0:01 All right. Well, it's Halloween. I guess
0:02 we should talk about that time that the
0:04 United States Marine Corps figured out a
0:07 way to turn Tootsie Rolls into a weapon.
0:08 Today, we're talking about one of the
0:10 most underrated and underappreciated
0:12 battles in the United States military
0:14 history, the Battle of the Chosen
0:16 Reservoir. When 15,000 US Marines and
0:19 3,000 Army soldiers got ambushed and
0:22 surrounded by 120,000 Chinese Communist
0:24 forces in the dead of winter with
0:27 temperatures reaching as low as -50. But
0:29 despite the weather, despite being
0:31 ambushed and taken by surprise, and
0:33 despite being outnumbered 4 to one, the
0:35 United States Marine Corps led this
0:37 operation to not only survive, but to
0:39 kill a disproportionate amount of the
0:42 enemy [music] and save 10% of the South
0:44 Korean civilian population in the
0:46 process. And we're going to get into it
0:48 right after word from our sponsor.
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2:15 All right, Battle of the Chosen
2:17 Reservoir. In order to understand it,
2:18 you have to understand the Korean War.
2:20 And considering it's literally called
2:21 the Forgotten War, and most people know
2:22 nothing about it. We're going to go
2:24 ahead and do a little recap so we're all
2:25 on the same page. After World War II,
2:27 the Korean Peninsula is divided along
2:28 the 38th parallel. Pretty much the same
2:30 border that we have today. Up north, you
2:31 have the North Koreans that are
2:33 communist, and they are backed by the
2:35 Soviet Union and China. Down south, you
2:37 have the capitalist South Koreans that
2:38 are backed by the United States of
2:39 America and the rest of the Western
2:42 world. On June 25th, 1950, the North
2:44 Koreans attack. They invade South with
2:46 Soviet tanks and Soviet training and
2:47 they pretty much steamroll the South
2:49 Koreans, capturing Soul, the capital in
2:52 less than 72 hours and driving all of
2:54 the South Korean forces all the way down
2:55 the peninsula to [music] a tiny little
2:57 al cove where they are holding out known
3:00 as the Busan perimeter. And then America
3:02 steps in. Why does America step in?
3:03 Because at this point in time, America
3:05 is practicing what is known as
3:07 containment doctrine. And containment is
3:09 referring to communism. Basically, the
3:10 American leadership has decided that
3:12 communism is bad and we don't want more
3:14 of it. However, we don't want to go in
3:16 there and root out the entire ideology
3:18 because it would be World War II and
3:20 there'd be a ton of death. So, America
3:21 kind of looks at communism like an
3:23 inoperable cancer. We're not willing to
3:25 go in there and take it out at the root.
3:27 However, we're going to do everything we
3:29 can to stop it from spreading. The idea
3:30 being if we can stop it from spreading,
3:32 we can prevent World War II. Because if
3:34 we allow the communists to take South
3:36 Korea or any other nation, then it's
3:37 going to spread from South Korea to
3:39 Japan to Australia, and it's going to go
3:40 all over the world, and next thing you
3:43 know, we've got World War II, capitalism
3:45 versus communism, and it'd be a [ __ ]
3:46 catastrophe. Whether that's right or
3:48 wrong, that was the idea and the
3:49 strategy at the time. Now, the obvious
3:51 thing to do would be to land all the
3:52 American forces inside the Busan
3:54 perimeter and then fight your way back
3:55 up the peninsula, but that's not what
3:57 General MacArthur and the rest of the
3:58 American leadership decides to do. They
4:00 decide to take a riskier strategy of
4:02 launching an amphibious landing on the
4:05 other side of the country in Inchon. Why
4:07 is this risky? Because Inchan is not a
4:09 very viable location to launch a massive
4:11 amphibious landing because it's a
4:12 horrible beach. There's literally a seaw
4:15 wall there. The only time an amphibious
4:17 landing would be possible would be for
4:19 one or two hours during high tide. And
4:21 when you're talking about moving tens of
4:23 thousands of men out of hundreds of
4:25 boats in a 1 to two hour gap at a very
4:28 particular time, that's going to require
4:30 both logistical perfection and a
4:32 significant amount of luck. But that's
4:34 exactly what happens. On September 15th,
4:36 1950, America launches Operation
4:39 Chromite, lands 75,000 Marines in
4:41 Inchan. They immediately take over
4:42 Inchan, catching the North Koreans off
4:44 guard and head straight into Seoul and
4:46 take it over as well. From here, they
4:48 pretty much cut the enemy lines in half,
4:50 cutting off supplies to all of the men
4:52 south of them, and all the UN forces
4:54 break out of Busan, pushing back up the
4:56 peninsula. By early October, literally
4:58 in two [ __ ] weeks, America has
5:00 retaken all of South Korea and pushed
5:01 the North Koreans all the way back into
5:03 their own country. At this point,
5:04 General MacArthur, who's already pretty
5:06 renowned for being arrogant, sees the
5:08 outrageous success that he's had in this
5:10 risky operation. He's taken over all of
5:11 South Korea [music] in like two weeks.
5:12 Everything's going great. He gets the
5:14 idea in his head of like, hey, what if
5:16 we break containment doctrine and we
5:18 push into North Korea and just eliminate
5:20 the North Koreans completely and then we
5:21 can unify Korea.
5:23 >> No, don't like that.
5:25 >> So, he takes this idea to the president
5:26 and the joint chiefs of staff. The joint
5:28 chiefs of staff actually kind of like
5:30 the idea, but President Truman is
5:31 hesitant because he doesn't want to
5:33 start World War II. So, he issues the
5:35 order, US forces are allowed to proceed
5:38 into North Korea with caution. However,
5:41 disclaimer, only South Korean forces can
5:43 [music] advance all the way to the
5:45 border between North Korea and China.
5:47 And this is a brilliant strategy on
5:48 President Truman's part because you have
5:50 to understand, China is a communist
5:52 nation that's not only backing North
5:54 Korea, but they're ran by Chairman Mao.
5:56 And he just got done fighting a civil
5:59 war in his own country, fighting against
6:00 the side that the United States was
6:03 backing. And he knows that America
6:05 [ __ ] hates communism. So Chairman Mao
6:06 is understandably paranoid that America
6:08 is going to invade. He also is battleh
6:10 hardened. He has a ton of men that are
6:13 also battleh hardened. So Truman by
6:14 doing this is saying like, "Hey, we'll
6:16 advance into North Korea, but we're only
6:18 going to send the South Koreans all the
6:19 way up to the Chinese border." And this
6:21 is going to send the clear message to
6:23 China. Hey, America's not coming to
6:25 invade China. We're just going to, you
6:28 know, stop here 100 miles back and then
6:29 we're going to let the South Koreans
6:31 handle the Korean business. Korea will
6:33 get unified and you can stay over there
6:35 with your communism and not food. But
6:37 General MacArthur in his infinite
6:39 [ __ ] wisdom and arrogance decides
6:41 that he's going to defy the orders of
6:42 the president, aka the
6:45 commanderin-chief. But not only just the
6:46 commander-in-chief, the same
6:48 commander-in-chief that ended World War
6:50 II. Clearly, that guy doesn't know what
6:52 the [ __ ] he's talking about. So he
6:54 violates orders and orders all of the
6:56 American forces to advance north all the
6:58 way to the Yalu River, which is the
7:01 terrain feature that defines the border
7:03 between China and North Korea.
7:04 >> That seems like a bad sign.
7:05 >> Now, from Chairman Ma's perspective,
7:07 this is an enormous [ __ ] issue.
7:09 Understandably so. I mean, imagine if
7:11 the roles were reversed and China were
7:13 marching north through Mexico and he
7:15 ordered his Chinese communist forces to
7:17 go all the way up to the Rio Grand. Do
7:19 you think America and Texas would sit
7:21 there and twiddle their thumbs and hope
7:22 that the Chinese were going to stop at
7:25 the Rio Grand knowing that China had
7:27 taken a vow to basically eradicate
7:29 capitalism? Absolutely [ __ ] not. So,
7:31 why would you expect your enemy to not
7:33 do the exact same thing that you would
7:34 do in that situation? Sorry, if you're
7:36 getting the vibe that I don't like
7:38 General MacArthur, it's because I don't.
7:40 GENERAL MACARTHUR'S A HERO. He said he
7:42 would return to the Philippines in World
7:44 War II, and that's exactly what he did.
7:45 Oh, did he did he did he fly in like
7:47 Superman shooting laser beams out of his
7:49 eyes and tank the entire island by
7:51 himself? Or was it the 1 million Marines
7:52 and army guys that went in there and
7:54 gave their lives to liberate the
7:55 Philippines? And why did he have to take
7:57 a vow to return to the Philippines
7:59 anyways? Was it because after Pearl
8:00 Harbor had been attacked and he received
8:02 early warning that the Japanese were
8:04 coming, he decided to not get all of his
8:05 planes up in the air? So when the
8:07 Japanese showed up, they got to bomb all
8:09 the planes still on the [ __ ] ground
8:10 getting a bunch of men killed. And then
8:12 he tried to delay the battle strategy of
8:14 having all of his men fall back to
8:16 Baton. And instead he tried to defend
8:18 the entire island at first, getting even
8:20 more men killed because losing the
8:21 Philippines would make him look bad. And
8:23 then when pretty much all hope was lost,
8:25 he decided to hop in a PT boat in the
8:27 middle of night and evacuate himself and
8:28 abandon his men. Is that why he had to
8:31 return? That's not fair because he was
8:33 ordered by the president to evacuate the
8:34 Philippines. Oh, just like he was given
8:36 the order by the president to not have
8:39 US troops approach the Chinese border,
8:41 but ordered his troops to go right there
8:43 anyways. It's almost like he's willing
8:44 to follow orders whenever it saves his
8:46 own ass. And he's willing to defy them
8:48 and put all of his men in harm's way the
8:50 second he thinks it's going to pad his
8:51 own [ __ ] glory. I'm sorry. I'm
8:53 getting very sidetracked. I apologize.
8:58 >> Almost lost my cool there.
8:59 >> MacArthur issues the order to go all the
9:02 way to the Yo River, aka the Chinese
9:04 border. Marines go into North Korea,
9:06 start kicking ass, start beating their
9:07 way all the way up the peninsula.
9:09 They're advancing so fast that the front
9:11 lines are moving faster than the supply
9:13 lines can keep up. They're literally
9:14 outrunning the supply lines. While
9:16 that's going on, Chairman Ma and China
9:18 sees that America is invading North
9:20 Korea. So, they do an understandable
9:22 thing and start amassing hundreds of
9:24 thousands of troops on the Chinese
9:25 border in case America decides to
9:27 attack. American intelligence knows
9:29 about this. They give the reports to
9:31 General MacArthur. General MacArthur
9:32 ignores them.
9:34 >> What a stupid son of a [ __ ]
9:36 >> The Marines keep advancing north,
9:38 outrunning supply lines. At this point,
9:40 Chairman Mao starts sending his Chinese
9:42 forces into North Korea under the cover
9:44 of night on foot. By November 1st, 1950,
9:47 Chinese troops are confirmed in combat
9:49 with the United States Marine Corps.
9:51 Hits Truman's desk, hits MacArthur's
9:53 desk. MacArthur says that's not
9:54 possible. Keep advancing towards the
9:56 Chinese border. November 2nd, 1950,
9:59 Marines advance into the Sudong Gorge on
10:00 their way to the chosen reservoir when
10:02 they are ambushed by a sizable Chinese
10:04 element. Unfortunately for them, the
10:06 Marines that they ambushed was the first
10:08 Marine Division being led by none other
10:10 than Chesty [ __ ] Polar, the
10:12 greatest marine of all time. The First
10:14 Marine Division suffers 30 casualties
10:17 and the Chinese suffer upwards of 300.
10:18 So that's good. The battle went about as
10:20 well as it could have for war, but also
10:23 pretty big [ __ ] red flag that there's
10:25 actual Chinese elements now in North
10:27 Korea engaging the Marines, which
10:29 MacArthur, you'll never guess, decides
10:30 to ignore.
10:32 >> I don't see much of nothing. A matter of
10:33 fact, I can't even see you, sir.
10:34 >> And for the first couple of weeks in
10:36 November, there's skirmishes all over
10:38 the place between Chinese forces and the
10:40 US Marines. But MacArthur and his guys
10:41 make the call. Just keep pushing. So,
10:43 the lead element of the First Marines
10:45 winds up in a place called Hagaroo, just
10:47 south of the chosen reservoir, which is
10:49 a massive man-made lake. From here, the
10:50 plan is we're going to have to split and
10:52 send guys up both sides to keep
10:53 advancing north. The man in charge of
10:55 this section of the Marines is General
10:57 Oliver Smith, and he is not happy about
10:59 this idea at all. Here's the thing. The
11:01 terrain in this area of North Korea is
11:03 described as being straight [music] up
11:04 or straight down. Either you're going up
11:06 a hill or you're going down a hill. And
11:08 the roads that you see on the map are
11:11 literally bank going downhill, road,
11:13 cliff. There's nowhere to go. There's
11:15 one way in and one way out, both
11:17 directions. And calling it a road is
11:19 kind of a stretch. It's literally an old
11:21 ox trail that they can barely fit a
11:22 truck on. And going back the other
11:24 direction isn't any better. Going back
11:26 towards Friendly Lines, there's still
11:27 one trail going to the nearest town of
11:30 Cotto Ri, and that's 12 mi away. And
11:32 then from Cotto again, there's one
11:35 trail, one road that goes 35 mi back to
11:37 the port where all the supplies have to
11:39 come in. So at Hagaroo, they are like 50
11:42 mi deep with one way in and one way out.
11:43 And if anything goes wrong, they're
11:45 [ __ ] And they want to keep advancing
11:47 further in, splitting their forces under
11:49 the same conditions. But thankfully,
11:50 General Smith realizes this is a
11:53 humongous mistake and starts stockpiling
11:55 supplies at Hagaroo and orders his
11:57 engineers to start building an air strip
11:59 so they can fly [ __ ] in and out. Seeing
12:00 this, General MacArthur and his staff
12:02 are like, "Way to go, General Smith."
12:03 Preparing for the worst, hoping for the
12:05 best. What a brilliant point. No, I'm
12:07 just kidding. MacArthur and his staff
12:09 are mad at General Smith and make fun of
12:11 him for being overly cautious and
12:12 slowing down the operation instead of
12:15 just driving headfirst further into
12:17 enemy territory with no backup plan. But
12:19 General Smith, being a good leader,
12:20 says, "I don't really care about my own
12:22 personal glory of being the first guy to
12:24 reach the Yaloo River. I would much
12:25 rather do it the safe way and look out
12:27 for my guys." So that's exactly what he
12:29 does. He stocks up supplies in Hagaroo
12:31 and builds an airirst strip. Hey, and
12:32 bear in mind it's November in North
12:34 Korea. It's dipping down into like
12:37 negative -40 negative50 at night and it
12:39 snows there. We're one snowstorm away
12:41 from blocking this ox trail, cutting off
12:43 supply lines and everybody freezes and
12:45 starves to death. So even without the
12:46 threat of the Chinese military, this was
12:49 a good and necessary idea. So they set
12:50 up the first Marine Division
12:52 headquarters right there with 3600 men
12:54 and the air strip. From here, they send
12:55 the rest of the Marines and the army
12:57 guys up around the chosen reservoir. Up
13:00 the right side, they send 2500 US Army
13:01 guys backed up by about a thousand South
13:03 Koreans. While they're advancing north,
13:05 they come across a place called Hudong.
13:06 And after that, the road conditions and
13:08 the weather is so bad they have to leave
13:10 their armored unit, their tanks there in
13:12 Hudong while the rest of the men advance
13:14 forward. And they end up taking up
13:15 position right here and they dig in.
13:16 Going out the left side of the
13:19 reservoir, they have Fox Company, 234
13:21 Marines that go up on a ridge, securing
13:23 a choke point on the road right here.
13:25 And then the rest of the 8,000 Marines
13:27 advance into a place called Udomi, where
13:29 they dig in. November 23rd rolls around,
13:31 Thanksgiving. They all get to eat cold
13:32 turkey while they're freezing their ass
13:35 off in -20 plus degree temperatures.
13:37 November 24th, MacArthur comes through
13:38 division headquarters celebrating,
13:40 telling everybody, "We're all going to
13:42 be home by Christmas. [music] Hooray."
13:43 And then he takes off and [ __ ] off in
13:45 his plane. What MacArthur doesn't know
13:47 is that Mao has already sent in 120,000
13:49 soldiers to surround everybody at the
13:51 chosen reservoir. And the Marines don't
13:52 know that either. So, they're all just
13:54 hanging out freezing their asses off.
13:56 It's so cold that the lubrication that
13:58 they use on their guns actually turns
14:00 into jelly and would jam the guns. So,
14:02 they strip all their guns of all the
14:03 lubrication. And if they get in a
14:04 firefight, they're just going to have to
14:06 run the guns dry. But that's not going
14:08 to happen because MacArthur was just
14:09 here. He said, "We're going to be home
14:11 by Christmas. The war is basically won.
14:12 Hooray. I just got to sit around and
14:14 freeze my ass off for a few more days
14:16 and it's all going to be good until it's not.
14:18 not.
14:21 November 27th, 10:00 at night, both at
14:23 Udomi, the Army position and Fox
14:25 Company, all the Marines are hanging
14:26 out. They're in their sleeping bags.
14:28 They're sleeping. They're waiting for
14:30 the war to get over. And then they hear
14:32 bugle calls off in the distance. And
14:34 within minutes, all hell breaks loose as
14:37 wave after wave of Chinese soldiers
14:38 start rushing their position. The
14:40 Marines that were up monitoring the
14:41 perimeter are scrambling to get the guns
14:43 up and running because the bolts have
14:45 frozen in place because it's so [ __ ]
14:47 cold. They're literally pissing on the
14:49 machine guns to break the bolts loose.
14:50 The Marines that were sleeping are
14:51 scrambling to get out of their sleeping
14:53 bags and get their guns as a firefight
14:54 breaks out. The Marines that are just
14:56 waking up don't even have time to get
14:57 all their cold weather gear on. Some of
14:59 these guys are literally running around
15:02 in a firefight in50°ree weather with no
15:04 boots, just wearing their socks. The
15:05 Marines start mowing down the Chinese
15:07 soldiers as they attempt to attack their
15:09 position. But the Chinese just keep
15:11 coming wave after wave after wave. And
15:13 after the first couple of waves, the
15:15 waves that are coming out now, some of
15:16 them don't even have guns on them.
15:17 They're just running into the
15:20 battlefield, picking up a gun off a dead
15:22 Chinese soldier, and then attacking the
15:23 Marine position. The Marines got
15:24 everything going for them. They have
15:26 machine guns. They have the high ground.
15:28 Granted, it's -50°, but that affects
15:30 everybody, the enemy included. But the
15:32 Chinese are throwing so many men at the
15:34 Marines, they can't keep up. Even with
15:36 the machine guns running full clip,
15:38 they're still managing to get to the
15:40 marine position. And other Marines are
15:42 fighting off Chinese in hand tohand
15:44 combat with rifles and bayonets trying
15:46 to keep them off of the machine gunners.
15:48 It's literally the nastiest, grittiest
15:50 warfare you could imagine. It is a knife
15:52 fight inside of a freezer. The foxholes
15:54 are shallow because the ground was so
15:55 frozen. So the Marines literally start
15:57 taking the dead bodies of Chinese
15:59 soldiers and stacking them into walls
16:01 using them for cover. And it goes all
16:04 night long. The Marines at UDAME, the
16:05 army on the other side of the reservoir,
16:07 and Fox Company all fight their asses
16:09 off all night. And you got to remember,
16:12 Fox Company's only 234 guys holding a
16:14 position by themselves with no backup
16:16 for miles. And they are getting attacked
16:18 by thousands of Chinese soldiers. And if
16:20 they can't hold the choke point at this
16:22 road, 8,000 Marines up north at U Damn
16:24 are completely cut off and are
16:26 absolutely gonna die. Luckily, the man
16:27 in charge of Fox Company is Captain
16:30 William Barber, a veteran of Saipan and
16:32 Tarowa, two of the biggest, nastiest
16:34 battles of World War II. He radios into
16:36 HQ as they're getting attacked. We're
16:38 surrounded, but we can hold them. The
16:40 234 Marines of Fox Company quite
16:42 literally spend their night farming the
16:44 commies for XP. Captain Barber even gets
16:46 shot through the leg, refuses to get
16:48 medevaced, and walks around the
16:51 battlefield on a crutch, commanding his
16:53 men all night long. Morning breaks, the
16:55 battle's over. Fox Company has sustained
16:57 24 casualties. Bear in mind, casualties
17:00 is dead and wounded, whether that be
17:02 from battle or cold weather. On the flip
17:03 side of the coin, Fox Company literally
17:05 quits counting the dead bodies outside
17:08 the perimeter at 1,500. That's not
17:10 including all of the ones that were
17:11 wounded by the battle and the [music]
17:13 weather. Across the entire chosen
17:15 reservoir, the Marines up at UDami, Fox
17:17 Company, and the Army, it's suspected
17:19 that America lost between 6 and 700
17:21 soldiers with hundreds of more wounded
17:24 from the battle or cold weather. The
17:25 conservative estimates of the Chinese
17:28 casualties are in excess of 12,000. The
17:30 battle reports get sent down to General
17:32 Smith. Smith is freaking out. He kicks
17:33 him up to Higher Command, and Higher
17:35 Command doesn't believe him.
17:37 >> I don't believe you. So MacArthur sends
17:39 out his right-hand guy, his psy yes man,
17:42 General Almond. Mr. Peanut shows up to
17:43 the [ __ ] army position in his
17:45 helicopter. Hops out and the army
17:47 commander informs him, "I've got like
17:50 400 dead soldiers. A bunch of guys are
17:51 wounded. We've captured a bunch of
17:53 Chinese guys last night and we've
17:55 recognized patches from at least two
17:57 separate divisions. Meaning that there's
17:59 at least two divisions of Chinese
18:02 soldiers. 26,000 guys surrounding this
18:04 position right now." To which General
18:06 Almond, not believing him, says,
18:08 "There's not two divisions in all of
18:10 North Korea." Quote, "Are you going to
18:12 let a bunch of Chinese laundry men get
18:14 the best of you?" End quote. He then
18:16 gets in his helicopter and [ __ ] off.
18:18 MacArthur and his staff then issue the
18:20 order to the First Marine Division to
18:22 continue their advance towards the Yaloo River.
18:23 River.
18:25 >> Why are you the way that you are?
18:27 >> At this point, General Smith and his men
18:28 realize that they are now basically
18:29 completely on their own and Higher
18:31 Command has lost their [ __ ] minds.
18:33 General Smith knows that if Fox Company
18:35 falls, all the Marines at UDam knee are
18:37 done for. And if he falls at the
18:39 crossroads, at the base of the chosen
18:41 reservoir, the entire division is done
18:44 for. The real problem is his HQ at the
18:45 base of the chosen reservoir, right at
18:48 the crossroads, has 3,600 marines, but
18:50 they're not infantry. These aren't
18:51 combat troops. These are cooks and
18:53 mechanics and engineers and [ __ ] These
18:55 are not hardened combat troops, but
18:57 they're about to be because he orders
18:58 absolutely everybody to get their guns
19:00 and get ready for a fight and pick up
19:02 defensive positions because the Chinese
19:04 are coming for them next and he knows
19:05 it. And sure enough, the Chinese start
19:07 launching attacks during the day on
19:08 November 28th. They launch attacks
19:10 everywhere they had attacked the night
19:12 before and they're now attacking the
19:14 division HQ at Hagaroo where General
19:16 Smith is. The Chinese penetrated so far
19:18 south that they actually came up behind
19:20 Hagaroo and Hagaroo is now completely
19:22 surrounded as well. General Smith knows
19:24 that Mao wants to divide and conquer and
19:25 he can't let him do it. So, he sends the
19:27 order out to his men in the field. Hold
19:29 your position as long as you can and
19:30 then make your way back to Hagaroo so we
19:32 can consolidate forces. And that's
19:33 exactly what they do. They fight all day
19:37 and all night on the 28th, the 29th, the
19:39 30th, and then when they can't take
19:40 anymore, they finally start to make
19:42 their way back to Hagaroo. And this
19:44 isn't just hop in the trucks and drive
19:45 10 miles down the road. They're
19:47 completely surrounded. that they are
19:49 moving. They are fighting every single
19:50 inch of the way while trying to get
19:52 hundreds of wounded men out the entire
19:54 time. The army fights their way down to
19:56 Hudong where they reconvene with their
19:58 tanks and continue fighting their way
20:00 down to Hagaroo. The Marines have to
20:01 fight their way down to where Fox
20:03 Company is, reconvene with them, and
20:04 continue fighting their way down to
20:06 Hagaroo. And while that's going on, on
20:08 November 29th, Hagaroo is completely
20:09 surrounded. The road is cut off. They
20:12 have no way of escaping. So they call up
20:14 what remains of the first Marines down
20:16 south. And they have a colonel in charge
20:18 of them, Chesty Polar, who drives north
20:21 and takes over the nearest town from
20:23 Hagaru called Cotto. The Chinese try to
20:25 stop Chesty Polar and the First Marines,
20:26 but they can't stop him. Once he's taken
20:28 the town, they launch multiple attacks
20:30 trying to retake it, but they can't.
20:32 From here, they immediately put together
20:34 Task Force Dale, 900 infantry troops
20:37 that are going to convoy 11 miles up to
20:39 Hagaroo to reinforce them. Task Force
20:41 Dale has to fight through the entire
20:43 way. One-third of the men in that convoy
20:45 end up getting killed or wounded.
20:47 Another third are forced to turn back
20:49 because there's so many damaged trucks
20:51 blocking the road. And only onethird
20:53 makes it into Hagaroo. But now Hagaroo
20:55 has 300 infantry soldiers helping all
20:57 the cooks and mechanics. As the Marines
20:59 from Udamni and the Army unit continue
21:01 to fight their way south, the only thing
21:03 keeping Hagaroo in this fight is the
21:06 airfield, bringing in C47s full of
21:08 supplies and carrying out thousands of
21:09 wounded. You know that same airfield
21:11 that General Smith got a bunch of [ __ ]
21:13 for building because it was unnecessary
21:15 and he was being overly cautious. Yeah.
21:16 Well, now it's the only lifeline they have.
21:17 have.
21:20 >> I [screaming] [ __ ] knew it.
21:22 >> The army fights their way down. They
21:24 make it into Hagaroo on December 1st.
21:26 that same exact day, they've got C-47s
21:28 coming in, dropping supplies, carrying
21:29 out wounded. And somewhere along the
21:31 lines, obviously, they're running low on
21:33 ammo. They're running low on medical
21:34 supplies. They're running low on food.
21:36 It's a complete disaster. And one of the
21:38 things they needed were 60 mm mortar
21:40 rounds, commonly referred to as Tootsie
21:42 Rolls. Well, apparently the guy loading
21:44 the C-47 didn't know that. So, an entire
21:48 C47 full of literal Tootsie Rolls, like
21:51 the candy, shows up. Literally just
21:53 cases and cases and pallets and pallets
21:55 of [ __ ] Tootsie Rolls. And the
21:57 Marines are like, "I guess we're eating
21:59 candy and kicking ass. Why not?" Bear in
22:01 mind, they're still getting attacked all
22:03 day and all night, just repelling wave
22:06 after wave, meat wall after meat wall of
22:07 commies. And pretty soon, it's just dead
22:09 commies and Tootsie Roll wrappers all
22:10 over the [ __ ] place. And then the
22:12 Marines start to realize when it's
22:14 sub-zero temperatures, Tootsie Rolls are
22:15 more than just a delicious treat. If you
22:17 stick it in your mouth and chew it up a
22:18 little bit and take it out, it makes
22:20 basically rubber cement. And they start
22:23 using it to patch fuel lines and patch
22:25 holes and fix all kinds of [ __ ] in
22:27 Hagaroo. And the Marines in the army
22:29 just keep fighting all day, all night.
22:30 They're doing everything they can for
22:32 their wounded. The cold absolutely
22:34 sucks. It's freezing the morphine.
22:36 People are in pain. But on the flip
22:39 side, the cold is also freezing shut
22:40 wounds that would normally cause a lot
22:42 of men to bleed to death. So the cold
22:44 actually ended up saving a lot of lives
22:46 as well. Everybody's got frostbite to
22:48 varying degrees, but everybody just
22:50 keeps fighting their ass off day and
22:52 night. And by December 2nd, the rest of
22:54 the Marines from Udomi make their way
22:56 into Hagaroo. And while all this is
22:57 going on, somewhere along the line, it
22:59 finally dawns on higher command that
23:01 they have severely [ __ ] up. MacArthur
23:04 is just a defeated man. The newspapers
23:05 back home have completely written off
23:07 the entire First Marine Division with
23:09 newspaper headlines basically saying,
23:11 "They're doomed. They're a lost
23:13 division. They're all going to die. pray
23:15 for your loved ones. And as the Marines
23:16 from Udomi are coming in, even though
23:18 they haven't read those headlines and
23:20 they haven't heard that, they feel that
23:21 way. Their heads are hanging low,
23:23 they're beat up, they're frostbitten,
23:25 they've got wounded, and it just [ __ ]
23:27 sucks. And as they come marching in, all
23:30 the other Marines in Hagaroo and the
23:32 army start chanting the Marine Corps
23:34 hymn. And as the Marines hear that, they
23:36 lift their heads a little bit higher and
23:38 they go from staggering into Hagaroo to
23:40 marching into Hagaroo. And this is it.
23:42 This is a Hollywood moment. This is a
23:44 the Tiger playing in a Rocky movie where
23:46 everybody decides this fight isn't
23:49 [ __ ] over yet.
23:50 Obviously, the Marines that have been at
23:52 Hagaroo are in a little bit better shape
23:54 than the guys that were up at UDAME and
23:55 the Army unit. They're bringing
23:56 everybody in. They're getting them fed.
23:58 They're trying to get everybody warm.
24:00 They got C-47s flying in supplies,
24:02 carrying out wounded, bringing in
24:05 ammunition, food, rations, absolutely
24:07 everything. The Marines are literally
24:09 using flamethrowers to heat up the food
24:11 because it's frozen solid. The Chinese
24:12 are still trying to attack, but
24:14 America's got air superiority,
24:16 artillery, supplies. They've got
24:17 everything going for them except for
24:19 numbers. The question now becomes, how
24:21 are we going to get everybody out of
24:22 here? We could fly everybody out with
24:24 C-47s, but then we're going to have to
24:25 abandon all the trucks, all the
24:27 artillery, all the equipment, and then
24:28 you're going to have the bigger issue of
24:30 once the Chinese figure out that we're
24:32 flying out all of our guys, the guys
24:33 that they leave out at the ass end, if
24:35 they get attacked, they're all going to
24:37 die. So, that's not really an option.
24:38 The only option is to fight 11 miles
24:41 south back to Cotto Ri with Chesty and
24:42 the rest of the First Marine Division.
24:43 And then from there, they're going to
24:45 have to link up and fight further south
24:47 from Cotto Ri down to the port of
24:48 Hungnam where they're going to be able
24:50 to get on a ship and get out of there.
24:51 So they spend the next 4 days getting
24:53 ready for this massive movement, trying
24:54 to fly out the most wounded on the
24:56 airplanes, but they're not going to be
24:57 able to get all the wounded out in time.
24:58 They're going to have to put them in
25:00 trucks and take them with them. Now,
25:02 this type of movement is what many
25:03 historians and battlefield experts would
25:05 refer to as a fighting retreat.
25:07 Basically, you're going to have to fight
25:08 while you're defending your wounded and
25:10 extract the other way. The problem is,
25:12 and what General Smith would later
25:14 argue, this is not a fighting retreat
25:16 because I'm completely surrounded. I'm
25:18 not falling back to friendly enemy
25:20 lines. I'm literally assaulting another
25:22 direction. And that's exactly what he
25:24 tells his men. And it sets the vibe for
25:26 the entire operation. We're not falling
25:28 back. We're going back in and through
25:29 the enemy.
25:32 >> Let's [ __ ] go.
25:34 Get your spectral sock out, nerds. It's
25:35 going to get good. And that's exactly
25:37 what they do. The Marines punch through
25:40 and fight 11 miles straight to Cotto Ri
25:42 where they link back up with Chesty and
25:43 the rest of the First Marine Division.
25:44 While in Cotto Re, they're still
25:46 obviously having supplies and everything
25:47 air dropped in. And whether it was
25:49 purely a mistake or whether somebody in
25:51 the Air Force has a really good sense of
25:52 humor, some of the supplies that they
25:55 air dropped in were crates and crates of condoms.
25:57 condoms.
25:58 >> I'm sorry, what? which whether it was
26:00 intentional or not provided a muchneeded
26:02 comic relief because let's face it, the
26:04 Marines are only good at three things.
26:06 Getting stuff dead, broken, or pregnant,
26:07 and pretty much all the enemies dying
26:09 off. Everything's already broken, being
26:10 patched together with [ __ ] Tootsie
26:12 Rolls. There's only one thing left they
26:14 could do, and that's it.
26:16 >> All jokes aside, there's still work to
26:17 be done, and somebody's got to get the
26:18 Marines back on task. And this is where
26:20 Chesty comes up with one of the most
26:22 famous quotes in Marine Corps history.
26:24 Quote, "We're surrounded. That
26:26 simplifies the problem. They're to the
26:28 left of us. They're to the right of us.
26:29 They're in front of us. They're behind
26:32 us. They can't get away this time. And
26:35 with that, around 14,000 Marines and a
26:37 thousand vehicles set off on this 35mm
26:39 journey. Now, remember, this is a narrow
26:41 road, only one car wide. This convoy
26:44 stretches for miles. As the lead element
26:46 approaches Fuchillan Pass, there is a
26:48 bridge. It is the only way to get across
26:50 this massive gorge. And when they get
26:53 there, the bridge is blown up right in
26:56 the middle with a 29 ft gap in it. The
26:59 Chinese have them trapped. There is no
27:01 other way out. This is it. This is game
27:05 over for anybody except for America.
27:06 Because America has the greatest
27:08 logistical capability that the world has
27:09 ever seen. So when the Marines get on
27:11 the radio and say, "We need a bridge,"
27:14 the Air Force simply replies, "Copy."
27:16 >> The Marines then leave the trucks on the
27:18 road, fight up the ridge, take the high
27:21 ground, and start engaging the enemy for
27:23 hours, giving the Air Force time. While
27:24 that's going on, the Air Force acquires
27:26 eight portable bridge sections weighing
27:28 3,000 lbs a piece that have never been
27:30 dropped out of a plane before. Do
27:32 practice runs figuring out how to drop
27:34 these things out of a plane without
27:35 breaking them and without getting people
27:38 killed. Figures it out and air drops the
27:40 bridge pieces back at Cotto Ri where the
27:42 Marines load them onto trucks and
27:44 bulldozers and get them in the convoy
27:45 headed to the bridge. And this gets done
27:48 in the span of less than 24 hours. Once
27:49 the bridge pieces make it there, with
27:52 the Marines still engaging the enemy and
27:54 the workers under fire, they then
27:56 install the bridge sections and have it
27:58 go from there's no bridge here, we're
28:01 [ __ ] to, hey guys, we've got a bridge
28:03 in less than 36 hours. Oh, and I forgot
28:05 to mention this was during the worst
28:07 weather of the entire affair with
28:10 temperatures dipping down to -55° during
28:12 a blizzard where visibility was less
28:14 than 50 ft in front of your face. And
28:16 that's it. Once they cross this bridge,
28:17 they're home free. There's a couple of
28:18 more skirmishes between here and
28:20 Hungnam, but they just wipe them to the
28:22 side. You got to remember the Chinese
28:23 have been out there just as long as
28:25 them, and they're not getting all this
28:27 resupply and everything else. These guys
28:29 are hurting. They're rolling up on setup
28:31 ambushes and checkpoints. And the
28:33 Chinese soldiers are literally just
28:36 frozen solid in place. And as they're
28:38 making this multi-day voyage to Hungnam,
28:40 this last 35 miles, the weather breaks
28:45 and it goes from being 555° to like 30°,
28:48 an 80° temperature shift. And to these
28:50 guys, it's [ __ ] hot out. So when the
28:52 14,000 Marines roll into Hungnam, the
28:53 same Marines and newspapers have been
28:55 saying they're as good as dead. They're
28:57 doomed. They're a lost cause for weeks.
28:59 Roll in. They do it sitting on top of
29:09 >> So they link up with the UN forces in
29:12 Hungam. There's now a 100,000 men there,
29:13 but there's still hundreds of thousands
29:15 of Chinese that are coming down as
29:17 reinforcements to crush them. They got
29:19 to get out of there as soon as possible.
29:21 They've got a 100 ships to load
29:23 everybody up on. But then things get
29:26 complicated because a 100,000 Korean
29:28 civilians start showing up from all the
29:30 towns and villages nearby because the
29:32 Chinese were looting them and killing
29:34 them or they just don't want to live
29:36 under the threat of communism their
29:38 entire lives and they just start walking
29:40 to Hungnam and beg them to help. We've
29:42 only got 100 ships to get a 100,000 of
29:44 our own guys out of there. I don't think
29:46 many people would judge them if they
29:47 said, "I'm sorry, we can't help you.
29:49 We're trying to do everything we can,
29:51 but we got to save ourselves first." But
29:53 that's not what they did. US forces have
29:54 lost a ton of men. They've got thousands
29:57 of wounded. They've got over 10,000 men
29:58 suffering from frostbite. And they say,
30:01 "Fuck it. We can still impromptu
30:03 successfully pull off one of the largest
30:05 humanitarian evacuations in the history
30:08 of the world. Why not?" They rigged the
30:10 entire city to blow up, including the
30:12 port, and then loaded absolutely
30:15 everybody, the UN troops and 100,000
30:17 civilians on board of these ships. And
30:20 it is just assacked like sardines. To
30:22 give you an idea of how packed it was,
30:24 the USS Meredith, a merchant marine
30:26 vessel that only had 68 crew members,
30:29 managed to cram over 14,000 Korean
30:31 civilians on board. And on an extremely
30:34 dangerous 7-day voyage to safety, not a
30:37 single one of them would die. In fact,
30:39 five people were born, giving it the
30:41 nickname the ship of miracles. So, they
30:44 got absolutely everybody evacuated onto
30:46 ships, got underway on this extremely
30:49 dangerous 7-day voyage, and then blew up
30:51 the entire city. Over a million people
30:53 in South Korea today are descendants of
30:55 those civilians that the UN troops
30:56 saved. At the Battle of the Chosen
31:00 Reservoir, 1,079 American troops died in
31:02 combat. Another 45,582
31:04 were wounded with thousands more
31:06 suffering from frostbite. Conservative
31:08 estimates from the UN believe that the
31:09 Chinese military suffered somewhere
31:12 around 43,000 casualties with other
31:15 credible estimates ranging as high as in
31:18 excess of 60,000. The Chosen Reservoir
31:19 would go on to become one of the most
31:21 decorated battles in American history
31:24 with the men earning 17 medals of honor,
31:26 including Captain Barber of Fox Company,
31:29 73 Navy crosses, one of which went to
31:32 Chesty Puller, and 23 Distinguished
31:33 Service Crosses. Many of the Marines
31:35 that survived the chosen reservoir would
31:37 later in life go on to express great
31:38 pride in the fact that they not only
31:41 managed to save themselves, but they
31:43 managed to save South Korea as well. And
31:45 allegedly, many of them requested to be
31:48 buried with Tootsie Rolls. Thank you for
31:49 watching. Best way to support the
31:51 channel is go buy some merch over the
31:53 fatlectrician.com. Quackbang out.
32:04 guys were they were so
32:07 so tough, so tough in what they had been
32:09 through. You know, you see [music]
32:11 things like that and you know what are
32:14 the limits of a man's endurance and his
32:15 courage and his spirit.
32:18 >> We felt that we were going to kick some
32:20 butt and we [music] were kicking butt up
32:22 there until you got to Hellfire Valley.
32:24 I should put that in there. I would say
32:27 when I got to Hellfire Valley on the way
32:30 out walking out, you could almost cry
32:32 seeing those Marines laying there. Until
32:36 you see your guy laying there, you don't
32:39 think much of it. As we got near the
32:40 lines, we were aware that we were
32:42 getting into Hagaroo. Somebody said,
32:46 "Uh, count, Cadence. Count." And people
32:47 started getting in step. You could hear
32:50 the shoe packs first clumpity clump
32:52 clump clumpy and then they clump clump
32:53 clump. People were getting in step.
32:54 We're marching.
32:57 >> We marched into Hagaroo. The sound of
33:00 feet crunching in the frozen ice.
33:03 Someone watching us said, "Look at those
33:05 bastards. [music] Those magnificent bastards.
33:07 bastards.
33:10 You're not the same person.
33:14 You're a different person.
33:16 You're just something you never thought
33:20 you'd be. I'm I I'm happy that I was
33:23 able to participate in something that
33:26 was as important as the Korean War. We
33:30 had an obligation to fulfill
33:33 and we did it. Freedom has a price. It's
33:35 not free.
33:37 You have to fight for this freedom. And
33:40 when I look and see what the South
33:43 Korean people are enjoying today,
33:46 I guess I'm glad I was part of that.
33:49 Time proves that we were absolutely
33:52 right in doing what we did to help save them.
33:52 them.
33:54 >> You're proud that you did it. You don't
33:55 realize how proud you are until you get
33:58 older. I don't know why, but I can
34:02 relate and say I was a chosen survivor.
34:10 not everybody can say that. I was there.
34:13 You're proud of the moment.
34:16 And you're glad you survived. And God
