# The Forgotten War



## jerry old (Apr 12, 2021)

I had knowledge of the Chosin Reservoir battle, where the Ist Marines did the undo-able-walking out of what should have been a massacre. They were a tough bunch and deserve all the tributes that can be heaped on them.

There was another group at Chosin Reservoir, the 31st Regimental Combat Team, composed of 2,500 troops (or 3,000-information is garbled) marched to the Reservoir to guard the Marines East Flank, then on to the Yale..
They had some knowledge of the Chinese Troops massing; there had been an encounter several days before. the 28th of November.
The first night the Chinese Troops struck the 31st Regiments and the Marines, they were repelled

After the first night of battle, General Almond, Commander of All American Troops flew in, *Korea told the 31st Regiment and the Marines , “…the Chinese troops were the remnants of Chinese Divisions fleeing North… don’t let a bunch of Chinese Laundry-men stop you. Were still attacking and were going all the way to the Yale*.”

MacLean, Lt. Col was the commanding officer of 31st RCT, had sent out a platoon size reconnaissance probe, the recon platoon *disappeared.* –No total alert was called; the 31st still ignored the scattered reports of Chinese Troops massing.
The 31st survived the first night with heavy casualties, especially in the officer corp.
After the third night, the 31st Regimental Combat team disintegrated.

Of the 2500 troops, how many survived?:
The Marines on the Western Flank of the Reservoir counted 675 soldiers walking across the ice to the Marine Lines.
Wikipedia says 1500 survived
Other sources say 1000 survived
All information available is garbled.
Information regarding the 31st Regimental Combat Team is lacking.
This was an unpopular war; the army was not anxious to publicize the events regarding the destruction of any combat group.
The Army had their hands full trying to explain the 8th Army’s retreat from North Korea.


----------



## horseless carriage (Apr 12, 2021)

The Battle of Agincourt on the 25th of October 1415, might not be a forgotten war, but like the Chosin Reservoir Battle, one side heavily outnumbered the other. The English were outnumbered at a rate of five to one by the French. Yet by their tactics they won a decisive victory. Arguably the first time that the tactic of firing by rank which was deployed, or in this case, shooting by rank, as it was primarily archers, was the prime reason for the English victory. 

The archers were told to shoot at the horses hearts, which they did to great effect, so much so that up to that battle, the cavalry charge would almost certainly have wiped out the archers. But dead horses cause a pile up and a knight in a suit of armour, clanking around without a horse, simply compounds the road block. So when the second wave came charging in, their impact was stopped by the previous wave, and so on, and so on.

If you are interested, you can read it on Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt


----------



## Gaer (Apr 12, 2021)

My  late husband was in the Korean War.
He never talked about it.


----------



## digifoss (Apr 14, 2021)

Not completely forgotten, two important historical battles.  The Battle of Cannae, said to be the largest battle Rome ever fought.  Located in the heel of Italy, lower southeast part of Italy.  Roman's outnumbered Carthage by a huge number. Carthage, led by Hannibal, defeated the Romans, this in the second Punic War 216 BC.  Out of almost 90,000 Roman soldiers, only 15,000 survived.  After the battle, even Capua became a city-state of Carthage.  And my favorite from Roman history,  Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9CE where Germans slaughtered 3 Roman legions.  There were less than 100 Roman survivors out of 18,000.

I was not in the military, but my dad was a WWII veteran.  He saw heavy fighting in the European theater, and never talked about it, like most war veterans.  My oldest brother Tommy was a Vietnam veteran.


----------



## jerry old (Apr 28, 2021)

I've been watching clips on our Afgan involvement-don't call it a war.
Specifically, the piecemeal feeding of troops to the Korgengal Valley and outpost Restrepo.-the clips are before 2012.

Troops placed in Harm's Way every day they were at these outpost.
Our troop leadership  was dismayed, confused-'what do we hope to accomplish.'
An exercise to get American Troops killed for no real purpose.
('Nay, a platoon can handle the problem.')

The Battalion Commanders begged-"give us the troops to do the job or close these outpost down.'

Finally, after 6 years of boys manning the outpost, they realized their plans were inadequate (just dumb) and shut these outpost down.
I don't have a total of the deaths for all four outpost, put i think it was 50 in six years, per outpost.


----------



## SetWave (Apr 28, 2021)

Remember when the Russians finally quit after nine years in Afghanistan? Then, we stupid Americans thought we could make a difference. What a goddamned disaster.


----------



## 911 (Apr 29, 2021)

SetWave said:


> Remember when the Russians finally quit after nine years in Afghanistan? Then, we stupid Americans thought we could make a difference. What a goddamned disaster.


Not to mention—              And expensive! Mainly in lives, but also wasted money.


----------



## Irwin (Apr 29, 2021)

SetWave said:


> Remember when the Russians finally quit after nine years in Afghanistan? Then, we stupid Americans thought we could make a difference. What a goddamned disaster.


Yep, when our leaders do dumb things, we're to blame for electing them. We spent trillions of dollars—six trillion I believe, if you include Iraq—to go after six a**holes. Six terrorists caused all these problems, and they were all from Saudi Arabia! None were from Afghanistan or Iraq! Dumbest blunder in U.S. history!


----------

