"On Desperate Ground" by Hampton Sides

Above: "On Desperate Ground - The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle." Hampton Sides, 337 Pages.

Oliver Prince Smith, the Marine General who led his 18K troops into the Chosin Reservoir battlefield, and then, back out may be the most effective US general that you have never heard of.

I completed reading this book today.

"On Desperate Ground" tells the story of the greatest battle of the Korean War.

Amazon.com review/summary:

On October 15, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of UN troops in Korea, convinced President Harry Truman that the Communist forces of Kim Il-sung would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. The Chinese, he said with near certainty, would not intervene in the war.

As he was speaking, 300,000 Red Chinese soldiers began secretly crossing the Manchurian border. Led by some 20,000 men of the First Marine Division, the Americans moved deep into the snowy mountains of North Korea, toward the trap Mao had set for the vainglorious MacArthur along the frozen shores of the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic--and harrowing--operations in American military history, and one of the classic battles of all time. Faced with probable annihilation, and temperatures plunging to 20 degrees below zero, the surrounded, and hugely outnumbered, Marines fought through the enemy forces with ferocity, ingenuity, and nearly unimaginable courage as they marched their way to the sea.

Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances.

Hampton Sides has been hailed by critics as one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation. As the Miami Herald wrote, "Sides has a novelist's eye for the propulsive elements that lend momentum and dramatic pace to the best nonfiction narratives."

My take:

A few years ago I read Sides' "Blood and Thunder," revolving around the life of Kit Carson and covering the period of the Mexican War. I knew, from reading that book, that Sides was a master story teller. Nor, was I disappointed in reading this fast paced book. Its one of those books that you'll get through in a day or two, because, you can't put it down.

There are some great "leadership" messages in the book. Oliver Prince Smith, the Marine General who led his 18K troops into the Chosin Reservoir battlefield, and then, back out may be the most effective US general that you have never heard of. He privately questions MacArthur's wisdom; he actively clashes with his immediate boss, X Corps Army commander, Ned Almond, who he considers a gungho (a Korean war word creation) MacArthur lackey. But, in the end, notwithstanding the folly of knowingly falling into Mao's trap, he follows orders. His men love him... respect him. He inserts himself into a surrounded battlefield headquarters area when he had the option of staying, safer, further away from the fray.

I'm very glad I read this book. The experience was like reading a novel, but, I learned something as well. "On Desperate Ground" was a welcome break from reading some of the more brain wracking non fiction stuff I've been reading recently.