The Outpost War: U.S. Marines in Korea, Vol. 1: 1952 - Hardcover

Lee Ballenger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1574882414 ISBN 13: 9781574882414

Publisher: Brassey's, 2000

Synopsis

In 1952, overriding American political objectives dictated that the tactics of UN forces in Korea shift from those of maneuver to those of holding on to territory recently gained at great human cost. In western Korea, along “main lines of resistance,” men of the 1st Marine Division patrolled from lonely outposts. Thus began “the outpost war,” a forgotten period of the “forgotten war”—but one during which 7800 Marines lost became casualties.

Lee Ballenger’s THE OUTPOST WAR tells the story of the division’s move to the Jamestown Line in western Korea where the assault-trained-and-equipped troops must dig in and learn to fight an unusual defensive war. It describes their steep, deadly learning curve and reports on major battles of the period, including Bunker Hill and The Hook, while including the trials and tribulations of individuals who were there. The author’s use of official archival sources blended with oral accounts places the reader on the battle line with the Marines. Nearly all of the material in THE OUTPOST WAR has never been published before.

LEE BALLENGER served in U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance and tank units during the Korean War. He is currently at work on a sequel to cover Marine Corps operations in 1953. This is his first book. He lives in California.

About this title

About the Author

LEE BALLENGER served in U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance and tank units during the Korean War. He is currently at work on a sequel to cover Marine Corps operations in 1953. This is his first book. He lives in California.

From Publishers Weekly

Marine-focused works about the Korean War tend to concentrate on earlier events of that conflict: the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon or the Chosin Reservoir. Yet the war's second half cost almost as many marine casualties. A marine veteran of Korea, Ballenger highlights the First Marine Division's specific difficulties adjusting to static war on the DMZ. His reconstruction of the outpost war, whereby a main line of defense was screened by outpost positions, relies heavily on first-person accounts, mostly from retired officers who were platoon leaders during this period. It describes how the outposts, constructed as buffers, became troublesome centers of the action, but it does not contextualize the fighting. Ballenger stresses, for example, the youth of the enlisted marines, most of whom were 19 or younger, in contrast to the men of the war's earlier years. Did the age of the new replacements have any effect on marine operational performance or fighting power? This and similar questions are not raised. Despite such lapses, Ballenger has taken more pains to cross-check stories than is usual in this genre, and his narrators are painfully, almost brutally, honest in discussing their own behaviors, motives and emotions. The result is some of the best descriptive narratives of small-unit combat to come out of the Korean War, making the book a valuable contribution despite its shortcomings. Illus. not seen by PW. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brassey's
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1574882414
• ISBN 13: 9781574882414
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 282