taking the story on from the Fall of The Gloucesters to the end of fighting and the Armistice. It was not to be the end of the story but of a formal war that the Communists had to accept they could not win.