Chesty Puller- 1st marine divison surronded?

Mjayet

Active member
When the Marines were cut off behind enemy lines and the Army had written the 1st Marine Division off as being lost because they were surrounded by 22 enemy divisions. The Marines made it out inflicting the highest casualty ratio on an enemy in history and destroying 7 entire enemy divisions in the process. An enemy division is 16500+ men while a Marine division is 12500 men.
Did this really happen? When i try to search this online i dont find anything but this same block of text with slight variations on different websites.
I tried searching here as well but found nothing

Anyone know? is that info all there is about it, or was there a name for this battle?
 
look for it in wikipedia. there are svveral diffrent versions to what he said, as often there are in these cases(each person there remembers it a little diffrently)
 
When the Marines were cut off behind enemy lines and the Army had written the 1st Marine Division off as being lost because they were surrounded by 22 enemy divisions.
The US Marines made their great effort at the Chosin Reservoir, Korea. Wikipedia has a nice overview but, if you want more detail, Google "USMC Chosin Reservoir", you will get bunches of hits.
Ref;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Marine_Division_(United_States)

Did this really happen? When i try to search this online i dont find anything but this same block of text with slight variations on different websites.
Yes, this really happened by the actual figures are off, somewhat.
 
The US Army 3rd Infantry Division fought there as well....just thought I would add that.
 
The US Marines comprised the single largest group of ground soldiers but, their were many other troops there. The USMC 1st Marine Div., United States Army 3rd Infantry Div., United States Army 7th Infantry Div., 41 Commando (Royal Marines) plus some UK armor units -in Task Force Drysdale and, South Korea Augmentation Troops -to the United States Army (KATUSA).

The PLA took a beating;
1) 40% of all Chinese forces in Korea were knocked out during the battle and were never replaced. All of them were elite formations. (As indicated in the background and aftermath section)
2) Chinese sources, including official history have described the battle as a massive failure.
3) The success of UN counter-offensive in the spring of 1951 is directly caused by the huge Chinese losses. (Supported by both Chinese and US sources)

Ref;
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chosin_Reservoir __ "Crippling Losses"

I have checked many websites and they generally have round numbers on unit sizes and casualties (country by country) but, nothing specific.
 
Here are a couple of quotes of Puller at Chosin.

"We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them."

To his men: "Remember, you are the 1st Marines. Not all the Communists in Hell can overrun you."

Chesty was quite a guy, The Marine's Marine.
 
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_-JnTNxTs&playnext=1&list=PL83AFD08949D3677E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_-JnTNxTs&playnext=1&list=PL83AFD08949D3677E[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCaHANNzvs&playnext=1&list=PL83AFD08949D3677E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCaHANNzvs&playnext=1&list=PL83AFD08949D3677E[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW3krI1bDgc&playnext=1&list=PL83AFD08949D3677E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW3krI1bDgc&playnext=1&list=PL83AFD08949D3677E[/ame]
 
A great shame of the internet is ignorance and disregardof a lot of fine literature out there for the researcher.

It does mean that one has to locate and actually read some books.
So many are satisfied blurting out simple questions and continuing to blunder about.

My favorite description involves "the intellectual depth of an oil slick."
 
The US Army 3rd Infantry Division fought there as well....just thought I would add that.

It's alright brinktk... the USMC likes taking all the credit... didn't you here all the nonsense that came about when they requested the Armys help in fallujah? Or When 2 of their regiments were used to form the US Armys 2ID in Belleau Woods. I rarely hear the Army mentioned there. Then theres also the credit they were given for the US Army's 7th Machine Gun Battalion... but I guess that wasn't their fault. I guess civilians are retards... they even give them credit for the entire Pacific Campaign even though they did less Island Hopping than the US Army and there were really only about 2 places where they went that the Army didn't go aswell.
Stay classy Marines. :salute2:
 
army not marines

What is it with you blokes and your marines? God you make me sick,the Army has always carried more of the wars than the Marines Why? because there are more of them,I have had it with this preoccupation with Marines On other sites it is the marines did this the marines did that, well my friends although they were good Your Army was better,Vietnam in one OPERATION 22 bats thats 3 times as many as the marines in country and that was only one op. ,Hue City 3 marine battalions 2 army and 11 ARVN, Khe Sanh great battle however it was the Army that fought its way thru to help them get out, WW2 The U.S ARMY Salerno, Anzio, the gustav line the hitler line Monte Cassino, Omaha ,Utah.Bastogne, The Bulge right thru to Germany.No battleships to blast an island to rubble no 1000 warships as at Leyte,Okinawa the Army deserves as much credit as you afford the Marines.And I am not a great fan of the U.S. but I will back your Army.
 
The US Marines comprised the single largest group of ground soldiers but, their were many other troops there. The USMC 1st Marine Div., United States Army 3rd Infantry Div., United States Army 7th Infantry Div., 41 Commando (Royal Marines) plus some UK armor units -in Task Force Drysdale and, South Korea Augmentation Troops -to the United States Army (KATUSA).

The PLA took a beating;
1) 40% of all Chinese forces in Korea were knocked out during the battle and were never replaced. All of them were elite formations. (As indicated in the background and aftermath section)
2) Chinese sources, including official history have described the battle as a massive failure.
3) The success of UN counter-offensive in the spring of 1951 is directly caused by the huge Chinese losses. (Supported by both Chinese and US sources)

Ref;
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chosin_Reservoir __ "Crippling Losses"

I have checked many websites and they generally have round numbers on unit sizes and casualties (country by country) but, nothing specific.

The contribution of the S. Koreans in their own defense is very rarely acknowledged. The last time I served in the ROK was 1988 and the KATUSA program was still in effect and most successful.
 
What is it with you blokes and your marines? God you make me sick,the Army has always carried more of the wars than the Marines Why? because there are more of them,I have had it with this preoccupation with Marines On other sites it is the marines did this the marines did that, well my friends although they were good Your Army was better,Vietnam in one OPERATION 22 bats thats 3 times as many as the marines in country and that was only one op. ,Hue City 3 marine battalions 2 army and 11 ARVN, Khe Sanh great battle however it was the Army that fought its way thru to help them get out, WW2 The U.S ARMY Salerno, Anzio, the gustav line the hitler line Monte Cassino, Omaha ,Utah.Bastogne, The Bulge right thru to Germany.No battleships to blast an island to rubble no 1000 warships as at Leyte,Okinawa the Army deserves as much credit as you afford the Marines.And I am not a great fan of the U.S. but I will back your Army.

it said if everyone could be a Marine then the Marines would not be the Marines unless your willing to commit 13 weeks of your life to hell on earth and believe me watching it is NOTHING like being there. Now being you are NOT even a American you obviously DONT know everything President Roosevelt had committed the USA to the ETO ( Europian Theater of Operations ) that meant there was just 1 fighting force to engage close and defeat the Japanese the Marines you may not get what makes us special but I will be honest my original plans were to join the USA ( United States Army same as above ) go in as a helicopter crew chief then go on to becoming a warrant officer and flying them. as a cadet, I spent time in the simulators and had 4 different pilots say damn boy your a natural at this my eye-hand coordination was perfect for the job. but my friend came home from boot camp and out of all of my friends who graduated from the year before that returned he had something this fire in his eyes and confidence he did not display before so when the Marine recruiter told me I could even work on the jets like the F/A-18 or the A/V-8 Harrier I started to think about my friend who just got back that fire in his eyes and confidence he displayed and told the recruiter lets sign me up. now I had the pick of ANY of the Armed Forces in the US they ALL were buying me lunch and taking me to see this or that to get me to join being my mechanical skills on the ASVAB aptitude test I took was off the charts I don't need to study manuals all the time or go to the net I just need to disassemble something and I will get it back working in no time its something i was born with my Father was a self-taught Mechanic and his shop was making nearly 1mil a year in the 1980s and my Grandfather was an aircraft Mechanic during WW2 with the army air corps ( the predecessor to the US air force ) and later a diesel mechanic after WW2 and though I was going for a flight mechanic I started to think I can ALWAYS come home and work for my father why not try something diffrent so I asked about security forces being my cousin was in the USMC security forces and he said yes we got openings but things did not go according to what I planed I am also good shooter I would stalk turkeys and blast them with a .22 rifle so again things made another turn you may not understand Marines but you NEVER WILL being your not an American cant join and from what I saw of the aussie armed forces they couldent fight their way out of a paper bag
 
President Roosevelt had committed the USA to the ETO ( Europian Theater of Operations ) that meant there was just 1 fighting force to engage close and defeat the Japanese, the Marines. And from what I saw of the Aussie armed forces they couldent fight their way out of a paper bag
The Army & the Aussies fought the Japs the whole length of New Guinea. Some nasty fighting & some amazing achievements were done there. It's a real shame that it is totally overlooked in WWII history.
 
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