Damn, I was eating and posting and threw up that lazy garbage instead of a better post. I don't want to kill this thread, so here's some stuff:
Three War Marine is a goddamned awesome book. Don't bother reading it if you are more into -- and I don't say this disparagingly -- more of a superficial or literary look at history. It is a combination of not being terribly well written while being vivid and insightful, but it's not 'literature' in the sense that most would enjoy. It's specific. If you want to know what sort of night displacement they used, you're in for some good stuff. Periodically, though, are these sorts of insightful accounts:
Quote:
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On the night of November 12, the first icy blasts of winter swirled down from Manchuria. The temperature dipped to -25 degrees, and the wind-chill factor was indescribable. During the interludes of cold weather that followed, the effectiveness of our fire support decreased. To combat this penetrating chill, each firing battery was allowed about ten tents to serve as havens where gunners could warm their hands from the burn of icy metal. An Extra tent and stove added no appreciable weight to the truck's load, but the need to deploy and use the warming tents and the fact that the men were bundled in parkas, shoe-pacs, and mittens greatly decreased mobility. In addition, diggin in trails--even with axes--became a heroic task. Shifting them after they had frozen in was almost impossible. These conditions called for an adjustment in time-and-space computation. Instead of being able to displace the advance echelon as late as 2:00 PM., I had to give the order by noon if the rear echelon was to be in position by dark. To meet this condition, I had to reconnoiter aggressively, often with the infantry point and, on occasion, in front of it.
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Basically the whole chapter on Korea is RECON RECON RECON. -21 Fahrenheit = -31 Degrees celsius.
Here's another glorious passage:
Quote:
Our surgeon, Bob Shoemaker, was a youngster of twenty-five who had not even completed his intership. He and Reds Miller, our compassionate, peripatetic executive, had befriended one another. Each was somewhat new at his job, and they gave each other support. For his part, Reds had endeavored to instill in the young doctor the confidence to perform in the field when the occasion arose. Shoemaker had said. "They didn't tell me about battle wounds at medical school."
The occasion arrived the night of november 27, and the apple-cheeked surgeon rose to the challenge. Blood-spattered and exhausted, he grew inches in stature that night as the men of 3/11 led or carried into the tent that was our sick bay many of Dog and Easy comapny's wounded. These men had stopped the Chinese from pouring down into our position--but just barely. During the morning of November 27, over seventy casualties, mostly from D/2/7, were in 3/11's sick bay.
Captain Milt Hill, Dog Company's bull-like commander, was one of the casualties, with head wounds and a bullet hole clear through his upper arm. Wounded as he was, Milt had led a counter attack to retake the hill behind us.
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Heavy fighting. It's not korea related, but his descriptions of the naval bombardments during the second world war pacific theatre in the previous chapter is an example that really sets the stage for some of the passages about the heavy fighting encountered later on.
Korea (and about early 1900th century America) is pretty fuzzy for me, so if anyone has some science to drop, let's do this thing.