Triumph At Kapyong

April 24th, 1951,was a lonely, moon-lit night in Korea. On a godforsaken hill, a few hundred surrounded Canadian soldiers waited for the fight of their lives to begin. Soon, Chinese communist troops in their thousands, swarmed around them, plunging straight towards the Korean capital, Seoul. These Canadians were all that blocked the way. This is the story of the first battle by Canada’s first soldiers in the Korean War: the 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. These volunteers were straight from Central Casting: truck drivers, construction workers, kids just out of high school, and bored farm boys. Outnumbered and outgunned, this people’s army of amateurs beat off some of the toughest troops on earth. This battle that’s become a legend takes its name from a nearby peanut-sized village: Kapyong. It’s become a mythic Canadian story, except this is mythology that is true and real.

April 24th, 1951, was a lonely, moonlit night in Korea. On a godforsaken hill, a few hundred surrounded Canadian soldiers waited for the fight of their lives to begin. These volunteers - truck drivers, construction workers, kids just out of high school - outnumbered, they beat off some of the toughest troops on earth.

Afghanistan is not Canada's first war in Asia. We've been there before, a half century ago ... in Korea. And it was a meat grinder, scarcely remembered now ... a war in which on one hilltop, on one April night, freshly-minted Canadians soldiers made a desperate stand that prevented catastrophe. In all, twenty-five thousand Canadians fought in Korea. By the time the shooting stopped, more than five hundred had been killed on lonely hilltops and in desolate ravines. Five hundred ... in only two years. In Canada's war in Korea, there were no Vimy Ridges or Normandys. In Korea, Canadians were shot down in their fours and fives mostly, on patrols and in ambushes. It was largely a war at night in small groups. But not always. There were sometimes terrifying battles where outposts were swamped by Chinese human wave attacks. This is the story of one such battle ... Canada's first in Korea, in April 1951, on a barren and rocky hill near a nothing village called Kapyong on the edge of nowhere. It's the story of 700 men, all volunteers, in the 2nd Batallion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. They'd signed up specifically to fight in Korea ... and now on this April night, they found themselves surrounded by thousands of Chinese soldiers sweeping around their positions. In April 1951, the Chinese launched an offensive plunging straight for the South Korean capital, Seoul. Other allied positions collapsed around the Canadians. Only the lonely Patricias blocked the road. And now it was their turn for the Chinese treatment. The Patricias had the wrong weapons and were trained in the wrong tactics for this war. Most were utter amateurs. This was a true People's Army - cab drivers, lumberjacks, farm boys and adventurers. They were up against a seasoned enemy, better armed and with immense battle savvy, fresh from their victories in the Chinese Civil War. And yet in a terrifying battle in the dark that had the feel of Thermopylae ... with several hundred against several thousand, with hand-to-hand fighting with bayonet's and shovels, with foxholes lost and retaken, with calling down artillery fire on their own positions, they held. The Patricia's that night changed the course the war could have taken. Kapyong is about what did not happen. The Canadian positions did not collapse. Kapyong did not fall. Seoul was not captured. The Chinese breakthrough went nowhere. And so, the Korean War did not end abruptly in April 1951. For the Chinese, Kapyong had simply been too much. By dawn they had abandoned the field. Incredibly, the Patricia's casualties were ten dead and 23 wounded. Chinese dead, although unknown, must have been in the many hundreds. At no point had there been talk among the Canadians of breaking out ... they had simply decided to tough it out on their hilltop. The Kapyong story sparkles with qualities that Canadians believe make up their national character: sacrifice, courage, initiative, modesty and an uncomplicated rock-solid belief in themselves. It is the story of the Patricias' cool and cranky commander, James Stone, a World War Two veteran of the Italian campaign who applied his mountain warfare savvy to the wilds of Korea. It's the story of Ken Barwise, who single-handedly recaptured a lost machine gun from the Chinese. It's the story of Smiley Douglas who reached for a live grenade which landed in the midst of his platoon. It exploded just as he tossed it free, blowing off his hand. It's the story of Michael Levy, who had fought as a teenager against the Japanese in Malaya as a guerrilla. At Kapyong he was the heroic platoon commander who called in artillery on his own position. The Patricias survived because they believed they were the best soldiers on the hill that night. They bet their lives on it. They won the bet.

This ebook bundle contains five books that chronicle Canada’s participation in the conflict that gripped the Korean peninsula from 1950–53 and resulted in two very different nations that remain at odds today. This bloody and traumatic face-off between capitalist and communist ideologies highlighted the tensions of the Cold War that drew in nations from many parts of the world. Canadian soldiers did their part and many sacrificed their lives for the democratic cause. Those interested in the war and the Canadian role in it will find a wealth of information and analysis in this collection of works by leading historians. Includes Cross-Border Warriors Deadlock in Korea Fighting Words Korea Triumph at Kapyong

The sacrifice of the "Glorious Glosters" in defense of the Imjin River line and the hilltop fights of Australian and Canadian battalions in the Kapyong Valley have achieved greater renown in those nations than any other military action since World War II. This book is the first to compare in depth what happened and why. Using official and unofficial source material ranging from personal interviews to war diaries, this study seeks to disentangle the mythology surrounding both battles and explain why events unfolded as they did. Based on thorough familiarity with all available sources, many not previously utilized, it sheds new light on fighting "the forgotten war."

An “excellent history” of a massive Communist offensive and the brigades that resisted it (H-War). The sacrifice of the British regiment known as the “Glorious Glosters” in defense of the Imjin River line and the hilltop fights of Australian and Canadian battalions in the Kapyong Valley have achieved great renown. Using official and unofficial source material ranging from personal interviews to war diaries, this in-depth study, the first of its kind, seeks to disentangle the mythology surrounding both battles and explain why events unfolded as they did. Based on thorough familiarity with all available sources, many not previously utilized, it sheds new light on fighting “the forgotten war.” “In Korea, on the night of 22nd April 1951, communist forces unleashed what remains, to this day, their greatest offensive since Zhukov’s storm on Berlin. In the desperate fighting that followed, the key flanks of free world forces were held by one British and one Commonwealth brigade. The former took on a Chinese army; the latter, a Chinese division. Six decades later, an American historian has dismantled the barriers between Australian, British, Canadian, and New Zealand accounts of those whirlwind days to compose the only comparative analysis of the tragedy on the Imjin and the stand at Kapyong.”—Andrew Salmon, author of Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950

Canada and the United States: we think of one as a peaceable kingdom, the other as a warrior nation. But do our expectations about each country’s attitudes to war and peace match the realities? In Living with War, Robert Teigrob examines how war is experienced and remembered on both sides of the 49th parallel. Surveying popular and scholarly histories, films and literature, public memorials, and museum exhibits in both countries, he comes to some startling conclusions. Americans may seem more patriotic, even jingoistic, but they are also more willing to debate the pros and cons of their military actions. Canadians, though more diffident in their public displays of patriotism, are more willing than their southern neighbors to accept the official narrative that depicts just wars fought in the service of a righteous cause. A provocative book that complements critiques of contemporary Canadian militarism such as Warrior Nation, Living with War offers an intriguing look at the relationship with the military past on both sides of the border.

This essential companion provides a comprehensive study of the literature on the causes, course, and consequences of the Korean War, 1950-1953. Aimed primarily at readers with a special interest in military history and contemporary conflict studies, the authors summarize and analyze the key research issues in what for years was known as the 'Forgotten War.' The book comprises three main thematic parts, each with chapters ranging across a variety of crucial topics covering the background, conduct, clashes, and outcome of the Korean War. The first part sets the historical stage, with chapters focusing on the main participants. The second part provides details on the tactics, equipment, and logistics of the belligerents. Part III covers the course of the war, with each chapter addressing a key stage of the fighting in chronological order. The enormous increase in writings on the Korean War during the last thirty years, following the release of key primary source documents, has revived and energized the interest of scholars. This essential reference work not only provides an overview of recent research, but also assesses what impact this has had on understanding the war.