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Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950
On General Douglas MacArthur 's orders, a force of 12,000 U.S. Marines were marching north to the Yalu river in late November 1950. These three regiments of the 1st Marine Division--strung out along eighty miles of a narrow mountain road--soon found themselves completely surrounded by 60,000 Chinese soldiers. Despite being given up for lost by the military brass, the 1st Marine Division fought its way out of the frozen mountains, miraculously taking thier dead and wounded with them as they ran the gauntlet of unceasing Chinese attacks.This is the gripping story that Martin Russ tells in his extraordinary book. Breakout is an unforgettable portrayal of the terror and courage of men as they face sudden death, making the bloody battles of the Korean hills and valleys come alive as they never have before.
Of interest will be the new PBS American Experience Documentary "The Battle of Chosin", which premiered on November 1, 2016.
Of interest will be the new PBS American Experience Documentary "The Battle of Chosin", which premiered on November 1, 2016.
464 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1999
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About the author
Martin Russ
25 books4 followersMartin Faxon Russ was an American military author, Marine, and associate professor at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Russ was born in Newark on Feb. 14, 1931, to Carroll and Lavinia Faxon Dunn. His parents were professional writers.
After graduating from a private school in Connecticut, Russ attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., but dropped out in his junior year to join the Marines. Assigned to an ordnance battalion, Private Russ made a nuisance of himself until his request for combat duty was granted.
Despite the fear and devastation he had faced in Korea and later wrote about, Mr. Russ remained “a gung-ho Marine’’ throughout his life, his sister said. Of his time on the front line, he wrote in his first book: “I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the world. Whether I’m ready for the loony bin or not is beside the point.’’
In later years, although he had no college degree, he taught writing at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Russ was born in Newark on Feb. 14, 1931, to Carroll and Lavinia Faxon Dunn. His parents were professional writers.
After graduating from a private school in Connecticut, Russ attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., but dropped out in his junior year to join the Marines. Assigned to an ordnance battalion, Private Russ made a nuisance of himself until his request for combat duty was granted.
Despite the fear and devastation he had faced in Korea and later wrote about, Mr. Russ remained “a gung-ho Marine’’ throughout his life, his sister said. Of his time on the front line, he wrote in his first book: “I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the world. Whether I’m ready for the loony bin or not is beside the point.’’
In later years, although he had no college degree, he taught writing at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
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January 16, 2021
General Douglas MacArthur had made the mistake of underestimating the abilities of the North Koreans in the first days of the Korean War. He had even spoken about what would happen if he could put a single division into Korea: “Why heavens you’d see those fellows scuddle up to the Manchurian border so quick, you would see no more of them.” However, he soon came to realize that he was fighting a ferocious, resilient enemy, "as capable and tough", he told Averell Harriman during a meeting in Tokyo, as any soldiers he had ever encountered, and this assessment changed his strategy. Long before the American troops were pressured into the Pusan Perimeter, he was already focused on an amphibious landing that could make superior American technology matter and turn the war around with one decisive stroke.
During the Pacific War, Dugout Doug had used American air and sea power to strike where the Japanese least expected it, isolating and stranding their forward people and strongest positions, and he intended to do exactly the same thing in Korea. As early as July 4 he was already thinking of landing behind In Min Gun lines, but he had little notion of how poorly trained, equipped, and led the first wave of American troops he had dispatched to Korea were; they were in no way ready for such a complex amphibious operation. This is why, Operation Bluehearts, which was supposed to take place on July 22, was junked, and at the suggestion of Lieutenant General Lem Shepherd, the Marine commander in the Pacific, MacArthur turned to the Marines, who at the time badly needed roles and missions.
The more MacArthur thought about an amphibious landing, the more he fixed on Inchon, which was indeed well behind North Korean lines, but which was also "a disaster looking for a place to happen". Any amphibious landing was dangerous, but Inchon seemed like it might be far worse than any other site. “We drew up a list of every natural and geographic handicap – and Inchon had all of them,” said Lieutenant Commander Arlie Capps, one of the staff members on the team of Admiral James Doyle, the Navy’s top amphibious planner.
Almost everyone was appalled by MacArthur's choice, especially the Navy people assigned to plan and execute the landing. Back in Washington the Joint Chiefs were wary, in no small part because of the risk itself, and MacArthur was very much aware of that. He was preparing for one of the great performances of his life – convincing the Navy and the Chiefs to go along with Inchon. And such a grand performance he would give that he would carry the day and get the Navy's full support. (“Do you know General MacArthur?” Ike Eisenhower was once asked by a woman. “Not only have I met him, ma’am,” Ike answered, “I studied dramatics under him for five years in Washington and four in the Philippines.”)
Strangely, while surprise is crucial for an amphibious landing, it was completely missing in the case of Incheon. Everyone in Tokyo seemed to know what was coming and where and when it was going to take place. In the Tokyo Press Club, a great center of rumors about the war, it was already dubbed Operation Common Knowledge. Nevertheless, everyone was shocked when the news about who would command the operation came out; most senior officers in Washington and some in Tokyo had expected the command to go to Lieutenant General Lem Shepherd, to whom MacArthur owed the Marines' support and who lived by amphibious landings, but instead the commander would be Major General Edward "Ned The Dread" Almond. Not only had Dugout Doug separated the Inchon command from the Eighth Army, but he had also given it to to his own man, Almond, a lickspittle always laboring to be MacArthur's favored aide. It was actually a political move, for it placed much of the Korean command in the hands of someone whose loyalty was completely to MacArthur and was outside the reach of the Chiefs, whom he despised. The Marines viewed Douglas' move as a disaster, and there was a private fury among some of them about the way that Almond had treated Major General O. P. Smith, the Marine First Division commander, a much revered officer, at their first meeting. Smith, who was ticketed to command the landing, was kept waiting for half an hour and then was called "son" by Almond, who was only ten months older than him, during their briefing session.
The Incheon landing itself went not merely as MacArthur had planned but as he had dreamed. The conditions proved better than expected, the initial resistance was comparatively light, and Doyle’s planning had been skillful and detailed. Very important is the fact that at Inchon MacArthur was lucky in no small part because Kim Il Sung was a careless, arrogant enemy commander, who refused to consider the possibility of an amphibious landing taking place behind his lines. The Chinese, who on the other hand were very much aware of a massive American build-up in Japan in the weeks before the landing, specifically warned him about Incheon, but to their surprise, Kim made no moves, not even to mine the harbor.
Despite the initial success, after the landing, when the UN forces began to move towards Seoul, things began to go awry. The North Korean resistance gradually stiffened, and the tensions between Almond and Smith grew more bitter. Ned The Dread began demanding immediate results, which Smith, trying to complete the increasingly deadly mission without unnecessarily sacrificing the lives of his men, thought unrealistic. Top Marine officers felt that Almond, who had never been part of an amphibious landing in his life, diminished the dangers and difficulties, was disrespectful of their needs, and did not listen to anyone he outranked. But if the two officers’ relationship had begun poorly, it completely disintegrated once combat began. Their feud, in the words of Marine historian Edwin Simmons, eventually became “the stuff of legends".
Smith had warned Almond that the ease of the Inchon landing was deceptive, that taking Seoul might be a very different thing. And indeed, as the UN forces struck at Inchon, Kim Il Sung had rushed some twenty thousand additional troops to the Seoul area. The road to Seoul, Smith later noted, was “one of those routine operations that read easier in newspapers than on the ground.” The North Koreans had the advantage of fighting defensively, and the battle for Seoul, hard, slow urban warfare, reminded me of the Battle for Stalingrad. In addition, Smith knew that taking Seoul was not a necessary battle, but rather a means to satisfy the constant need from MacArthur’s headquarters for glory. To Smith, Almond was risking his Marines unnecessarily "for a couple of extra lines in newspapers" because his commander wanted the city to be taken exactly on September 25.
While some Marines did reach Seoul on the appointed date and Almond was able to issue his communiqué saying the city had been taken, it was far from the truth to the men who fought bitterly there till September 28th. "If the city has been liberated,” quipped an Associated Press reporter, “the remaining North Koreans did not know it.” The damage the harsh battle did to the relationship between Ned The Dread and the Marines would have serious consequences, but Almond had delivered Seoul to MacArthur on time, and Inchon became Dugout Doug's great success and his alone. It surely saved thousands of American lives just as he had predicted, and he had fought for it almost alone against the doubts of the principal Navy planners and the wishes of the Joint Chiefs. There was, however, one serious flaw in his plan – the totality of his success. Because he had stood for it against everyone else, on all other issues afterward it was very hard to stand up to him. This overwhelming success changed the very nature of his command; he began seizing even greater control. “Inchon was,” said Frank Gibney, then a young combat correspondent from Time, “the most expensive victory we ever won because it led to the complete deification of MacArthur and the terrible, terrible defeats that happened next.”
Next, Mao decided to enter the war because he believed it was good for the new China and necessary for the future of the revolution, and the hour of signals sent but not received, of reg flags accidentally or purposefully ignored, of intelligence wrested to suit MacArthur, struck.
"There was no area of MacArthur’s headquarters where the drop-off between the talents required for the job and the prejudices and bombast of the incumbent was as noticeable as with Willoughby, or Sir Charles, or Lord Willoughby, or Baron von Willoughby – or Bonnie Prince Charles, as he was sometimes known by officers not in the Bataan Gang," wrote David Halberstam in THE COLD WAR. Willoughby was not just MacArthur’s principal personal intelligence man; when it came to the war in Korea, he was the only intelligence man who mattered. While most commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible, MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling the sources of intelligence. It was always important to him that his intelligence reports perfectly reflect what he had intended to do in the first place. What that meant was that the intelligence Willoughby was turning over to MacArthur was deliberately prefabricated. Intelligence estimates that reflected a growing Chinese presence might have prevented Douglas from making what he wanted most: the final drive to the Yalu. Instead, Willoughby falsified the intelligence reports about the arrival of Chinese troops into the extreme northern reaches of Korea.
General Douglas MacArthur's decision to send his troops all the way to the Yalu was a military miscalculation of enormous proportions. All sorts of red flags were there for him, but he and his sycophantic staff (“You don’t have a staff, General. You have a court," told him Marshall once.) chose not to see them, and his troops, their command split, their communications often dangerously weak, the weather worsening by the day, pushed north, while the Chinese patiently waited for them in their carefully prepared ambush, which became the largest one in modern warfare. When Mao was briefed about the Incheon landing, he flooded his experts with questions not only about MacArthur's tactics, but also about his personality. After being told that the General was "famous for his arrogance and stubbornness", he said, "Fine! Fine! The more arrogant and more stubborn he is the better." "An arrogant enemy," added he, "is easy to defeat." What the Chinese now wanted was for MacArthur to move ever farther north, extending his supply lines even more.
The day that the Marines were to kick off their part of the big drive north was November 27. By November, General O.P. Smith had come to believe that the Chinese were probably setting a vast trap for the American forces, and he did not intend to be the man who would lose the First Marine Division to the Chinese in some frozen wasteland because he had blindly followed orders he believed bore no relationship to the battlefield. “The country around Chosin was never intended for military operations,” Smith said after the battle was over. “Even Genghis Khan wouldn’t tackle it.” Thus, the wonderful Marine breakout from the Chosin Reservoir would be a great moment in the Marine Corps’ history – and no small amount of credit for its success was Smith’s, more for what he did not do than for what he did.
During the Pacific War, Dugout Doug had used American air and sea power to strike where the Japanese least expected it, isolating and stranding their forward people and strongest positions, and he intended to do exactly the same thing in Korea. As early as July 4 he was already thinking of landing behind In Min Gun lines, but he had little notion of how poorly trained, equipped, and led the first wave of American troops he had dispatched to Korea were; they were in no way ready for such a complex amphibious operation. This is why, Operation Bluehearts, which was supposed to take place on July 22, was junked, and at the suggestion of Lieutenant General Lem Shepherd, the Marine commander in the Pacific, MacArthur turned to the Marines, who at the time badly needed roles and missions.
The more MacArthur thought about an amphibious landing, the more he fixed on Inchon, which was indeed well behind North Korean lines, but which was also "a disaster looking for a place to happen". Any amphibious landing was dangerous, but Inchon seemed like it might be far worse than any other site. “We drew up a list of every natural and geographic handicap – and Inchon had all of them,” said Lieutenant Commander Arlie Capps, one of the staff members on the team of Admiral James Doyle, the Navy’s top amphibious planner.
Almost everyone was appalled by MacArthur's choice, especially the Navy people assigned to plan and execute the landing. Back in Washington the Joint Chiefs were wary, in no small part because of the risk itself, and MacArthur was very much aware of that. He was preparing for one of the great performances of his life – convincing the Navy and the Chiefs to go along with Inchon. And such a grand performance he would give that he would carry the day and get the Navy's full support. (“Do you know General MacArthur?” Ike Eisenhower was once asked by a woman. “Not only have I met him, ma’am,” Ike answered, “I studied dramatics under him for five years in Washington and four in the Philippines.”)
Strangely, while surprise is crucial for an amphibious landing, it was completely missing in the case of Incheon. Everyone in Tokyo seemed to know what was coming and where and when it was going to take place. In the Tokyo Press Club, a great center of rumors about the war, it was already dubbed Operation Common Knowledge. Nevertheless, everyone was shocked when the news about who would command the operation came out; most senior officers in Washington and some in Tokyo had expected the command to go to Lieutenant General Lem Shepherd, to whom MacArthur owed the Marines' support and who lived by amphibious landings, but instead the commander would be Major General Edward "Ned The Dread" Almond. Not only had Dugout Doug separated the Inchon command from the Eighth Army, but he had also given it to to his own man, Almond, a lickspittle always laboring to be MacArthur's favored aide. It was actually a political move, for it placed much of the Korean command in the hands of someone whose loyalty was completely to MacArthur and was outside the reach of the Chiefs, whom he despised. The Marines viewed Douglas' move as a disaster, and there was a private fury among some of them about the way that Almond had treated Major General O. P. Smith, the Marine First Division commander, a much revered officer, at their first meeting. Smith, who was ticketed to command the landing, was kept waiting for half an hour and then was called "son" by Almond, who was only ten months older than him, during their briefing session.
The Incheon landing itself went not merely as MacArthur had planned but as he had dreamed. The conditions proved better than expected, the initial resistance was comparatively light, and Doyle’s planning had been skillful and detailed. Very important is the fact that at Inchon MacArthur was lucky in no small part because Kim Il Sung was a careless, arrogant enemy commander, who refused to consider the possibility of an amphibious landing taking place behind his lines. The Chinese, who on the other hand were very much aware of a massive American build-up in Japan in the weeks before the landing, specifically warned him about Incheon, but to their surprise, Kim made no moves, not even to mine the harbor.
Despite the initial success, after the landing, when the UN forces began to move towards Seoul, things began to go awry. The North Korean resistance gradually stiffened, and the tensions between Almond and Smith grew more bitter. Ned The Dread began demanding immediate results, which Smith, trying to complete the increasingly deadly mission without unnecessarily sacrificing the lives of his men, thought unrealistic. Top Marine officers felt that Almond, who had never been part of an amphibious landing in his life, diminished the dangers and difficulties, was disrespectful of their needs, and did not listen to anyone he outranked. But if the two officers’ relationship had begun poorly, it completely disintegrated once combat began. Their feud, in the words of Marine historian Edwin Simmons, eventually became “the stuff of legends".
Smith had warned Almond that the ease of the Inchon landing was deceptive, that taking Seoul might be a very different thing. And indeed, as the UN forces struck at Inchon, Kim Il Sung had rushed some twenty thousand additional troops to the Seoul area. The road to Seoul, Smith later noted, was “one of those routine operations that read easier in newspapers than on the ground.” The North Koreans had the advantage of fighting defensively, and the battle for Seoul, hard, slow urban warfare, reminded me of the Battle for Stalingrad. In addition, Smith knew that taking Seoul was not a necessary battle, but rather a means to satisfy the constant need from MacArthur’s headquarters for glory. To Smith, Almond was risking his Marines unnecessarily "for a couple of extra lines in newspapers" because his commander wanted the city to be taken exactly on September 25.
While some Marines did reach Seoul on the appointed date and Almond was able to issue his communiqué saying the city had been taken, it was far from the truth to the men who fought bitterly there till September 28th. "If the city has been liberated,” quipped an Associated Press reporter, “the remaining North Koreans did not know it.” The damage the harsh battle did to the relationship between Ned The Dread and the Marines would have serious consequences, but Almond had delivered Seoul to MacArthur on time, and Inchon became Dugout Doug's great success and his alone. It surely saved thousands of American lives just as he had predicted, and he had fought for it almost alone against the doubts of the principal Navy planners and the wishes of the Joint Chiefs. There was, however, one serious flaw in his plan – the totality of his success. Because he had stood for it against everyone else, on all other issues afterward it was very hard to stand up to him. This overwhelming success changed the very nature of his command; he began seizing even greater control. “Inchon was,” said Frank Gibney, then a young combat correspondent from Time, “the most expensive victory we ever won because it led to the complete deification of MacArthur and the terrible, terrible defeats that happened next.”
Next, Mao decided to enter the war because he believed it was good for the new China and necessary for the future of the revolution, and the hour of signals sent but not received, of reg flags accidentally or purposefully ignored, of intelligence wrested to suit MacArthur, struck.
"There was no area of MacArthur’s headquarters where the drop-off between the talents required for the job and the prejudices and bombast of the incumbent was as noticeable as with Willoughby, or Sir Charles, or Lord Willoughby, or Baron von Willoughby – or Bonnie Prince Charles, as he was sometimes known by officers not in the Bataan Gang," wrote David Halberstam in THE COLD WAR. Willoughby was not just MacArthur’s principal personal intelligence man; when it came to the war in Korea, he was the only intelligence man who mattered. While most commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible, MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling the sources of intelligence. It was always important to him that his intelligence reports perfectly reflect what he had intended to do in the first place. What that meant was that the intelligence Willoughby was turning over to MacArthur was deliberately prefabricated. Intelligence estimates that reflected a growing Chinese presence might have prevented Douglas from making what he wanted most: the final drive to the Yalu. Instead, Willoughby falsified the intelligence reports about the arrival of Chinese troops into the extreme northern reaches of Korea.
General Douglas MacArthur's decision to send his troops all the way to the Yalu was a military miscalculation of enormous proportions. All sorts of red flags were there for him, but he and his sycophantic staff (“You don’t have a staff, General. You have a court," told him Marshall once.) chose not to see them, and his troops, their command split, their communications often dangerously weak, the weather worsening by the day, pushed north, while the Chinese patiently waited for them in their carefully prepared ambush, which became the largest one in modern warfare. When Mao was briefed about the Incheon landing, he flooded his experts with questions not only about MacArthur's tactics, but also about his personality. After being told that the General was "famous for his arrogance and stubbornness", he said, "Fine! Fine! The more arrogant and more stubborn he is the better." "An arrogant enemy," added he, "is easy to defeat." What the Chinese now wanted was for MacArthur to move ever farther north, extending his supply lines even more.
The day that the Marines were to kick off their part of the big drive north was November 27. By November, General O.P. Smith had come to believe that the Chinese were probably setting a vast trap for the American forces, and he did not intend to be the man who would lose the First Marine Division to the Chinese in some frozen wasteland because he had blindly followed orders he believed bore no relationship to the battlefield. “The country around Chosin was never intended for military operations,” Smith said after the battle was over. “Even Genghis Khan wouldn’t tackle it.” Thus, the wonderful Marine breakout from the Chosin Reservoir would be a great moment in the Marine Corps’ history – and no small amount of credit for its success was Smith’s, more for what he did not do than for what he did.
January 5, 2023
In short, I loved it and for me it is definitely a five star read and worth a re-read.
The book does a great job of covering the initial encirclement and how the Marines fought off the Chinese. Probably the highlight of the book was the breakout of the Marines from Yudam-ni (the point of the Marine Corps extreme northern movement) to Hagaru-ri. I could hardly contain my own emotions as they described the execution of the intricate plan of the Marine breakout. I dare you to read this and not shed a tear as they describe how the 5th and 7th Marines marched into Hagaru-ri. You will be beaming with Marine pride and yes, you will feel the occasional chill up and down your spine.
Hagaru was not yet in site but the Marines at the head of the long column could now see the pillars of smoke from the smoldering fires there, evidence of the battle the night before.
It was close to 7pm the evening of December 3rd, when they came within sight of the of the checkpoint at the north end of the Hagaru perimeter. There was a feeling of tension and excitement in the air.
“They’re Coming”
General Smith: “From the command post I could clearly hear the noise of the approaching vehicles.”
At the very point of the long column walked two Lieutenant colonels, Davis and Dowsett. The latter had just received a radio message from the operations manager and Hagaru, stiffly warning him to halt outside the checkpoint and identify himself properly, giving the correct password and waiting to be properly recognized before advancing. Dowsett replied coldly, “I have no idea what the password is. We’re coming straight in. Don’t get in our way.”
As word of the imminent approach of the 5th and 7th Marines flashed around the perimeter, the remnant of the Royal Marine Commando darted out in perfect order to drive the Chinese off the hill nearest the checkpoint, lest the reunion be marred by by additional casualties....
Five hundred yards north of the perimeter, the trucks ground to a halt. Those of the frost bitten and wounded that could do so climbed down to the ground and formed up on the bleak, snow blown roadway.
“You people will now shape up and look sharp, Shouted Davis. “We’re going in like United States Marines.”
One of the sergeants began calling cadence in the distinctive Paris Island manner, a haunting, stirring sound to anyone who has been through Marine boot camp. There in the early dark began to march forward, haggard and hard, their shoe-pacs pounding in slow relentless rhythm.
Colonel Bowser stuck his head in the bungalow and invited General OP Smith to come outside. “It’s quite a site” he promised. A moment later Smith was standing on the step, puffing his pipe, watching the column approach.
Davis: “By the time we reached the checkpoint we were parade ground Marines - stepping smartly, backs strait, heads up, marching in perfect unison, singing the Marines’ Hymn.”
PFC George Crotts: “Later on a guy told me some of us looked like zombies. I told him that’s because some of us were zombies. The dead Marines on the trucks you see, when they heard the Marine drill sergeant calling cadence, they came to life and climbed down to join the ranks. Semper Fidelis is strong medicine; It means ‘Always Faithful.’ Tell you one thing: You could definitely feel the spirit of those that had gone ahead. As we like to say, they were there with us.”
This was such a great story and the initial breakout was such a great confidence builder. One Regimental commander told a reporter he didn’t really think they could do it but they did. The rest (from Hagaru-ri) was anticlimactic. It was a forgone conclusion and the Chinese started surrendering to the Marines! OP Smith said the Chinese never had a chance from that point on.
Early in the morning of December 5th LT. Colonel Murray called a meeting of his battalion commanders and staff and delivered a stirring exhortation. “We’re going to hold our present position until the 7th Marines clear the road to Koto-ri. When the time comes for us to March, we’re coming out like Marines, not like stragglers. This is not a retreat. There are more Chinese between us and the sea than there are north of us. General Smith said it best; we’re attacking in a different direction. Any officer that doubts our ability to break out had better catch himself a case of frostbite and I’ll see that he’s evacuated. We’re coming out like Marines.”
Later Murray was talking to a reporter: you should of been with us at Yudam-ni you would of gotten a hell of a story out there...”
“We got out of Yudam-ni didn’t we? If we get out of there we can get out of here.”
Murray than revealed something to the reporter he hadn’t mentioned to anyone else “I didn’t think we could do it,” he said, and he began to talk about the Yudam ni breakout, he wiped tears away with the dirty sleeve of his parka.
While the US Army was bugging out, Marines were going AWOL to fly into the perimeter so they could help the 1st Marine Division fight their way out.
It was almost dark, PFC James G Collins, Able/7 was trying to scrape out a foxhole for himself when he saw a young Marine carrying a sea bag and a brand new BAR up the hill. He stopped to ask Buddy Jameson a question and Jameson turned and pointed at Collins. “Up comes this clean shaven kid with a big grin and I nearly had a stroke because it was my own brother, Edmond. After we embraced and pounded each other on the back, he told me he was AWOL. Instead of reporting to Baker Company 1st Marines, he had climbed aboard a plane bound for Hagaru so he could be with me. I was very glad to see him, but this AWOL business worried me because he was serious trouble.”
James took him over to his platoon leader, LT. Bobby Bradley. “This here’s my older brother, sir and he’s AWOL from the 1st Marines.
“Very good said The LT. “We need every man we can get. He’ll join your fire team, Collins. You’re short a man aren’t you?”
Collins asked the officer if he thought there was some kind of disciplinary action in store for Edmon.
“I doubt it,” said LT Bradley. “He didn’t go AWOL in the face of the enemy, after all - he went AWOL to face the enemy. Big difference.”
Author Martín Russ does a nice comparison of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army but please understand that Russ has a bias. Russ was a Marine who served and was awarded the Purple Heart in Korea. To him, the Army did absolutely nothing correct. I tend to agree with him. They were badly led from MacArthur on down and they had to be at a point of low morale. The Marines in comparison were at the opposite end of the spectrum. They were much better led and this starts with their Division CO, OP Smith. Smith’s outright insubordination to the X Corp CO and US Army General, Ned Almond saved the 1st Division. OP Smith instructed his Marines to build an airport at Hagaru-ri and to leave ammo dumps along the way. The Division seemed strung out to me but author Martin Russ said if the Marines would have been where Almond wanted them to be they may have never been able to concentrate. For what OP Smith did he should have been awarded the MOH! But the difference was the fighting spirit of the small unit leaders and the Marines they led. Many times the worst Marine in garrison was the best Marine in combat. Take for instance the story of Private Stanley Robinson:
His Platoon Commander, lieutenant Yancy called him the platoon delinquent. Stateside, Robbie had been AWOL repeatedly and was considered incorrigible. The Division was under strength when the war broke out so Robbie was offered the classic choice: The brig or the infantry.
“Talking with him at Hagaru I learned he went AWOL because he had this kid wife and they had a baby and there were problems. His first piece of good luck was getting assigned to Yancy’s Platoon. Yancy was about the toughest Marine you could find anywhere, but he was kindhearted to people that needed a bit of kindness. He talked with Robinson for about 5 minutes and got to know him better than all the all the Navy psychiatrists who had been trying to figure him out for months...it was the case of a lost soul finding something he was good at in a life that hadn’t had much purpose up to then; because the truth is, he wasn’t much good at anything else. I heard I later years he was killed in a shoot out with Colorado State troopers.
Robinson had already distinguished himself on hill 698 shooting his BAR from the hip and throwing grenades. In fact, the Battalion commander came down to recruit Robinson as his bodyguard.
Yancy and his troops thought they had seen the last of Robinson and were sorry to see him go; but it turns out that Stanley Robinson would go AWOL one more time.
Corpsman James Claypool: “Yancy and I were wondering how private Stanley Robinson was doing back at Regiment as Litzenberg’s bodyguard. ...this youngster might be unable to restrain the wild streak in him. This was a kid that was considered such a badass he had to be brought on ship under guard...well guess who came toiling up the hill late that afternoon? We were glad to see him and his BAR but I noticed he was limping and I got him to sit down and take off his boots even before he reported to Mr. Yancy.
Robinson of course tried to give me a hard time. I looked him in the eye and said ‘are you going to argue with me?’ He thought it over and finally unlaced his boots. I was shocked by what I saw. The skin between his toes was raw and the skin on his ankles too. There was infection . He had the equivalent of second and third burns. He was virtually crippled with frostbite. ‘You’re going back down the hill’ I told him.
Robinson: “The hell I am.”
Corpsman: “Robinson ...”
Robinson: “Don’t fuck with me swabbie.”
"In the end I had to go tell Yancy...I told Yancy that Robinson’s feet were beyond my resources to treat, that he would probably have to be evacuated....‘Robbie I’m glad to see you’ he said ‘but you’re going to have to go back down the hill and turn yourself into battalion Aid...’Robinson was so angry he didn’t even say goodbye. We watched him limp down the back trail. We were all disappointed.”
Private Stanley Robinson lay disgruntled and footsore on a stretcher. Listening to the distant sound of battle wondering how Easy Company was doing. An ambulance pulled up outside; litter bearers brought in a stretcher and put a wounded man down beside him.
Robinson: what outfit you with?
Wounded man: “Easy Company, 7th”
Robinson: “They got hit pretty good?”
Wounded man: “Clobbered...Mr Yancy’s been hit but he’s still going.”
Robinson sat up. In the darkness of the tent he began to pull on his boots, grunting with pain as he stuffed his swollen feet into the stiff snow packs. It took several minutes to do the job. At last he stood up, pulled on his dirty parka and went stumbling through the tent flaps. Outside he snatched up a rifle and cartridge belt from the pile of discards. A corpsman appeared. “Where do you think your going Robinson.”
Robinson: “what does it look like, Doc?”
Corpsman: “Go back inside.”
Robinson: “Get the fuck out of my way.”
The scrawny youngster slung the rifle and tottered toward the big hill like an old man. An hour later, having been forced to crawl up the steeper portions of the path, he was asking for directions to 1st platoon.
Marine: “Top of the hill over there.”
Robinson: “Seen Mr. Yancy?”
Marine: “He’s been hit twice but still at it.”
Yancy was hunched beside a machine gunner. He felt a sharp slap on the bottom of his boot. I looked down and there he was, with his off kilter grin, looking sloppier and dirtier than ever.
Yancy: “What the hell are you doing here?”
Robinson: “ I heard you candyassed pogues needed help.’
Yancy: “I’ll be damned."
Robinson: “You got any work for a BAR man?”
Yancy pointed to the right. “See those kids over there? Go square them away."
This book is about Marines anecdotes and eye witness accounts strung together to tell a pretty good story. Consider the Chinese battalion that tried to attack the Marine regimental artillery limbered up on the road to Koto-ri:
At daybreak on December 7 the column was abruptly halted by a concentration of enemy fire from the heights to the east. During a lull it became apparent that the Chinese were about to launch an infantry assault against a segment of the column occupied by the guns and crews of George and How Batteries. Major James Calender and Captains Ernest Payne and Benjamin Read lost no time unlimbering and preparing for action. Trucks were jockeyed back and forth so that the muzzles of the 9 howitzers could be thrust between them, while crewmen passed boxes of shells over the tail gates and others carried them to the guns. The stage was set for an unusual confrontation: a fight to the finish between an infantry battalion and two batteries of artillery.
Now that it was broad daylight, the men of sergeant Russell Runes Machine Gun section watched as Chinese troops began to mass on the other side of the railroad tracks. Captain Read ordered him to bring his troops back to the road where Captain Payne was organizing truck drivers into a firing line.
Major Francis Parry: “It was none too soon. Individual Chinese were already sticking their heads above the embankment or jumping up for a better look.”
The gun crews began to fire shells straight across the railroad embankment, stopping the Chinese as they began to flow onto the tracks. There had been no time to dig in the gun trails, so the men of each howitzer crew braced themselves against the gun shield, absorbing part of the recoil with their bodies and helping to keep the guns in position for the next shot. After every 4th or 5th round the gunners would push the pieces forward again and resume blasting away at the oncoming troops. There was no time to sort ammunition; crewmen were shoving whatever variety of shell was at hand into the breeches - high explosive, armor piercing, white phosphorus, canister- firing at targets so close they were at time endangered by shrapnel from their own shells. Neither was their time to set fuses or count propellant charges; there was only time to shoot, clear, load, and shoot again. The scene was appallingly grim: a mass dismemberment or vaporization of human beings in padded quilt.
When it was all over the Marines counted more than 500 shattered corpses on the field of battle. How and George batteries had fired more than 600 rounds. Three Marine crewmen had been killed, thirty four wounded.
Major Parry: “Has field artillery ever had a grander hour?”
There is story after story here and I loved every minute of this book.
Oh and one more thing: I am very biased too as I claimed the title of a United States Marine a long time ago. Please enjoy.
The book does a great job of covering the initial encirclement and how the Marines fought off the Chinese. Probably the highlight of the book was the breakout of the Marines from Yudam-ni (the point of the Marine Corps extreme northern movement) to Hagaru-ri. I could hardly contain my own emotions as they described the execution of the intricate plan of the Marine breakout. I dare you to read this and not shed a tear as they describe how the 5th and 7th Marines marched into Hagaru-ri. You will be beaming with Marine pride and yes, you will feel the occasional chill up and down your spine.
Hagaru was not yet in site but the Marines at the head of the long column could now see the pillars of smoke from the smoldering fires there, evidence of the battle the night before.
It was close to 7pm the evening of December 3rd, when they came within sight of the of the checkpoint at the north end of the Hagaru perimeter. There was a feeling of tension and excitement in the air.
“They’re Coming”
General Smith: “From the command post I could clearly hear the noise of the approaching vehicles.”
At the very point of the long column walked two Lieutenant colonels, Davis and Dowsett. The latter had just received a radio message from the operations manager and Hagaru, stiffly warning him to halt outside the checkpoint and identify himself properly, giving the correct password and waiting to be properly recognized before advancing. Dowsett replied coldly, “I have no idea what the password is. We’re coming straight in. Don’t get in our way.”
As word of the imminent approach of the 5th and 7th Marines flashed around the perimeter, the remnant of the Royal Marine Commando darted out in perfect order to drive the Chinese off the hill nearest the checkpoint, lest the reunion be marred by by additional casualties....
Five hundred yards north of the perimeter, the trucks ground to a halt. Those of the frost bitten and wounded that could do so climbed down to the ground and formed up on the bleak, snow blown roadway.
“You people will now shape up and look sharp, Shouted Davis. “We’re going in like United States Marines.”
One of the sergeants began calling cadence in the distinctive Paris Island manner, a haunting, stirring sound to anyone who has been through Marine boot camp. There in the early dark began to march forward, haggard and hard, their shoe-pacs pounding in slow relentless rhythm.
Colonel Bowser stuck his head in the bungalow and invited General OP Smith to come outside. “It’s quite a site” he promised. A moment later Smith was standing on the step, puffing his pipe, watching the column approach.
Davis: “By the time we reached the checkpoint we were parade ground Marines - stepping smartly, backs strait, heads up, marching in perfect unison, singing the Marines’ Hymn.”
PFC George Crotts: “Later on a guy told me some of us looked like zombies. I told him that’s because some of us were zombies. The dead Marines on the trucks you see, when they heard the Marine drill sergeant calling cadence, they came to life and climbed down to join the ranks. Semper Fidelis is strong medicine; It means ‘Always Faithful.’ Tell you one thing: You could definitely feel the spirit of those that had gone ahead. As we like to say, they were there with us.”
This was such a great story and the initial breakout was such a great confidence builder. One Regimental commander told a reporter he didn’t really think they could do it but they did. The rest (from Hagaru-ri) was anticlimactic. It was a forgone conclusion and the Chinese started surrendering to the Marines! OP Smith said the Chinese never had a chance from that point on.
Early in the morning of December 5th LT. Colonel Murray called a meeting of his battalion commanders and staff and delivered a stirring exhortation. “We’re going to hold our present position until the 7th Marines clear the road to Koto-ri. When the time comes for us to March, we’re coming out like Marines, not like stragglers. This is not a retreat. There are more Chinese between us and the sea than there are north of us. General Smith said it best; we’re attacking in a different direction. Any officer that doubts our ability to break out had better catch himself a case of frostbite and I’ll see that he’s evacuated. We’re coming out like Marines.”
Later Murray was talking to a reporter: you should of been with us at Yudam-ni you would of gotten a hell of a story out there...”
“We got out of Yudam-ni didn’t we? If we get out of there we can get out of here.”
Murray than revealed something to the reporter he hadn’t mentioned to anyone else “I didn’t think we could do it,” he said, and he began to talk about the Yudam ni breakout, he wiped tears away with the dirty sleeve of his parka.
While the US Army was bugging out, Marines were going AWOL to fly into the perimeter so they could help the 1st Marine Division fight their way out.
It was almost dark, PFC James G Collins, Able/7 was trying to scrape out a foxhole for himself when he saw a young Marine carrying a sea bag and a brand new BAR up the hill. He stopped to ask Buddy Jameson a question and Jameson turned and pointed at Collins. “Up comes this clean shaven kid with a big grin and I nearly had a stroke because it was my own brother, Edmond. After we embraced and pounded each other on the back, he told me he was AWOL. Instead of reporting to Baker Company 1st Marines, he had climbed aboard a plane bound for Hagaru so he could be with me. I was very glad to see him, but this AWOL business worried me because he was serious trouble.”
James took him over to his platoon leader, LT. Bobby Bradley. “This here’s my older brother, sir and he’s AWOL from the 1st Marines.
“Very good said The LT. “We need every man we can get. He’ll join your fire team, Collins. You’re short a man aren’t you?”
Collins asked the officer if he thought there was some kind of disciplinary action in store for Edmon.
“I doubt it,” said LT Bradley. “He didn’t go AWOL in the face of the enemy, after all - he went AWOL to face the enemy. Big difference.”
Author Martín Russ does a nice comparison of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army but please understand that Russ has a bias. Russ was a Marine who served and was awarded the Purple Heart in Korea. To him, the Army did absolutely nothing correct. I tend to agree with him. They were badly led from MacArthur on down and they had to be at a point of low morale. The Marines in comparison were at the opposite end of the spectrum. They were much better led and this starts with their Division CO, OP Smith. Smith’s outright insubordination to the X Corp CO and US Army General, Ned Almond saved the 1st Division. OP Smith instructed his Marines to build an airport at Hagaru-ri and to leave ammo dumps along the way. The Division seemed strung out to me but author Martin Russ said if the Marines would have been where Almond wanted them to be they may have never been able to concentrate. For what OP Smith did he should have been awarded the MOH! But the difference was the fighting spirit of the small unit leaders and the Marines they led. Many times the worst Marine in garrison was the best Marine in combat. Take for instance the story of Private Stanley Robinson:
His Platoon Commander, lieutenant Yancy called him the platoon delinquent. Stateside, Robbie had been AWOL repeatedly and was considered incorrigible. The Division was under strength when the war broke out so Robbie was offered the classic choice: The brig or the infantry.
“Talking with him at Hagaru I learned he went AWOL because he had this kid wife and they had a baby and there were problems. His first piece of good luck was getting assigned to Yancy’s Platoon. Yancy was about the toughest Marine you could find anywhere, but he was kindhearted to people that needed a bit of kindness. He talked with Robinson for about 5 minutes and got to know him better than all the all the Navy psychiatrists who had been trying to figure him out for months...it was the case of a lost soul finding something he was good at in a life that hadn’t had much purpose up to then; because the truth is, he wasn’t much good at anything else. I heard I later years he was killed in a shoot out with Colorado State troopers.
Robinson had already distinguished himself on hill 698 shooting his BAR from the hip and throwing grenades. In fact, the Battalion commander came down to recruit Robinson as his bodyguard.
Yancy and his troops thought they had seen the last of Robinson and were sorry to see him go; but it turns out that Stanley Robinson would go AWOL one more time.
Corpsman James Claypool: “Yancy and I were wondering how private Stanley Robinson was doing back at Regiment as Litzenberg’s bodyguard. ...this youngster might be unable to restrain the wild streak in him. This was a kid that was considered such a badass he had to be brought on ship under guard...well guess who came toiling up the hill late that afternoon? We were glad to see him and his BAR but I noticed he was limping and I got him to sit down and take off his boots even before he reported to Mr. Yancy.
Robinson of course tried to give me a hard time. I looked him in the eye and said ‘are you going to argue with me?’ He thought it over and finally unlaced his boots. I was shocked by what I saw. The skin between his toes was raw and the skin on his ankles too. There was infection . He had the equivalent of second and third burns. He was virtually crippled with frostbite. ‘You’re going back down the hill’ I told him.
Robinson: “The hell I am.”
Corpsman: “Robinson ...”
Robinson: “Don’t fuck with me swabbie.”
"In the end I had to go tell Yancy...I told Yancy that Robinson’s feet were beyond my resources to treat, that he would probably have to be evacuated....‘Robbie I’m glad to see you’ he said ‘but you’re going to have to go back down the hill and turn yourself into battalion Aid...’Robinson was so angry he didn’t even say goodbye. We watched him limp down the back trail. We were all disappointed.”
Private Stanley Robinson lay disgruntled and footsore on a stretcher. Listening to the distant sound of battle wondering how Easy Company was doing. An ambulance pulled up outside; litter bearers brought in a stretcher and put a wounded man down beside him.
Robinson: what outfit you with?
Wounded man: “Easy Company, 7th”
Robinson: “They got hit pretty good?”
Wounded man: “Clobbered...Mr Yancy’s been hit but he’s still going.”
Robinson sat up. In the darkness of the tent he began to pull on his boots, grunting with pain as he stuffed his swollen feet into the stiff snow packs. It took several minutes to do the job. At last he stood up, pulled on his dirty parka and went stumbling through the tent flaps. Outside he snatched up a rifle and cartridge belt from the pile of discards. A corpsman appeared. “Where do you think your going Robinson.”
Robinson: “what does it look like, Doc?”
Corpsman: “Go back inside.”
Robinson: “Get the fuck out of my way.”
The scrawny youngster slung the rifle and tottered toward the big hill like an old man. An hour later, having been forced to crawl up the steeper portions of the path, he was asking for directions to 1st platoon.
Marine: “Top of the hill over there.”
Robinson: “Seen Mr. Yancy?”
Marine: “He’s been hit twice but still at it.”
Yancy was hunched beside a machine gunner. He felt a sharp slap on the bottom of his boot. I looked down and there he was, with his off kilter grin, looking sloppier and dirtier than ever.
Yancy: “What the hell are you doing here?”
Robinson: “ I heard you candyassed pogues needed help.’
Yancy: “I’ll be damned."
Robinson: “You got any work for a BAR man?”
Yancy pointed to the right. “See those kids over there? Go square them away."
This book is about Marines anecdotes and eye witness accounts strung together to tell a pretty good story. Consider the Chinese battalion that tried to attack the Marine regimental artillery limbered up on the road to Koto-ri:
At daybreak on December 7 the column was abruptly halted by a concentration of enemy fire from the heights to the east. During a lull it became apparent that the Chinese were about to launch an infantry assault against a segment of the column occupied by the guns and crews of George and How Batteries. Major James Calender and Captains Ernest Payne and Benjamin Read lost no time unlimbering and preparing for action. Trucks were jockeyed back and forth so that the muzzles of the 9 howitzers could be thrust between them, while crewmen passed boxes of shells over the tail gates and others carried them to the guns. The stage was set for an unusual confrontation: a fight to the finish between an infantry battalion and two batteries of artillery.
Now that it was broad daylight, the men of sergeant Russell Runes Machine Gun section watched as Chinese troops began to mass on the other side of the railroad tracks. Captain Read ordered him to bring his troops back to the road where Captain Payne was organizing truck drivers into a firing line.
Major Francis Parry: “It was none too soon. Individual Chinese were already sticking their heads above the embankment or jumping up for a better look.”
The gun crews began to fire shells straight across the railroad embankment, stopping the Chinese as they began to flow onto the tracks. There had been no time to dig in the gun trails, so the men of each howitzer crew braced themselves against the gun shield, absorbing part of the recoil with their bodies and helping to keep the guns in position for the next shot. After every 4th or 5th round the gunners would push the pieces forward again and resume blasting away at the oncoming troops. There was no time to sort ammunition; crewmen were shoving whatever variety of shell was at hand into the breeches - high explosive, armor piercing, white phosphorus, canister- firing at targets so close they were at time endangered by shrapnel from their own shells. Neither was their time to set fuses or count propellant charges; there was only time to shoot, clear, load, and shoot again. The scene was appallingly grim: a mass dismemberment or vaporization of human beings in padded quilt.
When it was all over the Marines counted more than 500 shattered corpses on the field of battle. How and George batteries had fired more than 600 rounds. Three Marine crewmen had been killed, thirty four wounded.
Major Parry: “Has field artillery ever had a grander hour?”
There is story after story here and I loved every minute of this book.
Oh and one more thing: I am very biased too as I claimed the title of a United States Marine a long time ago. Please enjoy.
November 28, 2007
This is an excellent account of this famous battle. The mix of high level view down to the foxhole perspective works really well. The bravery of these Marines in the face of overwhelming odds and atrocious weather conditions is stirring. Read this one and you'll be hooked on Korean War history.
March 21, 2016
A gripping, thorough, and compelling history of the Chosin reservoir campaign and the unbelievable courage displayed by the Marines there.
Russ clearly and vividly lays out the conditions of the 1st Marine Division and a unit of British Royal Marines, their encirclement by seven Chinese and North Korean divisions,their poor supply situation, their difficulties in the terrain, and their struggle against the extremes of the weather. And, of course, Russ just as vividly chronicles their unlikely breakout, as well as the graphic brutality of the fighting (Russ tells the surreal anecdote of Marines using a Chinese corpse as a table for a TV, for example)
Well-written, riveting and poignant. Some better maps would have helped, though, and there is little on either the South Koreans or the Chinese. Also, it seems like Russ hypes the performance of the Marine units at the Army’s expense, and coverage of the Army higher-ups is lacking; he makes the sweeping statement that “the marines were the most fearsomely efficient troops on either side of the Second World War”, for example, without any clarification. And annoyingly, Russ often refers to nighttime and daytime without saying what the actual date is.
Russ clearly and vividly lays out the conditions of the 1st Marine Division and a unit of British Royal Marines, their encirclement by seven Chinese and North Korean divisions,their poor supply situation, their difficulties in the terrain, and their struggle against the extremes of the weather. And, of course, Russ just as vividly chronicles their unlikely breakout, as well as the graphic brutality of the fighting (Russ tells the surreal anecdote of Marines using a Chinese corpse as a table for a TV, for example)
Well-written, riveting and poignant. Some better maps would have helped, though, and there is little on either the South Koreans or the Chinese. Also, it seems like Russ hypes the performance of the Marine units at the Army’s expense, and coverage of the Army higher-ups is lacking; he makes the sweeping statement that “the marines were the most fearsomely efficient troops on either side of the Second World War”, for example, without any clarification. And annoyingly, Russ often refers to nighttime and daytime without saying what the actual date is.
July 6, 2017
This book is nothing short of a detailed and excellent account of the Chosin Reservoir Campaign. The book wasn't about the politics, though this shows up a bit in the early part of the book and for what political components there are the information is shallow - as well it should be. The book is a testament to the many brave men who bore the yoke of battle fatigue responsibility in order to attempt to save what they could in terms of personnel, equipment, and dignity that remained. There lays within these pages a Marine that whose quote provided is a person that I know personally.
This book was a gift to me from the current Marine Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
Simply put - there is not another better accounting from the American perspective of the Chosin Reservoir than what Martin Russ has compiled here.
This book was a gift to me from the current Marine Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
Simply put - there is not another better accounting from the American perspective of the Chosin Reservoir than what Martin Russ has compiled here.
Read
November 5, 2017read this a long time ago and remember it being good--sobering, but well worth the read
May 4, 2008
If Korea was the forgetten war, then the writer did a good job of finding soldiers who remembered every detail. For example, the Marine who found his feet unusually warm one morning, only to find a Chinese soldier sleeping at the bottom of his sleeping bag. There are many moments like that, when the enemy and the Americans find themselves in close contact. Sometimes it ends in death, sometimes they walk on, ignoring each other.
Another detail is that many of the North Koreans were Christian, and they brought out their bibles and had a service when the Marines arrived.
There is also the intriguing question of whether the Americans could have broken out by crossing the frozen Chosin reservoir, instead of fighting their way south through thousands of Chinese troops. We'll never know.
"I walk away," is a catch phrase for the GI's, based on a line from an American Indian in a popular movie of the day. At the end of the book, after much bloodshed and heavy battles, one of the Marines sums it up with that line: "I walk away." And for most Americans, there isn't much more to know about that war.
The Korean war was a series of tactical victories for the Americans in the context of a strategic defeat.
A very well researched and written book that I recommend.
Another detail is that many of the North Koreans were Christian, and they brought out their bibles and had a service when the Marines arrived.
There is also the intriguing question of whether the Americans could have broken out by crossing the frozen Chosin reservoir, instead of fighting their way south through thousands of Chinese troops. We'll never know.
"I walk away," is a catch phrase for the GI's, based on a line from an American Indian in a popular movie of the day. At the end of the book, after much bloodshed and heavy battles, one of the Marines sums it up with that line: "I walk away." And for most Americans, there isn't much more to know about that war.
The Korean war was a series of tactical victories for the Americans in the context of a strategic defeat.
A very well researched and written book that I recommend.
May 20, 2017
I picked this up for an extra-credit essay in History class. I ended up not needing to do the essay, so I read the book for its own sake. I'm glad that I did. The Korean War is often referred to as "the forgotten war" in the US. While there's a glut of films on both WWII and the Vietnam War, there's very little on the Korean War. I plan to find some documentaries and another book or two, to at least fix that on my part.
This book is about the US Marine Corps in the Chosin Reservoir and how, after being outnumbered, surrounded and cut off, they fought their way out. As the Marines would say, it wasn't a retreat. It was an attack in a different direction. It is a harrowing and amazing story. As any true account of war should, there are parts that made me cringe, parts that made me cheer, and parts that made me cry. The bravery of these men is without question. The hardships endured in that campaign were stunning and the camaraderie that helped them endure it is a testament to human character.
For the book itself, it is very well put together. If I had one complaint, it is very minor and not reflected in my rating for this book. There could have been a few more maps. There's one at the start and another midway through the book, but I often found myself confused as to where this particular hill or ridge was located. When I read this again someday, I'll see if I can't find some online resources to help me follow long better.
As an account and not a memoir or biography, it doesn't follow any particular person but it does return to a few individuals time and again. The author does a good job of giving the overall details of the campaign yet keeps most of the book focused on the individuals. Peppered with quotes that breathe life into these characters, it is an easy book to read while being very informative. I don't mind referring to these men as characters, because once you've read a couple of quotes of Marine bravado (in the face of what, for me would be pants-wetting terror and abject misery), you'll see them as no less a character than any cigar-chomping Hollywood portrayal. Still, it's not the bravado that saw them through. It is without a doubt the training, professionalism and esprit de corps, aptly captured by Martin Russ, that turned what could've been a massacre into a shining example of what the USMC is capable of.
As I finish this book, Memorial Day is not far off. This year, I'll honor it by remembering the "forgotten war", those who fought there, and those who never came home.
This book is about the US Marine Corps in the Chosin Reservoir and how, after being outnumbered, surrounded and cut off, they fought their way out. As the Marines would say, it wasn't a retreat. It was an attack in a different direction. It is a harrowing and amazing story. As any true account of war should, there are parts that made me cringe, parts that made me cheer, and parts that made me cry. The bravery of these men is without question. The hardships endured in that campaign were stunning and the camaraderie that helped them endure it is a testament to human character.
For the book itself, it is very well put together. If I had one complaint, it is very minor and not reflected in my rating for this book. There could have been a few more maps. There's one at the start and another midway through the book, but I often found myself confused as to where this particular hill or ridge was located. When I read this again someday, I'll see if I can't find some online resources to help me follow long better.
As an account and not a memoir or biography, it doesn't follow any particular person but it does return to a few individuals time and again. The author does a good job of giving the overall details of the campaign yet keeps most of the book focused on the individuals. Peppered with quotes that breathe life into these characters, it is an easy book to read while being very informative. I don't mind referring to these men as characters, because once you've read a couple of quotes of Marine bravado (in the face of what, for me would be pants-wetting terror and abject misery), you'll see them as no less a character than any cigar-chomping Hollywood portrayal. Still, it's not the bravado that saw them through. It is without a doubt the training, professionalism and esprit de corps, aptly captured by Martin Russ, that turned what could've been a massacre into a shining example of what the USMC is capable of.
As I finish this book, Memorial Day is not far off. This year, I'll honor it by remembering the "forgotten war", those who fought there, and those who never came home.
July 4, 2018
Another outstanding first person(s) account of the epic struggle between the 1st Marine Division (Rein) and the 9th Chinese Army during November - December 1950. You can hear the snow crunching under foot, see the Chinese rise up from snow covered ground like mist in their padded white jackets and feel the numbness in your face and hands as the Marines and sailors faced the wind blowing down from Siberia. Live and die with the 5th and 7th Marines as they "attack in a different direction" toward the coast and hot showers and chow. Struggle with the !st Marines as they keep the LOC (lines of communication open for the fellow Marines. While the rest of the world wrote them off as a fighting unit find out what hero's are made of in this epic struggle that took place in northwest Korea.
November 22, 2014
Books on the Korean War are virtually inexistent. Despite its rarity value this one is barely readable. The usual mistake of history and war books is that you get the big picture but no human touch, no anecdotes. This is the opposite, you have no idea of what is going on but you get a myriad of anecdotal stories by a zillion different characters and except for Lt Lee you never see the same guys twice (at least in the first 100 pages that I read). One thing to note: the Marines in Korea seemed a lot more dedicated and driven than their colleagues 20 years later in the Viet Nam war.
August 18, 2018
The author relies heavily on first-person accounts by survivors of Chosin campaign, which makes for poignant and captivating reading. But the narrative of the book suffers from his devotion to including an overabundance of specific details, such as names and units, forcing the reader to keep track of too much information.
July 24, 2010
Excellent account from the POV of the 1st Marine Division in the botched attempt to pursue and destroy the remaining North Korean Army units during the Korean War. The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir gave my ship its name.
August 3, 2018
A dreadful story of an otherwise fascinating campaign. One of the greatest singular defeats ever suffered by an American army, but you might not realize that by reading this. Dripping with a deep chauvinism of America and especially the Marine Corps.
January 31, 2008
Excellent overview of a brutal, incredible campaign from a forgotten war.
May 20, 2020
I am not a big war book person. But this blew me away. Korean War Vets need to be remembered. This Battle was unbelievable. I felt like I was there.
Read
November 17, 2025Book Review: Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950 by: Martin Russ
Martin Russ’s historical fiction novel called Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950, delivers a humanized perspective on a battle that took place during the Korean War, which explores themes of perseverance and endurance. Russ reveals a narrative that shows the emotional and physical damage of the war, needed to survive. This novel starts off as U.S. soldiers and marines fighting in the Chosin Reservoir during the winter of 1950, where the freezing temperatures and enemy forces introduce hardships for them. Russ introduces many real-life figures during these battles, which paint a picture of the campaign's challenges. He describes the harsh conditions of the battle, from subzero winds to rugged terrain. There are many key moments where the readers receive a clear sense of the environment and just how dangerous the conditions are, not only to be in, but to fight a battle in. He explains why the campaign becomes a defining moment in Marine Corps history, heavily emphasizing the mistakes and extreme perseverance needed to survive. I find that Russ’s portrayal of the Chosin Reservoir campaign really helps illustrate an impactful representation of the physically and emotionally powerful effect on how the soldiers struggled with the freezing temperatures, and the impossible odds they had to survive. The use of firsthand interviews between the soldiers helps me connect with the soldiers and get to know them. I enjoyed how explanatory he was throughout the story, which kept me engaged in the book and did not throw me off track. An element that I disliked was the lack of military detail, and how, after reading the book, I feel that I have learned very few military concepts from the book. However, the book brought it back with the realism it showed; one example of this is Russ’s description of the freezing communication lines, revealing a hardship to the soldiers. This freezing temperature helped me feel engaged with the story, with endless possibilities in these extreme conditions. For all that was stated above, this book will definitely appeal to readers who need an exciting, action-filled story, with history involved as well. Russ’s immersive narrative makes Breakout a great choice for you.
Martin Russ’s historical fiction novel called Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950, delivers a humanized perspective on a battle that took place during the Korean War, which explores themes of perseverance and endurance. Russ reveals a narrative that shows the emotional and physical damage of the war, needed to survive. This novel starts off as U.S. soldiers and marines fighting in the Chosin Reservoir during the winter of 1950, where the freezing temperatures and enemy forces introduce hardships for them. Russ introduces many real-life figures during these battles, which paint a picture of the campaign's challenges. He describes the harsh conditions of the battle, from subzero winds to rugged terrain. There are many key moments where the readers receive a clear sense of the environment and just how dangerous the conditions are, not only to be in, but to fight a battle in. He explains why the campaign becomes a defining moment in Marine Corps history, heavily emphasizing the mistakes and extreme perseverance needed to survive. I find that Russ’s portrayal of the Chosin Reservoir campaign really helps illustrate an impactful representation of the physically and emotionally powerful effect on how the soldiers struggled with the freezing temperatures, and the impossible odds they had to survive. The use of firsthand interviews between the soldiers helps me connect with the soldiers and get to know them. I enjoyed how explanatory he was throughout the story, which kept me engaged in the book and did not throw me off track. An element that I disliked was the lack of military detail, and how, after reading the book, I feel that I have learned very few military concepts from the book. However, the book brought it back with the realism it showed; one example of this is Russ’s description of the freezing communication lines, revealing a hardship to the soldiers. This freezing temperature helped me feel engaged with the story, with endless possibilities in these extreme conditions. For all that was stated above, this book will definitely appeal to readers who need an exciting, action-filled story, with history involved as well. Russ’s immersive narrative makes Breakout a great choice for you.
June 7, 2024
To address some of the 1 and 2 star reviews. Yes, this book is not a good intro if you just want the main details of what went down at the Chosin Reservoir. Because of Russ' desire to seemingly name every Marine that was there, if you didn't have a good idea of the battle sequence, it is difficult to keep up. A better book for that would be Hampton Sides "On Desperate Ground." "Breakout" is a book written by a Marine who fought with the 1st Marine Division in Korea (though not at Chosin). He gives both accolades (to the majority of Marines in the fight) and scathing criticism (to the majority of the Army), individually. I think Russ made very clear his disdain for the campaign as a whole - that wasn’t the point of the book. It was clearly not written as an objective report with the benefit of hindsight by someone who, from the comfort of their living room, can dispassionately write about an event that they have no connection to. It’s similar to Stallings “The Doughboys”- the author was someone who wanted to pay homage to his fallen comrades. As a someone interested in this particular time period, "Breakout" was the third book I read on Chosin. I was very familiar with many of the main characters and was glad to be reacquainted with them, but it was nice to get to know more of the "Chosin Few". This is a great book to round out your knowledge, but if you will only be reading one book on Chosin, this may not be the best one.
April 13, 2025
"Newsweek called it America's worst licking since Pearl Harbor. Secretary of State Dean Acheson called it the greatest defeat suffered by American arms since the Civil War battle of Bull Run. Of all the divisions comprising Eighth Army and X Corps, only one was singled out for praise. Historian Edwin P. Hoyt called the Marines' march from the Chosin Reservoir "one of the greatest retreats in the course of military history."
"The Marines have never liked hearing the word retreat in connection with the campaign. Woodrow Wilson Taylor, the only Baker/7 officer to come through unscathed, says it best. "It was an attack, not a retreat. The whole campaign was an attack. First we attacked in a northerly direction, up to Yudam-ni. Then we attacked in a westerly direction, a mile west of Yudam-ni. Then we attacked in a westerly direction, a mile west of Yudam-ni. Then we attacked in a southerly direction, from Yudam-ni to Funchilin Pass. What's the retreat in that, I ask you?"
"The Chosin Reservoir campaign was, in fact, a series of tactical victories within the overall context of a strategic defeat."
"We did a good thing. It is worth remembering."
--Martin Russ, Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea, 1950.
"The Marines have never liked hearing the word retreat in connection with the campaign. Woodrow Wilson Taylor, the only Baker/7 officer to come through unscathed, says it best. "It was an attack, not a retreat. The whole campaign was an attack. First we attacked in a northerly direction, up to Yudam-ni. Then we attacked in a westerly direction, a mile west of Yudam-ni. Then we attacked in a westerly direction, a mile west of Yudam-ni. Then we attacked in a southerly direction, from Yudam-ni to Funchilin Pass. What's the retreat in that, I ask you?"
"The Chosin Reservoir campaign was, in fact, a series of tactical victories within the overall context of a strategic defeat."
"We did a good thing. It is worth remembering."
--Martin Russ, Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea, 1950.
April 1, 2022
Korea is often referred to as the Forgotten War. It was our 1st "Cold War" fight, it was a brutal battle that even today is unresolved. This book focuses on the fight at the Chosin Reservoir. There is a reason this is considered the best book on the fight at the Chosin Reservoir. My only regret was not reading it sooner. This book deals primarily with the the 1st Marine Division's battle though it spends some time discussing the Army units on the Eastern shore of the Chosin, East Hill. This book is very well written and researched though full disclosure, it is also blunt in it's assessements (both good and bad) as well as being somewhat graphic.
As with Iwo Jima, Fallujah and Belleau Wood, the fight out of the Chosin is now indelibly etched into Marine Corps lore. This story is told primarily through the eyes of the Marines of the 1st Marine Division that were there at the squad and fire team level. It details great heroism in an unvarnished, very well written manner. The book does deal rather bluntly with the failures at command level.
As with Iwo Jima, Fallujah and Belleau Wood, the fight out of the Chosin is now indelibly etched into Marine Corps lore. This story is told primarily through the eyes of the Marines of the 1st Marine Division that were there at the squad and fire team level. It details great heroism in an unvarnished, very well written manner. The book does deal rather bluntly with the failures at command level.
July 9, 2024
Excellent history of the Marine advance to the Chosin Reservoir where they were surrounded by Chinese Communist soldiers and had to fight their way out of the trap. Outnumbered by the Chinese and fighting sub-zero temperatures, the Marines were able to pull off one of the most dramatic withdrawals in the history of warfare. Russ tells of the privates fighting in the lonely outposts to the generals who's mistakes and brilliant strategies caused and saved the military struggle.
January 6, 2025
Well, this wraps up this group of Korean War books I've read recently. I enjoyed it. It is a bit more of a tactical read that gets a lot more into personal experiences and reactions. It was interesting to read about the disdain the Marines had for the Army at this time. It comes out loud and clear in this book. This is not surprising, as the author served as a Marine in the Korean War (and earned a purple heart).
August 5, 2017
Absolutely fantastic re-telling. My Dad served in Korea, after coming as a Basque immigrant & escaping Franco on the Spanish side, he served to become a US citizen & recommended this book. There are several others I'll be reading as well. Recommend for all you history buffs like me.
August 17, 2018
An absolute must-read for anyone interested in the Korean War. The gut wrenching and shocking quotes from Marines who were there will fill your heart with sadness for what they went through, and appreciation that we have Marines to keep us from harm. Semper Fi!!
August 5, 2021
An excellent history of the Korean War with many anecdotes that made the conflict come alive. I really liked how it discussed the Chinese military tactics and the devastating injuries and deaths caused by the extreme weather.
May 8, 2022
Excellent book. It is very well written and does not read like so many other non-fiction battle accounts - dry recitations of battle details. I did not give it 5 stars because it is lacking in maps, which are invaluable for grasping troop disposition and movement.
February 18, 2017
Incredible heroism. At times difficult to tell what was going on due to the proliferation of names/ranks/units, but gripping nonetheless
July 13, 2017
A most amazing and detailed report of a horrendous USMC episode.
February 13, 2018
One of the better accounts I have read.
September 29, 2018
Gritting and Riveting.
November 12, 2018
One of the best accounts of the Korean War I have ever read. Very detailed and captivating.
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