The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread devoted to the discussion of the KOREAN WAR (people, locations, events, books and other publications, battles, historic sites, maps, research information, urls, etc.)

Please feel free to add any and all discussion information related to this topic area in this thread.

Bentley

BBC - KOREAN WAR

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwar...

This is an interesting piece done by the BBC (it does have a slant which I am not sure I personally agree with but I will post it for others to decide):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwar...

'Aussie Rick' here with one suggestion for the Korean War forum. This book is by the British author, Max Hastings, and offers a pretty decent overview of the war.


Max Hastings

For those who are interested this following title is a new release due out this month in the US.

Bill Sloan

Another recent release covering the Korean War is:


by Bob Drury

Review:
"The authors of the bestselling Halsey's Typhoon do a fine job recounting one brutal, small-unit action during the Korean War's darkest moment. In November 1950, as General MacArthur's troops were advancing deep into North Korea, China warned that it would intervene if armies approached its border. U.S. troops were scattered through mountainous terrain at the onset of a freezing winter. Using extensive interviews with survivors, the authors tell the story of one 234-man company ordered to secure a rocky promontory overlooking the legendary Chosin Reservoir. Abundant and detailed maps enable readers to track the vicious week-long battle almost minute by minute as the men fought off repeated assaults by overwhelming Chinese forces until another marine unit arrived to rescue the few survivors. The authors draw no great lessons from Fox Company's ordeal, but deliver a precise, technically accurate account of the fighting. Although aimed at military buffs, the closeup views of individual marines tested to their limits will engage any reader curious to learn how brave men fought a conventional 20th-century war." - Publishers Weekly

For those who may find this interesting, below is a link to a story about Australian and Turkish troops (once bitter enemies during WW1) who fought together in Korea and shared an ANZAC Day in 1953:


ANZAC Day in Korea

I'd like to read this one:

by David Halberstam

Bryan wrote: "I'd like to read this one:

by David Halberstam"

Halberstam's book is a good one, particularly interesting for his interviews with various participants in the war and for his understanding of the politics of the war back in Washington. Like most authors, however, he treats the war as having begun in June of 1950. In fact, however, North Korean aggression against the South Koreans began some two years earlier, when the North supported a major guerilla uprising in South Korea. It was only when that uprising failed that the North's Kim Il Sung sought support and a green light from Stalin and Mao to launch a conventional invasion of the South, assuring them that if provided the requisite equipment he could easily defeat the South's under-equipped and ill-trained Army (which was correct) before the United States could provide any effective assistance to the South Koreans. Both Stalin and Mao were particularly concerned that the U.S. not intervene if the North attacked. As it turned out, of course, Stalin, Mao and Kim Il Sung were wrong about U.S. intervention and how effective it would be, but only barely. For a good treatment of how and when the war really began, see "The War for Korea, 1945-1950 -- A House Burning" by Allan R. Millett. For the best account of the U.S. participation in the war from 1950 see "Korea, The Forgotten War" by Clay Blair.The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953The War for Korea, 1945-1950: A House Burning

Thanks, Jack. They look good. The Modern War Studies is a great series from Kansas Press.

by Allan R. Millett

by Clay Blair Jr.

Hi Bryan, I will have to check out those two books you have mentioned on the Korean War. I have copies of other titles by Clay Blair Jr. who is usually a very thorough author in regards to his research.

There is a new book just out covering the Australian involvement in the Korean War by Cameron Forbes titled; "The Korean War: Australia in the Giants' Playground", its on my Christmas list :)

by Cameron Forbes
Publishers blurb:
The Korean War was a 20th Century conflict that has never ended. South Korea, a powerhouse economy and dynamic democracy sits uneasily alongside North Korea, the world's most secretive, belligerent, unpredictable and repressive totalitarian state. Today, tensions simmer and occasionally flare into outright violence on a peninsula dense with arms, munitions and nuclear warheads.

Cameron Forbes, acclaimed author of Hellfire, tells the story of the war and Australia's involvement in it in a riveting narrative. From the letters and diaries of those diggers who fought across Korea's unforgiving hills and mountains to the grand strategies formulated in Washington, Moscow and Beijing, The Korean War reveals the conflict on all its levels – human, military and geopolitical. In the tradition of Les Carlyon's Gallipoli and The Great War and Paul Ham's Vietnam, Cameron Forbes has written a masterpiece that will serve as the definitive history of Australia and the Korean War.

Here is a brand new release from Patrick K. O'Donnell covering the Korean War; "Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story - The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company".

by Patrick K. O'Donnell
Publishers blurb:
“What would you want if you could have any wish?” asked the photojournalist of the haggard, bloodied Marine before him. The Marine gaped at his interviewer. The photographer snapped his picture, which became the iconic Korean War image featured on this book’s jacket. “Give me tomorrow,” he said at last.

After nearly four months of continuous and agonizing combat on the battlefields of Korea, such a simple request seemed impossible. For many men of George Company, or “Bloody George” as they were known—one of the Forgotten War’s most decorated yet unrecognized companies—it was a wish that would not come true.

This is the untold story of “Bloody George,” a Marine company formed quickly to answer its nation’s call to duty in 1950. This small band of men—a colorful cast of characters, including a Native American fighting to earn his honor as a warrior, a Southern boy from Tennessee at odds with a Northern blue-blood reporter-turned-Marine, and a pair of twins who exemplified to the group the true meaning of brotherhood—were mostly green troops who had been rushed through training to fill America’s urgent need on the Korean front. They would find themselves at the tip of the spear in some of the Korean War’s bloodiest battles.

After storming ashore at Inchon and fighting house-to-house in Seoul, George Company, one of America’s last units in reserve, found itself on the frozen tundra of the Chosin Reservoir facing elements of an entire division of Chinese troops. They didn’t realize it then, but they were soon to become crucial to the battle—modern-day Spartans called upon to hold off ten times their number. Give Me Tomorrow is their unforgettable story of bravery and courage.

Thoroughly researched and vividly told, Give Me Tomorrow is fitting testament to the heroic deeds of George Company. They will never again be forgotten.

Reviews:
"Patrick O’Donnell has done it again! With finesse, he has created an impressive book that captures the experiences of the George Company 3/1 Marines and Sailors in their pivotal battles in the Chosin Reservoir campaign. He he has captured a mosaic of individual experiences that paint a realistic picture of the hard fighting and extreme conditions these heroic men endured. Marines and Sailors fight for their shipmates on their flanks, and this outnumbered Marine company played a crucial role in the success of the breakout. This volume should be in the professional library of every warrior and student of the Korean War." - Colonel Preston McLaughlin, USMC (Ret.), former chief of staff, Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan

"Patrick O’Donnell’s Give Me Tomorrow is more than an infantryman’s war story. It is about gut-level combat—up-close and personal, with rifle and bayonet—that separates the men from the boys. It is the personal account of a Marine rifle company—the tip of the spear—in the first few months of the “Forgotten War.” O’Donnell’s storytelling is superb. By using the Leathernecks’ own words and personal accounts, he brings the story to life. Each page resonates with authenticity... O’Donnell follows George Company, Third Battalion, First Marines from the amphibious landing at Inchon to the “Frozen Chosen,” where it fights desperately to stay alive in 60+ degree below zero weather against overwhelming Chinese Communist “volunteers.” I like this book…it stirs the blood of an old infantryman." - Col. Dick Camp (Ret), former Deputy Director of the Marine Corps’ History Division and now The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s VP for Museum Operations at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Here is a brand new release from Patrick K. O'Donnell covering the Korean War; "Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story - The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company".

[book..." I have this one on my list to read

And from the British and Commonwealth perspective is this book; "To the Last Round: The Epic British Stand on the Imjin River, Korea 1951" by Andrew Salmon.

by Andrew Salmon
Publishers blurb:
Unraveling the chain of events that led to one of the most startling military encounters during the Korean War, this exhaustive account details how the Cold War abruptly ended with the Communist invasion of South Korea and explains in full the disastrous results that followed. Focusing on the inspirational story of Britain’s 29th Infantry Brigade, this fascinating documentation details China’s shock entry into the war, the panic experienced by UN forces as they were forced to retreat in sub-zero temperatures, the intense battle and hand-to-hand combat, and the near-decimation of British troops. Filled with exclusive interviews of the surviving veterans of every unit engaged—including those who survived for more than two years as POWs in grim North Korean prison camps—this is the true story of a handful of the men who remained at their posts, held off an army from their foxholes, and astonished the world with their courage and resolve. As the only account devoted exclusively to this now-legendary action, this remarkable narrative is an essential and historically invaluable resource for those interested in military history.

Review:
"Salmon’s vivid use of recollections and dramatic quotes brings alive an unjustly forgotten conflict." — Time Out

Michael wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Here is a brand new release from Patrick K. O'Donnell covering the Korean War; "Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story - The Epic Stand of the Marines of Geo..."

Hi Michael, I'm still thinking about it, I've bought way too many books lately but I dare say I'll get a copy sooner or later!

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

Here is a classic book that should be listed here; "Pork Chop Hill" by 'SLAM' Marshall.


by S.L.A. Marshall
Review:
"A distinguished contribution to the literature of war." - The New York Times


And this newer title covering the same battle; "On Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle For Pork Chop Hill" by Bill McWilliams.


by Bill McWilliams
Reviews:
"...a significant, poignant, detailed, very personalized, well-researched volume." - Assembly

"...compelling." - The Journal of Military History

"...loaded with detailed, first-person accounts of engagements." - Choice

"...provides some excellent lessons for today's leaders." - ARMY

I finished "Give Me Tomorrow" by Patrick K. O'Donnell earlier this week. Its a good book, I enjoyed it. It is for the most part a Company/group Memoir based on the oral histories given by the veterans from the war. The book primaraly covers from Inchon (Sept 1950) to the pullout from Chosin Reservoir and Hagaru (Dec 1950). The author does a decent job of filling in some of the gaps and providing context.

Here are a few choice quotes I liked from early in the book

"Hey, they're shooting at us!" a green reservist remarked incrdulously as he poked his head above the metal hull of the amtrac.

As the beachhead approached, one Marine nervously turned to a veteran and asked, "How do I load my M1?"..

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

Tom wrote: "I finished "Give Me Tomorrow" by Patrick K. O'Donnell earlier this week. Its a good book, I enjoyed it. It is for the most part a Company/group Memoir based on the oral histories gi..."

Thanks for the heads up i have this book on the to read list.

Another good book on the "Frozen Chosen" is

by Bob Drury

Hi Tom, thanks for the info on the book, glad to hear that you enjoyed it.

Michael I have both on my to read list along with Bill Sloan's "Darkest Summer"!

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

by Bob Drury

by Bill Sloan

Thanks I am going to have to get those at some point. Here's another new one that looks good..


by Bill Richardson


From Publishers Weekly
Richardson looks back at the 1950s when he was a master sergeant with the First Cavalry Division in Korea. After U.S. Army occupation duty from 1946 to 1950 in Italy, Germany, and Austria, and the U.N. vote to defend South Korea, he was reassigned to Fort Devens, Mass., to train recruits in weaponry. Shortly after arriving in Taegu, South Korea, their battalion was subjected to North Korean attacks. He recalls both fear and acts of bravery amid the deafening explosions, flying shrapnel, mortar and artillery fire, mass slaughter, bodies lying in piles, and the stunned reaction after a message dropped from a plane: "We were on our own. No relief column was on its way... and if we stayed in this hellhole we would all die." The final third of the book details his torture and starvation during 34 months as a POW, concluding with a short summary of his later military career. Aided by journalist Maurer, Richardson never pulls his punches in these vivid descriptions of bloody combat action, interrupted by occasional flashbacks to his youth on the streets of Philadelphia Photos, maps. (Dec.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Product Description
A hard-fighting soldier's story-from the trenches of America's first battle in the Cold War.

From the devastating counterattack at Unsan to the thirty-four months he spent in captivity-a period of years in which giving up surely meant dying-Col. Bill Richardson's instinct for leadership and stubborn will to survive saw him through one valley of death after the next. Valleys of Death is a stirring story of survival and determination that offers a fascinating, intimate look at the soldiers who fought America's first battle of the Cold War in the unvarnished words of one of their own. Richardson endured many long months of starvation, torture, sleep deprivation, and Chinese attempts at indoctrination, yet maintained defiance under conditions designed to break the mind, body, and spirit of men.

I have wanted to read "When Hell Froze Over" since reading "This Kind of War"


by William Shadish


by T.R. Fehrenbach excellent book

Hi Tom, they look like two excellent books, hope you get to read "When Hell Froze Over" soon then :)

by William Shadish

My current book on the Australians in the Korean War has turned out to be a very easy to read book, offering information going back to the early wars between Korea, China and Japan to Vietnam but overall a great and interesting read. In one chapter the author refers to an account taken from the book; "The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea" by James Brady.

"No one I knew who had been there long enough missed the winter, regretted the cold. But this fighting in the heat possessed its own dimension of horror. You could see the wounds, see what killed people, the explicit manner of death and injury: a leg severed at the knee, a mangled arm, how startlingly white a man’s ribs looked sticking out from under a flak jacket, pink at the splintered ends with little bits of meat attached….

All winter you were so muffled in clothes, layers and layers, swaddled against the cold, that a man could be shot to pieces, literally sieved, but unless you were a corpsman you didn’t have to look at the broken bones and the torn flesh and see blood pulsing from cut arteries and veins. The bodies were just as hurt, just as broken, but it happened under a couple of pairs of pants and an oversized parka. Men died more neatly in winter, modestly covered instead of naked and obscenely ripped apart. Those heavy clothes gave death a certain muffled discretion. A man could die in decency.”

Makes perfect sense when you think about it but not something that I had read about before and would never have considered.

by James Brady

by Cameron Forbes

Thank you Aussie Rick for this add.

This account, take from the book I’m currently reading; “The Korean War by Cameron Forbes, is a story reported by a British war correspondent, Reginald Thompson, during one of the many retreats in the Korean War:


“Through it all by day and night the refugees trudged pitifully in the last grip of despair and exhaustion, fording the frozen river with their naked feet, small boys and girls bearing their smaller brothers and sisters upon their backs; others, men, women and children, slumped by the river, the road, the railway track, perhaps not to rise again, their heads and hands hanging limply between their knees. I remember a boy with his small brother on his back picking his way bravely across a broken bridge viaduct, leaping the breaks with a drop of 50 feet or more beneath him. I see him silhouetted against the leaden sky, an heroic figure, greater than tragedy.”

by Cameron Forbes

Here are a few more enjoyable sections taken from the book; “The Korean War” by Cameron Forbes. These following two quotes are observations on Australian character. The New Zealand Ambassador to Washington made this first observation:

“Berendsen had shared with a diplomatic colleague his conviction ‘that most Australians are by nature or upbringing, or possibly both, impossible people’.”

This from a New Zealand soldier:

“The bond of Gallipoli is in the soldiering genes of Australians and New Zealanders, Diggers and Kiwis. Americans were puzzled, however, at how it manifested itself: clods of mud, old eggs, water or anything available flying through the air when the two contingents came close. ‘[The Americans] just look on in wonderment and awe and can’t understand how such friendship can entail such abuse…’ one New Zealander wrote in a letter.”

by Cameron Forbes

This is another funny account from the book; “The Korean War” by Cameron Forbes. This section concerns the French commander in Korea, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Monclar:

“He told his men: ‘We are in this thing together, you and I’. After one battle he commented: ‘There should have been one officer killed for every five non-officers. The count doesn’t show it. I’m not saying the officers didn’t do their duty, but I just wanted to point it out’.”

You’d hope he was joking!


by Cameron Forbes

Some final sections from my book on the Korean War to finish up what I thought was an excellent book covering Australia’s involvement in the war.

General Ridgway’s planned Operation Killer caused consternation at the Pentagon in that it would be difficult to sell such a named operation for public relations:

“At the end of his long career, after planning many operations which led to many deaths, he wrote: ‘… I am not convinced that the country should not be told that war means killing. I am by nature opposed to any effort to “sell” war to people as an only mildly unpleasant business that requires very little in the way of blood’.”

During the fighting for Kapyong, an American Corsair accidentally dropped canisters of napalm on Australian positions:

“D Company’s medical orderly, Nugget Dunque, one of the heroes of Kapyong, had been wounded in the head earlier in the day during the last of six forays under heavy fire to bring in the wounded. After the napalm strike he went to help the wounded once more. He reached into a trench to pull a man out. The soldier had lined up his grenades on the edge, ready for the Chinese. They exploded and Dunque was blown down the hill. He was lucky. He only had a few shrapnel wounds to his legs. He sat where he had landed, stunned, feeling sick and sorry for himself, then … ‘I saw the most appalling apparition. A man with no flesh – his hands were dripping flesh – completely naked. As he walked, I saw these huge bloated feet. The sticks and the stones came up through his feet. He sat down next to me. I didn’t know who he was. He looked at me and said: ‘Jesus, Nugget, you’re having a bad day’.”

I only hope that this brave Australian soldier survived.

by Cameron Forbes

Here is a recent title covering US Navy pilots who flew and fought over Korea; "Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea" by David Sears.


by David Sears
Description:
In 1951, James Michener went to Korea to report on a little known aspect of America’s stalemated war: navy aviators. His research inspired novel about these pilots became an overnight bestseller and, perhaps, the most widely read book ever written about aerial combat.
Using Michener’s notes, author David Sears tracked down the actual pilots to tell their riveting, true-life stories. From the icy, windswept decks of aircraft carriers, they penetrated treacherous mountain terrain to strike heavily defended dams, bridges, and tunnels, where well entrenched Communist anti-aircraft gunners waited to shoot them down. Many of these men became air combat legends, and one, Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon.
Such Men As These brims with action-packed accounts of combat and unforgettable portraits of the pilots whose skill and sacrifice made epic history.

Reviews:
"Few aspects of the ostensibly forgotten Korean War are more so than the role naval aviation played in it. About all most who have heard of it comes from James Michener's The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953). Sears covers the writing of that novel, also the rest of the navy's air war over and around Korea, which included the first use of carrier-based jets (for which of the era weren't ideal), the last hurrah of the F4U Corsair, and the Golden Age of the AD Skyraider. Naval aviation deployment stretched from almost the first days of the war to battles with Russian MiGs off Vladivostok toward its end. Close support was invaluable, but interdiction involved fighting lots of low-tech, well-defended transportation links with high-tech, vulnerable aircraft, which proved to be a foretaste of Vietnam. Eminently readable, this volume breaks new ground on the Korean War and naval aviation." - Booklist

"A fascinating reprise of the naval air war over Korea, based in no small measure on extensive interviews of the men who were there and did the flying…Clear descriptions of life on the storm-tossed carriers of the 7th Fleet and the hazards involved in flying from those aircraft carriers into those hostile skies…Mr. Sears describes those problems and events with a reader-friendly and fluid writing style, taking pains to eliminate jargon, thus making the book a joy to read…[James] Michener did a good job of portraying the life and difficulties of flying in the Korean War. However, the kudos for bringing the real story of that air war to us goes to David Sears…The real story he has told: the dedication, the perseverance and the heroism of the pilots and crews who flew and fought in one of the most hostile sea, air and weather environments ever faced by American airmen. He has done a service to them, their families, those who followed in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, planners of future wars and those who like to read a good and well-researched history. His effort is commendable." - Washington Times

Great add Aussie Rick.

I just stumbled across this book and ordered a copy in case anyone else is interested:


by Andrew Salmon
Description:
In late summer 1950, under-equipped, under-gunned British and Australian troops joined United Nations forces defending a South Korea reeling from invasion by the communist North. As the tide turned, 27th Infantry Brigade – 1st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 1st Middlesex and 3rd Royal Australian Regiment – spearheaded the counterattack into North Korea, decimating North Korea’s army. Meanwhile, the elite 41 Commando, Royal Marines was raiding deep behind enemy lines. With victory imminent, men expected to be ‘home by Christmas’. It was not to be. In a shock onslaught launched out of Manchurian blizzards, Mao’s legions stormed south. Fighting for survival, 27th Brigade broke free of a closing trap before holding open the route for US units escaping a massive ambush. Then, as rearguard, it covered broken UN forces and desperate refugees fleeing through an apocalyptic winter warscape of devastated villages, blown bridges and burning cities. And on the war’s most harrowing battleground, 41 Commando braved ‘Hellfire Valley’ to reinforce besieged US marines surrounded amid North Korea’s most hostile mountains. What followed – the breakout from Chosin Reservoir to the sea - remains the most epic fighting withdrawal of modern history. Though Korea remains the biggest, bloodiest, most brutal war fought by British troops since World War II, the story of their central role in the conflict’s most terrible months has never been fully told. Far more than mere battlefield history, Andrew Salmon’s book draws on interviews with some 90 veterans and survivors to pain an unforgettable portrait of an immense human tragedy.

Here is another new book covering one of the British units during the Korean conflict; "A New Battlefield" by David R. Orr and David Truesdale.

by David R. Orr
Description:
Since the publication of 'The Rifles Are There' in 2005, which dealt with the 1st and 2nd Battalions Royal Ulster Rifles in the Second world War, it was felt by many that a follow up volume dealing with the Korean conflict was overdue. A limited yet competent history had been produced in 1953 by the then Adjutant Captain Hugh Hamill, although this has been long out of print. 'A New Battlefield' follows the Battalion as it prepares for the first major conflict fought by Britain since the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. During the summer of 1950 the Battalion was stationed at Sobraon Barracks in Colchester and was in the process of being issued with desert kit for a tour of duty at Khartoum in the Sudan and its numbers were just under four hundred men. For service in Korea these numbers had to be drastically increased and drafts of volunteers and reservists were brought in from various sources. Consequently this 'Irish' Battalion contained men from the Lancastrian Brigade, Welsh Brigade, Mercian Brigade, the Light Infantry and other Battalions of the Irish Brigade, The Irish Brigade also reinforced other regiments, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers sending two officers and fifty 'other ranks' to the King's (Liverpool) Regiment. Despite their varied backgrounds all ranks soon coalesced into a professional unit that took the campaign in its stride. From winter temperatures that dropped well below 40f to a summer heat that rose to 105f with a humidity to match these men survived all and dealt with a brave and tenacious enemy. The Battalion sailed for Korea in October 1950 and fought its first major action in January 1951 at Chaegunghyon, or as it was known to the Rifles, 'Happy Valley'. Here, for the first time they faced an enemy that often literally fought to the death, despite overwhelming firepower, bombing and widespread use of napalm. Three months later, on the banks of the Imjin River, the Rifles, in conjunction with the remainder of 29 Brigade, faced an army that came in such numbers that running out of ammunition before the enemy ran out of men became a reality. While the Battle of the Imjin is today largely remembered for the last stand fought by the 'Glorious Glosters', research revels that it was the Royal Ulster Rifles that held open the door that allowed the survivors of 29 Brigade to escape annihilation. The media reacts with horror at the loss of life in Afghanistan when it is in single figures, yet during the fighting at 'Happy Valley' the Battalion lost 157 men in one twenty four period. In the 1950's with limited television and press coverage Korea was quite literally on the far side of the world and generated little interest with the population; it remains so to this day. With the current situation in that country its past deserves to be re-examined and reassessed. Besides numerous photographs there are also appendices including Honours and Awards, Operation 'Spitfire', an Order of Battle for 29 Brigade, and a Nominal Roll, which includes casualties. 'A New Battlefield' will be produced in a strictly limited hardback printing of 500 numbered copies, each copy signed by both authors.

Here is a new book covering a personal perspective of the Korean War; "Chinese Hordes and Human Waves: A Personal Perspective of the Korean War 1950-1953" by Brian Parritt.

by Brian Parritt
Description:
The North Koreans' attack on their Southern neighbors shocked and surprised the World. The conflict rapidly escalated with China soon heavily involved on one side and the United States and United Nations on the other.

The author, then a young Gunner officer, found himself in the midst of this very nasty war. He describes first hand what it was like to be at the infamous Battle of the Hook, where UN troops held off massed attacks by the Communists. Few outside the war zone realized just how horrific conditions were.

As a qualified Chinese interpreter and, later, a senior military intelligence officer, Parritt is well placed to analyze why the Commonwealth got involved, the mistakes and successes and the extreme risk that the war represented.

This is not only a fine memoir but a unique insight into a forgotten War.

Hello I'm new to this group, but I have a novel that some might find interesting.

Hold Back The Night by Pat Frank. It was published in 1951 and is about a fictional Marine rifle company during the retreat from the Changjin Reservoir. Frank is remembered for Alas Babylon but this is a good little read.

Another classic account of the Korean War - this time non-fiction is

This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness
by T.R. Fehrenbach.

Thanks, Checkman. If you haven't introduced yourself, feel free to do so.

Great try on the citations. First, put all citations on the bottom of the comment. It is easier to to follow.

Second, don't forget to add book cover and author photos if you see them:

by Pat Frank

T.R. Fehrenbach

More information:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

This book was recently released.

Into the Breach at Pusan: The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in the Korean War

byKenneth W. Estes(no photo)

Synopsis

In the opening campaign of the Korean War, the First Provisional Marine Brigade participated in a massive effort by United States and South Korean forces in 1950 to turn back the North Korean invasion of the Republic of Korea. The brigade’s actions loom large in marine lore. According to most accounts, traditional Marine Corps discipline, training, and fighting spirit saved the day as the marines rescued an unprepared U.S. Eighth Army, which had been pushed back to the “Pusan Perimeter” at the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula.

Historian and retired marine Kenneth W. Estes undertakes a fresh investigation of the marines’ and Eighth Army’s fight for Pusan. Into the Breach at Pusan corrects discrepancies in earlier works (including the official histories) to offer a detailed account of the campaign and place it in historical context.Drawing on combat records, command reports, and biographical materials, Estes describes the mobilization, organization, and operations of First Brigade during the first three months of American participation in the Korean War.

Focusing on the battalions, companies, and platoons that faced the hardened soldiers of the North Korean army, he brings the reader directly to the battlefield. The story he reveals there, woven with the voices of soldiers and officers, is one of cooperation rather than interservice rivalry. At the same time, he clarifies differences in the organizational cultures of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps.Into the Breach at Pusan is scrupulously fair to both the army and the marines. Estes sets the record straight in crediting the Eighth Army with saving itself during the Pusan Perimeter campaign, but he also affirms that the army’s suffering would have been much greater without the crucial, timely performance of the First Provisional Marine Brigade.

Nicole, thank you so much for the recent add.

Here is a new book with a unique title.


I Will Shoot Them from My Loving Heart: Memoir of a South Korean Officer in the Korean War

by Won Moo Hurh

Synopsis

In the spring of 1950, 17-year-old South Korean high school senior Won Moo Hurh dreamed of studying law at Seoul National University after graduation. His life changed irrevocably on June 25 when North Korean forces invaded his homeland. After less than three months of training, Hurh was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army of the Republic of Korea and sent to the front, where the casualty rate for such junior officers could reach 60 percent. In this exceptional memoir, Hurh provides not only a descriptive chronicle of his wartime exploits, but also a social psychological exploration on the absurdity of war in general. Hurh's vivid remembrances bring to life the "forgotten" Korean War from the viewpoint of a Korean soldier, a perspective rarely available in English until now.

Has anyone read this book? It looks rather interesting.

The Secrets of Inchon

by Eugene Franklin Clark

Synopsis
This first-hand account of a crucial, but little-known, covert mission of the Korean War offers a revealing and remarkable story of wartime courage-from the very man who led the mission.

According to his colleagues, Commander Eugene Franklin Clark had "the nerves of a burglar and the flair of a Barbary Coast Pirate." And in August 1950, when General MacArthur made the unpopular decision to invade Inchon-a move considered by many to be tactical suicide-he sent in Clark to find out what they needed to know.

Here's some titles on the covert efforts of the war:

by Frank Holober

by Ed Evanhoe

by Douglas C. Dillard

by Michael E. Haas

by Arthur L. Boyd

by Ben S. Malcom

Good adds Jerome, Jill and Mark.

I managed to find some titles on the Communists' strategy- and decision-making, largely neglected in most Korean War books I've read:

by Russell Spurr

by Allen S. Whiting

by Chen Jian

by Shu Guang Zhang

by Sergei Goncharov

by Richard C. Thornton

by Patrick Roe

There's also this title:

Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea

by Xiaoming Zhang

Synopsis

The Korean conflict was a pivotal event in China's modern military history, constituting an important experience for the newly formed People's Liberation Army Air Force (Plaaf), not only as a test case for this fledgling service but also in the later development of Chinese air power. Xiaoming Zhang fills the gaps in the history of this conflict by basing his research on recently declassified Chinese and Russian archival materials and interviews with Chinese participants in the air war over Korea. Zhang's findings challenge conventional wisdom as he compares kill ratios and performance by all sides involved in the war, addresses how air power affected Beijing's decision to intervene, and touches on ground operations and truce negotiations during the conflict. Zhang also offers considerable materials on the training of Chinese aviators and the Soviet role in that training, on Soviet and Chinese air operations in Korea, and on diplomatic exchanges over Soviet military assistance to China.

In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation:The Americans Who Fought the Korean War

Melinda L. Pash

Synopsis

In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation traces the shared experiences of Korean War veterans from their childhoods in the Great Depression and World War II through military induction and training, the war, and efforts in more recent decades to organize and gain wider recognition of their service.

Largely overshadowed by World War II’s “greatest generation” and the more vocal veterans of the Vietnam era, Korean War veterans remain relatively invisible in the narratives of both war and its aftermath. Yet, just as the beaches of Normandy and the jungles of Vietnam worked profound changes on conflict participants, the Korean Peninsula chipped away at the beliefs, physical and mental well-being, and fortitude of Americans completing wartime tours of duty there. Upon returning home, Korean War veterans struggled with home front attitudes toward the war, faced employment and family dilemmas, and wrestled with readjustment. Not unlike other wars, Korea proved a formative and defining influence on the men and women stationed in theater, on their loved ones, and in some measure on American culture. In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation not only gives voice to those Americans who served in the “forgotten war” but chronicles the larger personal and collective consequences of waging war the American way.

Korean War Catholic priest awarded posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor

Finally, an award that's coming 60 years after the fact.

President Obama bestowed the Medal of Honor on a Catholic priest who died in a Korean war POW camp. Father Emil Kapaun never fired a bullet in the conflict or even carried a weapon. Instead, he took care of wounded soldiers, often at the expense of his own safety and health, on the battlefield and later at a Chinese POW camp, where he would steal food to give to other prisoners.

Those who came home from the camp never stopped praising his actions, and that finally paid off. After a military investigation and some legislation, their hopes of a medal for Father Kapaun became a reality this afternoon.

President Obama presented the award to Kapaun's nephew in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S PRESENTATION REMARKS: Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots. His fellow soldiers who felt his grace and his mercy called him a saint, a blessing from God.

Today, we bestow another title on him, recipient of our nation's highest military declaration, the Medal of Honor.

In the chaos, dodging bullets and explosions, Father Kapaun raced between foxholes, out past the front lines, and into no-man's land, dragging the wounded to safety. When his commanders ordered an evacuation, he chose to stay, gathering the injured, tending to their wounds.

When the enemy broke through and the combat was hand-to-hand, he carried on, comforting the injured and the dying, offering some measure of peace as they left this earth. When enemy forces bore down, it seemed like the end, that these wounded Americans, more than a dozen of them, would be gunned down.

But Father Kapaun spotted a wounded Chinese officer. He pleaded with this Chinese officer and convinced him to call out to his fellow Chinese. The shooting stopped, and they negotiated a safe surrender, saving those American lives.

Then, as Father Kapaun was being led away, he saw another American, wounded, unable to walk, laying in a ditch, defenseless. An enemy soldier was standing over him, rifle aimed at his head ready to shoot. And Father Kapaun marched over and pushed the enemy soldier aside. And then, as the soldier watched stunned, Father Kapaun carried that wounded American away.

This is the valor we honor today, an American soldier who didn't fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all: a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live.

In the camps that winter, deep in the valley, men could freeze to death in their sleep. Father Kapaun offered them his own clothes. Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery. He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal into pots and boiled clean water. They lived in filth. He washed their clothes and he cleansed their wounds.

The guards ridiculed his devotion to his savior and the almighty. They took his clothes and make him stand in the freezing cold for hours. Yet, he never lost his faith. If anything, it only grew stronger.

Father Kapaun's life, I think, is a testimony to the human spirit, the power of faith, and reminds us of the good that we can do each and every day, regardless of the most difficult of circumstances.

Interesting all good adds, titles, posts.

I answered my own question on a second reading.

The Korean War: A History

by Bruce Cumings (no photo)

Synopsis

A bracing account of a war that lingers in our collective memory as both ambiguous and unjustly ignored

For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953 that has long been overshadowed by World War II, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. But as Bruce Cumings eloquently explains, for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long fight that still haunts contemporary events. And in a very real way, although its true roots and repercussions continue to be either misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, it is the war that helped form modern America’s relationship to the world.

With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its start as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, the untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and the powerful militaries organized and equipped by America and the Soviet Union in that divided land. He tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, and exposes as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides and the “oceans of napalm” dropped on the North by U.S. forces in a remarkably violent war that killed as many as four million Koreans, two thirds of whom were civilians.

In sobering detail, The Korean War chronicles a U.S. home front agitated by Joseph McCarthy, where absolutist conformity discouraged open inquiry and citizen dissent. Cumings incisively ties our current foreign policy back to Korea: an America with hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home, the ultimate result of a judicious and limited policy of containment evolving into an ongoing and seemingly endless global crusade.

Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.

The Korean War

by Cameron Forbes (no photo)

Synopsis

The Korean War was a 20th Century conflict that has never ended. South Korea, a powerhouse economy and dynamic democracy sits uneasily alongside North Korea, the world's most secretive, belligerent, unpredictable and repressive totalitarian state. Today, tensions simmer and occasionally flare into outright violence on a peninsula dense with arms, munitions and nuclear warheads.

Cameron Forbes, acclaimed author of Hellfire, tells the story of the war and Australia's involvement in it in a riveting narrative. From the letters and diaries of those diggers who fought across Korea's unforgiving hills and mountains to the grand strategies formulated in Washington, Moscow and Beijing, The Korean War reveals the conflict on all its levels – human, military and geopolitical. In the tradition of Les Carlyon's Gallipoli and The Great War and Paul Ham's Vietnam, Cameron Forbes has written a masterpiece that will serve as the definitive history of Australia and the Korean War.

The Imjin and Kapyong Battles, Korea, 1951

by S P MacKenzie (no photo)

Synopsis

The sacrifice of the "Glorious Glosters" in defense of the Imjin River line and the hilltop fights of Australian and Canadian battalions in the Kapyong Valley have achieved greater renown in those nations than any other military action since World War II. This book is the first to compare in depth what happened and why. Using official and unofficial source material ranging from personal interviews to war diaries, this study seeks to disentangle the mythology surrounding both battles and explain why events unfolded as they did. Based on thorough familiarity with all available sources, many not previously utilized, it sheds new light on fighting “the forgotten war.”