Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part IV)
Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part IV)
"The only way to change the future is to change the present." - Seo Ju-hyun (Seohyun), south korean actress and singer.
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Dubrovnik, United Nations Transitional Authority in Dalmatia. ~ July 11th, 2018."The only way to change the future is to change the present." - Seo Ju-hyun (Seohyun), south korean actress and singer.
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"So they are hiding in that place, I thought they had left it when we arrived years ago. Seems the italians weren't capable of ejecting them, well, those armed thugs will pay." ~ Sun-ja thought after looking for some minutes through her snipe rifle's scope.
It took her a long time to find the ones responsible for her sister's death, but finally she had them where she wanted them.
The night covered every street with darkness, some parts of the city didn't have power and those were usually the places where the gangs always hide. The peacekeeping force hadn't act against them, there were some orders against doing so and warning about engaging in combat against the gangs if they didn't attack first.
Of course, even if they did some of the commanders preferred avoiding casualties, after all, losing soldiers at a remote place wasn't exactly popular back home.
"I bet if they thought the same about my sister's death, we may be soldiers but our lives aren't worth more than the civilian ones." ~ as she finished thinking that, she started to get ready to climb down from the church's roof.
As her plan was basically a rogue operation, she couldn't count with support from the british, canadian or korean troops. That was the reason she went with the croatian paramilitaries, there were several resistance groups and cells left from the chaotic conflicts Yugoslavia and Italy went through.
Some of them were still active, they were armed and ready to preserve peace and safety in case the peacekeeper troops got deployed to another place.
"Sun-ja, of all those foreign soldiers, koreans have been the best. I'll always be grateful for you, your sister did so much for people here. Specially the orphans, she didn't deserve that ending and I'm helping you to finish this deed." ~ that was what Katarina said when Sun-ja approached her with the plan, weeks ago.
When she got down and back into the church, she stood astonished by the numerous group Katarina had assembled for the raid against the Sponza Palace, the serbian paramilitaries hideout.
"Don't worry Sun-ja, no one will betray you, we are all here for the same reason; Ji-won deserves revenge and we will get it for her." ~ Katarina said and all the militias in there agreed.
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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
By September 9th, 1950, the whole territory of the Republic of Korea was freed. There were several debates going on about the course of action to take, however, MacArthur's popularity along the steam the offensive got since the second battle of Busan ended made the only choice appear on the table: North Korea had to dissappear and the high echelons of the army and the government agreed on that.Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
President Truman was afraid, after all, the war could escalate and get China or the Soviet Union involved turning itself into a Third World War just five years after the second finished.
But that wasn't the only concearn for Truman, after all, there were reports informing MacArthur's stance regarding the war. He advocated continuing it beyond the Yalu river in order to destroy the supply depots present at the People's Republic of China, basically; MacArthur wanted to recover China from the communist claws that stole it from Chiang.
But that wasn't a priority yet, meanwhile, Defense Secretary Marshall sent a message for MacArthur; he was basically receiving a blank cheque to continue the war beyond the 38th Parallel; however, he avoided mentioning China, no one in the government wanted to see a war against China as it could involve the Soviet Union.
After receiving the news and the authorization from the United States government, MacArthur rallied the UN, american and south korean forces to go beyond the 38th Parallel. They quickly advanced with the USAF's support, the demoralized, disorganized and broken KPA had no way to answer.
The South Korean offensive was an impressive success, nonetheless, not everything was fine in the government. As soon as Syngman Rhee got back to Seoul he started massive campaigns against his political enemies, against people suspicious of being communist supporters; the purges begun and several crimes started to take place all over the country with several foreign generals trying to protect the population from Rhee's paranoia.
At the same time, the Coalition manage to successfully cross the 38th Parallel, however, several thousands of KPA soldiers were quickly marching towards Pyongyang, they were decided to win at their capital. The advance northwards was sucessful but it also created questions in the high echelons of the army, some of them were about a possible intervention by China, by the Soviet Union or the possibility of crossing the Yalu to destroy the depots at Manchuria.
Situation in the Peninsula after September 18th, 1950. The Great Coalition troops got near to Pyongyang over 200,000 soldiers were ready to defend the city, however, only the two marine divisions and some ROK Army regiments were and Sariwon. Nonetheless, MacArthur gave the order to advance with USAF support.
Thie High Command started to plan the next route the offensive would take, eventually taking the improvised defenses built at Hamhung was seen as a logical step. Without the improvised fortress there was a chance to cut the KPA from one side of the peninsula to the other, after that advancing towards Gangye would be easier; the anti-air installations were strong and the USAF couldn't risk launching a raid against those positions, that was the reason behind Hamhung's importance.
The Battle of Hamhung started on September 21st, 1950. There were few defenders at the KPA side, however, the terrain and their improvised defenses were able to slow down the Coalition's advance.
Over thirty KPA divisions, an estimated number of 280,000 soldiers, fought against 35,000 US-ROK soldiers, most of those were american marines as the majority of the ROK Army was fighting at Hamhung or was deployed at Wonsan, getting ready to advance towards Kanggye.
Thousands of militias were formed to fight against the Coalition at Pyongyang, however, the heavy bombing by USAF and the weakened state fo the KPA meant that the defense was doomed to failure.
After barely a day of fighting and sustaining only 600 casualties by the Coalition and 5,100 by the KPA, they eventually surrendered en masse.
The militias dispersed, some turned into guerrillas while others tried to avoid the blood spilling. It was such a surprise, eventually, the North Korean government was able to flee towards Sinuiju. MacArthur and other generals were considering the idea of ordering a huge bombing raid against the North's left infrastructure, however, MacArthur chose to preserve it as he saw the victory was close.
But the looming threat of chinese intervention was still in the mind of everyone, nonetheless, Pyongyang finally fell in September 23th, 1950. The city was taken and soon troops were sent towards Sinuiju and Kanggye, the final phase of the war was beginning.
Everyone thought that the fall of Pyongyang would cause a chinese intervention, however, it never materialized; some studies say the reason behind it was the chaos of Mao's Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries.
However, several documents and archives were lost during the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath and it's quite impossible to state facts about the lack of an intervention by China.
It was a surprise but many were already speculating that getting near the Yalu river would cause a chinese intervention on the war, tensions were quite high during those days.
General Emmett O'Donnell requested permission to burn several cities plagued by guerrillas and other defensible positions that the KPA could use to resist the Coalition's advance but MacArthur was against it as he thought the war was close to getting finished.
However, MacArthur stated that he would basically ignore if O'Donnell's raids against military objectives caused collateral damage, after insisting he wasn't ready to begin a bombing campaign similar to the one that brought Japan to its knees.
When the Coalition took Hamhung at September 28th MacArthur ordered the USAF to stop the bombing raids that could affect infrastructure or economic objectives, considering that the war was already won and that chinese involvement was not going to materialize any time soon.
Situation in the Korean Peninsula by September 28th, the fall of Hamhung and Pyongyang were decisive in the conflict; marking the true last phase of the war.
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Casualties suffered during the advance towards Hamhung, even with their improvised defences and favoured terrain the defenders weren't able to crush the offensive or cause more casualties to the attacking forces.
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Took me a long time to write it haha, but here it is.
I hope you enjoy it and in these days I'll post the last update of this chapter, the true end of the Korean War.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:: The first part of this update may be sensible to some, if that's the case tell me and I will cut out Im Sun-ja's storyline and retake another one of the characters.
Have a nice day/evening/night. ^^
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