CNN - Korean War battle that Hollywood overlooked
updated 12:06 AM EDT 03.13.13
By Andrew Salmon, for CNN
Editor's Note: Seoul-based reporter Andrew Salmon is the author of Korean War histories "To the Last Round" and "Scorched Earth, Black Snow."
Seoul (CNN) -North Korea's underground nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, is set amid terrain appropriate for its purpose: The mountainous, northeastern province of Hamgyong, which borders China and Siberia, is one of the most inhospitable winter landscapes in Asia.
But this grim, forbidding province, which is also home to the notorious Yodok labor camp, seized the attention of the wider world half a century before Pyongyang's nuclear tests and claims of human rights abuses made headlines.
Hamgyong witnessed arguably the most harrowing battle fought by U.S. or British troops since World War II, a forgotten epic that offers every ingredient for the perfect war movie: an embattled force, towering odds, murderous combat and treacherous weather.
Yet 60 years after the Korean War ended, and with the number of surviving veterans rapidly dwindling, the dramatic story of what took place at Chosin Reservoir has so far eluded the silver screen.
"It's an amazing story," said Brian Iglesias, a former U.S. Marine, Iraq veteran and independent film producer. "It's unbelievable what they did, from both a military and a human standpoint."
READ: North Korea declares 1953 armistice invalid
In November 1950, a United Nations force -- including U.S. Marines, U.S. Army units and British Royal Marine commandos -- deployed around the strategic Chosin Reservoir, a frozen, man-made lake high in the Hamgyong mountains that supplied hydroelectric power to the industrial cities on the coastal plain.
They were preparing for what they believed would be the Korean War's final offensive. The North Korean Army teetered on the brink of defeat; men expected to be "home for Christmas."
What they did not know was that China, in a brilliant feat of mass infiltration, had intervened to support its North Korean ally, then led by Kim Il Sung, late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. As a Siberian cold front descended over the highlands, the 30,000-strong U.N. force found itself surrounded by eight Chinese divisions with an estimated 80,000 men.
Around 65 miles from the sea, in temperatures of minus 37 degrees Celsius (minus 34 degrees Fahrenheit) and winds of 60 knots, the British and U.S. troops' only hope of escaping annihilation was to hack their way through massed enemy in a fighting withdrawal.
Go to CNN.Com for continued information on this article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/12/world/asia/korean-war-chosin-reservoir/?hpt=hp_c2
COMMENT: The Battle at the Chosin Reservoir - several military history books out there, including this author's book, cover the Korean conflict/war. Mandatory reading topic for military leaders and should be for all our Nation's Soldiers to understand the significant differences (and similarities) between this conflict and current operations in Afghanistan. If you don't read and understand the lessons of history then you are bound to repeat its mistakes.
By Andrew Salmon, for CNN
Editor's Note: Seoul-based reporter Andrew Salmon is the author of Korean War histories "To the Last Round" and "Scorched Earth, Black Snow."
Seoul (CNN) -North Korea's underground nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, is set amid terrain appropriate for its purpose: The mountainous, northeastern province of Hamgyong, which borders China and Siberia, is one of the most inhospitable winter landscapes in Asia.
But this grim, forbidding province, which is also home to the notorious Yodok labor camp, seized the attention of the wider world half a century before Pyongyang's nuclear tests and claims of human rights abuses made headlines.
Hamgyong witnessed arguably the most harrowing battle fought by U.S. or British troops since World War II, a forgotten epic that offers every ingredient for the perfect war movie: an embattled force, towering odds, murderous combat and treacherous weather.
Yet 60 years after the Korean War ended, and with the number of surviving veterans rapidly dwindling, the dramatic story of what took place at Chosin Reservoir has so far eluded the silver screen.
"It's an amazing story," said Brian Iglesias, a former U.S. Marine, Iraq veteran and independent film producer. "It's unbelievable what they did, from both a military and a human standpoint."
READ: North Korea declares 1953 armistice invalid
In November 1950, a United Nations force -- including U.S. Marines, U.S. Army units and British Royal Marine commandos -- deployed around the strategic Chosin Reservoir, a frozen, man-made lake high in the Hamgyong mountains that supplied hydroelectric power to the industrial cities on the coastal plain.
They were preparing for what they believed would be the Korean War's final offensive. The North Korean Army teetered on the brink of defeat; men expected to be "home for Christmas."
What they did not know was that China, in a brilliant feat of mass infiltration, had intervened to support its North Korean ally, then led by Kim Il Sung, late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. As a Siberian cold front descended over the highlands, the 30,000-strong U.N. force found itself surrounded by eight Chinese divisions with an estimated 80,000 men.
Around 65 miles from the sea, in temperatures of minus 37 degrees Celsius (minus 34 degrees Fahrenheit) and winds of 60 knots, the British and U.S. troops' only hope of escaping annihilation was to hack their way through massed enemy in a fighting withdrawal.
Go to CNN.Com for continued information on this article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/12/world/asia/korean-war-chosin-reservoir/?hpt=hp_c2
COMMENT: The Battle at the Chosin Reservoir - several military history books out there, including this author's book, cover the Korean conflict/war. Mandatory reading topic for military leaders and should be for all our Nation's Soldiers to understand the significant differences (and similarities) between this conflict and current operations in Afghanistan. If you don't read and understand the lessons of history then you are bound to repeat its mistakes.
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