Korean War 1950 - 1953. The Korean War is often described as 'The Forgotten War'. The memorial song on this video is timeless and honours the memory of those who have died in the service and defence of Australia in war.
17,000 Australians served in Korea. 339 died and 1,215 wounded. Australian troops participated in two major battles in 1951. On the evening of 22 April, Chinese forces attacked the Kapyong valley and forced South Korean and New Zealand troops into retreat; other UN troops, including Australians, were ordered to halt the attack. After a night of fierce fighting, during which their positions were overrun, the Australians recaptured their postions and stalled the Chinese advance, at a cost of only 32 men killed and 53 wounded. For their contribution to this action, 3 RAR was awarded a US Presidential Citation.
The second major battle for the Australians was Operation Commando, an attack against a Chinese-held salient in a bend of the Imjin, a river running north-south that crosses the 38th parallel just above Seoul. Here the Commonwealth Division, including the Australians, had two key objectives: Hills 355 and 317. The attack began on 3 October, and after five days of heavy fighting the Chinese withdrew. Twenty Australians were killed in the battle and 89 were wounded.
From 1951 on, both sides found themselves engaged in a war of attrition reminiscent of the Western Front, where men lived in tunnels, redoubts and sandbagged forts behind barbed wire defences. The war was generally fought with artillery and mines and in set-piece battles; at night patrols ventured into no man's land to raid enemy positions. Between 1951 and the war's end, 3 RAR occupied trenches at the eastern extremity of the Commonwealth Division's position in hills north-east of the Imjin River. There they faced heavily fortified Chinese positions across a stretch of no man's land which ranged from 300 metres to 2 kilometres in width.
As the war settled into stalemate it became apparent that a negotiated truce was the only solution, but military pressure was maintained on the communist forces, the better to extract concessions at the peace talks. As fighting continued, however, many of the UN combatants grew less willing to contribute more ground forces to the conflict. While some countries were keen to extricate their troops from Korea, Australia increased its commitment, and the government sent a second battalion, 1 RAR, which joined the Commonwealth Division on 1 June 1952. The battalion remained in Korea for twelve months, leaving in March 1953 and replaced by 2 RAR in April.
25 June 1950 - 60 year anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. Today there is still tension between South Korea and communist North Korea. The United States has 28,500 troops in South Korea - a very sore point for North Korea. The United States also has 47,000 troops in Japan. Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and America. have been trying to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in talks that Pyongyang quit last year.
Korean War Heroes website at http://www.korean-war.australianwarhe...
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Australian diggers. remembrance memorial song. korean war heroes.
