The Most Infamous Battle of the Korean War - Battle of the Jangjin / Chosin Reservoir 1950

There are soooo much misrepresentation, omission, misinformation and lies about the Korean war. There were only 325,000 Chinese in NK against 715,000 US and UN forces. Those 200k Chinese did not just fought the marines. The Chinese fought and defeated/routed a force of at least 115,000 which includes the entire X Corp + the 1st Div Marines + 7th ID + ROK I Corp forces in the East. Every documentary about the Chosin battle always make seems like it was just the 20K marines battling the entire Chinese in the entire North Korean war. They hardly mention the 8th Army in the east Chongchong battle being routed by a far lesser Chinese force of half starve, half frozen ill-equipped.

Is it true if 1st Division of u.s marines almost wiped out in Battle of Chosin?

In view of the fact that the war was in an early stage; I believe that the Royal Marines and the U.S. Marines displayed exceptional valor that lived up to their proud, distinguished traditions !!

seemed pretty decisive to me based on the numbers i found the UN lost a little over 10 thousand the chinese lost 3 times that to the cold alone and double the UN number in combat bringing there casualties to around 50 thousand

.... GEN. OLIVER PRINCE SMITH .... Set the bar for what TRUE LEADERSHIP means ...... He is the "unsung hero" of this battle - and that was by no accident ----- LOOK HIM UP.

The frozen hours...

my great uncle was killed in Korea. napalmed by the US when in UK forces, died a year later. Buried at UN cemetery at Busan.

Your pronunciation on Korean name sounds damn close to Native Korean....

underrated channel

i like how you use real photographs from the battle to show what is going on, imo this is better than other battle order channels since in immerses you in the battle

In this battle was the greatest evacuation of all times in the Korean War. While the Chinese won to reclaim the resorvoir, the U.S. Troops still proved a superior force. Laying traps and delaying tactics against the numerically superior Chinese soldiers and the Chinese failed to destroy them.

As a Marine who’s heard terrible stories about the Army, it’s difficult to look at the 31st RCT without some prejudice because we believe we are the best. However, the messaging among the Marines, who answered to a cautious and well-prepared OP Smith, was one of measured confidence and an understanding that the Chinese were present and in significant numbers. They were well prepared for the fight. The Army’s messaging, however, came from Almond and MacArthur whose hubris inspired overconfidence as well as a belief that the Chinese were not involved in any meaningful way. Poor leadership from the flag-officer level was the sole cause of the destruction of the RCT…not a fundamental difference between Army soldiers and Marines.

An all too common mistake is to not put your ego aside. Don't underestimate your opponent. And don't overestimate your own skills. The bare bones of the matter is, put aside all the advanced military equipment , the Chinese soldier was superior. Fighting with outdated rifles , no air support, they won the battle. Too bad almond thought these were just laundry men. The laundry men kicked his butt .

The comments in this video are adequate for an introduction into the fighting in and around the Chosin Reservoir. Although some of the numbers the author offers are a bit skewed. The total number of Chinese is suspect, especially after they close in at Hungnam. Over 90,000 Koreans were evacuated from Hungnam along with the UN Forces. If there were 200,000 Koreans at the docks at that time, they would have been blown up during the destruction of the port. See the book "To the Last Man" by Major Franklin Kestner. There are a few books that I would offer if a reader wanted to take a deep dive in the Korean War's Chosin Reservoir fighting. I list them in order of importance and a logical progression in order to understand the full scope.
Clay Blair's book The Forgotten War-research and validation points.
Major Ent's book, "Fighting on the Brink" a solid time line of the beginnings of the Korean War
Colonel George Rasula's "The Changjin Chronology" A timeline of the Chosin Campaign
Roy E. Appleman's "East of Chosin; Entrapment and Breakout in Korea" Revealing questions asked about the Chosin campaign.
Ray Vallowe's book, "What History Failed to Record; A phantom force lost to history" Some Questions answered about the Chosin
Billy Mossman's book "Ebb and Flow"
Martin Russ' book "Breakout; The Chosin Reservoir Campaign"
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's book "The Last Stand of Fox Hill"
Roy E. Appleman's book "South to Naktong North to Yalu"
Hampton Side's book "On Desperate Ground".
Major Franklin Kestner's book "To the Last Man; Kulbis' Mongrels at the Chosin Reservoir" autobiographical at Chosin.

A few of these are downloadable for free on the internet.
But there are many, many more. Each one brings nuggets of events into the Korean conflict.

Surrounded by mountains on all sides.
Sir, we are surrounded by enemy soldiers on all sides.
Meaning, we are ambushed and nowhere to hide or retreat.

surrounded on all sides and hugely outnumbered but still holding on for days and manage to breakout later on

USA logistic and air dominant are soo magnificent

Lost Korea and lost Vietnam even though we were superior. This is why we are disrespected by the Chinese. They will do anything and everything possible to win.

The US in Korean War is treason, they want to cross and invade the Chinese and the Chinese didn’t even want war

The Marines don't sound very demoralized as stated by the narrator nor the army troops
And they consistently found was to resupply an eventually evacuate the whole force an refugees to some extent

October 15 Wake Island meeting: MacArthur says everything will go well, BUT NOBODY GIVES HIM RESTRICTIONS ON TACTICS.
October 30 the first signs of Chinese are seen.
November 7 MacArthur tells the Joint Chiefs of Staff that Chinese and equipment are pouring in over the Yalu Bridges. And he asks for permission to destroy the bridges.
November 8 the JCS denies MacArthur's request for permission to destroy the bridges.
His only option is air power. But it's not enough. The problem was politics not MacArthur.

That fucking, home by cristhmas never works

The problem in Korea was not China it was McArthur.

The American 1st Marines division had a 10 to 1 kill ratio. They decimated the Chinese. The reason for retreat was because they could not sustain their power over the long haul against 240,000 Chinese soldiers.

Absolutely horrible conditions for all involved

한국분이신가요?? 발음이 너무 좋으십니다 ㅠㅠ

Who else is here because of the book "Devotion"? It's a great book, and great story.
The gut-wrenching fact is that the US leadership (Democrat President) was a pussy, who didn't stand against Communist China, even when we were being fought DIRECTLY by Communist China (and also Russians). Makes one shake their head... The same situation existed in Vietnam, and yet again, a Democrat President was a pussycat - not wanting to harm our enemies who were DIRECTLY ATTACKING US. Makes one shake their head...

what a bias vid, a win is a win lo! a retreat is a retreat! Good job PLA!

My grandfather was a member of RCT 31. He was one of the rare ones that didnt seem to have much of an issue speaking on his experiences (DD-214 verified and corroborated by photographic evidence). The barrels of their weapons were white hot. He once helped a man stuff his guts back inside of him, then later ran into him, alive, at a hospital. He died when I was only 13, so I never truly got to pick his mind about it, which I regret so deeply to this day, and always will. I am now a proud member of the 5th Marine Regiment, those who fought on the western side of the reservoir. His dog tag that bore witness to all of that brutality is hanging on the door of my wall locker, no more than 5 feet away from me at all times. I shouldn't be alive today. Semper Fidelis to all of the Frozen Chosin.

My father-in-law, Sgt. Robinson, was with the first Marines. In both WWll Pelegru and the Inchon thru Chosin and back. I learned about those battles, and others. from the man who fought them. R.I.P. A.J.

My father told part in this battle Company A 50th AAA battery Twin 40

This is a berry funny description of a battle; yah missed to mention which army had the arrows ‘n bows! He he he he he he

Chinese leadership was misled by the fact that US and UN troops had smaller number would be defeated. But thousands of Chinese died even before fighting because they had no winter clothes.

My grandfather and great uncle fought this battle. My grandfather Lester Powell survived but my great uncle died on the first or second night of fighting. My grandfather felt responsible since he had convinced him to join after my grandfather survived WW2. He wouldn't talk about it so I only know about it from military records

I always thought the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir was an American miracle for two reasons:
1. Though the Americans and South Koreans suffered heavy casualties, they inflicted even greater casualties on the Chinese.
2. The 30,000 American and South Korean troops at the Chosin Reservoir were surrounded by an enemy four times their size and it looked like they would all be killed or captured, but miraculously, they broke out.
You may disagree with me, but that is ok, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

This is proof that Truman and the Democratics weren't interested in winning the war! Immediately after this happened Hollywood would have done a great service by telling us about that event they remained quite!

If we flipped the scenery to a war being waged near the US, I know the US would take extreme measures to defend it’s sovereignty too. I like the fact that there is not a monopoly on world superpowerism because it keeps the tyrants at bay no matter which country or ideology. Balance is key.

The situation developed because Of two men, MacArthur and Almond who lacked a hard dose of reality.

This is like a fighter (China) saying hes going to knockout his opponent (Nato) but instead ends up winning a decision instead and his opponent then claims a victory.

US and South Korean soldiers fight the Red Devil Empire in this area

Task Force Faith Saved the marines from being annihilated

People's Volunteer Army? Yah,sure!

Uhmm... I think the advantage is not on the Chinese side even though they have more numbers. The advantage was on the US side since they had air support all the time. And yet US/the allies still lose. Please admit that.

My father was in the 96th Field Artillery Regiment, X Corps. He had to correct me a bunch of times that it was "X" Corps, not 10th Corps. He said the name came from the moniker "Force X" due to the composition (Marines and Army). Dad was frustrated every time someone got the name wrong.

Awwww dude!! yes thank you for making this its amazing ! recently started chinese war film they have no fluff no rated r , and fair in telling there story , there a chinese film about the fight for one of the countless hills , depicts all side fairly .

Hold on, neither side won but the Chinese forced the US forces back and further back from North Korea. lol, what the hell is this analysis. Also, why mention China as Communist China? but US not as Democratic US lol. I also cannot agree why you would mention Chinese forces lose more men as a losing factor when the US at the time was the single most advanced superpower in the world. The US had aircraft carriers when China still was fighting on fishing boats at this time.

BTW there was nothing volunteer about the Chinese forces. They were conscripts pour and simple.

Great video thank you

The Chinese outnumbered the US by 10 to 1.