Tragedy and Redemption

With the X Corps having successfully evacuated from Hungnam, Almond joined Eighth Army, where he quickly gained the respect of Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway. Almond’s aggressive nature suited Ridgway’s style perfectly, and he later called Almond his best Corps commander. Ridgway placed X Corps in the center of the line, where it seemed repeatedly to take the toughest attacks from the enemy. One of those attacks resulted in the epic battle at Chip’yong-Ni. Ridgway launched a series of offensives into the spring that advanced the Eighth Army north, while the CCF and NKPA continued to attack south. Almond was shocked and angered when President Truman relieved MacArthur, but his wife was touched my MacArthur’s kindness. As the war slowed to a stalemate that would last two more years, Almond accepted a new assignment.

The Eighth Army at the Gothic Line, August–September 1944: A Study in Staff Compatibility and Coalition Command

This article takes a reverse-engineering approach to gain some insight as to how the armies of the British Commonwealth became so compatible – and, therefore, easy for commanders to use. It begins with an examination of operations conducted by the British Eighth Army in the late summer of 1944 to examine how common staff procedures and methods allowed a limited commander like Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese to assemble his multinational forces and break the much-vaunted Gothic Line. It then looks at how staff uniformity had been developed over months, years, and, in some cases, decades.

Transitional Leadership

Matthew B. Ridgway was an influential American airborne commander during the Second World War and led United Nations forces during the Korean War. A 1917 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Ridgway served multiple tours in Latin America and Asia as a junior and mid-grade officer. A protégée of General George Marshall, he commanded the Eighty-Second airborne division during the invasions of Sicily, Italy, and France. During the Battle of Bulge and the invasion of Germany, he served as commander of the newly created Eighteenth Airborne Corps. Years later, during the Korean War, Ridgway transitioned from a staff position as a deputy to Army Chief of Staff Lawton Collins to become commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, and then commander of all U.N. forces in the Korean theatre. Ridgway's career, especially his leadership during the two wars, provides insights on the officer skills needed to effectively transition to different levels of command.

The Battle of Shangganling, Korea, October-November 1952

The six-week-long Battle of Shangganling (known to the Americans as Operation SHOWDOWN), demonstrated the increasing military effectiveness of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (cpva) in the Korean War. The cpva intervention in October and November 1950 had deprived the American-led United Nations Command (unc) of an almost certain victory and set the outcome of the Korean War in strategic limbo. After five Chinese-led campaigns and several u.s. Eighth Army counteroffensives, the battle lines stabilized with the cpva still exposed to American firepower from the ground and air. Prolonged negotiations to settle the conflict (begun in July 1951) gave Chinese armies the opportunity to rearm, reform, and establish a competitive tactical method. Both sides deadlocked over the issue of prisoner repatriation in the spring of 1952, leading a frustrated unc to seek to inflict enough damage on Chinese armies while seizing key terrain to make them more likely to accept demands for voluntary repatriation. SHOWDOWN’s failure convinced American leaders that the military power then available in the Korean theater could not settle the war. The Chinese experience at Shangganling produced a similar lesson and further validated the cpva’s doctrine and technique that permitted them to resist the unc’s coercive approach.