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Korean War Factions

This faction mod adds in units based around the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953. The factions are fully supported by ACE3, AliVE, Task Force Radio, Zeus and Editor. This is an ALPHA, more factions will be added as time goes on.

Historical Info-

The Korean War was the first conflict between the UN/NATO and the Communists at the start of the Cold War, and despite it taking three years and having over 2 million casualties it is often skipped over in favour of WW2 and Vietnam. The war began with the Communist aligned North Korea invading the capitalist South Korea but soon expanded to include a large amount of the United Nations (UN) against North Korea with Chinese and Russian backing.

The Factions-

The mod includes a range of nations, including the United States Army, The Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, Ethiopia and Britain and South Korean forces against the Korean People's Army (KPA, North Korea) and CCF (People's Volunteer Army of China) and includes a range of infantry, light vehicles, tanks, artillery and helicopters for the factions. Many of the units ingame are based on photographs of the units between 1950 and 1953 in Korea.

The US forces in Korea-

US forces in the mod are based on soldiers of the US Army between 1950 and 1953. Armament is varied, with a large range of WW2 gear still being issued, but newer technology such as H-13 helicopters also playing an important role in the war.

The M1 Carbine and M1 Garand are the standard issue weapons for the Army, with other weapons such as the Grease Gun, Ithaca 37 shotgun and Thompson also being used. The primary support weapons for the faction is the BAR (fireteam level) with higher level support from M1919 machineguns and M2 Mortars, as well as vehicle supports.

Vehicles used by the US Army include trucks and Jeeps, M3 Half-Tracks, M8 Greyhound scout cars, with the primary main battle tank being the M4A3(76)W HVSS Sherman- Nicknamed the 'Easy Eight' the model ingame has additional armor, a larger gun and wider, stronger track compared to earlier models.

The Bell H-13 Sioux is also included, and serves as the primary air transport, scout and medical helicopter for the Army, and ingame there is a medical version used for transporting men to and from MASH medical treatment centres.

Ethiopian Kagnew Battalion-

Ethiopia, as a member of the United Nations, volunteered to deploy infantry forces as part of the United Nations contingent and one battalion of men, known as the Kagnew (after a general and his horse), and early in the war it was a unit under the command of the US 7th Infantry Division, where they were known under the name of EEFK-Ethiopian Expeditionary Force Korea.

Many members of the unit were veterans of WW2, and were supremely well trained, having spent 8+ months training for Korea in mountain ranges before shipping out to fight. Equipment for the EEFK was lacking however, so they used a small amount of Commonweath equipment (usually in reserve) and used WW2 era American gear primarily. During the course of the Korean war the three groups of Kagnew (the men rotated out but remained under the same name) Battalion troops had a sterling reputation for being some one of the best combat units on either side during the war.

While the Ethiopian forces took part in a whole range of engagements during the war, the battle of Yoke-Uncle hill was one of the most impressive. Over the course of the battle one 15 man Kagnew patrol held off an entire Chinese battalion with fire/artillery support from another hill during a night attack, in which the Ethiopians were outnumbered approximately 20 to 1. By dawn they had no ammunition remaining, resorting to hand-to-hand fighting or grenades, and the patrol later confirmed between 40 to 110 Chinese bodies, not counting any captives or bodies that were removed by the Chinese, with estimates having around 3-400 Chinese killed in total.

The Kagnew Battalion was alone as the only unit to have no POW's at the end of hostiles in 1953, as they had a near-fanatical determination to never be captured alive. Their zeal to either win in combat or fight to the death quickly became legendary in the 7th Infantry Division.

The Kagnew Faction-

The Kagnew Battalion are similarly equipped to the US Army forces, but with higher amounts of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines (lacking grease guns and other SMG's in large numbers as they were not liked compared to M1's and BARs) as well as being a pure infantry force, reliant on M2 mortars or M1919's for fire support, or allied armored vehicles as they have none of their own.

Small amounts of Commonwealth equipment, such as MK2 helmets and Lee-Enfields, are used in reserve roles but upon arriving in Korea they shortly standardised on American weaponry, having a particular fondness for the M1 Garand and B.A.R, for which they have additional ammo and teams/squads with compared to the US Army.

Korean People's Army (North Korean military) -

The forces of North Korea were the primary Communist combatants during the early phases of the war, before the Chinese entered into the war. They had a major advantage over the South Korean forces in armoured vehicles and tanks, as well as very large numbers of infantry.

They are armed with a mix of equipment, mostly Soviet WW2 era gear and weapons but also some German and Japanese equipment that was either captured in battle during WW2 or sold to North Korea by Russia after the end of WW2.

The KPA do not have infantry-level AT assets, relying on rifle grenades, satchel charges and AT grenades in ambushes for destroying armour as infantry, but they have backing from T-34-85 and light tanks that give them substantial firepower in support for the infantry troops.

United States unit photographs in Korea (1950-1953) used as a base for ingame units-

101st Airbourne Division, 187th Regimental Combat Team
1st Cavalry Division
2nd Division, 72nd Heavy Tank Battalion
2nd Infantry Division, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion
3rd Infantry Division, 15th Regiment, 3rd Battalion
7th Infantry Division, 17th Regimental Combat Team
24th Infantry Divison, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion
25th Infantry Division, 5th Infantry Regiment
25th Infantry Division, 35th Infantry Regiment

Commonweath photographs used as a base for ingame units-

1st Commonweath Division, Royal Australian Regiment (RAR), 3rd Battalion
1st Commonweath Division, 25th Canadian Brigade
Kagnew Battalion