The Korean War Week 002 - The Fall of Seoul - July 2, 1950

The North Korean forces are advancing all over, and this week they take Seoul, the South's capital city, after just a few days of the war. There is another tragedy for the South when the Han River Bridge is blown while thousands of people are crossing it, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. The World responds to the invasion- condemning it everywhere, and the Americans decide to send in ground forces to help the South.
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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Jake McCluskey
Written by: Indy Neidell
Research by: Indy Neidell
Map animations by: Daniel Weiss
Map research by: Tom Aldis
Editing and color grading by: Simon J. James
Artwork by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Simon J. James & Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by: Mikołaj Uchman
Archive footage: Screenocean/Reuters - www.screenocea...
Gene Putnam
Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
At the Abyss - Golden Anchor
Defend and Resist - Dream Cave
Impact Point - Hampus Naeselius
Iron Warrior - Reynard Seidel
Metamorpheus - Hampus Naeselius
Rise From the Ruins - Edgar Hopp
We Are Heroes - Bonnie Grace
Additional sound effects provided by Zapsplat.com
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

A huge thank you to the TimeGhost Army for helping make this new series possible! Not a member yet? Now’s the perfect time to join! Be part of something big and help us ensure the "Forgotten War" is forgotten no longer: www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory

[@SilverKid2003]

So will this be every tusday

[@Marinealver]

How can a power that won WW2 have such difficulty against the army of a smaller country? The Answer is simple The United States no longer had the same army that won WW2.

[@007Davis]

Tip tip series. Sadly during the live broadcast I didn't note down the email address to send photos and info regarding the Korean war which might be of interest. May I kindly ask what the email address is again.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

@@007Davis [e-mail] is the email you are looking for!

[@robertkalinic335]

Did i sleep through some part or was the whole episode filled with quotes from american diplomats? North Koreans just captured Seoul in few days and there is no place for their perspective?

[@foreigner8710]

The use of the telephone clearly shows that things are getting ever more serious.

[@jonbaxter2254]

So much has changed in only 5 years.

[@MrShobar]

The Ericofon.

[@TheeBritishGuy]

@jonbaxter2254 ikr! Crzy how fast technology moved!

[@brucechynoweth]

The Cobra phone began production in 1954....4 years from "now" just a little glitch in the timeline...

[@57WillysCJ]

If you were on the Bell telephone system you couldn't use the US made verson of the Ericofone. That meant a majority of the US. Only small independent companies could use them.

[@Spiderfisch]

Im sure this is the only time Seoul gets captured this war

[@jtgd]

(It wasn’t)

[@migueldeluis5507]

@@jtgd insider joke

[@smithjimmypantz3228]

Of course…surely only this once 🤭

[@georgesconyers9769]

​@@jtgddude! Spoilers.

[@schwunkie]

​@@jtgdUGH. Spoiled next season...

[@Nn-3]

Well this escalated quickly

[@huntclanhunt9697]

Yup

[@maxkennedy8075]

Soul is right near the border, its literally within rocket artillery range of NK territory

[@Bandog23]

It did

[@hp22h78]

Barely a week in

[@Johnny-Thunder]

It got out of hand fast

[@andrewlampart]

At this rate, the war will be over by Christmas

[@aidangarciasadler5607]

I’ve heard that before

[@feindkontakt5956]

oh man, I dont wanna hear that bs again!

[@nefasto11a]

Just how many hopes and dreams must be crushed before this lesson is finally learned I wonder?

[@randomperson6988]

Yeah, the ROK stands no chance

[@ミリまた]

Third time's the charm.

[@adelkheir]

The USSR boycotting the security council is one big brain moment of the war.

[@korbell1089]

"Let's see them do anything without us!" ~Stalin, possibly

[@jameygroves8561]

Yeah, that cost them politically.

[@jonathanwilliams1065]

And it shows why the U.S. should never leave unless the UN is totally dissolved

[@captainlamp2.076]

Why did they do that? It seems like all that did was hurt them politically.

[@AdmiralScheer28]

@@captainlamp2.076 There was a legal debate at the time about whether the Security Council could make non-procedural decisions in case one or more of the permanent members (Veto powers) were absent. The view of the USSR was they couldn't, so being absent, in their view, was basically a permanent veto on anything, effectively crippling the UN. Too bad for them, everybody else decided they could vote, so the resolutions passed until the soviet ambassador returned in August 1950

[@stephenfabina726]

My Grandfather was in the 24ID in 1950. Just a few months from getting his points to go home. He was given a choice, go to San Francisco for 6 months and work a supply depot, or 1 month in Korea. He and three others chose San Francisco. They are all that is left of his company after *spoiler alert* the Chinese invasion wiped out the division.

[@yankeepapa304]

My father was a WWII Army mustang officer. In June of 1950 I was a month short of my first birthday. Our family had orders to transfer from Fort Sill Oklahoma to Japan. We stopped in Idaho to visit my father's family in Shoshone. Back on the road, we got as far as Boise when the North came boiling over the border. My father telegraphed next stage in San Francisco. They gave him 48 hours to dump his wife and two children in Boise and get on a train to Frisco. From there they flew him to Japan, and he'd later land with the Army's 7th Division in Korea, and later be the first liaison officer to the Ethiopian UN contingent in Korea. YP

[@jonny-b4954]

​@@yankeepapa304that must have been interesting. Liasoning with Ethiopians in Korea.

[@dclark142002]

My grandfather was a marine parachute forward air controller. He took a job doing air traffic control for Andrews Air Force Base with one other member from his squad. The rest of his squad went to Korea and did not come back.

[@1QU1CK1]

A College Professor of mine was working in Army Intelligence when Korea brewed up. He found himself on a plane bound for the theater with compatriots from the intelligence community. They hashed out how they would go about their jobs, excited at doing it "for real." Upon their arrival they were all handed shovels and made to dig latrines! So much for Military Intelligence!

[@DavidMcdonald-df8tb]

Frank Burns must have been their CO.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

It's fictional but the William Wharton novel "A Midnight Clear" has at its centre a US Army intelligence and reconnaissance platoon who were put together, eccentrically, from the regiment's highest scorers on the AGCT, the Army's intelligence test. They are attached to a headquarters company but one of their tasks is to dig and maintain the company latrine.

[@PogingNavy94]

Oh that's the military for you. Trains you for war, but really just lets you sweep the floor for now.

[@chiao_0540]

Of this reason, Seoul after this war is the most fortified city in its history…. Surround around Seoul’s surrounding sectors with more city sector plans! More Apartment blocks! Tank traps and BARs! Whole bunch of A.A weapon’s on the skyscrapers An army cor. Solely dedicated to defend Seoul and Gyeongi province. Seriously, we had made a fort facility to defend Capital and it’s surrounding territory back then… Of course we deconstructed it after we presumed our military superiority…. Anyway, this event was our countries most PTSD still today. 😢

[@MrShobar]

The national capital should have moved from Seoul to a location further south after the outbreak of war in 1950. It's within artillery range of the North.

[@chiao_0540]

@@MrShobar well… trying to do that exact thing right now… But remember, our constitution does not have a statement to recognise other’s existents. And ‘Technically’ the war is not over. There was no ‘peace’ treaty, it was Armistices. So… technically (and only in the technical sense) there’s no reason for us to move the capital. Because in our constitution, we are the only country functioning and administrating in this peninsula. So in that sense, moving the capital still means, we are accepting the ‘contrical’ existent of the north, and stepping aside of working on unifying the peninsula that is stated in our constitution. However, the reality is rather different. And there’s more and more opinions of non unification(In my country of course. Can’t survey the north with this nationality lmao). And mixed with opinion’s like your’s We are moving our ‘Administrative’ or rather saying the ‘Gervernmental’ part’s of our country. (Well with the Assembly…. but we have a rich history of having powerful Administrative department in Junta era… so…) of these reasons, this is what can say of your opinion. Technically we can’t but we are doing it very subtly and slowly. It’s more like a London to England I guess. One of our word of saying a capital was (and still) literally ‘Seoul’. So changing it radically would provoke a massive repulsion among the public.

[@jc-mendoza]

From what I've heard, the ROKAF stores and produces more artillery shells (currently 3 million) than Europe. Nothing is too much if you border Kim Jong Un.

[@Heylanda-fb9xb]

I thought Belgrade was the most fortified city in modern history.

[@chiao_0540]

@@Heylanda-fb9xb not comparing to other cities. That’s definitely debatable :). I’m saying, Seoul’s It’s history.

[@holyelliw]

Such a delectable luxury to get two concurring main series, especially as events in WW2 shift towards Korea.

[@haeuptlingaberja4927]

Yeah, I dig it too, but I'm actually most curious about how our Realtime friends will deal with Vietnam, the ultimate betrayal of principles of the Atlantic Charter, which formed the nucleus of "We Why Fight" in WWII and also the UN and the framework of the postwar world. 60 years later, this is still the most controversial conflict in all of American history and the seed of much of the current global discontent.

[@MysticEagle52]

​@@haeuptlingaberja4927will they even do it though? Since its so long

[@tigertank06]

@@MysticEagle52Probs not since it’s not as impactful internationally compared to the Korean War. Vietnam only really effected the U.S and didn’t really upset the apple cart like Korea did. That being said, if they do cover Vietnam they should probably start when America gets involved officially in 1964 with a few dedicated vids to cover the background.

[@haeuptlingaberja4927]

@@tigertank06 I would argue that the Vietnam war was even more impactful (and relevant today) because its roots were a clear betrayal of those principles of the Atlantic Charter I mentioned. FDR and a very reluctant Churchill promised a postwar world free from empire and corporate exploitation, where every country had the absolute right of self-determination and the freedom to choose whatever form of government it wished. And yet, to our great shame and lasting detriment, the fallout from the Bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki hadn't even settled before the Americans so shamelessly betrayed those very specific promises to our allies against the Imperial Japanese in East Asia. By 1946, the American effort to reinstate the colonial rule of Great Britain, France and the Netherlands in the area was already in full swing. This was a very, very pivotal and ominous development. It's one thing to claim to support democracy, but actions always speak louder than words.

[@chewchewtrain]

@@haeuptlingaberja4927Because those principles were never genuine. It was always about the acquisition of capital for American businesses. That’s what it’s all been about always.

[@XeanIV]

Episode Two: The Fall of Seoul This was The Korean War. Thank you for watching Next week: The Vietnam War

[@rook1196]

Imagine if you were born on the 1st day of the korean war, you'd be 1 week old when it ended

[@Hateful_Psycho]

“The Americans lost to farmers that speak tunnel and foliage” “Next up the Golf war”

[@maxrobe]

@@Hateful_Psycho First Gulf War? Second Gulf War? or the Third Gulf War? (ps First was the Iraq/Iranian war of the very late 70's/early 80's - as reported on by the news outlets at the time).

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Made me chuckle, thanks! - Jake

[@davidw.2791]

Thing is even if you ask the super gunho DPRKoreans they will still not say just cuz they took over Seoul then they won.

[@nickmacarius3012]

"It appears that the DPRK team is going with the 'Hail Mary' play to capture Seoul." "That's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them."

[@kemarisite]

Considering how close Seoul is to the border, it's more of a short pass than a Hail Mary.

[@jonbaxter2254]

Kinda did for a while.

[@troystaunton254]

@@kemarisiteI’d call it a deep slant.

[@billday7599]

It worked out well for the KPA, not once but twice.

[@redbeard5939]

Impressive considering that Roger Staubach won't coin that phrase for another 15 years

[@t5ruxlee210]

It is important to underline that the new North Korean army contained ethnic Korean ex vets of the WW2 USSR red army and they had served in all its aspects. The South Korean army contaiined ethnic Korean ex vets of the Imperial Japanese Army and IJN who had mostly served as little more than conscripted labor construction workers everywhere in the Empire of Japan.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

The Americans claimed that the North Korean border troops were dominated by Koreans from the Soviet Union, and the USSR did have a Korean minority in the Soviet Far East. A rather large number of Koreans had fought in China for the PLA and had contributed to its victory in the Civil War, and several KPA divisions were dominated by these veterans. Some of the ROK Army had fought for Japan in WW2, although the Japanese tendency to use Koreans as labourers or POW guards did not do much for their military effectiveness.

[@ДенисЯсников-ы8я]

I don't think that it is true. Soviet Koreans were deported from the Far East to the Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in 1937. As a consequence, their civil rites were limited and they were not meant to be conscripted. During the war they served in the "Trudarmiya" (Labor army), serving as constructor workers or other labourers for the military production and didn't had any combat experience. Their role didn't differ much from the role of Koreans in the Japanese army. There were exceptions like Alexandr Min, the only ethnical Korean awarded with a Hero of the Soviet Union, but very few. However, there was also 88th independent rifle brigade at the Far East front made up mostly from Chinese and Koreans who fought against Japanese in Manchuria in the 1930-ies, but had to flee to USSR. Kim Il Sung was a Korean batallion commander in it. It was used for reconnaissance missions at the border and in 1945 they were sent to northern part of the Korea, but not the Soviet Koreans. So, we can't say that there were many Korean WW2 vets in the USSR at all and they were never sent to North Korea.

[@Heylanda-fb9xb]

Ethnic Korean in Russia are also treated like cannon fodder or disposable workers too. The real reason behind KPA's strength are Sino-Japanese/Chinese Civil War veteran who fought since 1930s all the way until the Korean War. Both the rank-and-file and high-ranking officers.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@ДенисЯсников-ы8я Well, the Americans made the claim about Soviet influence, and like the Americans in the South, the Soviets had military advisers in the North and suddenly found themselves needing people capable of interpreting, liaison duties etc. And Soviet Koreans were arguably ready-made for this role. American analyses credited Ho Ka-i and other Soviet Koreans with considerable background influence in the North. However, this may have been more a case of the USA needing to see Moscow as more definitive of the North's actions than it actually was. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Ka-i

[@ДенисЯсников-ы8я]

@@stevekaczynski3793 Yes, of course there was big Soviet influence and military advisers were sent as well as some Korean communists. AFAIK, in the early days of DPRK there was kind of 3 communist fractions confronting for power: 1) Those who lived in Korea under Japanese rule. 2) Those who returned from China after fighting against the Japanese there. 3) Those who came or returned from the USSR. However, there was no program for mass relocation of Soviet Koreans to North Korea encouraged and they were not in significant numbers in the KPA. In the USSR border guards were part of the NKVD/KGB structure and NK's Social Security Forces seem to include border troops while being part of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It may happen that Soviet influence in it was bigger than in the army.

[@miracleyang3048]

The Great War channel: Months of nothing, World War Two: Big offensive will start in few weeks, Korean War:

[@finn0h]

This is modern war

[@Hateful_Psycho]

LEEEEEROOOOYYYY-JJJEEEEEENKINSSSS!!!

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Things escalated quickly.

[@adrianjorgensen3750]

Everyone blaming everyone else for blowing up the bridges. Yep, that’s what happens when someone screws up.

[@Fatherland1871]

Hello everyone. I want to say, i have been here since 1916(2016), all through WW2 and now korea. I will be leaving for basic training for active duty in the army on the 5th of August. I am excited and sad to not ve able to watch these videos as they come out. Keep up the great work indy

[@wizardmoto]

Do some cool shit in Ukraine and you'll be mentioned by Indy in "The Ukraine War" in 2056😎😎 Jokes aside: big respect for enlisting when shits going sideways, stay safe🫡

[@Fatherland1871]

@@wizardmoto lmaooo🤣🤣. I will try my darndest to get there lol

[@eltonjohnson1724]

Go Airborne! I did. It sucks being a leg!!!!!

[@Fatherland1871]

@@eltonjohnson1724 how do I change?

[@eltonjohnson1724]

@@Fatherland1871 Talk to your recruiter and tell him/her that you want the airborne option. Get EVERYTHING in writing! Do NOT trust a recruiter!!!! They are under a LOT of pressure because they have quotas to meet and fewer people are joining up nowadays. Thus, they only want your signature. Going airborne also means more money. But they will never tell you that. Good luck.

[@josephspencer6058]

My wife was 11months old when the war started and fled Seoul on her mother and older sister back.

[@Steinkonig-yz6xc]

It's a miracle she survived, hopefully you're both doing well

[@beaubenoit.]

Your mother in law is awesome

[@PurpleCat9794]

Similar situation with my father. He was 5 years old and lived in Kongju. He couldn't keep up with the pace of the rest of his family and cried the whole day while they were fleeing south, so my grandmother found rice wine from a deserted house and gave him the drink until he passed out. Then his family carried him on their backs, including his 10 year old brother.

[@alexandresotorodriguez4265]

It would be nice if you could put the unit/division numbers on the map as you do in WW2, makes following the map quite easier.

[@chrisk1208]

I started with the Great War, which lacked decent maps, and unit symbols, let alone animated units symbols for a long time. Now there is a detailed map and animated unit symbols already in the first two episodes. It will improve as time passes. In a few weeks WWII will be over, I bet this series will become more detailed by then.

[@lembitmoislane.]

Yes, I don't get why didn't they start with it because they have the ability already, it would make the team look more professional, make the maps easier to understand, and when they have to cover smaller units, their current flag-symbols will just further confuse things. Additionally it's going to mean that Indy's going to have to eventually remake the earlier videos in order to have detailed map symbols.

[@lembitmoislane.]

@@chrisk1208 Thing is that unlike then, they now have a decade of unit symbol experience and right now they have the resources from the WW2 channel to make the unit symbols for this war. For each episode without the unit symbols, they are creating future problems where they will have to work on the same maps twice, wasting time that they could use for other production work or to relax.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

We plan to have them ready by next episode and will update these two accordingly.

[@chrisk1208]

@@lembitmoislane. I don't mind them releasing the first episode(s) again including unit numbers. Feels like an extra present.

[@horusfalcon]

This series is shaping up to be first-class, man! Well done!

[@polygonvvitch]

Every time I hear KMAG in this series already I think so myself "Boy, that Kevin Magnussen had an interesting career before becoming a Formula 1 driver, huh."

[@SilverRevolt7699]

He's paying for his war crimes by driving for Haas

[@Lttlemoi]

I imagine it as the K-pop version of Time Magazine.

[@monarols4806]

Glad I’m not the only tragic here

[@21bugger]

Yeh, it's so weird hearing this - everytime he mention KMag, that's who I think off

[@lucaswatson1913]

Where he learnt to drive so defensively

[@theshivelyshow5784]

I just started watching timeghost and I’ve been binging the World War I and two series. I cannot believe I have to wait a week for this. How did you guys do it?

[@horusfalcon]

With support from people just like me and you. If you haven't already, please consider joining the Time Ghost Army.

[@benroberts2222]

Now you know what I assume it was like to live through these events

[@tando6266]

Don't think of it as a wait, think of it as the world moving forward, and you are apart of it.

[@jonny-b4954]

It's best not to binge things. Binging is crazy unhealthy, physically and mentally. Plus, it adds something knowing what you're watching happened in the previous week.

[@BleedingUranium]

Waiting a week is the best part really. Taking it all in quickly is neat (I did this when joining WWI about halfway through), but actually seeing things unfold in real time, in a way that matches your own experience of time passing, gives a perspective on things that's almost impossible to otherwise replicate.

[@jonthrelkeld2910]

Indy. The Korean must not remain America's "forgotten war." I am so glad to see that you have undertaken to remedy this injustice.

[@johnhall3824]

I am so pumped up for this series. My grandfather was in the 25th infantry division and would never talk about the war. All he would say is “That was coldest I have ever been.” Tell me what happened, Indy!

[@bananaguy7335]

South Korean bros,it’s so over…

[@surfingpenguin2279]

MacArthur's mavericks: We are so back.

[@crosseightyeight]

After the vast scale of WWII, it's interesting seeing battles where tanks are measured by the dozen instead of the hundreds.

[@Heylanda-fb9xb]

It's also weird to hear "9 T-34s" instead of "500 T-34s of the Soviet Armor Regiment". This is not the vast battle of the eastern front. It's just a regional war.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@Heylanda-fb9xb The KPA only had about 120 T-34s at the outset, plus an uncertain number of SU-76 self-propelled guns.

[@kk7sm]

My father in law was born in Seoul the week prior to the start of hostilities. His parents fled on foot with him and his young siblings south in the great mass of refugees. My mother in law's parents were evacuated by ship from Incheon, but she won't be born for a couple of years yet, in 1952 in a refugee camp near Busan.

[@jackbharucha1475]

Glad they made it out.

[@kk7sm]

@@jackbharucha1475me too! Or I would never have met my lovely wife or daughter!

[@hutlazzz]

WOW I didnt know south korean blow their bridge with their OWN people fully packed on it, this is really disturbing, what a mess

[@stevekaczynski3793]

Due to chaos, and probably a certain contempt for human life.

[@littlekong7685]

@@stevekaczynski3793 And possibly as part of NK spy operations. It was known the army, government were full of NK sympathizers, people on the Soviet payroll, and NK saboteurs. Might have been an NK/Soviet civilian minister who followed Soviet orders to keep the SK army trapped and ordered engineers to do it. Or it might have been panicked, untrained, uncommanded soldiers who were told a tank/NK operatives were already ON the bridge when it was blown. (Rumours were blowing around that NK soldiers were already south of the river by then).

[@robertkalinic335]

People make fun of Kim but the dictators from SK somehow always end up looking like Robocop corporate villains when i hear about them. I am not surprised they blew up their own people.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@robertkalinic335 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Corps_incident Pretty much part of the pattern...

[@robertkalinic335]

@@stevekaczynski3793 Jeeeez holy fk, i am fully sold on NK being good guys back then.

[@twoheart7813]

My dad was fresh out of the Marines, newly married & had a good job when he got called back in not long after this war started. He stayed stateside filling jobs of Marines that were sent overseas. My mom moved with him & stayed outside of the base where she got a job to help make ends meet. I remember her saying she basically lived off a hamburger a day & lots of coffee.

[@davidw.2791]

Beats actually going to the front though?

[@nickjohnson6368]

@@davidw.2791def beats the Frozen Chosin!

[@FoxWolfWorld]

5:40 that Officer sure ain’t skipping any rations

[@Heylanda-fb9xb]

"Tell me how your army is corrupted without telling me directly that it is corrupted."

[@AdolphusEudora]

I think that's the ROKA Chief of Staff...

[@williampockets]

It is crazy how sloppy he looked.

[@johnclarencemercado4218]

ROK = Republic of K-Ration

[@residentgeardo]

Thought to myself "This guy looks a bit like Kim Jong Un!"

[@happynowfarms]

I served in 5/21 Infantry 7th Infantry Division at Ft. Ord California in 1990. "No more Task Force Smiths" was pushed on the Battalion for training to higher standards and never repeating what happened in tge early stages of the war. My back still hurts from all the training 34 years later.

[@jamesorth6460]

my father David Orth volunteered for the Army in 1949 and was assigned to the Second Division as a financial Clerk

[@dragosstanciu9866]

It is almost a miracle that the Republic of China based on Taiwan was still recognized as the legitimate government of China. Such a decision had huge effects on this war.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

Communist states tended to see this as evidence of the UN being dominated by the USA and its allies. On the other hand, the FBI was going after UN employees who were Americans over alleged Communist links.

[@XOFInfantryman]

Actually it kind of makes sense PRC was not the todays powerhouse, despite large territory it was pretty poor, sorta dependant on Soviets and didn't had much in terms of power projection Now ROC, despite being limited to Tawain, had all of the chinese navy under its control as it sides with the nationalists during civil war, Army & Air Force that's worn out for now but still existing and managed to secure & move chinese gold reserves, denying the mainland communist funds that they would much need

[@flargus7919]

​@@XOFInfantryman the Chinese Civil War had also recently concluded, and the international community was still kinda iffy about the new guys running the show in Beijing. The east/west split was hardening, with NATO newly-formed and outside of the Eastern Bloc, nobody was going to rush to recognize Mao's government (certainly not while they're joined at the hip with Stalin's USSR). Either way, it did really work out in South Korea's favour that the KMT were still recognized as China's rightful government.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@flargus7919 SPOILER In December 1950 a representative of the People's Republic will be allowed to address the UN - at that point lots of Chinese are in Korea and heading south and "the next man coming down this road will be Joseph Stalin" (US military policeman warning UN stragglers to hurry up).

[@lembitmoislane.]

@@flargus7919 The United States completely screwed themselves over strategically by not taking the Chinese Civil War seriously until it was over. While China was very underdeveloped, it was well understood even during WW2 that they were a major ally with a lot of manpower. Instead of letting the letting the nationalists fall, the United States should had made the strategic decision to send in their small army when it was clear that the communists were winning. While the american army units were greatly flawed as shown in the video, the American air power along with ground forces could had maintained a foothold in China, allow for the ROCAF and US army to reorganised and then with an strengthened US-Chinese army restored republican control over the country. Their failure to do so enabled the Korean war to be what it is, for communism to rise in Vietnam and it's region, kept the USSR distanced away from Western forces, and ultimately enabled the rise of a strong superpower that the United States has now had to deal with for generations.

[@dankaiser1648]

my grandfather was 19 when the war broke out. Lukily, after getting drafted he spent the war stationed in germany and would make it home to meet and marry my grandmother and live until 2005

[@TheHeavenlyGoddess]

So glad I can actually catch your work on a release date. You hooked me with WWI, I almost caught up in WWII, now finally can post saying I love your series and work! Thank you for the depth and detail.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Hopefully see you at some premieres!

[@TheManelich]

indy neidell didn't aged at all since 1945.

[@Hewhosurprisinglyis]

What could his secret be?

[@littlekong7685]

@@Hewhosurprisinglyis We know the secret: He uses TimeGhost!

[@Hewhosurprisinglyis]

@@littlekong7685 I should have known.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

The secret is probably buried somewhere in those history books! Or maybe time travel? Who knows!

[@elbeto191291]

Indy Neidell didn't age at all since 1914 even

[@theflyingdutchie2585]

Another amazing series from Timeghost!

[@MisterOcclusion]

Every time you say Uijonbu I think of those plucky surgeons of the 4077th

[@nmonster]

Same!

[@airwolfDu74]

You should indicate unit designation/number on the map, it can get quite confusing.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

We are working on it, we will update the episodes when we have the graphics finalised and they will appear in future episodes! We plan to have it ready by the next episode.

[@airwolfDu74]

@@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell Nice, keep up the good work, you’re one of the best if not the best documentary channel out there.

[@Doc_Tar]

The suffering of the Korean people must have been unimaginable.

[@LaCoalicion.]

THOSE ARE PHONES????? I thought they where lamps!!!!

[@tbd-1]

Need to highlight the 38th Parallel on that map in something bold so we can clearly see the war progress. Good stuff-but I expected nothing less from you guys 👍 Looking forward to more.

[@jamesmayes4351]

Cant wait to watch the full series. My grandfather was with the 7th ID in a 105mm artillery unit during the battle for Porkchop Hill.

[@norharafie5739]

I guess you can say the Republic of Korea is now 'Seouless'

[@CadePlaysGames]

Well, that was a quick war! What's your next project, Indy??

[@Southsideindy]

Haha. Good comment.

[@francisman60]

Nam perhaps

[@sopwithsnoopy8779]

Kim IL-Sung: "This will be over by Christmas!"

[@stevekaczynski3793]

Not a holiday favoured by Asian Communists... Or even much noticed...

[@robbinsteel]

Having been in many Pacific invasions as a Navy Corpsman, my Father was not happy about being called up for Korea. He got a deferment as the working father of a child. He was very affected by his combat experiences and told me he would cut off my trigger finger if I tried to join the Marines in 1970. I managed to hide being drafted from my parents.

[@matthiasschell9753]

It would be really cool to see a contrast of WW2 and the Korean war, like what were the differences in tactics, technology, doctrine, etc.

[@yankeepapa304]

The biggest difference was that WWII was a "Holy War" and Korea was a "war of the far frontier" such as the Romans used to fight. The latter far harder for (actual) republics to fight...especially using conscripts...who do vastly better in the first type of war. See T.R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War" for the best view of all this... YP

[@barnaclebob1182]

Will War Against Humanity series continue alongside Korea?

[@wizardmoto]

Surely not, the Koreans and Chinese have never committed atrocities against humanity!!

[@not2hot99]

​@@wizardmotothe south koreans also didnt start strong with that bridge incident

[@wizardmoto]

@not2hot99 I said Koreans and meant Koreans. Your bias made you think only the North would be guilty of warcrimes, but anyone who's read more than like.... two paragraphs about the Korean Conflict knows that SK were a desperate and ruthless enemy.

[@not2hot99]

@@wizardmoto yep im blind lmao

[@jonathanwilliams1065]

The railway bridge being blown immediately makes sense but not the other bridges needed to evacuate civilians and material

[@Warmaker01]

ROK and US military weren't ready for this. You pointed out how the ROK armed forces would need time to get better. US military had downsized massively since the end of WWII. Occupying Japan =/= combat readiness with how the army was set up. A big problem was the US itself on not properly equipping the South Koreans. I know the US Marine Corps wasn't ready for this conflict. So much so that the Marines sent guys without having gone to boot camp.

[@DCS_World_Japan]

My great uncle dropped into Korea with the 187th ARCT. I'll definitely be following this.

[@matts9]

No More Task Force Smiths" was the Army Doctrine before Desert Shield/Storm. Looking forward to next week's episode!

[@gfurstnsu]

Yes this task force was a disaster! Too little and unprepared. General William Dean became the highest ranking US General ever captured. It all happened in the mountains around where I have lived since 2003, the great city of Daejeon.

[@28ebdh3udnav]

In a lot of "What ifs", if the USSR didnt boycott it, i don't think it would have made a difference except for several instead of dozens of countries would have come to South Korea's aid. My a "what if" situation, what if only the U.S., the U.K, and a few others had sent aid to South Korea instead of the dozens or so.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

It would have made little difference. Many countries limited their participation even if they participated. Even the British, who sent two brigades, struggled to do even that as the British military establishment was greatly wound down after WW2. Turkey sent a brigade but depended heavily on US funding and equipment. The Indians sent a MASH-type hospital unit but no combat troops - they did not want to get into a direct shooting war with the Chinese, and their ambassador to China, Panikkar, had passed on Chinese warnings that they would not accept UN troops near the Yalu river (the Americans dismissed Panikkar as a Communist "fellow traveller" but the warning turned out to be more than a bluff).

[@gfurstnsu]

⁠@@stevekaczynski3793They did not respond because the great McAuthor did not listen to others and thought that the Chinese were just allot of laundrymen. What could they do after all?

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@gfurstnsu SPOILER When the Chinese came in, some US soldiers were shocked to find that some of them were six foot tall or more - indeed in some parts of China like Shandong province, tall stature is quite common. Peasants from Shandong had quite often joined the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the century. They had a reputation for height and physical strength.

[@StuGT33]

Did anyone else hear Uijeongbu and immediately begin to see images of sarcastic draftee surgeons?

[@RichardAndewSwayne]

I wonder if Sabaton will do some songs about Korea.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

I’d vote for their own remake of the song used for MASH, “Suicide is Painless”. That’d be a good opener we all know. I played that for a piano recital as a kid, must have been like 1977/78.

[@elitepctech]

Light in the Black is about Korea.

[@johnelvidge1336]

This Kind of War. The hardcore, triumphant army of '45 was gone, replaced by draftees. The equipment in Japan wasn't maintained, the soldiers had little hard field experience. We'll see soon the fruits of this 'new army', and it won't be nice. There is a lesson here, that is never learned.

[@zacharysadlouskoz4467]

Yall are doing great work. Been following since WW1. Can’t thank yall enough

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Thanks for being with us all these years!

[@vaclav_fejt]

Fun fact: KMAG is something entirely different than K-Mag, a nickname of a Danish F1 driver Kevin Magnussen.

[@Ammo08]

I wish I had listened to my uncle more. He was an interpreter in the 8th Army in Japan and was in Seoul learning Korean when the war broke out. He was sent back to Japan and then back to South Korea and was in the Pusan Perimeter. He mostly worked as a liaison with the South Korean forces.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

A severe shortage of Korean speakers was a problem for Americans in the late 1940s. In fact the Korean language lacked vocabulary for many modern military terms and American advisers played a role in developing such terms for the Korean language. Sometimes Japanese was used as a link language, as some Western military had picked up at least rudiments of that language in WW2, but though many Koreans understood Japanese, they often resented being addressed in it.

[@Ammo08]

@@stevekaczynski3793 He grew up in the Bronx and spoke Italalian, English, and some Yiddish. He joined the Army in 1938. He was sent to learn German after being in North Africa and Sicily. The he was sent to Japan and Korea. He just seemed to soak up languages.

[@swee2251]

The battles at the Pusan Perimeter were frightening and terrible. And the war didn't stop there.

[@swee2251]

Communism was forced upon North Korea by the Soviet Union. My grandparents on my father's side escaped from North Korea before the Korean War began. My father was a kid at that time and he escaped with them. When the North Korean army invaded and reached Seoul, my grandparents couldn't escape because of the destroyed bridge in Seoul. And they didn't have time to reach the ferry. They didn't escape earlier because the radio broadcast hid how badly the war was going. My grandparents on my mother's side escaped before the bridge got destroyed. They had seen the large number of refugees and figured that it was time to leave. My grandfather on my mother's side became a medic. In order to escape forced conscription by North Korea, my grandfather on my father's side sneaked out of Seoul with his family. They hid in the countryside until the UN Forces liberated them. They went to see their original home city again after the ROK Army and the US Marines reached there. Not long after, they had to flee south again when the Chinese got involved. This time, they took a train.

[@jonhanson8925]

This series is off to an amazing start! Thank you for all your hard work in bringing more attention to "the forgotten war"

[@chiefkalif9675]

Here’s hoping we get a MASH themed special episode.

[@E350tb]

The Australian battalion in Japan is 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, and despite being close to Korea, they’ll actually be the third commonwealth battalion to get there. (Planning on doing research on 27 Commonwealth Brigade so it’s a bit of a nerdy little interest of mine rn)

[@longtabsigo]

I’m very interested in this project, why? Because my father fought in ‘52-53; leaving after escorting Norma Jeane Mortenson and her crew in ‘54. My uncle was there in ‘60’s, my oldest brother flew ROK soldiers on Air Assault attacks on DPRK infiltrators on off shore islands ‘78/79, I served there in ‘95 and then again in ‘98/99 culminating with operations against DPRK infiltration operations and another brother served in NAVSOC/KOR counter maritime infiltration in the ‘00’s. So my family is invested in the ROK. Thank you for covering this.

[@stranger299a]

In this war the weapons of East and West which defeated Hitler will now face each other. Soon WW2 Shermans will see their last large scale combat use

[@severanfenrir4051]

Indy is kind of burying the lead here. Harry Truman’s National Defense Strategy quite literally relies on the Nuclear aspects of American military arsenal, with leaders in the post 1945 to 1950 proclaim trust the bomb. This allows for the rapid defense expenditure cut after the war to help boost the governments investments in other sectors. Because of this the US military is totally unprepared for a conventional war and more over this will rear its hear when Douglas MacArthur actually asks to use Nuclear weapons once China gets involved. Truman refuses and is upset with MacArthur’s criticisms leading him to fire him despite the fact that the circumstances face by the US in Korea were all of his doing.

[@robertoler3795]

well done. I spent 14 months in Korea as an advisor to a major airline there

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Thanks for sharing!

[@salvatorepitea5862]

Yes,,,the Soviets are Definitely aiding North Korea,,, pretty much most of North Korean armor is made in Russia

[@robertjarman3703]

No sponsored content? Boo hoo, I guess that means that Pizza Hut and their sponsorship of things like the Mussolini episodes in 1943 won't be returning will they?

[@spac3fr0g]

the WHAT

[@robertjarman3703]

@@spac3fr0g In the Second World War series, in 1943, he made a parody of sponsorships by naming a bunch of things, especially in the Mediterranean theatre, after Pizza Hut, before saying that it was fake and actually they get the money from Patreon.

[@Raskolnikov70]

Too bad. I'd love to hear Indy do a "Raid: Shadowlegends" ad read :D

[@Southsideindy]

The Burger King was my favorite, featuring the Chiang Kai-shake, Winston Chicken, and Double Goebbels Burger.

[@robertjarman3703]

@@Southsideindy Do you remember exactly which episode that was? I do know that you phoned a pizza store in the voice of Churchill and asked for a pizza in the 1940 episodes.

[@TOAOZuur]

Very good that this war is covered by this channel. Most people in my country (The Netherlands) don't know for example that the Dutch army also fought in Korea. And so much parallels with the current war in Ukraine. Apparently the Ukrainian military and their sponsors also studied this invasion's first days and weeks. Hence they were well equipped with (hand held) anti tank weapons. Another parallel is that the Chinese are deploying troops close to the border of the battle zone. Same reaction as back then; their numbers are too low. Never able to throw a significant punch etc. etc.

[@DeadheadYates]

Holy christ what a convoluted disaster this has turned into, in such a short amount of time

[@MM22966]

"Things fail slowly, then all at once..." The problems that caused it were pre-existing, systemic.

[@CarrotConsumer]

Don't talk about me like that.

[@Atesz222]

A Seoulcrushing defeat for South Korea

[@patmcgroin6916]

Yo Indy! Thanks! Another great production. The forgotten war. My pops, a WW2 veteran and officer, was glad he did not get called up for this one, had a wife and 2 kids. The guys who were still on the reserve rolls who did get called up or who volunteered were known as "retreads" by the way, lol.

[@Lakikano]

Sounds like the US demobilization after WW2 was… optimistic.

[@45641560456405640563]

Nah, standard. Same happened after WW1.

[@Blankskeen]

Are the World War 2 division number squares coming to the Korean War war maps or are the new visuals here to stay?

[@williamcashell6357]

I think this caused a great shift in US policy. After getting crushed by North Korea for these first few weeks American never let its Army get soft again. The push for always being ready for war to start anywhere created our modern Military Industrial Complex. For better or worse.

[@micasplace4333]

My Father was over in the conflict early and on 4 Sep 1950 he held a grenade to long and lost his right hand.

[@AnthonyEvelyn]

🙏🏾

[@Jason-fm4my]

People are criticizing the USSR for boycotting the UN, and the USSR is far from perfect, but in this period it should be more appropriate to say that Stalin boycotted the UN. Dramatic political florishes being a stereotypical aspect of Stalin's politics. Remember he often threatened to resign to trick disloyal subordinates into accepting it. Stalin probably deserves the lions share of credit for the screwup, as he was also involved in approving the NK invasion.

[@Sierra026]

Still confused by the phone designs Indy has set up.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

The Ericofon was designed at Swedish telecommunications manufacturer LM Ericsson in 48/49, prototypes were made in the following years. In 1953 the final result was presented to the Swedish telecom, Televerket. They went to mass production and entered the market in 54. They quickly became one of the most iconic objects of the second half of the 20th century home appliance design, and were still sold in updated versions until the early 2000s. As TimeGhosts, getting early access to the model was not a problem…

[@Sierra026]

Wow, thanks for the quick response, and I learned something new, too!

[@blueycarlton]

July 02 , 77 squadron RAAF flying Mustangs were in action one week into the Korean war.

[@GeorgeSemel]

The Korean War- a sea of heartbreak!

[@GeorgeSemel]

@@AndrewBlacker-t1d I guess you are not a Clint Eastwood Fan. If you were, you would get the post!

[@abhaykhanka5995]

NK officer probably : we took Seoul in 4 days and routed the ROK army, this war will be over soon! Also NK officer : why do i hear boss music

[@eltonjohnson1724]

My dad was in Japan when this happened. He was in the 24th Infantry Regiment that was stationed at Camp Gifu, Japan. The 24th was the last segregated unit in the US Army (my dad was black). Because of this, they had their own base, Camp Gifu. They ended up in Korea. His unit was torn up.

[@AnthonyEvelyn]

🙏🏾👊🏾⚔

[@WorldNewsThisWeek]

Excellent work again! Please stop citing Bruce Cummings, his "work" is extremely colored by his political ideology. Acheson was with Dean Rusk, Frank Pace (Sec of Army) and others from the evening of the 24th. They decided together to push the matter to the UN the next day (25th); Truman was extremely supportive of this move, and commended Acheson several times in public for implementing it so quickly. These decisions had nothing to do with "American prestige" (whatever that even means to Cummings), and everything to do with fears of imminent Soviet aggression elsewhere (especially against Formosa, as you covered).

[@armychowmein8021]

Thanks Indy. I wouldn't be an American citizen if it weren't for the sacrifice of US and allied forces in Korea. Neither would my parents. They are both Korean adoptees, as well as myself.

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching.

[@stop-the-greed]

So the uk will go in as part of the UN . while also fighting in malaya ....while still recovering from ww2 . . I await your report next week with child like excitement

[@mrgunn2726]

Great update Indy, and I Love those Ericsson Ericofon / Cobra phones, although they did not come out until 1954, after the war.

[@wizardmoto]

Wow, what a great catch! Timeghost needs to get you on for set design! I'm surprised an established "history" business made such an oversight.

[@CarrotConsumer]

They're prototype models.

[@mrgunn2726]

@@CarrotConsumer Could be, the original design was conceived in the late 1940's :D

[@stonedtowel]

Babe come quick, the Korean War just started

[@tlewis171]

Of course the US also had reservists; like a number of WWII vets my father had joined the reserves to supplement his factory job. His unit was activated in the early fall. He was lucky, however. and spent this war in North Carolina.

[@MrShobar]

My father was also fearful of being called. He married in August 1950 as a hedge.

[@thunderbird1921]

There were also a few thousand Army WACs, Navy WAVES, female Marines and newly-formed Air Force WAFs that America could initially draw upon for noncombat duties when war broke out in 1950 (women were made a permanent part of the US military in 1948). They weren't big in number at that time though, and a huge recruiting effort within a few months started to be aimed at more young women in hopes of getting the overall forces higher, similar with the men (albeit without a draft).

[@stevekaczynski3793]

Reservist veterans of WW2 sent to Korea were often referred to at the time as "retreads". Quite a lot were killed, but their experience did much to bolster the at times shaky performance of US troops in Korea.

[@MM22966]

Also the Marines basically grabbed everybody that was breathing and wearing green and put them on a plane, train, or ship headed for the East Pacific. That included combing out their training bases at Pendleton, Parris Island, etc for experienced officers and NCOs. We'll see them fighting in the Marine Provisional Brigade shortly.

[@tlewis171]

@@stevekaczynski3793 v true; my father much preferred operating a dump truck in NC to being in the infantry like he was in Germany in '45.

[@marcneef795]

Perhaps the announcers from the Olympic opening show got some wrong impression how this would end...

[@seanlander9321]

On the morning of 2nd July 1950 the Royal Australian Air Force became the first UN nation to attack the North Koreans. Their air attacks on supply lines and reinforcements were the only allied force holding up the North Koreans for weeks before sufficient American and Australian forces were escorted by the Royal Australian Navy into South Korea.

[@45641560456405640563]

Noice.

[@hafor2846]

Remember when th UN had some actual power because all the evil people boycotted it? Pepperridge Farm remembers

[@Blazcowitz1943]

Funfact: The first American aircraft to see combat over Korea will be F-82 Twin Mustangs, a late version of the North American P51 Mustang which had arrived too late to see combat during WW2. These aircraft will score the first three aerial combat victories of the war and will continue to be used until the shortage of spare parts, replacement aircraft and the arrival of Soviet MIG fighter jets will reduce them and other piston engine aircraft mainly to ground support roles.

[@JoniFili]

Great work but ... too long videos. Most of the time I have to watch one video in two session: Small videos please

[@mallanac]

Will this be a Tuesday show moving on?

[@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell]

Yep!

[@csandlund1]

Dang. I really have liked my Saturdays with WWII. Nice way to begin the weekend

[@wizardmoto]

​@csandlund1 you are allowed to watch them on Saturday still?

[@mallanac]

@@wizardmoto but now we have to remember to watch it rather than it naturally being there on Saturdays.

[@wizardmoto]

@@mallanac a tragedy almost equal to the Korean War, I feel your loss🫡

[@lynnwood7205]

@16:31 A Quad Fifty of the 507th AA Battalion, Detachment 10, 33 men strong.

[@troystaunton254]

As an Australian I’m just glad that the highest ranking Australian general of ww2 Thomas Blamey, was already facing his final breaths. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than a second war where Australian troops had to endure the intensely energetic incompetence and bewildering arrogance of blamey and McArthur

[@Sol_Invictus_]

It's all coming up Kim Il-Sung. I'm sure it shall continue this way and nothing will change this

[@thunderbird1921]

This has to be among the most disastrous opening weeks of a war I've ever seen...that the losing side managed to eventually win. The fact that South Korea still exists today is nothing short of a miracle.

[@jtgd]

Its mostly due to the US reaching Korea in the last moment. Then we pushed back towards the parallel, and were able to organize with South Korean forces to keep the front steady from that point on. Glad we made it before the north korean forces took the whole peninsula

[@robertkalinic335]

They didn't win...

[@RK-cj4oc]

They did. North Korea started a war to conquer South Korea. South Korea still exists as a sovereign nation today.​@@robertkalinic335

[@woocashP]

@@robertkalinic335 tf you mean

[@robertkalinic335]

@@woocashP Look at the map genius.

[@fool7491]

I read, not sure from where, that the leadership vetod the proposal to evacuate Seoul when some generals determined that they couldn't hold the enemy. Is there any substance in this story and if they did decide to flee earlier could things have been better for the South?