Background

That two Korean states existed in 1950 was an outcome of arrangements for the surrender of Japan in August 1945 which had resulted in the entry of both Soviet and American forces to the peninsula. The ostensible purpose of this deployment was to take the surrender of Japanese troops, but both great powers were determined to maintain a foothold in this strategic area. The demarcation line on the 38th Parallel was rapidly transformed into a quasi-border as relations between the Soviet Union and its former wartime allies worsened with the onset of the Cold War, and both sides encouraged political factions sympathetic to themselves.

Partition became inevitable when negotiations to provide a unified Korean administration fell down. In 1948 the United Nations oversaw the creation of the ROK with Syngman Rhee as President, to which the Russians responded by establishing the DPRK with Kim Il-sung at its head. Koreans were unreconciled to this outcome, and on both sides of the 38th Parallel there was determination to reunify the peninsula. Border incidents were common.

The June 1950 invasion was initiated by Kim Il-sung, but Josef Stalin's approval was crucial and Soviet assistance in the form of arms and advice was provided to the Korean People's Army. Catching the South Koreans by surprise, the KPA made rapid progress, capturing the southern capital Seoul within three days of its onslaught. However, with the United States to the fore, the United Nations Security Council had called for a withdrawal, and when this was ignored called on members to assist South Korea. Early in July it set up a UN Command, responsibility for which was delegated to the United States. General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander, Allied Powers in Japan, was appointed as Commander-in-Chief, UN Forces in Korea.

New Zealand in the 'first' Korean War

New Zealand was one of the first states to answer the Security Council's call with combat assistance (sixteen would eventually do so). On 29 June, the government offered two frigates, and HMNZS Tutira and Pukaki left Auckland on 3 July. They joined other Commonwealth forces at Sasebo, Japan, on 2 August and immediately began escorting supply ships between Japan and the Korean port of Pusan, by then the centre of a narrow pocket. While forming part of the UN Command, they operated within a Commonwealth framework, under the command of a British flag officer. They took part in Operation Chromite, the successful amphibious counterstroke launched by MacArthur at the port of Inch'on, near Seoul, on 15 September 1950. Their role was to escort the troopships carrying the attack force, and then to form part of a protective screen around Inch'on.

The 'second' Korean War

Caught between the UN forces at Seoul, which had been quickly liberated, and those advancing from Pusan, the KPA disintegrated, either being captured or fleeing through the hills to the north. The first Korean War had thus resulted in a decisive victory for the UN. The UN's initial purpose was fulfilled: the Republic of Korea had been preserved. Nevertheless, with the DPRK in disarray, the United States was tempted to press forward to achieve the UN's political aim of unifying Korea, despite warnings from Beijing that China would respond forcibly to any UN crossing of the 38th Parallel.

When UN forces invaded North Korea on 9 October, they precipitated a new Korean conflict. Although some elements of the UN Command reached the the northern border on the Yalu River, Chinese forces, ill-equipped but in large numbers, had secretly entered North Korea, and from late October they mounted a series of offensives, the second of which led to a 'big bug out' of UN forces, which rapidly fell back south of the 38th Parallel.

The Chinese People's Volunteers, as the intervening Chinese troops were termed, then endeavoured to drive the UN forces into the sea. Seoul was abandoned to them on 3 January 1951, but stiffening resistance by the UN Command, under a new field commander General Matthew Ridgway, led to their being held south of the capital.

Kay Force joins the conflict

At this point a further New Zealand contingent joined the UN Command - Kayforce. On 26 July 1950, in response to a further plea from the UN Secretary-General, Trygve Lie, the government in Wellington had agreed to the dispatch of a 1000-man ground force. Arrangements had quickly been made for this force to serve as part of a Commonwealth formation. Kayforce, comprising 16th Field Regiment and small ancillary units, had to be recruited, trained, and dispatched to Korea, and would have missed the war altogether but for the Chinese intervention. There was no shortage of volunteers, five men coming forward for each place within five days. The 1056-man force embarked from Wellington on 10 December 1950, and arrived at Pusan on New Year's Eve. It joined the 27th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade on 21 January 1951, and was in action for the first time four days later. Thereafter it took part in the operations which led the UN forces back to and over the 38th Parallel, recapturing Seoul in the process.

The Fifth Phase offensive

When, in April 1951, the Chinese launched the opening step of their Fifth Phase Offensive, 27th British Commonwealth Brigade fought a successful defensive battle against a Chinese division at Kap'yong, after filling a gap in the UN line caused by the collapse of a South Korean division. The New Zealand gunners played a vital supporting role for 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and the Canadian 2nd Battalion,  Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, from 23 to 25 April. For this action, in which it suffered its first fatal battle casualty, the regiment was awarded a South Korean Presidential Citation, conferred at a parade in February 1952. The Chinese offensive in this sector had been effectively checked, though Kap'yong later had to be abandoned as the UN forces fell back to positions just north of Seoul in good order.

The situation worsens

The failure of their Fifth Phase Offensive - its second step in May 1951 proved disastrous - helped convince the Chinese that outright military victory in Korea was beyond their capacity. Armistice talks opened at Kaesong in July 1951, but were soon broken off. Although they resumed at Panmunjom on the following 25 October, progress was very slow. During 1952 the fate of communist POWs would emerge as a seemingly irresolvable sticking point, with the communist negotiators firmly rejecting the UN contention that they should have the right to elect not to be repatriated to their home countries.

In the meantime the UN forces sought to keep up pressure on the enemy, and the New Zealand frigates were involved in operations up the Han River which were partly designed to influence the communist negotiators at the nearby talks. UN air forces maintained a strong bombing campaign over North Korea, though with increasing resistance from enemy fighters that were, in many cases, piloted by Russian airmen.

Operation Commando

In October 1951, now deployed on the Imjin River as part of 28th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade, the New Zealand gunners took part in Operation Commando, during which Commonwealth troops advanced from five to seven kilometres through rugged terrain to seize a better defensive line. This was the regiment's busiest month of the war - it fired 72,000 shells. During November 1951, Chinese counter-attacks sustained the intensity of operations, and the Commonwealth troops were pushed back some distance. In responding to a major Chinese attack on the 4th, the New Zealand regiment fired its highest daily total of the war (10,000 shells). During this phase of the war a great improvement in the Chinese forces' artillery capacity made itself felt.

The Commonwealth Division

These operations were carried out by the 1st Commonwealth Division, which had been formed on 28 July 1951 by combining 29th British Brigade, 28th British Commonwealth Brigade, and 25th Canadian Brigade. New Zealand had welcomed this development - a unique experiment in Commonwealth relations. It agreed to provide a substantial proportion of the divisional signallers, as well as a transport company, as part of an expansion of Kayforce to a strength of 1500 men.

The Expansion Draft left Wellington on the Wahine on 2 August 1951, but was shipwrecked at Masela Island north of Darwin. The men were eventually flown from Darwin to Japan, where Kayforce's base had been established at Hiro in June 1951. On 15 October 1951 10th Company RNZASC joined the Commonwealth Division, which was commanded by a British general. The non-operational control and general administration of Commonwealth forces in Korea was the responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief, British Commonwealth Forces in Korea, an Australian officer, initially Lieutenant-General Sir Horace Robertson, who was also Commander-in-Chief, British Commonwealth Occupation Force Japan.

Stalemate

At the end of 1951, a stalemate emerged as both sides improved their defensive positions. The front took on the character of a hilly Western Front. Much bitter fighting took places around the two bastions of the Commonwealth sector, Hill 355 and the Hook.

The New Zealand gunners were kept busy during this phase of the war supporting infantry patrols, occasionally providing defensive fire to repel Chinese attacks, reducing enemy trenches and strong points and providing routine harassing fire. In all, they would fire more than three-quarters of a million shells before the end of the fighting. They earned a reputation as an extremely proficient element of the Divisional Artillery.

Other New Zealanders quietly performed their duties as signallers, drivers, infantrymen (nine regular officers and NCOs were attached for periods to the Australian battalions), and engineers. Seventeen Regular Force personnel, mainly NCOs, also gained combat experience while serving with British armoured units in Korea. Some relief from the conditions at the front was provided by leave schemes which allowed men to spend up to three weeks in Japan. At sea, New Zealand seamen took part in patrolling mainly on the west coast, and helped to protect South Korean–held islands. Successive reliefs ensured that all six New Zealand frigates saw service in the conflict.

After the armistice

An armistice on 27 July 1953 finally brought the fighting to an end, though no peace settlement was subsequently achieved and the armistice arrangements continued in force for the next forty years. New Zealand's naval presence was reduced to one frigate, which from 1954 was attached to the British Far Eastern Fleet and made only periodic visits to Korea. The New Zealand gunners were based at a camp on the Imjin River till their withdrawal in November 1954, and 10 Company's role ended in May 1956 when the Commonwealth Division was disbanded. From this point New Zealand troops in Korea, an 80-strong transport platoon, served as part of the Commonwealth Contingent, Korea. Kayforce was finally withdrawn from Korea on 27 July 1957. Thereafter New Zealand was represented by a military liaison officer on the Commonwealth Liaison Mission, Korea, until 1971.

Impact of the war

In all, about 4700 men served with Kayforce and a further 1300 in the frigates during the seven years of New Zealand's involvement in Korea. Forty-five men lost their lives in this period, thirty-three of them during the war (of whom two were RNZN personnel). One member of Kayforce was taken prisoner of war; held in northern North Korea for eighteen months, he was repatriated following the armistice, as was a New Zealander serving with the RAAF, who had been shot down near the North Korean capital, P'yongyang.

The Korean War had a dramatic indirect economic impact in New Zealand. The sense of crisis precipitated by the outbreak in 1950 encouraged the United States to seek to buy large quantities of wool not for uniform for use in Korea as many supposed at the time (and since), but to complete its strategic stockpiles. This demand led to the greatest wool boom in New Zealand's history, with prices tripling overnight. However, the inflationary effect of other commodity buying offset the advantages of the wool boom, with imported raw materials rapidly increasing in price.

Especially once it became obvious that the conflict would be confined to Korea, New Zealanders paid little attention to events in the peninsula, and there were occasional complaints that Kayforce was a 'Forgotten Force'. The outbreak intensified trends that had been apparent in New Zealand domestic politics in the late 1940s, and the National Party used anti-communism to good effect in the 1951 general election.

In terms of foreign policy, the war also assisted New Zealand achieving its long-standing objective, a security commitment from the United States. Not only was New Zealand able to demonstrate its support as a small ally in the UN coalition but also events worked in its favour. The Chinese intervention introduced a sense of urgency in Washington which opened the way for the signature of the ANZUS Treaty on 1 September 1951.

IAN McGIBBON

This essay is adapted from the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History, Ian McGibbon (ed.) (Oxford University Press, 2000).

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