The Korean War has always been most cited in the Chinese Volunteer Army and the U.S. Army, but the Korean People's Army and the South Korean Army have been reduced to supporting roles. Especially the South Korean army, due to the rendering of some literary works and film and television works, the Korean army in our impression can not help but fight, will only escape, in a sense, this wrong impression is widely circulated, it is also a rumor, in fact, the combat effectiveness of the South Korean army in the later period is not to be underestimated.
First, let's look at the Korean Army in the Korean War, the formation of the Korean army is modeled on the formation of the Japanese army, the division we call the division regiment, the regiment we call the regiment called the wing, the Korean Army in the late Korean War has been equipped with 15 divisions, is the main opponent of the volunteer army. The evaluation of the combat effectiveness of the ROK army by the volunteer army is the most objective and most emblematic of the actual combat ability and level of the ROK army.
The South Korean army also named each division and regiment separately, and the capital division was called the Tiger Force, which was a division formed by carefully selected officers and soldiers, which was mainly engaged in battles with the Korean People's Army in the early stage, and had several engagements with the volunteer army in the later period.
The Koreans of the First Division regiment called it the White Bone Unit, and this division was the main force of the Rok army, which had the most encounters with the volunteer army, and was also the division that had not lost much in the battle with the volunteer army.
The Second Division was called the Nutao Unit by the Korean people, and this division and regiment also fought more with the Volunteer Army, especially in the Battle of Shangganling in the Fifth Campaign, due to the strategic retreat of the Volunteer Army, the division and regiment achieved several victories, but the Volunteer Army did not have a high evaluation of the combat effectiveness of this division and regiment, and fought with the Volunteer Army several times, on the whole, this division still lost more and the combat effectiveness was medium.
The Fifth Division of the South Korean Army, also known as the Key Unit, because this unit is the former president of South Korea's concubine unit, has a relatively high status in South Korea, so it has been publicized in South Korea with exaggerated combat effectiveness, and even bragged that it has become the invincible and most effective unit in the world, but in fact, after the volunteer army fought with this army, it was considered that the combat ability of this army was average.
It is worth mentioning that the Korean Sixth Division, the Blue Star Unit, which is the ace unit of South Korea, mainly fights with the volunteer army, and when fighting against the volunteer army, it is also more victorious and less defeated. This force, led by South Korea's first general, Jang Do-wook, defeated the Volunteers four times. The Volunteer Army also had a high opinion of this unit, which was good at mountain combat and had a strong combat ability.
Other divisions and regiments also had remarkable performance in the Korean War, so I will not repeat them in this article, in general, the evaluation of the Rokk army by the Volunteer Army is not as bad as everyone thinks, or has a certain combat ability, it can be said that in the late period of the Korean War, it was the main force against the Volunteer Army and the People's Army.
If you want to evaluate the combat capability of the Rok military more objectively, you should look at it in stages.
The first phase, early in the Korean War, was fought separately by the South Korean army and the North Korean army, probably from June to July 1950.
At this stage, although the South Korean army had 8 divisions of more than 100,000 soldiers, it basically did not have combat resistance and defense capabilities, mainly because the United States did not attach importance to the military defense capacity building of the South Korean mainland. Because Rhee has always declared that he wants to unify the Korean Peninsula, but the United States does not want Rhee to start a war, because it does not want to stimulate the Soviet Union, so both in terms of military expenditure and strength are shrinking year by year. The United States is only committed to helping South Korea build a force that can maintain law and order and guarantee the inviolability of basic territory.
The DPRK also saw this situation and seized the opportunity to launch the Korean War when the Rokk army's combat ability was the weakest, and when the Korean War broke out, the ROK army did not even have tanks in weapons and equipment, and there were only dozens of cannons and a limited number of rifles in the country. But North Korea not only had tanks, but also military aircraft to participate in the war, and thousands of cannons.
In terms of the timing of the battle, the North Korean army chose June 25, a day when South Korea had just relaxed its highly defensive garrison, some troops withdrew from the front line, and a quarter of its officers and men were already on leave. Therefore, when the North Korean army attacked South Korea, it was victorious in a situation that was more advanced than south Korean weapons and equipment and fully prepared.
However, the South Korean army was not completely tied up, and it also made sufficient resistance. For example, during the Battle of Seoul, the Rok army still held Seoul to the death in the face of such a strong Korean army, inflicting heavy losses on the Korean army, resulting in the death and injury of more than 6,000 North Korean troops.
Although the Korean army was defeated in several subsequent battles, the Korean army also paid a painful price. And it has not been completed according to the original plan, and it has been said that the overall strategic sense has failed.
The second phase was from the entry of volunteers into Korea to support Korea until the end of the fifth campaign
In the second stage, the U.S. military began to support South Korea and fight against North Korea, at this time the South Korean army was breathless, and the source of troops was replenished, but it was supplemented by Zhuang Ding, who was captured from the civilian population, and some people just came out to buy some medicine, and they never saw their relatives again, these people had no training, and they could not even shoot pistols, and they were directly sent to the battlefield.
Although there has been an increase in personnel, there has been no significant increase in combat effectiveness, and it is even less than the combat capability before the outbreak of the Korean War. Although it was the first to break through the 38th Line under the strategy of the United Nations Army, it was able to win against the Korean army with its combat effectiveness at that time, and it was vulnerable to the volunteer army.
In the first battle, the volunteer army gave the Korean army a heavy blow, directly blinded the three divisions of the Korean army, and almost the entire army was destroyed, and even the number was gone. The following four battles were also the same, each time the volunteer army could eat one or more divisions of Korea, the Korean army in this period was mainly composed of new recruits, the overall combat ability was very weak, and the face of the volunteer army's blows was deserted and fled. Of course, there are also some divisions led by famous South Korean generals whose performance is remarkable, such as the divisions led by Bai Sunye and Kim Jong-5 who resisted the attack of China and North Korea, and cooperated with the US army to inflict heavy losses on the 180th Volunteer Army in the fifth battle.
The third phase began in June 1951, when the war of mass movements ended, and the two sides entered the negotiation phase of fighting and talking.
Because the US military suffered heavy losses due to the south Korean army's inability to give in the course of the war, it made up its mind to improve the combat effectiveness of the South Korean army and let the South Korean army hold the 38th line by itself. In terms of combat capability and combat command, more than 2,000 South Korean officers were first selected, and systematic training was carried out for nearly half a year, and the training of soldiers was as high as more than 10,000.
These officers and soldiers who had been trained by the U.S. system later became the mainstay of the South Korean army, on the other hand, in terms of weapons and equipment, the United States also increased investment, the most important thing is to improve the attack firepower of artillery, and set up artillery schools to train artillery cadets and soldiers. After only two phases of training, the South Korean Artillery Division has maintained the same equipment and combat capabilities as the U.S. Army.
From the perspective of battle results, in the later period, the volunteer army fought with the Rok army, the ROK army was basically able to resist the attack of the volunteer army, and because of the combat in its own territory, the Rok soldiers' home and country feelings were very heavy, and the combat power was more than that of the US army, and the combat ability of the ROK army in the later period was even stronger than that of the US army. The more prominent performance of the Rokma army is the Battle of Hakuba Mountain, in the Battle of Hakuba Mountain, the volunteer army was also stationed to attack the ROK army, launched dozens of attacks, the volunteer army judged that the ROK army could not resist to retreat, but in fact the ROK army was still fighting to the death, the volunteer army was finally defeated, this battle is also the first time that the volunteer army lost to the ROK army.
It can be seen that the combat capability of the ROK army in the Korean War changed from weak to strong, and this phased change was mainly based on ROK-US relations and US strategy.