Walker's Eighth Army, consisting of four divisions based in Japan. When the war began, MacArthur's main ground force was Lt. But by this time the war was dragging into its final months and the reorganization had little effect on the prosecution of the war. Mark Clark commanded the UN forces, was the UNC/FEC headquarters reorganized to encompass a joint staff. Even when FEC also became the United Nations Command (UNC) headquarters, it remained basically an Army fiefdom. Although directed by the JCS to make his headquarters a joint command, MacArthur ignored this directive and FEC remained almost entirely manned by Army personnel personnel who saw Army concerns as their only mission. A General Headquarters (GHQ) in Tokyo administered FEC.įEC, however, was a throwback to World War II. MacArthur's Far East Command (FEC) included the American forces in Japan, Korea, the Ryukyus, the Philippines, the Marianas, and the Bonins. General Douglas MacArthur, the senior American officer, had two command responsibilities: as Supreme Commander, Allied Powers (SCAP), he exercised command over all occupation forces and, in essence, ruled Japan as Commander-in-Chief, Far East (CINCFE), he exercised unified command of all U.S. Ostensibly, the United States maintained a large military presence in the Far East, primarily in Japan, but this was a hollow force. (They didn't believe that Korean was poor tank country!) The NKAF had about 162 aircraft, all of World War II vintage, with aggressive and reasonably well-trained pilots. Militarily, much stronger than the South Koreans, in June 1950, the North Koreans had an army of 135,000 men, well-equipped small arms, artillery, and T-34 tanks. It was, basically, an internal police force. The ROKAF armed forces were heavily weighted toward ground units the air force was virtually a stepchild, possessing only about 20 liaison and trainer aircraft and 30 fully trained pilots.

believed Korea to be poor tank country) and little artillery.

At the time of the invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, Republic of Korea (ROKAF) forces numbered 98,000, with no tanks (the U.S.

Greatest tank battles korean war