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Deployment Directions and Its Characteristics ofthe US Ground Forces during the Korean War

Jeongok Nam 1

1국방부군사편찬연구소

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ABSTRACT

This article reviews how U.S Ground Forces were deployed in the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War(June 25, 1950~July 27, 1953) from United States sources of relevant materials. For such a review, this paper looks at how several situations, depending on the timing of operations carried out and nature of the operations, were carried out: how the Air Force and the Navy started operations prior to engagement of the Army; how the forces stationed in Japan were engaged in operations to check the invading enemy and secure a bridgehead; how the forces stationed in U.S. mainland or overseas were engaged in counterattack operations, including amphibious operations, and how the national guard was deployed following the cease fire in July 1953. In addition, this paper also looks at how the U.S. augmentation troops were dispatched to Korea in response to General Douglas MacArthur's request, how the forces were put into the battlefields one unit after another in the struggle for time, how the forces were put onto the frontline without lead time for local adaptation, how the forces were deployed in connection with General Douglas MacArthur's anvil-and-hammer attack against the enemy, and what problems high-ranking officers showed in their readiness to engage in combat in the initial stage of the war. The United States decided to enter in the war on June 30, 1950, I.e., just six days after the North Korean's attack. Under the command of Douglas MacArthur, the forces stationed in Japan were dispatched to Korea first, followed by augmentation troops dispatched from the U.S. mainland and overseas bases from the end of July that year either by air or by sea. During the three-year war, the United States dispatched a field Army, three corps, eight combat divisions, three regiment combat teams, twenty-eight regiments, eighty infantry battalions, fifty-four artillery battalions and eight armored battalions. As reviewed above, the U.S. forces suffered huge losses during the Korean War. At the time when Seoul was occupied by the enemy and the ROK Army lost almost half of its troops, with no heavy weapons, the U.S. came to the aid of the ROK, showing is commitment to the defense of this country. After all, the prompt deployment of the U.S. ground forces in the initial stage of the war laid the basis for formation of the ROK-US combined forces during the war and modernization of the ROK forces after cease fire.

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