Pardon my posting, but I had a question about military tactics in the Korean War, and the rest of the internet has failed me.
I seem to remember reading, not long ago, that at one point during a campaign in the Korean War, the UN forces deployed a line of MPs behind their own front line to guard against deserters and whatnot. Kinda like the Soviets did in WWII, though I’m guessing they would have been less “trigger-happy” than the NKVD.
Now, I’ve been unable to confirm this in my research online. Was this actually a tactic the UN employed in Korea; or not; or was it just a routine part of western military doctrine, or what. Can…anyone enlighten me?
my father was an MP in korea during the war. i’ll see if I can get an answer from him.
he said MP’s when he was there were used as front line combat troops and not in a traditional MP role. his unit was very north with the chinese came in.
I am wondering how this would be possible. Western armies simply don’t have that many MPs, and in war they have lots of other things to do. Where would you get that many MPs and still have enough to direct traffic, handle POWs, man guardposts, and the like? And what Western army would have been so undisciplined in 1950 that this would be necessary?
Not really. No more than any other MOS is supposed to be able to act as infantry as necessary. Army MPs are classified as Combat Support, not Combat Arms (Infantry, Armor, Artillery). As Rickjay mentioned in wartime they do rear security, EPW collection, traffic control and many other roles. They wouldn’t be used strictly as infantry unless it was an emergency. Of course it isn’t traditional to use tankers to clear buildings and do foot patrols and thats what they have been doing in Iraq.
Haven’t heard back from my old man, but based on his experience, at least at the beginning of the conflict, MP’s were used as front line infantry troops. AFAIK, it was a real rush to get troops in the field when the conflict started, and a whole lot of WW2 vets including my father were called up, given a very short refresher boot camp, and then put on a troop ship.
In my Army days, “any other MOS” wasn’t supposed to act as Infantry. Infantry actually is a bit more specialized a field than popular myth seems to have it. I recall hearing or reading that during the war in Vietnam, MP units were assigned to Infantry duty. Personnel and Finance units weren’t.
Funny thing is that when I went through BCT at Fort Knox, the Drill Sergeants had us listing Combat Engineers in the Combat Arms.
Engineers are combat arms. I wasn’t making a conclusive list. I have also seen aviation listed as both combat arms and combat support. That was not the case when I was in aviation, despite the fact that I was in Cobra and Apache units. MPs of course will be used in a pinch before other support units, they are better trained with the use of weapons and tactics. This does not change what their role is. Cooks have been put on the line as infantry but it is not ideal.
I also went to BCT in Fort Knox. Then I went back to go through armor school.