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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 5: The Destruction Of Faith’s Battalion

   DailyWire.com

The U.S. 7th Army Division’s regimental combat team, dug in on the east side of the reservoir, was feeling abandoned. For four days they’d fended off Chinese attacks by waves of infantry that often out-numbered them ten-to-one. Now under the command of Lt. Col. Faith, they had no orders and had lost contact with the rest of X Corps. They were desperately short of ammunition and food, and the casualties were mounting…as were the Chinese. At one point their division commander flew in by helicopter, which gave the men hope that help must be on the way. Instead he delivered the grim news. There would be no reinforcements. They had to fight as best they could on their own. This was enough for Faith, who decided that it was time to get his shot up, frost-bitten, and exhausted people out of there and link up with the Marines at Hagaru before his forsaken command was destroyed.

With a column of trucks loaded with wounded, Faith’s Battalion began its forlorn march south along the east bank of the reservoir. The appearance of Marine air support gave them a morale boost, but then, due to a malfunction, one of the friendly aircraft dropped its payload of fiery napalm right on several of the Army trucks loaded with wounded GIs. Survivors would take the awful screams of the burning men with them to their graves. It was an ill-omen. As courageous as they were, Faith’s men, after fighting for over eighty hours with no shelter, little food, and taking a steady toll of casualties from unrelenting enemy onslaughts and excruciating cold, simply lacked the strength to make an orderly retreat and it soon degenerated into an every-man-for-himself situation. Faith was killed, and many of the wounded left on the trucks, as well as their brave comrades who felt morally bound to not abandon their buddies, found themselves Chinese POWs. Others crossed over the frozen reservoir and staggered southward as best they could. By the time what was left of Faith’s Battalion made their way into Hagaru, they could only count 670 out of the original 2,500 G.I.s, of whom barely half were fit for duty. The Marines watched them stagger into their encampment with a mixture of admiration for their perseverance and pity for the hell they’d been through. Said one Army survivor, “When we walked into Haguri [sic] we were like walking corpses, having been neglected for five days.”

It should be noted that a growing number of historians, such as O.P. Smith’s biographer Thomas Ricks, believe this lone Army unit has been neglected in the telling of the battle as much as they were by their own high command at the time. This unit being added to this part of X Corps had allowed the careful Smith to consolidate both his 5th and 7th Marine regiments on the west side of the reservoir rather than one on each side, making Yudam-Ni a much stronger position. The Chinese, surprised to find an extra Army unit rather than Marines on the east bank, had their timetable upset. In fact, argues Ricks, the resistance put up by the regimental combat team most likely bought time that allowed the Marines on the west side of the reservoir to withdraw. It is a sacrifice worthy of note.

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Back in the States, the American people were shocked at the turn of events. The Eighth Army was in full retreat south. As if this wasn’t disconcerting enough, it was becoming clear to the public that the entire First Marine Division was cut off and might be wiped out. Analogies to Custer’s 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn no doubt were raised. MacArthur, stunned at the sudden, shattering reversal, and having visibly aged, finally admitted: “We face an entirely new war.” Newspaper headlines catalogued the growing catastrophe. “Noose Tightened On Trapped Troops” (Statesville Daily Record). “Allied Army In Battle For Life” (Reno Evening Gazette). “Marine Unit Trapped At Chosin Reservoir” (Traverse City Record-Eagle). Relatives of the men whose fate was completely unknown to them prepared themselves for the worst.

Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/of-another-time-and-place-brad-schaeffer/1128170819?ean=9781682616635

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