Defeat of North Korean Armor
When the Korean War began the invasion by North Korean troops into the south followed some of the features of the German blitzkrieg in the Second World War. The communist columns were spearheaded by tanks, Russian built T-34 85s. The South Korean army had nothing with which to stop them. Nor did the early UN troops arriving in the south. The T-34 was virtually unopposed during the initial thrust into the south. The first American armor to be sent to Korea were light tanks which could not engage them in battle with any likelihood of success. Air strikes could stop the T-34 and they began to be used as the UN forces gathered strength.
It was the Inchon landings which stopped the North Korean armor. After the UN troops began to drive into North Korea following the invasion the supply lines to the North Korean units in the south were cut. Without the means of getting fuel for the tanks they simply ran out of gas and their crews had to leave them where they were or accept being captured by the advancing UN forces. The North Koreans lost nearly all of their armor following the Inchon landing and it was never replaced. The Chinese did not deploy large numbers of tanks in their Army.
The lack of armor on the side of the communists led to the first major ground war since the First World War where there were no major tank battles. The UN troops used several tanks in the war, mainly as mobile artillery, without the need to carry armor piercing rounds, since the enemy had little armor to pierce. Tanks were used as flame throwers and as machine gun emplacements as well. Several different types were deployed but the use of heavy tanks as attack vehicles was limited due to the type of terrain on which much of the war was fought.
The use of mobile artillery was likewise limited in much of the terrain, particularly in the mountains, where mortars were more readily deployed. The use of aircraft as ground support also supplemented the infantry on all areas of the front. Naval bombardment in areas within range of the US Navy’s big guns also broke up enemy formations ahead of the infantry advances, and Navy battleships, cruisers, and destroyers engaged ground units on both coasts of the Korean Peninsula. After the invasion of Inchon the US and British navies were virtually unopposed at sea.
Most of the heavy armor that was used in Korea was supplied by the United States Army, including its main battle tank, the M26 Pershing, and the venerable M4 Sherman tank which had been in the American arsenal since the early days of the Second World War. The British likewise deployed tanks which were veterans of World War 2, the Centurion and the Churchill. The British also deployed Cromwell tanks. British and American tank units operated independently of each other, under the overall command of the head of the UN forces, first MacArthur and after his firing by Truman, General Ridgway.