Curator's Choice: Korean War

Film: IWM (ADM 1391). LORD ALEXANDER VISITS HMS BELFAST IN KOREA (June 1952) 

75 years since the start of the ‘Forgotten War’, Film Curator Michelle Kirby highlights Admiralty footage of HMS Belfast in Korean waters

The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. It was one of the first major proxy wars of the Cold War, escalating tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and signalling that hostilities were becoming global. 

HMS Belfast played an active role in the Korean War between June 1950 and September 1952, working with other Allied Forces as part of a United Nations campaign to support UN and South Korean troops.

In this silent footage from June 1952, the British Minister of Defence, Lord Alexander, visits the cruiser whilst in Korean waters, inspecting Belfast's Royal Marine guard and addressing the ship's company from a position on top of Y turret. By the end of the conflict, on 27 July 1953, an estimated three million people had been killed. The signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement had ended the fighting, but the country remained divided. Since no peace treaty was signed, North and South Korea are technically still at war today.

This film was digitised through Digital Futures, IWM’s mass digitisation project which ended this year, with a focus on the Cold War era.

Image: IWM (KOR 616). Men of the 1st Battalion, The Black Watch rest before moving off on a patrol in Korea, 1952.

A Short History of the Korean War

Although dubbed the ‘Forgotten War’, because it has largely been overshadowed by the Second World War and Vietnam War, stories from the Korean War are increasingly being told today. 

The Korean War and HMS Belfast

IWM holds a vast collection of objects, oral histories, film and photographs from the Korean War.

Film of the Korean War
Photos of the Korean War
Voices of the Korean War

For further information regarding licensing IWM's collections please contact the Image & Film Licensing team.