Korea and Vietnam War Stories/History

rdncktink

As some know I'm student teaching a World History class in California. I am starting the Korean War tomorrow (4/26) and would like to have more information. All of the stuff I have comes from a few websites since the stupid textbook we use only has like 2 pages of it. I was hoping that some of the men and women on this site could maybe suggest places for me to look or send me some of their own stories to share with my students. What I've found online and been told to look at by other teachers all have the same information. I'm hopint that by adding personal accounts my kids might care more about it. It worked when I did WWII with my Grandmother being one of the non-Jews placed into camps. So if anyone has photos or stories to share with my kids please let me know.
Thanks for the help.
P.S. I know this has nothing to do with hunting but I've found everyone so helpful that I was hoping that one or two might help me out. I also can't find much on the UN aspect of Korea so any help there would be great too.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

UN is a relative term, it didn't mean the same thing back then as it does now. Back then the UN was ment to protect countries that couldn't protect themselves from forign agression, today its well you know. Confused

There is alot of infromation out there about the War if you know where to look. Mainly the best way is to talk to War veterens. I wonder if we have any here. Smile

Small Canadian and Australian bit on the war, not too well known battle invovling the Chinese 118th Division of 9000 men, and the Canadian 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment totaling only 1200 troops. As well as having Artillery support by the 16th Field Regiment of the Royal New Zealand Artillery and the 1st Battalion of the British Middlesex Regiment in the rear for support and a reserve "just in case".

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...of_Kapyong

The Battle lasted less then 2 days from evening April 23rd 1951 to afternoon April 25th 1951. The Canadians were on Hill 667 on the west of the Kapyong River and the Australians were on Hill 504 on the east of the river.

The battle went all night starting in the evening of April 23rd. On April 24th the Australian Commanding officer Major Bernard O'Dowd managed to get into contact with one of the American Generals of the 1st US Marine Division and the General thought that the Major was a enemy agent the Major's responce was simply "I've got news for you, we are still here and we are staying here.â€, the Chinese over ran the positions during the day but the Canadians and Australians didn't retreat and resorted to hand to hand fighting and calling artilery strikes on their own positions to avoid being completly over run. But by moring of April 25th the Chinese had no choise but to pull back as none of their advances managed to take over the positions.

Guess you can call this Battle the Korean War's Vimy Ridge for Canada as a natual sense of patriotism since they managed to do the "impossible" and hold their ground with the Australians on the 2 hills till the Chinese Division realised they had no choise but to pull back as they were not getting the hill even if they stayed there for "as long as it took".

Probably has a special meaning to the Australians as well. Smile

I know your in the States and its probably taught as the American side of the war, even here they generally only focus on the Canadian's side of the wars etc. So I don't know how helpful this will be to you but you might like to use it anyways. Smile

Oh a interesting tid bit many do not know about the War, Russian fighters flying agisnt the UN forces:

www.acepilots.com/russ..._aces.html
aeroweb.lucia.it/rap/R...tAces.html

And American's in Russian custidy after they were taken as POW's:

www.kimsoft.com/korea/mia-russ.htm

Dimitri

rdncktink

thanks for the help. ya i know the UN how was ment to be was back then and now its more of a bunch of people babbling at each other. Since it's a world history class i am trying to get more than just the US side of it. Most things I do search for here online gives me the US first and everything else is way down the list. Thanks for the websites they'll help.
The main one I'm using is koreanwar-educator.org it talks some about the other countries but mainly China on the North side and the rest of the UN is mentioned very little mainly as support.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

Good sites about different aspects of the war:

www.korean-war.com/
www.koreanwar.org/
www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/
www.kimsoft.com/kr-war.htm -> Contains alot of different links on different subjects.

Dimitri

Vince

'Mitri, You are totally correct about Kapyong holding special significance for the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. They celebrate Kapyong every year without fail.

My brother was in the 3rd Battalion for some years and it is something that each and every member of the battalion looked forward to every year.

I think that you have given Tinks heaps of good info mate, so much so that I can't think of anything to add to your list.

Well done.

Cheers, Vince

tracker

Dimitri

Thanks for the information. I know that the "Princess Pats" named their headquarters in Winnipeg Kapyong Barracks after Korea, but I never received such a good account of the battle before.

Tink, I have two friends who served in Korea, they're both older than me by quite a bit but I grew up with their families. I used to hunt with them when I was a kid up north. Neither would talk about their battle experience except one guy told me that the gun he used was like trying to hang on to a runaway jackhammer. They both enlisted because life in the army was better than life on the reservation.

I know a couple of Viet Nam vets as well, again...not much information. Canada was never officially in 'Nam but a lot of Canadians went south and signed up.

rdncktink

Tracker,
thanks for the info. that's the problem that I face, most don't want to talk about it. I have an Uncle who was in Korea and his step-son did the Saigon airlifts and neither want to talk about it.
Thanks for the stuff about Canada coming down here, all we hear are about the draft dodgers going up there.

tracker

My Dad was part of the invasionary force that marched through Holland in WW2, he was a member of the Black Watch a very time honored regiment known for being first in, last out and asking no quarter. He would regale us with humorous stories about when he was posted in England, but never ever talked about what he saw in battle. I know that I only had the honor of knowing the man for the first six years of my life and he walked with a limp. They never got all of the shrapnel out of his leg, and I'm certain that the horrors that he faced in battle affected him deeply. I am certain that these other men feel the same way and I can only respect that. I think that making students aware of that attitude is, in and of itself, a worthwhile history lesson.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

Canada's invovlement in Vietnam:

archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-...r/vietnam/

I know a Canadian who went and faught in Vietnam. Smile

Consider this that there were 30,000 to 40,000 Americans who went and dogded the draft came to Canada, and about the same amount of Canadian's went south to fight in the War as voleenteer's that had to lie to be allowed to join up because since 1937 there has been the Foreign Enlistment Act in Canada which didn't allow Canadians to join the military of another country and fight in a war agisn't a country that Canada didn't declare war agisnt meaning just signing up to fight in Vietnam is a criminal offense however I do not belive that anyone was ever charged for it. Laughing

tracker,

Sorry to hear you lost your father at a young age. I'm sure your father would be really proud of you based on how you are here on the forum if he was around today. Smile

Dimitri

tracker

Thanks Dimitri, that was very kind. The man certainly had an attitude that I've attempted to emulate.

rdncktink

I agree that just letting the kids know why these people don't want to talk about it is a great way to honor them. I've been trying to find a movie to show them but can't find anything that isn't rated R and since I don't have tenure I can't show them. I did find a 5 disk set about it but really wanted a movie not the war footage since I showed a lot during WWII.

I think the other thing is to show them the human side of all the people involved so I brought in some of the stuff I bought when I was teaching in South Korea.

My dad tells about his time state side during Vietnam but won't really talk about his friends that went over expect for one that got killed. Some of the stories I can hear over and over and still have the same reaction of how amazing it is that my dad was the one who would work on the Choppers before they got sent over.

The school doesn't have the money or I'd take my kids to the wall/memorial at the state Capitol.

Thanks again for the help.

tracker

"We Were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson and Sam Elliott R rated? I'd recommend it

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

We were soldiers is one of the few War movies without a political slant so I'd recommend it but its rated R ... Perhaps telling the students its R and if anyone objected to leave the room and then asking another teacher to press the play button ?? Laughing

Dimitri

rdncktink

Tried the theory of permission slips or having my master teacher show Shindler's List and that got vetoed so I'm stuff with looking for non-R movies. My list so far was "Good Morning Vietnam", "We Were Soldiers", "Air America", "The Deer Hunter", "Heaven and Earth", "Tigerland", "Platoon", "Full Metal Jacket", and "The Green Beret" Well I already made them sit through one John Wayne movie so "The Green Beret" is out even though it's only G. The rest are R. Mad

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

rdncktink,

Eventhough they have seen one John Wayne movie I cannot belive someone can watch too many of his movies! Show it anyways Wink

Dimitri