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A review by samizimecki
On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides
4.0
I love when history writers are able to tell the stories of soldiers as a narrative, verses just spewing out facts and this is a great one! We follow the US Marines of 1st Division mostly through the battle of the Chosin Reservoir, and it's eye opening, mostly because of the hubris of some of the men in charge who ignored the intelligence warning about the dangers of pushing north, and the fact that this story is technically one of a retreat.
Sides does a good job of introducing the heroes of the battle in bits and pieces, making sure to recognize other soldiers who did memorable actions but were not necessarily household names. My only real complaint is that sometimes there's too many characters that only get a small section every couple chapters, so that when we later return to their stories in another small section, you tend to mix a few people up. That is the style that works best for these narratives though, so it's understandable. Also I loved that Sides included an epilogue that gave a summary of the rest of some of the main guys' lives after this battle so that the readers got some closure. 4.5 stars, rounded down for pacing
Sides does a good job of introducing the heroes of the battle in bits and pieces, making sure to recognize other soldiers who did memorable actions but were not necessarily household names. My only real complaint is that sometimes there's too many characters that only get a small section every couple chapters, so that when we later return to their stories in another small section, you tend to mix a few people up. That is the style that works best for these narratives though, so it's understandable. Also I loved that Sides included an epilogue that gave a summary of the rest of some of the main guys' lives after this battle so that the readers got some closure. 4.5 stars, rounded down for pacing