Sometimes unarmed, often after whole units being mown down by U.S. The temperature was so cold vehicles stalled, guns jammed, frostbite was everywhere, but still we fought on and no matter how many we stopped, the Chinese kept coming in wave after human wave. The reservoir itself was frozen and thus fighting, some of it hand to hand, took place on what was essentially a frozen lake. forces started to Hungnam under fire from every possible direction. The story of the clash is the battle at the reservoir and of the fighting on the road to Hungnam.Įncircled, outgunned, and outnumbered, U.S. MacArthur and Smith, realizing their position, decided on a fighting withdrawal to the port of Hungnam and evacuation of our forces by ship. To make a very long story shorter, Mao Zedong had ordered Shilun to completely destroy the U.N.
The Chinese troops were commanded by General Song Shilun. Our troops were commanded on the ground by General Oliver Smith. We had about 30,000 troops in the vicinity made up of elements of South Korean forces, British forces, the 1st Marine Division, the U.S Army 3rd Division, and the U.S. Thus, as we probed the area around the Chinese border, on Novemthe Chicoms struck with 120,000 troops in the area of the Chosin Reservoir. But MacArthur, wanting the glory and laurels of a total victory, chose to ignore them. The Chinese, through diplomatic channels, warned the U.S. General MacArthur should have stopped there, as he was getting ominously close to the Yalu River and China. forces even took the Nork capitol of Pyongyang. It cut off the Norks from their supply line and routed them all the way north much past the border between North and South Korea. MORE NEWS: Republican Victories Didn’t Stop At Virginia General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was planning an end-around run by an amphibious invasion on the central west coast at Inchon. But while we were being held at Pusan and barely holding on, U.S. President Truman responded in force and the United Nations, in the best action of its entire existence, joined in the fight against the common enemy. They advanced and we were quickly pushed back to a small area in the southeast named by history The Pusan Perimeter. In June of 1950 the communist North of Korea, with Chinese communists and Soviet backing, invaded the U.S. But for sheer brutality of weather, for the odds, and for the courage and determination of America and its allies nothing, for this analyst, comes close to the Chosin Reservoir. Bunker Hill, Shiloh, Antietam, Kaserine Pass, the Bulge, Tarawa, Pusan, Ia Drang Valley, all have a claim. There are many contenders for this bloody honor. On this Memorial Day, as we remember our war dead, as opposed to Veterans Day when we recall those who served, it is instructive to recount perhaps the toughest battle American forces ever had to face. military has had some horrific battles in its time.
0 kommentar(er)
