Canada in the Korean War Archives

Canada’s Forgotten War: Korea, 1950-53

June 19, 2022 by Robert Mackay Leave a Comment

That’s the title of a PowerPoint presentation I made to the University Women’s Club of Vancouver on April 13th this year. It was a fascinating event, with attendees that included members of the club, friends and family, Canadian army veterans, and a man born Korean during the war who is now a Canadian. Also present to my delight were family members of a veteran of the Battle of Kapyong.

I would like to think that there in spirit were a Korean veteran and friend who had just passed away, and another veteran who is still very much with us but unable to access a computer to attend the live Zoom event. He has since received a video of the presentation; no doubt I’ll hear one of these days what he thought of it!

If you’re reading this and would like to receive my newsletter Forces With History please see the sign-up form on this same Blog page. I’m always happy to see comments or suggestions for future articles.

2PPCLI and its Presidential Unit Citation

January 25, 2022 by Robert Mackay Leave a Comment

Formerly known as the Distinguished Unit Citation, the US’s Presidential Unit Citation dates from December 7^th, 1941, and the attack on Pearl Harbour. It is awarded to a unit—ship, squadron, battalion, etc—for collective combat heroism of the level that would merit a Distinguished Service Cross if the action were performed by an individual. Most such awards are made to American units, but allies fighting alongside Americans are also eligible.

Only once has the Presidential Unit Citation been publicly awarded to a Canadian unit. The 2^nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry earned the recognition in April 1951 for their heroics in the Battle of Kapyong. (For more detail, see archived editions of Forces With History.) Presidential Citations were also made to the 3^rd Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) and Company A 72^nd Heavy Tank Battalion (A US unit) for their parts in the Kapyong battle.

Rumours of the award reached the Patricias two months after their fight at Kapyong. The 2PPCLI War Diary on 23 Jun 51, on the subject of morale, noted: “Persistent rumours are circulating concerning the award of a Presidential Unit Citation to this battalion for its part in the KAPYONG River battle. There has been no official confirmation of the award as yet and Brigadier Rockingham [Canadian Infantry Brigade commander] has promised to investigate the matter.”

The morale of the battalion soared four days later. According to the War Diary on June 27, “Official confirmation was received today of the award of the Presidential Unit Citation…There was considerable speculation amongst the men and officers as to whether or not we would be permitted to wear the citation as are the surviving members of the 1^st Gloster Regt.”

(The Glosters, a British Regiment, had been virtually annihilated by the Chinese in a separate battle a day or so before 2PPCLI’s battle at Kapyong, and had also received the Presidential Unit Citation.)

The excitement among the Patricias, the victors at Kapyong, was a little premature. The award was eventually presented to 2PPCLI’s Commanding Officer on 4 November 1951 by American General James Van Fleet. “Not so fast,” the senior officers in Ottawa must have thought, gritting their teeth.

The “speculation” amongst the men and officers turned out to be just that. The veterans of Kapyong were not allowed to wear the decoration (a modest blue patch on their shoulders) until long after they had left the field and returned to Canada, with many of them no longer in service. The Canadian senior brass and Ottawa establishment dithered, but finally succumbed to pressure to officially accept the award in 1956, an astonishing five years after the battle.

The reasons for the delay are obscure. Some argued that General James Van Fleet didn’t get Canada’s permission before presenting the award, presumably a minor diplomatic faux pas. He was, after all, the commanding general of all the United Nations forces in Korea, which included the Canadians. But neither did he seek advance permission when he awarded the Citation to the Australians or the 1^st Glosters. Her Majesty’s relevant governments had no trouble authorizing their awards, or for that matter granting permission for the men of those units to wear it. The holdup was doubtless somewhere in the upper levels of the hidebound Canadian military establishment and DND.

Today the blue patch, a reminder of the Battle of Kapyong and the Presidential Unit Citation, continues to be worn with great pride on the shoulders of every member of 2PPCLI.

The Korean War, looking back

February 23, 2021 by Robert Mackay Leave a Comment

Here’s how it all started:

Seventy-one years ago Kim Il Sung led North Korea. Kim had spent World War II outside his country in the Soviet army. Following the war, and with the sponsorship of his Russian masters, he returned to Korea with the rank of major in the Red Army, eventually taking charge of North Korea, that is, all of the Korean Peninsula north of the 38^th parallel.
In South Korea the government was led by Syngman Rhee, a man who, in a parallel story to Kim’s, had lived much of his life in the United States. He was autocratic and had been uncooperative with UN efforts to promote democratic reforms.
The Korea-wide free elections that the World War II allies hoped would lead to unification were never held, with the result that the two Koreas – North and South – Russian-influenced and US-leaning – followed ever-more divergent paths.
In the spring of 1950 the North had a population of nine million, contrasted to the South’s 21 million. North Korea, however, had a clear preponderance of military forces. Their army outnumbered that of the South and included thousands of veterans of the Red Army and the Red Chinese Army. In addition they featured modern tanks, aircraft, and weapons provided by the Soviets.
Guerrilla warfare raged in the south, with irregular communist fighters taking on the beleaguered Republic of Korea troops. The US’s 500-man KMAG—Korean Military Assistance Group—were probably more concerned about the upcoming baseball season back home than they were with keeping an eye on the north.
The stage was set for a surprise. Kim mustered his troops for a bid to amalgamate North and South by force.

Seventy Years Ago on the Korean Peninsula

February 14, 2021 by Robert Mackay 2 Comments

Seventy years ago this week, Canada’s Special Force entered the fray in Korea. At that time the only Canadian troops on the ground were the members of the 2^nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

When 2PPCLI had landed in Korea in December 1950, the American commander of UN forces on the ground was Lieutenant-General Walton Walker. One of his staff officers met with the Patricia’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel James R. Stone and ordered him to move his troops to the front. Big Jim, as his men referred to him, refused and insisted on meeting with General Walker himself. Fortunately Stone had with him a document giving him the authority to decide when his troops were ready to be committed to battle.

LCol Stone, flanked by Majors Henderson and Grant at Miryang. Photo courtesy US Army

A compromise was reached. Stone settled for another six weeks of training, as a result of which the battalion proceeded from Pusan, the port where they had landed, to Miryang, a village fifty miles north. Once settled into their tented camp the Canadians continued training and renewed their fitness levels by climbing up and down the surrounding hills, at times in pursuit of Communist guerrillas. Training at Miryang also featured familiarization with American small arms, including machine guns and mortars, with which the Canadians would be supplied.

In a quirk of fate, General Walker was killed in a motor vehicle accident only days after his meeting with LCol Stone, so he never saw the Canadians enter the fray.

On February 15th, 1951, Stone declared his troops ready. They clambered aboard American 6X6 trucks and headed north to join the 27^th Commonwealth Brigade. There they’d take their place in the battle zone in pursuit of the (for now) withdrawing Chinese.

Social

Contact Info