Referring to the retreat from the Inchon reservoir during the Korean war, Marine General Oliver Smith went into Marine history with the comment:
Retreat Hell, we’re attacking in another direction
General Chesty Puller went one better: “We’re surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them. Now we can fire in any direction, those bastards won’t get away this time!
When the Communist Chinese threw 270,000 troops into the Korean War, numerous U.N. divisions were overrun. Eight Chinese divisions engaged the 1st Marine Division. In the face of “General Winter” and overwhelming numerical superiority, the division concentrated promptly, rescued and evacuated surviving remnants of adjacent, less ready Army formations, and commenced one of the greatest marches of American history, from Chosin Reservoir to the sea.
Sixteen days later, having brought down its dead, saved its equipment, and rescued three Army battalions, the 1st Marine Division - supported by the 1st Marine Wing - reached the sea with high morale and in fighting order. The division had shattered the Chinese Communist Forces 9th Army Group, killed at least 25,000 Chinese, and wounded more than 12,500.
The generals were right after all.
Don’t forget the USAF air dropped TWO complete sets of bridges so that the 1st Marine Division could cross a deep gourge. Without that bit of logistics that successful withdrawal under fire might have been in vain.
BTW, this is a topic from 2004, so...
Someone I used to know online (different forum) told me how his father, who’d served in Korea, was among those walking out on that long retreat south. At some point the company encountered a barbed wire barrier stretching out of sight in each direction, and had no way to cut it, so his dad and one or two others laid down across it, everyone else walked to safety, then pulled their “gangplank” out of the wire and continued south. No Bactine, nothin’. ;’)
The final toll for the 2 million or Chinese “volunteers” was something like a quarter mil; each was sent with a ten pound bag of rice, and when that ran out, they scavanged the unused portion from a dead comrade. Besides not being bulletproof, they were also not immune to the cold or to starvation, and had no med evac or anything common to most western armies since the late 19th c, or really, since Napoleon.
Oh, btw, I think that’s all a good thing. Good riddance.
His story was after WW2 he was working as a bartender in Las Vegas and a couple of his WW2 buds talked him into joining the Marine Reserves. Off to Korea.
He was a Platoon Sgt and he got into a pissing match with the SGTMAJ of the Marine Corps over something so he Enlisted in the Army to preserve his time. Off to VN.
He was riding in a M151 on MSR 1 during TET and the gooks popped a claymore at him and blew out his hearing and gave him a few minor wounds, home made claymore no doubt.
He went out disabled with eight Purple Hearts from his military time and more got shot at medals than most generals. Great guy.