Korean War Ceasefire

The 27th of July 1953, A Retrospective Look

Extracts from New Zealand and the Korean War by Ian McGibbon.

The night of 25-26 July, the Chinese made another major assault. A heavy blow was struck at Hill 119 soon after 9.30prn, in response to a Victor target scale ten—ten rounds by the whole corps artillery—was fired followed by an Uncle target and twenty-five Mike targets kept the gunners hard at work. Nearly half the more than 5700 shells (of a divisional total of 9500) fired by the New Zealanders were the deadly VT-fused air-bursters. By the time the Chinese were driven out, the slopes leading up to the strong points had been carpeted with their corpses. The number of Chinese dead in front of the Hook was estimated by Brigadier Wilton, 28 Brigade’s commander, to be between 2000 and 3000. The Marines lost forty-three killed in the two nights of fighting, and the 2RAR five killed and twenty-four wounded….

As dawn broke on the 27th July, the New Zealanders awaited with anticipation the foreshadowed signature of the Armistice Agreement Wilfred Poulton wrote home ‘Great and wonderful things are happening here today and I feel as if I was just starting my school holidays. I've got that excited thankful feeling’. At l0am., in a specially constructed building at Panmunjom, the respective delegation heads, silently and without acknowledging each other signed the eighteen copies of the agreement. During the next few hours, these copies were also signed by the two sides commanders-in-chief….

Although the armistice was scheduled to come into effect at 10pm., desultory fighting continued along the front The gunners had orders to fire only counter-battery tasks and during the afternoon the New Zealanders engaged several targets. At 10 o’clock ....we got fire orders—“Empty guns. Cease fire”. Three years and a month after North Korean divisions had driven south over the 38th Parallel, the fighting had been brought to an end.

A personal view from one who was there

“It looked as if July 27”, 1953 was going to be like any other summer day in Korea: it was stinking hot, and the sun beat down fiercely on the brown scrub and dusty, ochre-coloured soil on the hills of Korea. The clear sky shimmered with the heat, and the fine brown dust was everywhere on the telephone wires, on parked vehicles, in the working parts of weapons, in the hair, down the throat.

“There was little activity on the British Commonwealth Division front, but the constant grumble of mortar and shellfire and the nagging chatter of machine guns were grim reminders that the war was still on, and that unlucky and unwary men could still die.

“The 1st Royal Fusiliers still strove to make the Hook habitable, and received their baptism of fire as they worked; the Durham Light Infantry were patrolling busily, and only a few night ago had fought a neat little action which had resulted in a dozen dead Chinese; the 3rd Royal Vingt-Deuxieme Regiment had killed twenty more, for the loss of only one man slightly wounded; the 2nd Royal Australian Regiment, recently arrived in Korea, were getting restive- it seemed possible that the war might end before they got a chance of a crack at the Chinese.

“The 1St Duke of Wellingtons, licking their wounds—they suffered heavy casualties on the Hook—reclined at ease on the summit of a lush hill overlooking the Imjin River, and regaled the incoming lst North Staffords with terrible and partially true tales of battle; the Black Watch had handed over to the 1st Royal Scots, and were at sea on their way to Kenya.

“There were rumours that the peace talks were going well, and that an armistice might soon be signed; the soldiers had heard this many times before—the only occasion for rejoicing were if you saw your name on the company detail as being due for home or ‘R and R’ leave in Tokyo. In the meantime, life was tolerable if you weren’t being shelled and it wasn’t raining. But most of the time one or both of these things were happening. For the 1st United States Marine Division, in the line to the left of the Commonwealth Division, it was very much business as usual; since July 24k” they had been subjected to ceaseless shelling and furious infantry attacks in fighting as savage as any in the whole war. That was their bad luck, but the men of the Commonwealth knew that it could just as easily happen to them, and the 2nd Royal Australian Regiment rather hoped that it would.

	Ian Mackley
	North Korean soldiers on guard at Panmunjom, the site of the Armistice talks in Korea during 1952/53.

“In the ‘Peace Village’ of Panmunjom, too, it seemed that July 27th was just another day- a long and frustrating day of stalling, bickering, accusation and denial; the same bored looking American military policemen in their’ snowdrop’ white helmets; the same scruffy North Korean sentries with their poker faces and long bayonets fixed; the same gaggle of pressmen, pecking avidly at any titbit of news which emerged from the drab tent which housed the American and Chinese delegates.

“But July 27th was not to be just another day of futile and acrimonious negotiations; at 10am, in stony and unsmiling silence, the cease-fire agreement was signed- three years and one month after hostilities began, two years and eleven months after the first British soldiers landed in Pusan and two years all but a day after the formation of the First British Commonwealth Division.

NZ Army
After the ceasefire on the 27th, the guns and limbers of the 16th NZ Field Regiment line up on the banks of the Imjin River for a parade and inspection.

“At 10pm that night men of the Commonwealth Division assembled in full view of the enemy, and exactly on the hour regimental buglers sounded Regimental and Company calls followed by the ‘Cease Fire’.

A roar of cheering started on the right of the line; it was taken up by other units, and gradually spread along the entire length of the line in roaring crescendo of sound.

“Red, white and green Verey lights shot up into the night sky from every platoon position, producing a firework display that any schoolboy would have given his right ann to have seen.

Officers and men cheered, whistled, and shouted; carefully hoarded liquor supplies were opened, and majors, subalterns, sergeants and privates toasted one and other in tin mugs full to the brim with neat spirits. The Chinese response was disappointing that night, but they made up for it the next morning when they decorated their positions with flags, paper streamers and lanterns. Propaganda broadcasts invited exchange visits across no-man’s-land, but the time for fraternization was not quite yet.