In 1950, Communist-backed North Korean forces invaded the US-protected South. Britain came into the war on the side of the US but, still suffering financial stricture after the demands of World War II, the British government sent poorly equipped brigades of troops to help the beleagured US forces. Anti-war dissent at home and threats to use the Atom bomb added to the danger of the situation, threatening World War III. US General MacArthur launched a surprise amphibious assault on Inchon behind North Korean lines, but victory was snatched from the combined US/British force by the entry of 600,000 Chinese troops into the war on the side of North Korea. The British and American soldiers were routed and in the battle of the Imjin River that ensued - the "Glorious Glosters" were butchered. The Korean war has been described as "the nastiest little war". Atrocities were committed on both sides, but for the next two years British and other Allied PoWs became the biggest pawns in the great peace talks. If they broke and confessed publicly that it had been an "Imperialist war", as their captors wanted them to, it would have been a great propaganda victory for the enemy.
Thus the final round of the Korean War was for the hearts and minds of British prisoners. As a result of the sacrifice in blood of the ordinary British squaddie, the North did not achieve the victory it desired, the British won the day, and an all-out nuclear war was averted. This book aims to provide an account of the Korean War, in particular Britain's involvement, and the author's narrative is supported with graphic eyewitness accounts.
- ISBN10 0750920858
- ISBN13 9780750920858
- Publish Date 18 November 1999
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 5 May 2011
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher The History Press Ltd
- Imprint Sutton Publishing Ltd
- Edition Illustrated edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English