![\"Marines](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG_1388.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1388\\"")
\r\n\tHome by Christmas<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nAs the sun went down on November 27, 1950, and temperatures sank to 20 degrees below zero, Marines at Yudam-ni, a small village on the west side of the Chosin Reservoir<\/a>, hunkered down for what they hoped would be a quiet, uneventful night. <\/p>\r\n“The war was all but over,\u201d Finn recalled in his diary written weeks later from a hospital bed in Japan. \u201cYou’ll be home by Christmas,\u201d he’d been told.<\/p>\r\n
But his buddy, Eddie Reilly, wasn\u2019t buying it. In his usual pessimistic tone, he told Finn, \u201cPat, I don\u2019t like the look of all this, it sounds too good.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
![\"Marching](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Hill-at-Chosin-North-Korea.jpeg\")
Marching on a hill at Chosin (PC: USMC)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
For the next four hours the two Marines scraped and dug into the frozen, rocky ground, Reilly constantly reminding his friend that if something went wrong a fighting hole would save them from flying bullets and shrapnel. <\/p>\r\n
“I hate this place,\u201d Reilly said for what seemed like the hundredth time, “but we\u2019re not going to get caught with our pants down, keep digging!\u201d<\/p>\r\n
When the hole was finally finished, Finn and Reilly, both exhausted, squeezed into what they believed would be a safe haven for the night. Minutes later their lieutenant yelled, \u201cSaddle up!\u201d Their platoon was heading to higher ground.<\/p>\r\n
They Just Kept Coming<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nNothing, not even a foxhole, would save them from the horror that unfolded over the next eight hours. Finn, Reilly, and hundreds of their fellow Marines were attacked by thousands of Chinese. <\/p>\r\n
In the first onslaught of a major Communist offensive that would alter the course of the war, Chinese soldiers, under direct orders from Mao, had launched a vicious attack to annihilate the 1st Marine Division. Wave after wave of Chinese descended on the Marines.<\/p>\r\n
![\"Chiese](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Chinese-attack-at-Chosin.jpg\")
The Chinese attack at Chosin (Photo credit: US Archives)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Overwhelmed and outmanned, Finn and his buddies were overrun by the Chinese. With enemy soldiers breaking through their defenses, close-in fighting, sometimes hand-to-hand, erupted. <\/p>\r\n
“They were mixed in right with us,\u201d Finn remembers. Hundreds of white-clad Chinese, oozing a pungent garlic smell, swarmed over Finn and Reilly\u2019s position.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAbout that time Pat Garvin from Detroit threw an illumination round,\u201d Finn recalled. The Chinese \u201cwith their white jackets looked like ducks in a shooting gallery.\u201d Silhouetted against the lit sky, they were mowed down by machine gun fire, but as soon as they fell, men running behind them grabbed their fallen comrades’ weapons and charged ahead. <\/p>\r\n
\u201cThey just kept coming,\u201d Finn remembers.<\/p>\r\n
![\"Chinese](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Chinese-attack-1950.jpeg\")
The Chinese attack, 1950. (PC: War Memorial of Korea)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Silence on the Hill<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nIn the chaos of the attack, the young Marine ran straight into a Chinese soldier. \u201cI went to shoot him and \u2018click\u2019 my rifle was frozen.\u201d Stunned and realizing he was about to get hit, Finn yelled, \u201cHe got me!\u201d A Marine heard Finn scream and fired a round at the Chinese fighter. The soldier died instantly.<\/p>\r\n
When the sun came up the next morning, an estimated 300 frozen, grotesquely twisted Chinese corpses littered the snowy North Korean hillside. Famed Korean War historian Roy Appleman, in his seminal work<\/a> on Chosin, Escaping The Trap<\/em>, wrote, \u201cSilence prevailed on the hill.\u201d<\/p>\r\nIn a bloody, 24-hour period, the Korean War had changed. General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of UN Forces in Korea, was shocked. He had previously told President Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Chinese would not enter the war. They wouldn\u2019t dare, he had boasted. With “135 [American] dead, 725 wounded, and 60 missing\u201d in just one day and thousands more dying over the next month, the American public was also stunned.<\/p>\r\n
“The war was all but over,\u201d Finn recalled in his diary written weeks later from a hospital bed in Japan. \u201cYou’ll be home by Christmas,\u201d he’d been told.<\/p>\r\n
But his buddy, Eddie Reilly, wasn\u2019t buying it. In his usual pessimistic tone, he told Finn, \u201cPat, I don\u2019t like the look of all this, it sounds too good.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Marching on a hill at Chosin (PC: USMC)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
For the next four hours the two Marines scraped and dug into the frozen, rocky ground, Reilly constantly reminding his friend that if something went wrong a fighting hole would save them from flying bullets and shrapnel. <\/p>\r\n
“I hate this place,\u201d Reilly said for what seemed like the hundredth time, “but we\u2019re not going to get caught with our pants down, keep digging!\u201d<\/p>\r\n
When the hole was finally finished, Finn and Reilly, both exhausted, squeezed into what they believed would be a safe haven for the night. Minutes later their lieutenant yelled, \u201cSaddle up!\u201d Their platoon was heading to higher ground.<\/p>\r\n
They Just Kept Coming<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nNothing, not even a foxhole, would save them from the horror that unfolded over the next eight hours. Finn, Reilly, and hundreds of their fellow Marines were attacked by thousands of Chinese. <\/p>\r\n
In the first onslaught of a major Communist offensive that would alter the course of the war, Chinese soldiers, under direct orders from Mao, had launched a vicious attack to annihilate the 1st Marine Division. Wave after wave of Chinese descended on the Marines.<\/p>\r\n
The Chinese attack at Chosin (Photo credit: US Archives)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Overwhelmed and outmanned, Finn and his buddies were overrun by the Chinese. With enemy soldiers breaking through their defenses, close-in fighting, sometimes hand-to-hand, erupted. <\/p>\r\n
“They were mixed in right with us,\u201d Finn remembers. Hundreds of white-clad Chinese, oozing a pungent garlic smell, swarmed over Finn and Reilly\u2019s position.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAbout that time Pat Garvin from Detroit threw an illumination round,\u201d Finn recalled. The Chinese \u201cwith their white jackets looked like ducks in a shooting gallery.\u201d Silhouetted against the lit sky, they were mowed down by machine gun fire, but as soon as they fell, men running behind them grabbed their fallen comrades’ weapons and charged ahead. <\/p>\r\n
\u201cThey just kept coming,\u201d Finn remembers.<\/p>\r\n
The Chinese attack, 1950. (PC: War Memorial of Korea)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Silence on the Hill<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nIn the chaos of the attack, the young Marine ran straight into a Chinese soldier. \u201cI went to shoot him and \u2018click\u2019 my rifle was frozen.\u201d Stunned and realizing he was about to get hit, Finn yelled, \u201cHe got me!\u201d A Marine heard Finn scream and fired a round at the Chinese fighter. The soldier died instantly.<\/p>\r\n
When the sun came up the next morning, an estimated 300 frozen, grotesquely twisted Chinese corpses littered the snowy North Korean hillside. Famed Korean War historian Roy Appleman, in his seminal work<\/a> on Chosin, Escaping The Trap<\/em>, wrote, \u201cSilence prevailed on the hill.\u201d<\/p>\r\nIn a bloody, 24-hour period, the Korean War had changed. General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of UN Forces in Korea, was shocked. He had previously told President Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Chinese would not enter the war. They wouldn\u2019t dare, he had boasted. With “135 [American] dead, 725 wounded, and 60 missing\u201d in just one day and thousands more dying over the next month, the American public was also stunned.<\/p>\r\n
The Chinese attack at Chosin (Photo credit: US Archives)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Overwhelmed and outmanned, Finn and his buddies were overrun by the Chinese. With enemy soldiers breaking through their defenses, close-in fighting, sometimes hand-to-hand, erupted. <\/p>\r\n
“They were mixed in right with us,\u201d Finn remembers. Hundreds of white-clad Chinese, oozing a pungent garlic smell, swarmed over Finn and Reilly\u2019s position.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAbout that time Pat Garvin from Detroit threw an illumination round,\u201d Finn recalled. The Chinese \u201cwith their white jackets looked like ducks in a shooting gallery.\u201d Silhouetted against the lit sky, they were mowed down by machine gun fire, but as soon as they fell, men running behind them grabbed their fallen comrades’ weapons and charged ahead. <\/p>\r\n
\u201cThey just kept coming,\u201d Finn remembers.<\/p>\r\n
The Chinese attack, 1950. (PC: War Memorial of Korea)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Silence on the Hill<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nIn the chaos of the attack, the young Marine ran straight into a Chinese soldier. \u201cI went to shoot him and \u2018click\u2019 my rifle was frozen.\u201d Stunned and realizing he was about to get hit, Finn yelled, \u201cHe got me!\u201d A Marine heard Finn scream and fired a round at the Chinese fighter. The soldier died instantly.<\/p>\r\n
When the sun came up the next morning, an estimated 300 frozen, grotesquely twisted Chinese corpses littered the snowy North Korean hillside. Famed Korean War historian Roy Appleman, in his seminal work<\/a> on Chosin, Escaping The Trap<\/em>, wrote, \u201cSilence prevailed on the hill.\u201d<\/p>\r\nIn a bloody, 24-hour period, the Korean War had changed. General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of UN Forces in Korea, was shocked. He had previously told President Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Chinese would not enter the war. They wouldn\u2019t dare, he had boasted. With “135 [American] dead, 725 wounded, and 60 missing\u201d in just one day and thousands more dying over the next month, the American public was also stunned.<\/p>\r\n
In a bloody, 24-hour period, the Korean War had changed. General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of UN Forces in Korea, was shocked. He had previously told President Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Chinese would not enter the war. They wouldn\u2019t dare, he had boasted. With “135 [American] dead, 725 wounded, and 60 missing\u201d in just one day and thousands more dying over the next month, the American public was also stunned.<\/p>\r\n
![\"US](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/British-US-Marines-awaiting-burial-Koto-ri-Dec.-1950-300x220.jpg\")
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![\"Marines](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Marines-arrive-at-Hungnam-e1546671711923.jpg\")
![\"Pat](\"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Pat-Finn.jpg\")
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