One Bugle, No Drums: The Marines at Chosin Reservoir

Any student of the Korean War and the epic battel of the Marines at the Chosin Reservoir must read this book. Hopkins tells the story from his Roanoke, Virginia origins through the historic encirclement when the Chinese suddenly entered the war. Since he was the commander of the Headquarters Company of a battalon, his perspective is a step broader than that of the rifle companies in the line. First read "Breakout" by Martin Russ, then this detailed account of one unit of Marines who are at the center of it all. The courage and fighting spirit of these guys is truly inspirational. In the face of the worst weather faced by American troops in history, and outnumbered as badly as The Alamo, they endured and they won. Extraordinary!

In general, this is about (part of) Chosin operation. The author was the commander of H & R company of 1st Battalion, 1st Marine during Chosin operation. He gave a good account about the hardship the marines endured during the operation. Mind that his battalion was assigned the task of taking Hill 1081 and wrestled the control of Funchilin Pass out from superior Chinese Communist Part (CCP) forces. Unfortunately, he was in such a position that he spent most of his time staying very close to battalion HQ and could not provide more details about the fighting. (Interesting readers should look up S.L.A. Marshall's "Battle at Best". There is a chapter dedicated to the battle of Funchilin Pass.) But, it is still a good book with the first hand account of the Chosin. Of course, nobody who are interesting in Korea War would want to miss the two very valuable reports about CCP troops' attack patterns, written by S.L.A. Marshall himself, attached at the end of the book.