Apart from any irreconcilable internal divisions in Korea, the international community regarded the peninsula as a very low priority. The UN was unduly optimistic in its hopes for Korea. The UN sought to create a solution whereby a united Korea could be formed, notwithstanding the peninsula's long history of cultural, as well as political, divisions. Soviet forces occupied the north and US forces the south, their brief to oversee the disarmament of the Japanese. Annexed by Japan in 1910, Korea at the end of the Second World War was divided at the 38th parallel. One of the first major problems to confront the young UN was Korea.
It was with these aims that Australia became involved in the first significant test of Western resolve in the Cold War. The central theme of Australia's interest in Korea was to maintain its alliances, in the hope that Australia could make do with relatively modest forces and still have regional security.
The Korean War (1950-1953) was a major factor in defining Australia's place in the post-Second World War world. A weak sun rarely appeared in the leaden sky, vegetation withered and all animal life, with the exception of rats that infested our hoochies in plague proportions, vanished.Ĭorporal Bob Metcalfe, B Company, 3 RAR, looks out from his hoochie at the snow-covered landscape near Changhowon-ni, January 1951. Cold so intense that even the ground was frozen solid and rivers iced up whilst a bone-chilling variable wind swept over the barren landscape. As a brigadier, Daly commanded the 28th British Commonwealth Brigade in Korea in 1952-53, which included battalions of The Royal Australian Regiment.Ĭold! I thought I knew it but Korea taught me otherwise. Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly KBE CB DSO. to visit our men, tired but cheerful Aussies returning from patrol, taciturn Geordies from Durham, cheeky Cockneys from London Town. listening to the sounds of battle in the valley, anxiously awaiting reports from units involved in life and death situations and for news of success or failure and of the inevitable cost.īest of all, I remember the lovely spring dawn when the harsh landscape was suddenly transformed walking through wildflowers. I remember long nights in my command post. I remember the dust, the heat, the enervating humidity, the bitter cold of winter when the men slept with their boots on and weapons cradled lest they should be found frozen in an emergency the soldiers on listening post, lying silently on the frozen ground trying desperately to remain alert, knowing they were responsible for the safety of their comrades. The Korean War Alliances and Australia's security