Name: On Desperate Ground
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)
ISBN: 9781101971215

Hampton Sides

"A chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War."--Provided by publisher.

The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle

On Desperate Ground

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of Ice, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War. 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 the 13,000 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 at the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic--and harrowing--operations in American military history. 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. Hampton Sides' superb account of this classic battle relies on years of archival research and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly chronicling the follies of the American leaders, this 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."

Jeremy Anderberg

The Korean War is often referred to as America's "forgotten war." That phrase might now even be a bit of a cliche, as recent years have seen quite a few books released on the subject. While there are innumerable stories to be told, many center around its most famed battle: the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.

On Desperate Ground covers this battle, and is truly one of the better history narratives I've ever read. I was irrevocably hooked from the very first chapter.

What sets this book apart is how well Sides sets the stage for the battle that unfolds. He gets into the whys and hows of the war before getting into the nitty gritty and often gory details. It's written and structured and reads like a novel with clear protagonists and antagonists (often being US leadership rather than enemy soldiers), page-turning battle scenes with truly unbelievable acts of individual courage and heroism, and breathtaking descriptions of nightmarish landscapes and climates (with temperatures during the fighting plunging well below zero).

Sides writes better than I possibly could what sets the Battle of Chosin Reservoir apart from other engagements, and makes it so eminently worth telling about:

"Few battles can boast so many notable instances of individual courage, carried out on such inhospitable terrain, in such impossible weather, in conditions of such intimate combat, against such overwhelming numerical odds. The extremity of the predicament brought to the fore a naked survival instinct, a ferocious camaraderie, and a rare improvisational spirit."

So many reading list additions here. Sides immediately got me interested in learning all I could about the Korean War and its primary players, so I added to my list a bunch of books in that realm — only a couple of which I've already bought . . . sorry Jane. I also now want to read all of Sides' other books. I've read Hellhound on His Trail, about the hunt for MLK's killer, which was great, so I had some inkling this book would live up to the hype.


I've not read many books about the Korean War (Adam Makos' fabulous Devotion being the only other one), but On Desperate Ground really seems like the perfect, heroic starting point. Again, one of the better history books I've read, and one that I'll be recommending for a long time to come.

On Desperate Ground The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle

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