Posted on 12/09/2015 6:59:03 PM PST by WhiskeyX
During the Korean War, a U.S. Marine battalion must fight its way out of a frozen mountain pass despite diminishing supplies, freezing temperatures and constant attacks by overwhelming numbers of Chinese soldiers.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Retreat, Hell! is a 1952 American war film about the 1st Marine Division in the Korean War, directed by Joseph H. Lewis. It stars Frank Lovejoy as a career Marine battalion commander who is recalled from work at an American embassy, Richard Carlson as a veteran captain and communications specialist of World War II called up from the Marine Corps Reserves, Russ Tamblyn as a seventeen-year-old private who hides his true age to serve with the unit overseas and outdo his older brother, also a Marine, and Nedrick Young (credited as Ned Young). Also appearing in the film is Peter Julien Ortiz, a highly decorated Marine who served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and appeared in various films after retiring from the military.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retreat,_Hell!
Battle of Chosin Reservoir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir, also known as the Chosin Reservoir Campaign or the Changjin Lake Campaign (Korean: 장진호 ì „íˆ¬(長津湖戰鬪); Chinese: 长津湖战役; pinyin: Cháng JÄ«n Hú Zhà nyì),[c] was a decisive battle in the Korean War. "Chosin" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Korean name, "Changjin". The UN forces relied on Japanese language maps dating from their occupation of Korea which had only ended five years earlier at the conclusion of World War II. Shortly after the People's Republic of China entered the conflict, the People's Volunteer Army 9th Army[d] infiltrated the northeastern part of North Korea.
On 27 November, the Chinese 9th Army surprised the US X Corps commanded by Major General Edward Almond at the Chosin Reservoir area. A brutal 17 day battle in freezing weather soon followed. In the period between 27 November and 13 December 1950, 30,000[4] United Nations troops (later nicknamed "The Chosin Few") under the field command of Major General Oliver P. Smith were encircled and attacked by approximately 67,000[6] Chinese troops under the command of Song Shi-Lun, who had been ordered by Mao Zedong to destroy the UN forces. The UN forces were nonetheless able to make a fighting withdrawal and broke out of the encirclement while inflicting crippling losses on the Chinese. While the battle resulted in the Chinese pushing the UN out of North Korea, it was a Pyrrhic victory. The evacuation of the X Corps from the port of Hungnam marked the complete withdrawal of UN troops from North Korea.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chosin_Reservoir
I have never studied the battle of the Chosin Reservoir but did read Chesty Puller’s biography.
Sometimes it is hard to believe America produced such great men.
Retreat Hell” is just part of a quotation. Two classic Marine quotes came out of the Chosin Reservoir battles:
“We’re surrounded.
That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them.
Now we can fire in any direction,
those bastards won’t get away this time!”
[Brigadier General Chesty Puller]
“Retreat, hell!
We’re attacking in a different direction!”
[Major General Oliver Smith]
Some absolutely heroic actions were commonplace in the Chosin Reservoir fighting. Some of them are shown from time to time on the Military Channel or American Heroes Channel.
If anyone hasn’t seen Frank Lovejoy, this is a good introduction.
Read The Boys of Autumn.
I posted this in another thread today. It is unknown to most Americans today.
One of the things that was fascinating to me (and really unfortunate for those Marines) was that there were a number of Marines who had been on (inactive?) reserve after WWII and were called up. They were quickly trained and formed back into some semblance of units, and sent to Korea where they ended up in Chosin at that place and time.
Some of those guys had fought last on Peleliu, which by all accounts, was some of the most taxing, bloody and gruesome combat of the war in 120 plus degree temps with little drinkable water...about as bad as it could apparently get.
Then, five or six years later, some of those exact same guys who had to fight in 120 degree plus temps ended up in Chosin fighting in extraordinary bitter weather that had the capability to make Bastogne look nearly balmy in comparison. It got as low as 37 degrees below zero, and they had winds up to 50 mph. The windchill had to be just brutal.
Unbelievable. One can only imagine one of those Marines saying “What the hell kind of a deck of cards did I pull THIS from after being on Peleliu????â€
“Breakout” is a great book as well.
I met a couple of Chosin Marines up in New Hampshire a few years back at a clam shack up near Hampton Beach.
A couple of 80+ year old lean guys wearing their veteran hats...my buddy and I went up and shook their hands.
Like yarddog said...Great Men.
NOTE: This year is the sixty-fifth anniversary of this momentus battle, little remembered by most Americans today.
I was talking to two guys at work, one 45, one 33.
Neither one of them had any idea what the Doolittle Raid was. It made me feel pretty old.
Thanks for posting this...watching now, never seen it. I like it so far.
My brother was in the 3rd division at Hungnam and helped set the charges that destroyed the harbor after they got the Marines out.
“My brother was in the 3rd division at Hungnam and helped set the charges that destroyed the harbor after they got the Marines out.”
Here is a film which depicts some of his handiwork.
WITH THE MARINES / CHOSIN TO HUNGNAM - USMC , Korean War , 1st Marine Division 81590
YouTube ^ | 1951 | U.S. Naval Photographic Center
Posted on ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2015‎ ‎5‎:‎07‎:‎06‎ ‎AM by WhiskeyX
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3370713/posts
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