By: Gordon Rottman
Rated 3 Stars
Kindle
This book is very dry and it was difficult for me to keep my attention focused on what I was reading. . However it did answer one question that I have always wondered about. How in the heck did my late husband even end up fighting in this war anyway? He never talked about it much except that he was recalled and not happy about it but that there was nothing he could do about it. He only served one year that time. Oh he did say on the night before the landing (he was one of a three man crew on the landing crafts) and been given a form and a pen and told to make their wills. He said that made them all feel great. Not!
Anyway this book went into detail about how surprised the US was about the whole Korean thing and that after WW2 was over the Gov't had dismantled all the services to the point where they were completely unprepared to fight in any type of conflict. However, when people were being discharged after WW2 the Gov't had, in a rare case of foresight, required each member of the armed services to sign a paper saying they agreed to being released to the "Inactive Reserves" which could be called up should the country ever need them. And in this case they immediately started calling up thousands of WW2 veterans, especially those who had previous combat experience so they could pitched straight into combat without training. And that's the story of how my husband ended up in the Korean War. Now I know.
Book Description
Osprey's study of Inch'on, which was probably the most significant campaign in the Korean War (1950-1953), as well as the last major amphibious assault of division-size conducted in the history of warfare. The odds were stacked against the US troops, with virtually no time for training and many of the divisions unprepared for the conflict. The success of the Inch'on campaign is a testament to the sheer initiative of the officers and NCOs conducted it. This book details the strategy and tactics that led to the operation's success, as well as narrating the experience of the battle in fascinating detail.
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