Description

Blitzkrieg Commander – The Forgotten War is a supplement for the popular Blitzkrieg Commander IV wargames rules, focusing on the Korean War from 1950-1953.

The Korean War

The Korean War was a ruthless struggle between two opposing ideologies. Conveniently mirroring the bigger world picture of Western democracy versus Eastern communism.

North Korea backed by the Soviet Union and Communist China. With the former investing cash and the latter, men, arms and materials. The Republic of Korea was backed by the USA and subsequently by the United Nations. With the vast majority of the foreign forces involved being American.

This was the first of the larger post World War II conflicts but much of the military tactics and technologies deployed. Came directly from the previous world war.

Rapid advances in aircraft technology

Whilst there were rapid advances in aircraft technology, this had very little impact on the war on the ground, and with the harsh and mountainous terrain that dominates the Korean Peninsula, major mechanized warfare was also not practical. A war fought by the Infantry from both sides, often in atrocious conditions.

The armed conflict suspended, in stalemate on the 27th July 1953, when an armistice was signed by the US, UN, China and North Korea. But this has never been ratified by the South and a fractious divide remains between North and South Korea along the 38th parallel to this day.

North Korea re-mains a pariah state. Cut off from most of the rest of the world, isolated, secretive and still in the grip of a military dictatorship. That continues to harbor designs on a unified communist Korean peninsula.