korea

NZ gun crew in Korea

New Zealand was involved militarily in Korea from 1950 to 1957, first as part of the United Nations 'police action' to repel North Korea's invasion of its southern neighbour, and then in a garrison role after the armistice in July 1953.

New Zealand Forces in Asia

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.

New Zealand's position

New Zealand's alignment and participation in the Cold War was determined by the decision of the 1940s Labour government to back the United States and Great Britain (that concord was crucial) in their disagreements with the Soviet Union. The decision was questioned, though not overturned, by the Left, with communists and others claiming that Labour had rejected both peace and socialism.

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.

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.

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.

Post Second World War Resources

• New Zealand Forces in Asia 1948-1972
  Details the different conflicts including the Malaya Emergency, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
• Victor Company, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment Vietnam 1967
  Run by Ross Himona, includes nominal and honour rolls and information about the company's campaigns
• Vietnam roll of honour - Vietnam veterans' site

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 strongpoints 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.

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.