Korean Marines at Battle of Tra Binh Dong

[RoyalGuard]

An account how around 300 ROK Marines defeated 2,400 North Vietnamese troops in a battle that started in a gun battle and ended in hand-to-hand combat.

http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/2005/05durand.html

[OTZ]

Thanks for that article. It was very interesting - I learned quite a few things, among them that there were Koreans that fought in conflict. Do you have any more details/sources/recommended reading on the Korean participation in the war? You've piqued my interest in the subject...

[RoyalGuard]

There are a few sources, but not much about them. No references to history textbooks either.

Here's the combat evaluation of two of Korean army divisions in vietnam, the 9th White Horse Infantry division and the Army Capital Division. The 9th infantry is a main-line or regular army division, while the Capital (otherwise known as the "Tigers") is an elite Army infantry division.

http://www.army.mil/cmh/books/Vietna...ed/ch06.htm#b4

In this battle, this is the first engagement the ROK Tiger Division had with NVA commandos.

http://thebattleofkontum.com/stars/103.html

South Korea sent the second largest foreign military presence to Vietnam. Two army divisions, one Marine brigade, and several combat support units including naval support. South Korea also have sent several Special Forces units including Korean Navy Seals and Army Special Forces, I've also read a rumor somwhere that we might have also sent a unit of paratroopers.

[Marcus Trajan]

Korea was quite heavily involved in Vietnam War. They sent 1 marine division and 2 infantry divisions to Vietnam and over 320,000 Korean troops fought in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973.

For more information, please see
http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.a...78&entry=20074

If you want a see a timeline of Korean involvement in the Vietnam War, go to
http://gunships.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=117&

[Hyungoku]

wow thats crazy stuff.

kinda reminds me of the battle of general moon duk where he defeated an invading army of 30 million chinese with 300 thouzand.

[RoyalGuard]

wow thats crazy stuff.

kinda reminds me of the battle of general moon duk where he defeated an invading army of 30 million chinese with 300 thouzand.

Your numbers are off.

It was only 1 million chinese troops and Korea had 30,000 troops.

[Marcus Trajan]

wow thats crazy stuff.

kinda reminds me of the battle of general moon duk where he defeated an invading army of 30 million chinese with 300 thouzand.

Yeah, general Ulji Munduk defeated Sui troops (they say 1 million but it's more likely that around 200,000 actual combat troops) at Sal-Su located northern part of Korea in early 7th century.

[OTZ]

Absolutely fascinating - thanks guys! It's a shame I have completely missed out on this aspect to the war. I was aware of Canadian and Aussies serving during the conflict, but I had no idea about Koreans.

[Hyungoku]

thnx for the correction lol i learned about the whole ulji moon duk thing back in preschool in korea so my memory might be a bit off.

[RoyalGuard]

There's an old book by Honda about his accounts of the Korean soldiers. Here's a little review.

http://www.dpg.devry.edu/~akim/sck/vietnam2.htm

From 1967 to 1970, there was a Japanese reporter named
Katsuichi Honda visited Vietnam and reported the war through the
Asian eyes. He wrote a book about it, it's title is "Vietnam War
- A Report Through Asian Eyes". He had anti-vietnam war views,
so therefore, not certainly partial to ROK in Vietnam. He
discovered that many of the stories concerning ROK atrocities
were rumours based on Vietnamese's fear of the unknown ROK,
jealousy, and communist propaganda. He himself checked out the
stories by visiting the villages of where it was supposed to
happened but found that they never happened. He also discovered
that the farther the distance from the ROK tactical area of
operation, the reputation got worse.

Honda basically praised the ROK troops as by far the best
Allied troop in everyway including, the way they treated the
civilians and their extraordinary military performances.

As for the captured documents showing the Viet Cong fear of the
ROK, in 1966, a detachment of the U.S. Calvary Division in Bin
Dhin province captured a Viet Cong who carried a document
ordering all Viet Congs to avoid military contact with the
Koreans unless the victory was 100% certain. This was
corroborrated by a young British photographer Tim Page in the
NY. Times article and also his book, Vietnam.

[Hyungoku]

wow thats very interesting information

i didnt know the ROK forces in vietnam were so strong....

[Last Roman]

my dad was in Vietnam and he said that if you had Koreans with you, you were sure that the VC weren't gonna **** with you