France and the Forgotten War
The 60th anniversary of the Armistice ending the Korean War was commemorated recently, especially among the combatants countries who fought in the sanguinary conflict between 1950 and 1953.
America lost 50,000 soldiers in what is known as the Forgotten War. Among over fifteen other countries which provided troops to the United Nations operations, France too has remembered this struggle which was sandwiched between WWII and the Indochina War.
For the record France sent a Battalion of volunteers to Korea to help stem the communist assault on the South. The French Battalion arrived in country in November 1950 and was under the operational command of the U.S. 2nd Infantry.
French units participated in some of the most savage fighting in Korea and took heavy losses. Of the 3,421 French serving in Korea, 287 were killed and an further 1,350 wounded.
Following service in South Korea, the Battalion was sent to active duty in Indochina where it took heavy losses in the closing stages of the French conflict in Vietnam. The unit would later serve in Algeria in a counterinsurgency mode against nationalist insurgents until 1962.
Today few French or Americans recall the role of the French Battalion in Korea, save for a small monument here in Paris on the banks of the Seine River.
No comments:
Post a Comment