Changjin Wonsan to Hungnam

On June 25, 1950, North Korea attacked her neighbor to the south, thus setting into motion a war that lasted three years, accounting for the loss of thousands of lives. America and the United Nations entered the police action” in July, under the baton of General Douglas MacArthur. A much-quoted MacArthurism was, The troops will be home by Christmas.” Wrong. MacArthur ordered all U.N. forces, including X Corps and the First Marine Division, north to the Yalu River, assuring them that the Chinese would not enter the war. Wrong again. When the First Marine Division reached the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir, they found themselves surrounded by sixteen Chinese communist divisions. They had to fight their way out, back to the sea at Hungnam. They had to do all of their fighting, freezing, and dying within a cruel, incredible cold. The Chinese failed to hold them there, kill them there.”Littell, Bruce is the author of 'Changjin Wonsan to Hungnam', published 2006 under ISBN 9781424161263 and ISBN 1424161266.