A dramatic and tragic episode in British military history that will soon not be part of living memory. More than 100,000 British troops fought in Korea between 1950 and 1953, of which just over 1,000 died, with a further 1,000 captured and held in atrocious conditions by the Chinese and North Koreans. At least half of those captured died in prison camps. More than 70 per cent of those who fought were teenagers doing National Service – poorly trained and ill-equipped. The Korean War: Memories of Forgotten British Heroes tells the story of these men in their own words. Most of the veterans are now advanced in age and there is a pressing need for them to tell their tale. So soon after the Second World War, this was a conflict Britain did not need, but she remained steadfast by the side of the Americans, fighting more than 6,000 miles away in a country barely anyone could point to on a map. Yet while we remember those conflicts in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Korean War remains largely forgotten.

Though Korea remains the biggest, bloodiest, most brutal war fought by British troops since World War II, the story of their central role in the conflict's most terrible months has never been fully told. Far more than mere battlefield history, Andrew Salmon's book draws on interviews with some 90 veterans and survivors to pain an unforgettable portrait of an immense human tragedy.

The Korean War in Britain explores the social and cultural impact of the Korean War (1950–53) on Britain. Coming just five years after the ravages of the Second World War, Korea was a deeply unsettling moment in post-war British history. From allegations about American use of ‘germ’ warfare to anxiety over Communist use of ‘brainwashing’ and treachery at home, the Korean War precipitated a series of short-lived panics in 1950s Britain. But by the time of its uneasy ceasefire in 1953, the war was becoming increasingly forgotten. Using Mass Observation surveys, letters, diaries and a wide range of under-explored contemporary material, this book charts the war’s changing position in British popular imagination and asks how it became known as the ‘Forgotten War’. It explores the war in a variety of viewpoints – conscript, POW, protester and veteran – and is essential reading for anyone interested in Britain’s Cold War past.

NEW PAPERBACK EDITION ‘Salmon’s vivid use of recollections and dramatic quotes brings alive an unjustly forgotten conflict’ Time Out With even World War II now just on the edges of living memory, and with British forces now engaged in a lengthy, brutal and attritional old-fashioned war in Afghanistan, historical attention is starting to turn to the Korean War of the early 1950s. And remarkably, the most notorious and celebrated battle in that conflict, from a British point of view, has never previously been written about at length. Andrew Salmon’s book, which has garnered excellent reviews and sold out two hardback printings already, has filled that gap. This is the story of the Battle of the Imjin River, when the British 29th Infantry Brigade, and above all the “Glorious Glosters” of the Gloster Regiment, fought an epic last stand against the largest communist offensive of the war. It lasted three days, of bitter hand-to-hand combat. By the end of it one battalion of the Glosters – some 750 men – had been reduced to just 50 survivors. Andrew Salmon’s definitive history, which gained excellent reviews in hardback and sold very steadily, is very much in the Antony Beevor mould: accessible, pacy, narrative, and painting a moving and exciting picture through the extensive use of eyewitness accounts of veterans, of whom he has tracked down and interviewed dozens. Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based journalist who writes for The Times, The Washington Times, and Forbes magazine. He first became fascinated by the battle in 2001 when he met British veterans returning to the Imjin River to mark the 50th anniversary.

More than 30,000 British troops fought in Korea between 1950 and 1953 and more than 3,000 died, with over 1,000 being captured and held in atrocious conditions by the Chinese or Koreans. At least half of those captured died in prison camps. More than 70 per cent of those who fought were 18-19 year olds doing national service. They were poorly trained and ill-equipped, fighting much of their time in snowy trenches. This book, for the first time, tells the story of these ordinary soldiers, as well as sailors and airmen, in their own words. It has the full backing of the British Korean Veterans Association, which has over 5,000 members. Most of the veterans are now in their eighties and this will be the last chance for them to tell their tale. So soon after the Second World War, this was a war Britain did not need but she remained steadfast by the side of the Americans, fighting in a hostile environment more than 6,000 miles away in a country nobody could point to on a map. The ‘Special Relationship’ may be a joke to some now – it wasn’t then.

A BRACING ACCOUNT OF A WAR THAT IS EITHER MISUNDERSTOOD, FORGOTTEN, OR WILLFULLY IGNORED For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953. But for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long struggle that still haunts contemporary events. With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Bruce Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its origin as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, reveals untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, exposing as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides. Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.

The combined British Expeditionary Force and American II Corps successfully pierced the Hindenburg Line during the Hundred Days Campaign of World War I, an offensive that hastened the war’s end. Yet despite the importance of this effort, the training and operation of II Corps has received scant attention from historians. Mitchell A. Yockelson delivers a comprehensive study of the first time American and British soldiers fought together as a coalition force—more than twenty years before D-Day. He follows the two divisions that constituted II Corps, the 27th and 30th, from the training camps of South Carolina to the bloody battlefields of Europe. Despite cultural differences, General Pershing’s misgivings, and the contrast between American eagerness and British exhaustion, the untested Yanks benefited from the experience of battle-toughened Tommies. Their combined forces contributed much to the Allied victory. Yockelson plumbs new archival sources, including letters and diaries of American, Australian, and British soldiers to examine how two forces of differing organization and attitude merged command relationships and operations. Emphasizing tactical cooperation and training, he details II Corps’ performance in Flanders during the Ypres-Lys offensive, the assault on the Hindenburg Line, and the decisive battle of the Selle. Featuring thirty-nine evocative photographs and nine maps, this account shows how the British and American military relationship evolved both strategically and politically. A case study of coalition warfare, Borrowed Soldiers adds significantly to our understanding of the Great War.

Despite American success in preventing the conquest of South Korea by communist North Korea, the Korean War of 1950-1953 did not satisfy Americans who expected the kind of total victory they had experienced in WW II. In Korea, the U.S. limited itself to conventional weapons. Even after communist China entered the war, Americans put China off-limits to conventional bombing as well as nuclear bombing. Operating within these limits, the U.S. Air Force helped to repel 2 invasions of South Korea while securing control of the skies so decisively that other U.N. forces could fight without fear of air attack.

The author, a young conscript, fought with The Glorious Glosters at the legendary Imjin River battle. Heavily outnumbered by the Chinese and subjected to 'human-wave' infantry attacks, he and his colleagues suffered the trauma of being overrun and the vast majority of those who were not killed became POWs. This serious reverse of fortunes shocked postwar Britain but the bravery of the Battalion caught the public's imagination. The inhuman treatment suffered at their captors' hands by the survivors, including the author, has possibly never been fully realized. This memoir written from the perspective of a fighting soldier will surely bring home some most unpalatable truths.