Posted on 12/23/2017 8:12:31 PM PST by Djl3668
“The Battle of Chosin INSURMOUNTABLE ODDS. UNFORGIVING CONDITIONS. UNYIELDING COURAGE. Film Description On Thanksgiving Day 1950, American-led United Nations troops were on the march in North Korea. U.S. Marine and Air Force pilots distributed holiday meals, even to those on the front lines. Hopes were high that everyone would be home by Christmas. But soon after that peaceful celebration, American military leaders, including General Douglas MacArthur, were caught off guard by the entrance of the People's Republic of China, led by Mao Zedong, into the five-month-old Korean War. Twelve thousand men of the First Marine Division, along with a few thousand Army soldiers, suddenly found themselves surrounded, outnumbered and at risk of annihilation at the Chosin Reservoir, high in the mountains of North Korea. The two-week battle that followed, fought in brutally cold temperatures, is one of the most celebrated in Marine Corps annals and helped set the course of American foreign policy in the Cold War and beyond. Incorporating interviews with more than 20 veterans of the campaign, The Battle of Chosin recounts this epic conflict through the heroic stories of the men who fought it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
Our family had two there. Both made it out.
Col. Cal Rhodes: You know, for years, I couldn’t sleep after Korea. My nightmares all had to do with the Chosin Reservoir. The ground there was so frozen, we couldn’t bury our dead. We had to pile ‘em on trucks and lash them up against the tanks. For years I’d wake up with those dead, frozen faces staring at me.
Wilkes: Did it ever go away?
Col. Cal Rhodes: No... I finally made friends with them, though.
The worst hell ever for any serviceman to fight. I can’t imagine the pain or suffering. This time of year is the worst. Prayers and love from my family to yours.
Better winter clothing now, plus the foods, the heat packs.
I wonder to what degree pun intended the North Korean military has synthetic oils and lubrication in their vehicles.
Or having the very best FLIR equipment. Its much harder to hide heat in the cold, targeting should be easier.
They were on the eastern side of the reservoir, a product of LTG Ned Almond's insistence on dividing forces. IIRC, they were the 31st Infantry Regiment. Their colors repose in a museum in Bejing today, I think.
Those Army troops suffered every bit as much as the Marines -- but in part because of their losses, the full story took decades to emerge. Even the Army didn't want to complete the official history of their struggle. It came out as the book "East of Chosin", IIRC.
F-I-L, USMC (ret.) was there.
It stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Yes, I watched that documentary on Netflix. A gripping story that’s been overlooked and a travesty how that particular regiment was thrown into battle, then essentially abandoned by senior commanders and had to fight their way out. It’s a wonder that there were any survivors at all from those units.
It was triage. You could save 2.5K Army personnel or you could save 30K Marines. The Army guys drew the short straw. What was worse - the Army guys were outnumbered 8 to 1 vs the Marines being outnumbered 3 to 1. IMO, the problem wasn't leadership - Maclean and Faith were given the job of the 300 - fighting against overwhelming odds without the high command even realizing what they were up against, due to the fog of war - and they did a superb job with what they had. But fighting a skilled opponent with 8 to 1 numerical superiority in that opponent's favor, using a force composed mostly of green troops* who were cut off and mostly resupplied from the air, was always going to result in extremely high casualties. The real kicker is how TFF veterans were treated after this epic stand - as soldiers who ran from the fight.
* They were fortunate that Chinese logistics were even crappier. If PVA had anything like American logistics, both TFF and the two Marine divisions would have been swept off the map. Heck, unless Truman resorted to nukes, Kim Jong-un would rule over a unified Korea today.
I can’t imagine fighting, let alone surviving under those cold conditions, the constant cold itself is demoralizing......
Thanks for posting, I’d never heard of that battle. The DVD is at my public library, I’ll pick it up next week......
Do you remember the name of that documentary? Have Netflix and I would love to watch it.
Thank-you...
There's a bit of irony there, given that Nimitz was in charge of those campaigns, whereas MacArthur was charged with operations in the South Pacific, which cost far fewer casualties. Liberal historians have always hated MacArthur with a passion, because he dared stand up to Truman.
It was Truman who made the Korean War much higher casualty than it could have been. By allowing US aircraft to attack both sides of the Yalu River, he might have been able to starve Chinese forces on the Korean peninsula of supplies, leading to their wholesale defeat and capture. Instead, he directed pilots to attack only units on the Korean side of the border, meaning anti-aircraft units on the Chinese side were free to fire at American warplanes trying to to interdict Chinese supply convoys. Just how could American fighters and bombers stop supply convoys in an era of unguided bombs and gun systems while the enemy got free shots at them? The answer is they never did, which is why the PVA went on to the 38th parallel and could not be dislodged.
Truman was an overrated incompetent who got encomiums for nothing. He lost China. He lost North Korea. But he won a place in the history books for being this great leader. Just goes to show you can't trust the opinions of historians.
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