So I am reading this book right now:
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Fox-Company-Marines/dp/0802144519
and while I have read books like these before, this one is getting to me. In that, I couldn't get it out of my head last night while sleeping. I kept waking up from the imagery from what I was reading. I am only 1/4 the way through the book too.
November 1950, the Korean Peninsula: After General MacArthur ignores Mao’s warnings and pushes his UN forces deep into North Korea, his 10,000 First Division Marines find themselves surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir. Their only chance for survival is to fight their way south through the Toktong Pass, a narrow gorge that will need to be held open at all costs. The mission is handed to Captain William Barber and the 234 Marines of Fox Company, a courageous but undermanned unit of the First Marines. Barber and his men climb seven miles of frozen terrain to a rocky promontory overlooking the pass, where they will endure four days and five nights of nearly continuous Chinese attempts to take Fox Hill. Amid the relentless violence, three-quarters of Fox’s Marines are killed, wounded, or captured. Just when it looks like they will be overrun, Lt. Colonel Raymond Davis, a fearless Marine officer who is fighting south from Chosin, volunteers to lead a daring mission that will seek to cut a hole in the Chinese lines and relieve the men of Fox. This is a fast-paced and gripping account of heroism in the face of impossible odds.
I have only gotten to the first night of fighting, which kicked off at 2am, in some crazy freezing weather. Freezing as in spit freezes before it hits the ground. The interesting thing about this book is that the survivors were able to piece together the events of what happened, and even place names and their role on a map. So as you are reading about the background of some of these guys, and where they are positioned, and the events that occur around them, so its a little more personal when one of them dies or is wounded, and you can see how losses affects the defense of the hill. The weather had such an impact that weapons wouldn't work properly, and one guy was defending his position with nothing more than a shovel. Some get dragged away while sleeping in their sleeping bags, while wounded, etc. Some of it is just hard to make sense out of too, like when the Chinese troops capture and drag away 3 Americans from their positions to a nearby cave, they get into an argument with a Chinese officer who refuses to execute the men so he tells his men to escort them back to their lines, only to be shot at by the Americans (who have no idea whats going on in the dark), forcing everyone back to the Chinese lines. I have read up on Task Force Faith too, another horrific story, and how the Chinese went from truck to truck executing American wounded, so me knowing that, I know what the stakes are for these guys. But at the same time, I have also read how some Chinese would just let those who were no longer fighting just walk past them to their own lines too, so its a total roll of the dice on what might happen in any given situation.
The book also starts out with Fox Company setting up within visual range of Charlie Company, who are in a fight for their lives, and on the first night Fox is attacked, Charlie is throwing up flares in a desperate attempt to get help, but there is no one to send. I can't imagine what that is like for Charlie and Fox alike, as it has to feel pretty powerless. I can't find any info on Charlie either, I can only assume they were wiped out, with no one left to tell their story.
Anyway, just never had a book affect me like this, to actually lose sleep over it. I've read books on Stalingrad, Berlin, etc etc and I think those, as terrible as the events in those books are, are a little more abstract. You might learn a name here and there during a particular event, but its overshadowed by bigger events. In this, its all on a hill, and the loss of a single Marine, machine gun, mortar, etc, has a huge effect on the story as opposed to reading up on a battle where 50 tanks might be lost. The loss of 50 tanks is by far greater in the grand scheme of things, but somehow the personal stories on Fox's hill carry more weight.
Highly recommend this book.
** This reminds me, my Dad's best friend was an air force mechanic who worked on the radar sights and cameras for the US jet fighters. He would be pissed off to set up all the stuff, then find when the jet returned to base that it had bubble gum over the camera sight. Finally he asked the pilots what the deal was, and they replied quietly that they would often fly into China and strafe the air bases in China, which were off limits. So they covered up the cameras so they wouldn't get caught. Little details like that don't always make it into the history books.
