The French Army In Korea

History | 1/6/2021 | blueunicorn6

[blueunicorn6]

I think that it is time to do away with, on Free Republic, the idea that French Soldiers aren’t very brave. I am a retired American Soldier so I don’t owe the French anything.

I am currently reading a book about the Korean War (1950-1953). It is titled IN MORTAL COMBAT. I am at the point where China has entered the war. The Chinese have sent hundreds of thousands of Soldiers into Korea.

The UN forces have been rocked. The South Koreans are falling back. The US troops are falling back. The English are falling back. The Turks are falling back.

My Dad was in the Korean War. I asked him who the toughest Soldiers were during that war. He told me that he thought the Turkish Soldiers were the toughest.

The Turks were falling back in the face of the massive Chinese onslaught.

There is a French unit on the right flank of an American unit. The Americans are worried about the French. The French Commander is a little odd. The French record against the Germans wasn’t stellar.

The Chinese threw waves of Soldiers against the French. The French gunned them down until they were low on ammunition. It looked like the Chinese were going to overrun the French and wipe them out.

The French Commander ordered his troops to “Fix bayonets!” This is an order to attach a bayonet (a long knife) to the end of your rifle. He then led the French Soldiers in a charge against the attacking Chinese. The Chinese broke and retreated.

The French went back to their original defensive positions.

The Chinese rallied and tried another massed attack.

Once again, the French Commander ordered his troops to fix bayonets and charge.

The Chinese broke again and retreated.

In Korea, during the Korean War, while the other UN forces were falling back in the face of a tremendous attack by hundreds of thousands of Chinese, a French Army unit, not once, but twice, fixed bayonets and ran the Chinese off.

I salute them.

So should you.

[hinckley buzzard]

The reputation for cowardice among the French derived from their failure to mount a serious defense against the Blitzkrieg. But the troops on the northern front were the least of the French Army—literally the cooks and bottle washers of a rearguard reserve unit.

They were sent to the Belgian border precisely because it was believed they would never be engaged in fighting, much less have to face the Wehrmacht Panzer War Machine in full gear.

I would guess that any such troops from any nation would have reacted similarly. The fault for the French defeat overall lies with their incompetent generals, who failed to foresee that Germany would use the same tactics that served them well in the Franco-Prussian War several decades earlier, ie a sweep from the north.

[MplsSteve]

“Read “The Last Valley”...”

Probably the most comprehensive book ever written on Dien Bien Phu.

[blueunicorn6]

I recently read a book about the history of the Legion.

They were fighting in Vietnam in the 1800s.

The thing is.....they won.

Don’t hear much about that.

[L.A.Justice]

“The North Koreans took European civilians captive. This included several elderly Catholic Nuns. One Nun was even blind.”

North Koreans committed many atrocities during the war...Like executing US prisoners...

“And our youth think that socialism/communism is OK.”

That is very disturbing indeed...
Anybody who praises communism should be forced to defend what is going on in North Korea...

[L.A.Justice]

Yep. In WW2 the French general staff were out of touch.
________________________________

Those generals did not listen to Charles De Gaulle...

I will give De Gaulle credit for not giving up the fight against Germany...