In the past, in all film and television dramas involving the Korean War, the US military as the main opponent of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army was often portrayed, while the South Korean army was repeatedly brushed aside, as if it was a background board, dispensable. So, how did the South Korean army behave in the real Korean War?
Recently, with the broadcast of the TV series "Scout Hero", as the main opponent of the volunteer army at the end of the war, many viewers have become deeply interested in the troop establishment and combat effectiveness of the Korean army in the play.
In this article, based on the historical records in all five volumes of the 1988 edition of "The Korean War", the real performance of the South Korean army in the Korean War is restored.
First of all, in terms of establishment, since Korea was under Japanese colonial rule for 35 years, the ROK army was under the Japanese army at the beginning of its establishment, and the division was called the "division regiment", the regiment was called the "wing", and the battalion was called the "brigade".
During the Korean War, the ROK army had a total of 15 divisions, namely the Capital Division and the First Division.
Among them, the first division is the earliest unit created in the ROK army, and long before the official founding of the Republic of Korea, there were 5 "national defense garrison brigades" and 1 "capital garrison brigade".
The "Capital Garrison Brigade" formed in 1946 was the predecessor of the 7th Division.
The five "National Defense Garrison Brigades" formed in 1947 were the predecessors of the later First Division.
At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of Korea in August 1948, in accordance with the provisions of the ROK-US Interim Military Agreement, the United States sent a military advisory group of 500 members to the ROK, whose members were located in all levels of the ROK military command departments.
At the same time, the U.S. military provides the South Korean military with a value of 1$100 million in military equipment, including 100,000 M1 Garand rifles and M1 carbines, 50 million rounds of ammunition, 2,000 M1 Bazooka rocket launchers and matching M6A1 and M6A3 rockets, and more than 40,000 artillery pieces and military vehicles of various types.
By the time the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, the ROK Army had a total of 8 divisions. During the war, the ROK army was organized into seven divisions.
In addition to the number number, the total 15 divisions of the South Korean Army also like to give each division and regiment a nickname, and all of them have achieved "thunderous ears" and "tall".
The Capital Division, nicknamed the "Tiger Force," was headed by Li Zhongzan and had more than 7,000 people under its jurisdiction the 2nd Wing, 17th Wing, and 18th Wing, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The prototype of the Black Panther Division of the South Korean Army in the TV series "Scout Heroes" is the Capital Division of the South Korean Army. In the Korean War, it was this unit that was beaten to death by the reconnaissance unit of the 68th Division of the 203rd Army of the Volunteer Army. This battle is the famous "Surprise Attack on the White Tiger Regiment".
The 1st Division, nicknamed the "White Bone Force", was headed by Bai Shanye, and had more than 10,000 people under its jurisdiction the 11th Wing, the 12th Wing, the 13th Wing, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
During the Japanese occupation, Bai Shanye served in the Japanese Kwantung Army and served as a captain.
The 2nd Division, nicknamed "Nutao Force", was headed by Li Henggen and had more than 8,000 people under its jurisdiction the 5th Wing, the 16th Wing, the 25th Wing, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The 3rd Division, nicknamed the "Lion Force", was headed by Liu Shenglie, and had more than 7,000 people under its jurisdiction under the 22nd Wing, the 23rd Wing, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The 5th Division, nicknamed the "Key Force", was headed by Li Yingjun as the division commander, and had more than 8,000 people under its jurisdiction the 15th Wing, the 20th Wing, the 1st Independent Brigade, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The 6th Division, nicknamed the "Blue Star Force", was headed by Kim Jong-wu, and had more than 9,000 people under its jurisdiction the 7th Wing, the 8th Wing, the 19th Wing, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The 7th Division, nicknamed the "Seven-Star Force", was headed by Liu Zaixing, and had more than 10,000 people under its jurisdiction the 1st Wing, the 3rd Wing, the 9th Wing, as well as the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The 8th Division, nicknamed the "Typhoon Force", was headed by Li Hanlin and had more than 7,200 people under its jurisdiction the 10th Wing, the 21st Wing, and the division's artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The above are the 8 divisions formed before the outbreak of the Korean War, and during the war, 7 divisions were successively formed, namely
The 9th Division was nicknamed the "White Horse Force", and the division commander was transferred from Kim Jong-wu, commander of the 6th Division. It has more than 12,000 people under its jurisdiction of the 28th, 29th, and 30th Wings, as well as the divisional artillery brigade and engineer brigade.
The 11th Division was nicknamed "Hualang Troops", and Cui Dexin served as the division commander. Cui Dexin graduated from the 10th Infantry Section of the Nanjing ** Military Academy in 1936, and then served in the New 1st Army of the Kuomintang Army, and returned to North Korea after retiring in 1946.
The 12th Division, nicknamed "B Branch", was headed by Yin Chungen, who served in the Kwantung Army.
The 15th Division was nicknamed the "Victory Force", and Lee Jung-seok served as the division commander. During the Japanese occupation, Lee Jung-seok served as an adjutant in the Korean Japanese army.
The 20th Division was nicknamed "Night Cat Force", and Liu Xingshou served as the division commander. During the Japanese occupation, Liu Xingshou served as a police officer in the Japanese Police Division of Gyeonggi Province.
The 21st Division was nicknamed "Baektu Mountain Troops", and Min Jizhi served as the division commander. In 1943, Min Ji studied at the Puppet Manchurian Jianguo University and served in the Kwantung Army with the rank of second lieutenant.
The 25th Division was nicknamed "Flying Dragon Troops", and Wen Rongcai served as the division commander. Wen Rongcai was a soldier of the Japanese army's "Goryeo Wing", and in the defense of Nanjing, the "Goryeo Wing" was the first unit of the Japanese army to invade the city of Nanjing.
To sum up, in the early days of the establishment of the South Korean army, its basic team was almost all composed of Japanese puppet military police during the Japanese occupation. Many of them participated in the war of aggression against China, some belonged to the Kwantung Army, some belonged to the Chinese Dispatch Army, and most of them had blood debts on their hands.
Throughout the Korean War, the South Korean army at the beginning of the war and the South Korean army at the end of the war were completely different armies in terms of their combat effectiveness.
At the beginning of the war, the South Korean army was weak, but at the end of the war, the South Korean army had several divisions and regiments that were strong.
Before the outbreak of the Korean War, the ROK army deployed only the 1st Division, the 6th Division, the 7th Division, and the 8th Division on the 38th Parallel, with a total of 4 divisions plus a wing, about 40,000 troops.
The 1st Division, which was responsible for the vigilance mission in the direction of Kaesong, had its headquarters located in Shuise.
The 6th Division is responsible for the vigilance mission in the direction of Chuncheon and Wonju, and the division headquarters is located in Wonju.
The 7th Division is responsible for the vigilance task in the direction of Yi**, Dongdouchuan, and Baochuan, and the division headquarters is located in Yi**.
The 8th Division is responsible for the vigilance task in the direction of Munjin-eup and Gangneung, and the division headquarters is located in Gangneung.
The 17th Independent Wing, which is subordinate to the Capital Garrison Command, is responsible for the 38th line of the Wengjin Peninsula, and its headquarters is located on the Wengjin Peninsula.
At dawn on June 25, 1950, 100,000 Korean People's Army suddenly crossed the 38th parallel and headed south, and the Korean War broke out.
At this time, the ROK army's front-line troops, four divisions and regiments, plus a wing, totaling 40,000 horses, had just finished the exercise and were resting and recuperating.
The Korean People's Army captured Seoul in only three days, and then broke through, capturing Daejeon on July 20, Mokpo on July 24, and Jinju on July 31, forcing the ROK army and the US troops in Korea to retreat all the way to Busan.
The other four divisions that were deployed in the rear before the war, the Capital Division in the Seoul area, the 2nd Division in the Daejeon area, the 3rd Division in the Daegu area, and the 5th Division in the Honam area, were defeated even faster.
In order to flee for their lives, these troops even blew up the Han River Bridge ahead of schedule, and left the 1st Division under the command of Bai Shanye, which was responsible for the task of breaking the rear, on the north bank of the Han River.
If it weren't for the division commander Bai Shanye's calm command and finally succeeded in breaking through, the 1st Division would have folded in the hands of these pig teammates.
It was not until the 25th Division of the US Army stationed in South Korea received the order to hold the southern defense line and not to take another half step back, that the South Korean and US troops barely held the last line of defense.
At this time, the Korean People's Army had occupied 90 percent of the Korean Peninsula, and 92 percent of the entire population of the Korean Peninsula lived on this 90 percent of the land.
To be sure, the combat effectiveness of the ROK army is indeed relatively weak at this moment, but friends who are familiar with the history of the war should know that many officers and men of the Korean People's Army that attacked the south came from the Fourth Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and they could not be matched by the ROK army.
From July 1949 to April 1950, the 156th, 164th, and 166th Divisions of the Fourth Field Army, which were mainly composed of Korean officers and soldiers, were transferred to the Korean People's Army as a whole.
These Korean officers and men who participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation have been in battle for a long time and have rich experience, and they cannot be resisted by the ROK army.
However, despite this, the Korean People's Army, with its absolute superiority in strength, also lost more than 6,000 officers and soldiers in the three-day battle to capture Seoul. The ROK army, which had lost its command and structure during the retreat, still inflicted heavy casualties on the Korean People's Army.
Even after the Han River Bridge was blown up, the 1st Division led by Bai Shanye still held on to the north bank of the Han River for another 4 days and 4 nights, covering the withdrawal of other trapped troops across the Han River, and the 1st Division finally retreated.
In August 1950, when the Korean People's Army had already pushed the front to the outskirts of Busan, Baek Sun-yeol successfully delayed the Korean People's Army's unstoppable offensive in several days of continuous resistance in the Gasan Fortress and Dabo-dong in Gyeongsangbuk-do.
Historically, in the early days of the Korean War, under the rapid offensive of the Korean People's Army's surprise attack, although the South Korean army was defeated for thousands of miles, it was not powerless.
In particular, the 1st and 6th Divisions, as well as the 9th Division formed later, were evaluated by the officers and men of the volunteers in the subsequent confrontations with the Chinese People's Volunteers
Its combat effectiveness is not inferior to the five main forces of the Kuomintang army.
But the combat effectiveness of other units of the South Korean army is miserable, and it is even inferior to the puppet Manchu ** under Pu Yi back then.
Lieutenant General Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, was killed at the hands of the South Korean army in the rout, and Li Qiwei, who succeeded Walker, commented on the morale and combat effectiveness of the South Korean army when he first arrived on the Korean battlefield
This is a poor force that we don't even dare to call an army".
Speaking of the cause of death of the commander of the 8th Army, Lieutenant General Walker, as far as he is concerned, it is both tragic and comical.
After the landing of US troops at Inchon on September 15, 1950, the Korean People's Army suffered heavy losses. In October, with the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteers, the situation on the battlefield was quickly reversed.
On December 23, 1950, Lieutenant General Walker, commander of the U.S. 8th Army, rushed from Seoul to the front in a jeep. The purpose of Lieutenant General Walker's trip was to organize the defeated US and South Korean troops to re-establish defensive lines in an attempt to delay the rapid offensive of the Chinese People's Volunteers.
However, the road to the front line was full of fleeing South Korean officers and soldiers and their various vehicles in a panic, and the constant congestion along the way gave Walker, who had just arrived at the Korean battlefield for more than a month, a headache.
Although Walker's lieutenant loudly dispersed the South Korean rout from the back seat of the jeep, it had little effect.
In World War II, Walker was a subordinate of General Patton, commanding the 3rd Panzer Division to beat the Germans to the ground. But during the more than a month on the Korean battlefield, Walker was crushed by the communist forces from China, much to the frustration of Lieutenant General Walker.
When Walker's car with three stars hanging was finally getting out of the jam and driving to a corner, a civilian car driven by a South Korean soldier on the opposite side suddenly rushed out from the left side, knocking Walker's jeep into several heels and falling off the roadbed.
The guard car following Walker hurriedly stopped, and by the time his subordinates crawled through the crooked vehicle to lift Walker out, Lieutenant General Walker had turned into a corpse.
In this way, a South Korean soldier "killed" a lieutenant general of the United States, and Walton Harris Walker became the top general of the American army "killed" in the Korean War.
The death of Lieutenant General Walker once again shows that the ROK army in the early days of the Korean War was basically a rabble formed by Japanese puppet policemen, public officials, and ordinary peasants left over from the Japanese occupation period.
However, since MacArthur was dismissed by Truman and Ridgway became the commander of the "Joint **", the ROK army has been rearmed under the training and integration of the US military, and its combat effectiveness has been greatly improved.
In the seven new divisions and regiments that followed, some units even achieved surprisingly impressive results.
In the fifth battle from April to June 1951, the 64th Army and the 65th Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers stained the Imjin River with blood. In the Battle of the Imjin River, the 1st Division of the ROK Army was the main opponent of the Volunteer Army.
In addition to the bombing by US planes in the sky, the flexible blocking, counterattacking, and roundabout flank attack tactics of the 1st Division of the ROK Army were one of the reasons why the Volunteers suffered heavy losses.
In the Battle of Baima Mountain in October 1952, the 38th Army, the ace unit of the Chinese People's Volunteers, and the 9th Division of the ROK Army were at Arrowhead Mountain (281.).2 Heights), White Horse Mountain (391 Heights) fought for 9 days and nights.
In the end, the 38th Army failed to achieve the purpose of the campaign and was forced to withdraw from the battle after paying a major amount.
Jiang Yonghui, the representative commander of the 38th Army, was still haunted by the mention of the Battle of Baima Mountain decades later.
The book "The 38th Army in Korea," organized and written by General Jiang Yonghui, recorded in detail the course of the battle and spoke highly of the ROK Army's 9th Division's mountain combat tactics, infantry and artillery coordination tactics, and air-ground coordination tactics.
In the middle and late stages of the Korean War, the combat effectiveness of the South Korean army has been substantially improved.
Although in 1953, the ROK army still suffered heavy losses in the summer counterattack on Jincheng launched by our army, its defeat but not defeat and the deployment of orderly withdrawal of troops are no longer the scene of defeat at the beginning of the war.
Comprehensive evaluation of the combat effectiveness of all divisions and regiments of the ROK Army
The division has a positive fighting style and is good at offensive operations. In the early stages of the war, the division had been fighting on the Eastern Front, and its main opponent was the Korean People's Army. In the later stages of the war, he fought several times against the Chinese People's Volunteers, but never won a victory.
The division has a positive and tenacious fighting style, flexible and cunning tactics, is good at concealed and roundabout flank attacks, can attack and defend, and dares to fight at night and in white-knuckle battles.
The 1st Division was the absolute main force of the ROK Army in the Korean War, and it was the only unit that participated in the most battles, fought the most with the Volunteers, and did not suffer a big loss at the hands of the Volunteers.
The combat effectiveness of this division belongs to the upper middle of the ROK Army, and the division and regiment have fought more with the Volunteers, and the only bright spot is that in the course of the retreat of the Volunteers in the Fifth Campaign, the Volunteers have pursued the troops after the Volunteers have been cut off, and have achieved some successes.
Because the 2nd Division participated in the famous Battle of Shangganling, it had a certain reputation in the later period of the Korean War.
The division has long been engaged in battles with the Korean People's Army on the Eastern Front, winning and losing. He has fought several times against the Volunteer Army, and has never won a victory. In the first stage of the fifth campaign, it was heavily damaged by the Volunteer Army, and lost more than half.
The division was called the "supply division" by the Volunteers on the Korean battlefield, which meant to deliver food and ammunition supplies specifically for our army. The meaning of its existence is to sit back and wait for our army to capture and capture it.
Ironically, on December 28, 2018, South Korea's ** Moon Jae-in inspected the Army's 5th Infantry Division stationed in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province.
Chinese netizens commented on this: Do you want to be faced?
The division was the first ace unit of the ROK army in the Korean War, good at mountain offensive and defensive operations, and fought many times with the volunteers.
In the second stage of the Fifth Campaign, the division defeated the 63rd Army of the Volunteer Army twice in a row. In the Battle of Jincheng, under the overall defeat of the Korean army, the 67th Army of the Volunteer Army was repelled to the north of the Jincheng River twice in a row through continuous counterattacks.
Although the division was the earliest unit established in the South Korean army, this veteran unit had low combat effectiveness, and in the second battle, it was almost completely wiped out by the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army in only five hours.
In nine battles with the Volunteers, the division was completely annihilated and reorganized twice, and was beaten with heavy punches seven times, and its record was miserable.
The division has already been introduced, and in the Battle of Baima Mountain in October 1952, the 9th Division defeated the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army.
The 38th Army spoke highly of the 9th Division's mountain combat tactics, infantry and artillery coordination tactics, and air-ground coordination tactics.
The division was mainly deployed on the Eastern Front to fight against the Korean People's Army, and it lost more than it won.
The division fought against the Volunteers in the Battle of Shangganling, and its 37th Wing had a tenacious fighting style, occupied our army's positions many times, and repeatedly fought with our army. However, the other two wings were relatively weakened and weak.
The division was deployed on the Eastern Front, mainly fighting against the Korean People's Army, and although it was nicknamed the "Victory Force", it was repeatedly defeated, which was a big joke on the Korean battlefield.
In the battle between the division and the Volunteer Army, it was evaluated by the Volunteer Army as vulnerable.
The division was formed late and suffered heavy defeats in two battles with the Volunteers.
The division was formed in May 1953 and never participated in actual combat on the Korean battlefield, mainly responsible for rear garrison tasks.
The above is the combat situation of the various divisions and regiments of the ROK army on the Korean battlefield and their specific performances.
Because in the past film and television dramas depicting the Korean War, the South Korean army was often brushed aside, so that many people looked down on the performance of the South Korean army in the Korean War, thinking that the existence of the South Korean army was purely soy sauce, only the background board of the Korean War, and its role was completely negligible.
However, the real history is not like this, among the 15 divisions and regiments of the ROK army, there are many troops that can fight, and there are many battles and examples that have been won. It's just that more troops are like fish belly, which has lowered the combat effectiveness and army image of the ROK army as a whole.
As a result, it creates a false impression for people who do not know this period of history.
With the hit of the TV series "Scout Hero", in line with an objective and fair attitude of historical materialism, for the first time, the combat situation of the South Korean army on the Korean battlefield was presented more realistically, which is a great progress in the view of history and is worthy of praise!
The information in this article is quoted from all five volumes of The Korean War.