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About the ROKA also, not KATUSA's per se, I'd also
add that in between their collapse at the very beginning of the war vs. the KPA
and later difficulty overcoming moral (military sense) advantage
the CPV had established over it, it also performed creditably in the Pusan
Perimeter campaign. The US divisions were mainly laid out along the north-south
portion of the Naktong, the east-west front was held by the ROKA
with mainly US fire support assets and very selective deployment of task
forces of US infantry. But held the KPA off.
Reading Appleman "South to the Naktong..." about
that period, not a source expected to stretch the truth in favor of the ROKA v.
the US forces, it's hard to see a clear difference in effectiveness in favor of
the US over the ROKA divisions during that period. Both had weak points the
KPA was still sometimes able to exploit, but both ultimately got the job
done.
Putting completely untrained civilians of any
nationality into uniform in war can have tragi-comic results, see
early Civil War, US.
Joe
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 5:50
PM
Subject: Re: South Koreans in the 7th
Div.
I agree with Ed. Every study of the
war and the ROKA shows that they were totally pitiful (by their own admission
as well) at the start of the war and were singled out by PLA intelligence as
the best place to launch attacks after the PLA "relieved" the KPA of duties on
the front lines.
But by later in the war, they were able to give at
least as good as they got, and many of the Chinese probes were no longer able
to shatter them, but only bend their defenses back with heavy casualties on
both sides.
Remember that they ROKA also got US air and naval
firepower to assist them, which both helped morale and lowered the ability of
the PLA to crack them.
Anyone familiar with the units that fought in
Vietnam (contrary to PC drivel about why they should be ashamed of their
participation there which was posted earlier) knows that the two toughest
units in Vietnam -- bar none -- were the two ROKA divisions, the "White Horse"
and "Tiger" divisions. (Not sure what their designators are). The ROKs I
personally met were impressive, well disciplined, and had no use for any sort
of Communists (They also didn't have much use for Vietnamese on either side,
but that's a different story...)
Cookie Sewell
AMPS
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