Cold War Veterans Blog

The really cold war
Chronicle of Marines in North Korean battle honors forgotten heroes' valor

(The Denver Post)

If there is anything that angers and saddens the aging veterans of Korea it is that theirs is the Forgotten War — "orphaned by history," in David Halberstam's phrase. Often it was not even called a war, but a "police action."

Make no mistake, a war it definitely was, particularly in its first year (it lasted from 1950 to 1953). Within its overall savagery, nothing was worse than the harrowing effort by the 1st Marine Division (and some Army elements) to break out of Chinese encirclement near the Chosin Reservoir in the frozen desolation of northeastern North Korea in late November and early December 1950. Next to the Inchon Landing of September 1950, it is probably the war's most famous episode.

The story has been told several times, most notably a decade ago by Korea veteran Martin Russ in "Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950."

In "The Last Stand of Fox Company," Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, authors of "Halsey's Typhoon," focus on one sustained struggle of that breakout, the stand of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, against overwhelming Communist Chinese forces at a place called Fox Hill in the Toktong Pass west of the reservoir from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, 1950.

This was six months after North Korea invaded South Korea. By this point, after the two sides had chased each other up and down the peninsula, the North Koreans were definitely on the run from the U.N. forces headed by the United States.

But Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of U.N. forces, was determined to take the war up to and perhaps into China in the face of warnings from the Chinese and explicit orders to the contrary from the Truman administration. One critic called it MacArthur's "deranged blood lust."

Drury and Clavin confirm what Halberstam and other historians have shown: that MacArthur arrogantly and stubbornly refused to accept the reality that military intelligence was telling him (and that soldiers on the ground knew)

— that there already were huge numbers of Chinese troops in North Korea.

It was a terrible fight in a terrible place. Temperatures, worsened by screaming winds, reached 30 below zero. Men were laid low by frostbite and by digestive problems caused by eating frozen C rations. Weapons refused to function properly in the extreme cold.

The Chinese frequently fired at the legs of their enemy, knowing that this might incapacitate three men: the wounded Marine and the two others it took to carry him to safety. The Marines, however, functioned as they always had, with esprit, cohesiveness and camaraderie.

They fought against overwhelming odds — 7-, 8-, even 10-to-one. A company against a Chinese regiment, a battalion against a division.

The Chinese were profligate in expending lives. One Marine said it was possible to walk around Fox Company's position without touching the ground, using Chinese bodies as a carpet.

They fought themselves out of an impossible situation. The famous (and often derided) statement attributed to Marine Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Smith, "Retreat, hell — we're attacking in another direction!," has more than a touch of truth to it. You can't retreat when you're surrounded; you can only attack.

And so, with Fox Company guarding the rear, they "attacked" down a miles-long, days-long, ice-encased gantlet of withering fire by the Chinese, bringing with them their vehicles, their wounded and their dead until they reached the relative safety of Hagaru-ri early in the morning of Dec. 4.

At roll call Dec. 5, out of the original 192 officers and enlisted men of Fox Company, 60 were still able to fight, which they did in later battles, where still more were wounded or killed. Of the 131 Medals of Honor earned in Korea, two went to members of Fox Company.

The authors tell a terrific story thrillingly, occasionally borrowing the rough colloquial language of the Marines. Maps are excellent. The book is, like many good military narratives, in large part a series of individual stories. This brings some humanity to the savagery and helps the reader comprehend the bewildering, swiftly changing combat.

Forgotten War? It's worse than that. It is so forgotten that Americans don't even know it's called the Forgotten War.

Justly famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote about the infantrymen of World War II, calling them "Brave Men." None were braver than these, who had no Pyle to memorialize them.

Roger K. Miller is a freelance writer and editor, and author of "Invisible Hero," a novel of the Korean War.