Frozen Chosin 64 years ago

bruno

bruno

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The campaign in North Korea was truly brutal and is a fascinating story. The Army's 2d Inf Division and 1st Cav Division were decimated and 8th Army was lucky to extricate itself at all. In the East X Corps was also badly beat up. But the USMC and Chesty Puller secured it's place in history with its running fight south across the Chosin Reservoir. Interesting article in Stars and Stripes on the 64th Anniversary of that battle. http://www.stripes.com/military-lif...calls-battle-that-began-64-years-ago-1.316334
 
That war was brutal. Too few know much about it.

I'd recommend This Kind of War by Fehrenbach.
 
I recommend The Last Stand of Fox Company by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
 
My recommendations include:

1. John Tolland's "In Mortal Combat" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/817286.In_Mortal_Combat

2. David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter: America and The Korean War" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/448135.The_Coldest_Winter?from_search=true

3. Max Hasting's "The Korean War" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55407.The_Korean_War?from_search=true.

Or anything else by these three great authors.

Hasting has a great chapter in which he compares the US Army to the US Marine Corps during the war and it is highly critical of the Army's lack of readiness, caused mostly by a post-WW2 belief that atomic weapons would make future wars impossible, so why bother training or preparing for them. The USMC, by contrast, was struggling to prevent being absorbed into the Army and maintaining it's own identity after WW2, so they were able to do more with less.

All three authors are pretty critical of MacArthur's generalship in Korea, i.e. he only spent a few hours on the ground in Korea (after Inchon & the first liberation of Seoul), preferring his hotel suite in Tokyo while his successor, Matthew Ridgeway, wore grenades, slept in tents and was beloved by the troops.
 
Frozen Chosin

Quantico in the 80's we all learned Gen. Smith's famous quote:
“Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.”

And how NCOs would not let anyone sleep in zippered or closed bags, too hard to be ready to defend attack, rather they lose toes than lives. Truly they were the Old Corps! It is sad that it is for too many the "forgotten war."
 
"...rather they lose toes than lives.

In my lodge back in CA there are three gents...all USMC, Korea, Chosin vets. They joined the corps together, etc...etc...

We referred to them (at their insistance) as the "20 toe boys."

Why you ask?

Because they'd tell you that between them they left 10 toes at Chosin but brought themselves and their buddies out.

They said it was a good trade.

Amazing gents!!

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
A great example of honest history whitewashed for PR purposes, as Bruno deftly pointed out.
 
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