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A review by mburnamfink
Pork Chop Hill by S.L.A. Marshall
3.0
Pork Chop Hill is an oral account of a month long rolling battle towards the end of the Korean War, a series of brutal night infantry engagements around hilly outposts. S.L.A. Marshall based his book on immediate oral histories, debriefing the survivors of entire companies right after events happened, and then reconstructing a timeline. What emerges is a scattered and desperate narrative. Men alone in the dark, grenades and automatic weapons going off all around them, unreliable lines back to lifesaving artillery batteries, sudden snapshot violence and trance-like states of total exhaustion. Marshall pushes his hobby horses here: That only about 1-in-5 soldiers directly takes action in combat, and that better training and small arms are vital to saving lives.
On the plus side, this is a very candid portrayal of warfare. These are inexperienced men in dangerous situations, and many men panic, freeze, and die, even as some exhibit extraordinary heroism. Dislike of the KATUSA's (Koreans's attached to US Army units is balanced by frank admiration for the Ethiopian contingent to the UN mission. While the people are real, there is barely any characterization beyond 'grenadier' or 'manned a Browning machine-gun', and the writing is as choppy and confusing as the battle itself.
On the plus side, this is a very candid portrayal of warfare. These are inexperienced men in dangerous situations, and many men panic, freeze, and die, even as some exhibit extraordinary heroism. Dislike of the KATUSA's (Koreans's attached to US Army units is balanced by frank admiration for the Ethiopian contingent to the UN mission. While the people are real, there is barely any characterization beyond 'grenadier' or 'manned a Browning machine-gun', and the writing is as choppy and confusing as the battle itself.