How did Westerner look at Chinese in Korean War?

flyingsnow

New Member
What kind of impressions do American and other Western country have on the pofermance of Chinese military in Korean War ?

In 1950, when the Korean war broke out , red China was just found 1 year , under the extremely poor domestic condinton ,China made the hard decision to send troops to Korean. In Korea, Chinese soilder has poor equipments , no more tanks,no more artilleries, they even use the sigle -shot rifle captured from Japanese, but ,they showed high spritral power in the battle .

I want to know how did American or other Western country look at Chinese troop in Korean War ,Comparing with other Oriental troops,like Japanese.
 
I think the pervasive view is... well there was a heck of a lot of them and yeah they were very brave. Not the best trained, equipped or anything... just sheer numbers.
A massive, gigantic human block that kept coming because there was almost no end of these guys.
 
That and they had a very low regard for their own soldiers' lives. They would never commit to a battle until they felt they couldn't lose due to sheer numbers. The bugle blowing fanatical human wave attacks where they'd get mowed down in droves by automatic weapons. They had initial success against and ill prepared and vastly outnumbered U.N. force but once the U.N. forces got reorganized they were pushed back across the 38th parallel. No offense intended but these are some of the things I recall hearing from those who were there and you did ask right?
 
It's more or less what everyone on the recieving end of their psychotic human waves said. It's pretty much true, though I don't know if the guy who started this thread wanted to hear that sort of thing.
Chinese tactics were considered so inhumane to their own troops that General Giap of the Viet Minh (who would test these tactics against the French at Dien Bien Phu) abandoned the Chinese tactics and made up his own. The advices of the Chinese advisors fell on deaf ears. I remember reading some stories from the North Vietnamese... who said they were sick and tired of blowing their whistle and then getting shot to bits.
 
"wave after wave" No offense, thats just what i've heard from old schoolers. They were obviously brave. I believe i've heard of them actually sending men over mines to blow them up so the next wave of men could get through.
 
HAHAHAAHAHAH..

the pla troops are both brave, experienced, strong and capable of many things, why many are old nationstlic troops and the civil war taught many and the pla is a seasoned army to be reconed with.

the only thing missing is good supply and equipment, that set aside, china could kick anybodys ass with full american equipment

human waves are not used since lin biao saw its falure when dealing with nationlstic troops, rather, the chinese uses close artilelry corrdination+ bounce wave moment, in ther words, it means that artillery is kept just yards ahead of the infantry while the infantry assults from one crater to another
 
Ohh right I forgot. It's just the PLA standard size of a Squad would be 12,000 men instead of 12 right? But that's normal in China because you have so many people.
Seriously dude, I don't want to sound inflamatory but unless you can back your story up with good evidence that we can actually believe, it's really crap.
Every other story on fighting the Chinese was stories of waves... more like huge blocks of formations just running right at them... overrunning positions due to sheer numbers. How do you think the Chinese casualty count was so high? Oh right, they weren't, we just made those numbers up.
Sometimes this gets so bad it's impossible to have a reasonable discussion...
 
Some fanatical, some brave- but most poorly trained and armed. All used carelessly and for such a horrible cause: conserving what is now the most oppressive and hostile place in the world.
 
I am very excited to hear diffrent opinions here. I am a chinese postgraduate and like history very much especially European history. But, my English is poor,even sometimes I can not express my thoughts and views explicitly in English. So, if you can not understand my words, please do not laugh at me.

I think everyone has to admit that chinese force are very brave. but, perhaps you westerners can not accept this kind of brave, you call that craze or fanaticism. you think all the soldiers have been puzzled or posioned by socialism or communism. i think that is parts of the reason.
the other reason ascribe to our chinese culture. 5000 feudal civilization teachs our people to be loyal to their emperor. And the most impotant thing our civilization leaves us is to devote ourselves to our contry! whoever is the leader feudal kings, warlords, capitalism or socialism! as long as he is the leader and represent our country.

perhaps you think there is no democracy in china. no, with the reform of economy and policy and the development of our society, our country is more democratic than past time, but we still need a long time to achieve same performance as your country.

i hope every westerner can understand our county.
 
I talked to a Chosin Resevior Vet. He said the thing about the Chinese that amazed the U.S. Marines was that they kept coming. With or without weapons and over bodies.
 
Well intrusion... take the "fanaticism" and "nuts!" comments and see that as a compliment. Their level of bravery left that big of an impression.
 
Views about Chinese in Korean War

I think the Australian infantry in the Korean war had a grudging respect for the hardiness (toughness) of the Chines soldier.
Especially the great gains they first made with the limited equipment they had compared to the allies.
Very good at inflitration tactics but yes they did resort to human wave attacks; Battle of Kapyong for example.
Many of the Australian troops in Korea were veterans of the WWII Pacific compaign so were veterans of Japanese tactics, slightly similar to what they faced with the Chinese.
 
lol, from this whole thread i can feel the inaccuracy of the weeterns

apparently you guys pass onhistory that is apparenlty true to the eye and ears

bugles and such are used to make the enemy think there is plenty of them, plenty of chargers, plenty of artillery plenty of men

in factmost of i twas to distract the enemies with firecrackers and mortar rounds, the battle would be in terms of strategy, in whci encirclement or fnalking would be used.
 
AA said:
lol, from this whole thread i can feel the inaccuracy of the weeterns

apparently you guys pass onhistory that is apparenlty true to the eye and ears

bugles and such are used to make the enemy think there is plenty of them, plenty of chargers, plenty of artillery plenty of men

in factmost of i twas to distract the enemies with firecrackers and mortar rounds, the battle would be in terms of strategy, in whci encirclement or fnalking would be used.

not quite AA, kiwi troops were in korea too, and there are transcripts in our war files about human wave attacks too.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
I think the pervasive view is... well there was a heck of a lot of them and yeah they were very brave. Not the best trained, equipped or anything... just sheer numbers.
A massive, gigantic human block that kept coming because there was almost no end of these guys.

only massive numbers won't be able to beat U.S back from Yalu to 38th....

the brilliant tactics of ambush and movement helps chinese to encircle U.S troops...

IF chinese got the equipments like Soviets,...americans encircleed by Chinese could not have escaped...they escaped with superior fire power
 
I wasn't alive but a slogan from that time has stood the test of time to be brought to my ears, "The only good commie is a dead commie."

EDIT: Are we talking about how modern Americans view the Chinese forces in the 50s or how Americans in the 50s viewed their Chinese foe?
 
the only good american is a dead american,

sounds famiilar too, not old either, heard often in arabian world, in china sometimes too
 
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