The Frozen Chosen: The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

By Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Book Overview

The Frozen Chosen is an account of the breakout from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea by the 1st Marine Division from November to December 1950, following the intervention of Red China in the Korean War. Fought during the worst blizzard in a century, it is considered by the United States Marine Corps to be "the Corps' finest hour." Fourteen Medals of Honor, a record for any American battle, and eighty-five Navy Crosses--many awarded in lieu of an original nomination for the Medal of Honor--attest to the intensity of the battle.

Based on first-person interviews from surviving veterans who came to be known as the "Frozen Chosen," this is the incredible story of heroism and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, as a handful of Marines fought desperately against wave after wave of Chinese forces. Sometimes forced into desperate hand-to-hand fighting in intense cold, cut off from reinforcements, and with dwindling supplies and ammunition, the fighting retreat from Chosin marked one of the darkest moments for Western forces in Korea, it but would go on to resonate with generations of Marines as a symbol of the Marine Corps' dogged determination, fighting skill, and never-say-die attitude on the battlefield.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1472824881
• ISBN13: 9781472824882
• Release Date: October 2017
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK)
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

If you want a story about the marines who battled at the Chosin Resevoir, then this may not be what

I was very excited to read this, as I have heard a lot about the battle, but never had really much detailed accounts of it. I was expecting a novel about the marines themselves, and what they had to go through at the battle, how they over came the battle, etc. For the first 65-75% of this book, it is the entire history of how the Korean war began, how the sides came to be, such as how the North Korean army were veterans of the Chinese civil war, all about the backgrounds of Mao, etc. There was just entirely way too much back story, which ended up being the majority of the book. The book does not get to the battle of Chosin until about page 210. This book is 378 pages long. Also, there is not much dialogue or even anecdotes in this. It is all maneuvers, army positions that goes so fast, it is difficult to keep up, especially with the limited maps and timing. There were a handful of good stories in the book, which I thought the entire book would be about, such as two marines fighting a giant onslaught of Chinese and surviving, or small tank battles. But really, the book is exposition of how the battles happened vs a Marine's point of view of the events happening. If you want to make a documentary or map video of how the battle happened, this is for you.