Combat Over Korea

“Passing the Test completes the story of ground combat during the Chinese offensives of 1951 . . . This is combat history at its best.” —Lt. General Julius W. Becton, Jr. (Ret.) For US and UN soldiers fighting the Korean War, the spring of 1951 was brutal. The troops faced a tough and determined foe under challenging conditions. The Chinese Spring Offensive of 1951 exemplified the hardships of the war, as the UN forces struggled with the Chinese troops over Line Kansas, a phase line north of the 38th parallel, in a conflict that led to the war’s final stalemate. Passing the Test: Combat in Korea, April–June 1951 explores the UN responses to the offensive in detail, looking closely at combat from the perspectives of platoons, squads, and the men themselves. Editors William T. Bowers and John T. Greenwood emphasize the tactical operations on the front lines and examine US and UN strategy, as well as the operations of the Communist Chinese and North Korean forces. They employ a variety of sources, including interviews conducted by US Army historians within hours or days of combat, unit journals, and after-action reports, to deliver a comprehensive narrative of the offensive and its battles. Passing the Test highlights the experiences of individual soldiers, providing unique insights into the chaos, perseverance, and heroism of war. The interviews offer a firsthand account that is untainted by nostalgia and later literature, illuminating the events that unfolded on the battlefields of Korea. “Serves as a monument to the fighting spirit of the individual soldier.” —Army

Presents the full-text of "Combat Support in Korea," part of the U.S. Army in Action Series of the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Discusses service and support activities during the Korean War.

This volume chronicles aerial combat of the Korean War through both historical narrative and the personal accounts of Allied airmen and POWs. In Combat Over Korea, military historian Philip D. Chinnery offers a vivid account of aerial warfare above the forbidding terrain of the Korean peninsula. The firsthand accounts presented here run the gamut from air combat between fighters to a B29 Superfortress bomber ditching in the sea, and a C-54 cargo plane being attacked by North Korean fighters. Veterans of the 21 Troop Carrier Squadron, USAF, recount flying into impossibly short strips to rescue thousands of wounded soldiers—a feat for which they received a Presidential Citation. Others tell of their hair-raising escapades after being shot down, while those who were captured tell of the brutal treatment they endured at the hands of the enemy. In a truly rare and remarkable tale, 1st Lieutenant Melvin Shadduck recounts his daring escape from a POW camp.

The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first - and only - full-scale air war in the jet age. It was in the skies of North Korea where Soviet and American pilots came together in fierce aerial clashes. The best pilots of the opposing systems, the most powerful air forces, and the most up-to-date aircraft in the world in this period of history came together in pitched air battles. The analysis of the air war showed that the powerful United States Air Force and its allies were unable to achieve complete superiority in the air and were unable to fulfill all the tasks they'd been given. Soviet pilots and Soviet jet fighters, which were in no way inferior to their opponents and in certain respects were even superior to them, was the reason for this. The combat experience and new tactical aerial combat tactics, which were tested for the first time in the skies of Korea, have been eagerly studied and applied by modern air forces around the world today. This book fully discusses the Soviet participation in the Korean War and presents a view of this war from the opposite side, which is still not well known in the West from the multitude of publications by Western historians. The reason for this, of course, is the fact that Soviet records pertaining to the Korean War were for a long time highly classified, since Soviet air units were fighting in the skies of North Korea "incognito", so to speak or even more so to write about this was strictly forbidden in the Soviet Union right up to its ultimate collapse. The given work is in essence the first major work in the post-Soviet era. First published in a small edition in Russian in 1998, it was republished in Russia in 2007. For the first time, the Western reader can become acquainted with the most detailed and informative work existing on the course of the air war from the Soviet side, now in English language. The work rests primarily on the recollections of veterans of this war on the so-called 'Red' side - Soviet fighter pilots, who took direct part in this war on the side of North Korea. Their stories have been supplemented with an enormous amount of archival documents, as well as the work of Western historians. The author presents a literal day-by-day chronicle of the aerial combats and combat work of Soviet fighter regiments in the period between 1950 and 1953, and dedicates this work to all the men on both sides who fought and died in the Korean air war.

Many combat veterans refuse to discuss their experiences on the line. With the passage of time and the unreliability of memory, it becomes difficult to understand the true nature of war. In The Line: Combat in Korea, January--February 1951, retired Army colonel William T. Bowers uses firsthand, eyewitness accounts of the Korean War to offer readers an intimate look at the heroism and horror of the battlefront. These interviews of soldiers on the ground are particularly telling because they were conducted by Army historians immediately following combat. Known as the "forgotten war," the action in Korea lasted from June 1950 until July 1953 and was particularly savage for its combatants. During the first few months of the war, American and U.N. soldiers conducted rapid advances and hasty withdrawals, risky amphibious landings and dangerous evacuations, all while facing extreme weather conditions. In early 1951, the first winter of the war, frigid cold and severe winds complicated combat operations. As U.N. forces in Korea retreated from an oncoming Chinese and North Korean attack, U.S. commanders feared they would be forced to withdraw from occupation and admit to a Communist victory. Using interviews and extensive historical research, The Line analyzes how American troops fought the enemy to a standstill over this pivotal two-month period, reversing the course of the war. In early 1951, the war had nearly been lost, but by February's end, there existed the possibility of preserving an independent South Korea. Bowers compellingly illustrates how a series of small successes at the regiment, battalion, company, platoon, squad, and soldier levels ensured that the line was held against the North Korean enemy. The Line is the first of three volumes detailing combat during the Korean War. Each book focuses on the combat experiences of individual soldiers and junior leaders. Bowers enhances our understanding of combat by providing explanatory analysis and supplemental information from official records, giving readers a complete picture of combat operations in this understudied theatre. Through searing firsthand accounts and an intense focus on this brief but critical time frame, The Line offers new insights into U.S. military operations during the twentieth century and guarantees that the sacrifices of these courageous soldiers will not be lost to history.

Army Historical Series. CMH Pub. 30-2. Originally published in1954, the year following the close of the Korean War, this book describes combat actions of small Army units, squads and platoons, companies and batteries. The1984 and later printings include a new foreword written in 1984.

Covers the participation in the Korean War of these arms and services of the United States Army: Corps of Engineers; Transportation Corps; Chemical Corps; Signal Corps; Medical Corps; Ordnance Corps; Quartermaster Corps; Security, Combat, Morale.