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| -Land of the Free |
| Book of the Week 1/20/2019: On Desperate Ground |
| 2019-01-13 |
| On Desperate Ground - The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle By Hampton Sides Doubleday, 2018 Amazon - On Desperate Ground From an introduction before the Table of Contents: Sun Tzu says that in battle there are nine kinds of situations, nine kinds of "ground." The final and most distressing type is a situation in which one’s army can be saved from destruction only be fighting without delay. It is a place with no shelter, and no possibility of easy retreat. If met by the enemy, an army has no alternative but to surrender or fight is way out of the predicament. And he wasn't even considering the temperature is 25 below zero. I had read several articles about the "Frozen Chosin" and my son returned from Boot Camp well-versed in the story. This book has quite a bit of the history leading up to the battle – about a third of the volume, starting with some Korean perspective history and the end of World War II. The Japanese constructed Chosin Reservoir to generate electricity for their war factories in occupied Manchuria. MacArthur's brilliant, impossible landing at Inchon is covered in some detail, but it seems the success of that effort caused his ego to go into hyperdrive, leading him to ignore warnings and intelligence about the coming Chinese invasion. The author wove a fascinating human interest story into the horror. A teenager flees the North shortly after the end of WW II and starts a new life in Seoul. The commies invade, so he hides. When the Americans recapture Seoul, he lies about his birthplace and becomes a translator in the center of the drive to the Yalu, the North Korean port of Hungnam – which just happens to be his birthplace. He gets a few hours off, finds his family, and ultimately helps them escape to the south. You just can't make this stuff up! The author does not portray MacArthur generously, nor his right-hand man in Korea, General E. M. Almond. Almond performs a fantastic humanitarian gesture, however. After all the Marines and troops have departed from Hungnam Harbor, he facilitates transport for 100,000 refugees fleeing the advancing Chinese army. The author claims more than a million South Koreans trace their lineage to those evacuated. Plenty of detail about the Marines, the vicious fighting, heroism, courage, brutality, and intense cold, as well as the Army on the eastern shore of the Reservoir. The detail of the episodes makes you wonder if there were awards for valor. The photos depict several heroes with their Medal of Honor. The ending seems somewhat anticlimactic. Once the Marines construct a makeshift bridge, destroyed by the Chinese, everyone sort of strolls down the hill into Hungnam harbor for debarkation. An epilogue details some of the participants’ later lives. Once the fighting starts, you won't want to put the book down. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #4 East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950 by Roy E. Appleman, LT.Col. AUS (Retd). He also wrote a two-book history of the Korean war (very good!). He covers the short, doomed battle of the Task Force Faith, the 31st Infantry RCT, that is overlooked by most in the Chosin Reservoir battle. Normally the only mention is a derisive sneer at the Army stragglers... But remember that without them the Marines would have had one less regiment concentrated and had to still face the same number of ChiComs. |
| Posted by: magpie 2019-01-13 16:26 |
| #3 Clarification - both the amazing bridge reconstruction and the incredible story of Fox Company are in the book. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2019-01-13 11:06 |
| #2 A good one on the same topic but at a small unit level is "The Last Stand of Fox Company", Drury and Clavin, 2009, which ought to be required reading for all members of the Chinese politburo. (Quick summary: Never f'n ever launch a human-wave assault on a determined company of US Marines.) |
| Posted by: Matt 2019-01-13 10:40 |
| #1 ...This was also the fight where the Marines were coming up on an impassible ravine, and the US Air Force managed to drop several bridge sections that were manhandled into place by the Marines, and the breakout went on. From Wiki: "With the path to Hungnam blocked at Funchilin Pass, eight C-119 Flying Boxcars flown by the US 314th Troop Carrier Wing were used to drop portable bridge sections by parachute.[1]:297[34] The bridge, consisting of eight separate 18 ft (5.5 m) long, 2,900 lb (1,300 kg) sections, was dropped one section at a time, using a 48 ft (15 m) parachute on each section.[1]:296 Four of these sections, together with additional wooden extensions were successfully reassembled into a replacement bridge by Marine Corps combat engineers and the US Army 58th Engineer Treadway Bridge Company on 9 December, enabling UN forces to proceed.[1]:296–304 Outmaneuvered, the PVA 58th and 60th Divisions still tried to slow the UN advance with ambushes and raids, but after weeks of non-stop fighting, the two Chinese divisions combined had only 200 soldiers left.[9]:108 The last UN forces left Funchilin Pass by 11 December.[1]:314" I have read for years about the Breakout, but it didn't hit me until just recently that when my Dad joined the Corps in mid-'53, the men who walked out of Chosin were the ones that trained him. I understood him a lot better after that. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2019-01-13 07:02 |