THE KOREAN WAR
AND THE DUTCH UN DETACHMENT.
On 25 june 1950 the communists from North Korea invaded South Korea.
The American troops in the south under command of the famous General Mac-Arthur landed at Inchon and puched the invaders back till the 38 parallel.
The United Nations asked for military assistance from its members and the Dutch responded by sending a torpedo destroyer, the Hr. Ms. Evertsen.
The Royal Dutch Navy was active with in total 4 rotating ships during the period 1950 till 1953 as part of the 7 Th. Fleet.
On 23 november 1950 the Dutch UN Detachment arrived in Pusan. Battle hardend Dutch Indies veterans were very capable with handeling the US equipment and weapons. The Dutch were a part of the famous 2Nd. Indianhead Division. About 100 Korean Army Troops US Army supported the Dutch detachment.
The battle was hard and the artic weather conditions made it worse. I saw in a documentary that the US soldiers complained about there weapons and equipment which was mainly based on World War Two equipment. The North Koreans received weapons from the USSR and the T34 tank had a very good reputation. The rockets from the American bazookas could not penetrade the armor from this tanks. The same problem was the lack of winter uniforms.
On 30 september 1954 the Dutch Detachment ended a long periode of action.
They received 1 Presidential Unit Citation, 2 Distinguised Unit Citations, 14 Silver Stars and 100 Bronze Stars. In totall 5.268 men served in this unit and 122 were killed in action, 3 missed in action.
With deep respect to the last veterans from this almost forgotten war.
