Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950
by Martin Russ
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
Martin Russ's controversial book Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950 tells the riveting story of how 12,000 Army personnel and Marines fought their way out of an encirclement by more than 60,000 Chinese soldiers. A Marine wounded in combat during the Korean War, Russ writes with a passion for the men who endured freezing temperatures and scaled treacherous mountains while continuing to strike the enemy as they advanced toward safety.
While many accounts of modern war bog readers down in a morass of military and administrative details, Russ's history so clearly distinguishes the various units, locations, and personalities that shaped the campaign that it could easily be compared with the finest novels of battle, including Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. Expertly moving between American, Chinese, and Korean points of view, Russ argues that the Marines were trapped at Chosin because of the arrogance of Douglas MacArthur, the incompetence of the U.S. Army, and the disciplined planning of the Chinese generals.
Celebrated for his brilliant war memoir, The Last Parallel, Russ has provoked criticism for his tendency in Breakout to disparage the U.S. Army. However, his quotations of numerous dispatches showing Marine commanders' concern about advancing into the Chosin area, as well as his consistent portrayal of Army officers' ineptitude, lend credence to his argument that it was the particular esprit de corps of the Marines that prevented the disintegration of American forces in the freezing wastes of North Korea. --James Highfill
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.
"Magnificent . . . [Russ] seamlessly weaves the stories of many men, units and battles, day and night, into a coherent picture."--Chicago Tribune
"Engrossing . . . Vivid, at times powerful; emotional but unsentimental."--The New York Times
East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950 (Texas a & M University Military History Series)
by Roy Edgar Appleman
from Texas A&M University Press
Toward the Flame: A Memoir of World War I
by Hervey Allen
from University of Nebraska Press
Pork Chop Hill
by S. L. A. Marshall
from Berkley
A first-hand account of the battle which became legendary in the annals of combat--a dramatic true story of war at its most brutal...and of military valor at its best.
"A distinguished contribution to the literature of war."--The New York Times
Inch'on 1950: The last great amphibious assault (Campaign)
by Gordon Rottman
from Osprey Publishing
Inch'on 1950
Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir
by Joseph R. Owen
from Ballantine Books
"A MUST READ . . . This book [is] one of the best on that war in Korea. . . . A wonderful account of common, decent men in desperate action."
--Leatherneck
During the early, uncertain days of the Korean War, World War II veteran and company lieutenant Joe Owen saw firsthand how the hastily assembled mix of some two hundred regulars and raw reservists hardened into a superb Marine rifle company known as Baker-One-Seven.
As comrades fell wounded and dead around them on the frozen slopes above Korea's infamous Chosin Reservoir, Baker-One-Seven's Marines triumphed against the relentless human-wave assaults of Chinese regulars and took part  in the breakout that destroyed six to eight divisions of Chinese regulars. COLDER THAN HELL paints a vivid, frightening portrait of one of the most horrific infantry battles ever waged.
"Thoroughly gripping . . . The Chosin action is justly called epical; Lieutenant Owen tells the tale of the men who made it so."
--Booklist
The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953
Heralded as an imposing and important work when first published in 1987, this history of the Korean War offers a complete and detailed portrayal of the conflict. Clay Blair, a highly respected military writer, is credited with taking a close and blistering look at high-level defense policy and ground-level leadership of the U.S. Army. He supports his analysis with official records and interviews with participants as well as his own deep knowledge of Washington personalities and politics. Blair's book captures the intensity of the conflict through the eyes of senior officers, explaining defeats and victories from the perspective of the U.S. battalion, regiment, and division commanders responsible for the progress of the war. As a collective portrait of the American officer corps at war, the book is uniquely valuable.
Highly critical of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's leadership during the period, Blair also takes President Truman to task for his misjudgments and occasionally faults the conduct of corps and division commanders while offering unstinting praise for Gen. Matthew Ridgway's turn around of a demoralized field army. This day-by-day, unit-by-unit account of what went on provides details unmatched in other books on the subject. 1152 pages. 128 photos. 12 line drawings. Paperback. 6 x 9 inches.
MacArthur (Great Generals)
by Richard B. Frank
from Palgrave Macmillan
Victory at High Tide: The Inchon-Seoul Campaign (Great War Stories)
No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident
by Robert L., III Bateman
from Stackpole Books
Compelled by the known fallacies in the Pulitzer Prizewinning Associated Press story of the alleged slaughter of South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri, Major Bateman, an academic historian and professional soldier, presents an alternate explanation of the events through the perspective of the soldiers and their commanders, the 1948-50 South Korean civil war, and the broader state of U.S. military policy and force readiness. In a solid historical analysis of the incident he debunks the AP allusion to a widespread massacre of civilians by U.S. forces at No Gun Ri and shows how veterans who allegedly witnessed this event and influenced others were not even present. Told concisely with extensive documentation from previously overlooked sources.
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