Description
Physical description
Pair of olive green long field service trousers with a brown leather waist belt having brass single-prong buckle. The trousers have a button fly and have ankle-tapes.
History note
Field service uniform trousers of the type worn by the KPA (the Army of the People's Republic of Korea or 'Korean People's Army') during the Korean War (1950-1953); the trousers secured at the ankles by adjustable tapes. KPA troops were in the main lightly armed, and clothed. Equipped with the most basic of uniform and personal equipment, their strength was mainly drawn from their Soviet-inspired ideology. However, trained effectively by Soviet officers, they did have full access to an arsenal of Soviet heavy weapons; when KPA units were used offensively, under the same principles taught by their mentors, they initially proved a most formidable force.
The KPA was established in February 1948, being raised from Korean communist guerrillas who had previously served with the Chinese People's Liberation Army, but 'advised' by Soviet personnel. By mid-1950 the KPA was composed of ten infantry divisions plus other units totalling some 223,000 men. Despite the early successes that followed their invasion of South Korea beginning in June 1950, and the capture of Seoul, the KPA was eventually stopped on the Pusan Perimeter, their offensive capability spent. US counter-offensives in the south and their seaborne landings in the west at Inchon successfully drove the KPA back and trapped considerable numbers in the south between two striking pincers. By late September the KPA's ability to fight was practically finished. UN forces went on the offensive to invade North Korea, supported by South Korean RoK troops in the east who drove the KPA up to the Chinese border in October. Just as winter broke China intervened and Chinese forces in massive numbers swept down forcing MacArthur's troops to go on the defensive, halting in mid-December on the 38th Parallel, whilst communist forces re-organized. The intervention of China gave the communist forces breathing space, but following two further phases of the conflict that heralded a period of attrition followed by limited local attacks and counter-attacks, the war ground to a halt and an armistice was signed 27 July, 1953.
