Bannon's War Room - December 26, 2023


Episode 3272： The Combat History Of Christmas


Episode Stats

Length

53 minutes

Words per Minute

138.78107

Word Count

7,377

Sentence Count

526

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

28


Summary

On December 25th, 1775, George Washington crossed the Delaware River to Trenton, New Jersey. It was Christmas Eve, and it was snowed in and the weather was terrible, but he still managed to get his force across the Delaware and defeat the enemy.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 O come, O come, Emmanuel, an handsome captive Israel,
00:00:16.320 The world that dawns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God of Israel.
00:00:30.320 Rejoice! Rejoice!
00:00:35.200 Rejoice! Rejoice!
00:00:52.240 O come, O day the ком, Come when the spiciness by the sovereignty
00:01:03.760 Welcome back.
00:01:09.780 Monday, 25 December, the year of war, 2023,
00:01:12.960 as we wind down this 2023, a historic year.
00:01:18.260 If you've been with us, we've accomplished so much.
00:01:21.160 And how have we accomplished it?
00:01:22.840 Through human agency.
00:01:27.320 We talk about this being a spiritual war, but you must act.
00:01:31.280 Remember, God needs human instrumentality.
00:01:34.540 To act.
00:01:36.740 I want to thank everybody for, particularly those who have watched this
00:01:40.200 and followed us for years doing this, Patrick K. O'Donnell.
00:01:43.440 So, Patrick, why does he risk being criticized even more?
00:01:47.300 He's under tremendous pressure.
00:01:49.300 He may be relieved for cause, right?
00:01:51.880 A lot of people say later this was a desperate gamble to save his command
00:01:55.700 of the Continental Army.
00:01:58.640 Why are you going to do that?
00:01:59.840 Why would you split your forces up to do a force crossing of a river
00:02:06.100 under just horrific conditions?
00:02:08.600 He wanted to have a double envelopment, basically, of Trenton,
00:02:12.360 to basically have a crushing defeat of the Hessian force that was there.
00:02:16.860 And that's what he does accomplish.
00:02:20.620 But it's not through the initial plan.
00:02:23.500 It's like all plans in war.
00:02:25.000 They usually evaporate in first contact.
00:02:27.880 And that's certainly the case here.
00:02:28.960 But it's the river itself that prevents the plan from coming together.
00:02:34.720 It's impassable to all but the most experienced mariners.
00:02:39.760 And that's where Washington had the most experienced mariners,
00:02:44.440 the best mariners probably in the world at the time,
00:02:47.000 the Marblehead Mariners and the 14th Continental Under Glover's overarching command
00:02:52.520 in this brigade, but they had trained, basically, they were fishermen
00:02:58.900 that had spent decades in the Grand Banks to fish.
00:03:04.520 And this is the most treacherous waters of the world to this day.
00:03:08.400 And every year in Marblehead, when fishing was the main source of income,
00:03:14.900 literally hundreds, if not dozens of men would die every year
00:03:18.820 because their boats would capsize, they would go overboard.
00:03:22.780 But it was in that environment, that chaos,
00:03:25.820 that they were able to forge incredible teamwork of resiliency as well
00:03:32.000 to depend upon one another to get the job done.
00:03:35.740 And that's certainly the case here to cross the Delaware River.
00:03:39.160 And they do it.
00:03:39.940 All the other forces that were under Washington's part of this plan
00:03:45.260 had failed to cross the river that night.
00:03:47.860 And it's, by the way, it's also...
00:03:49.800 Why did he pick...
00:03:50.900 I want to talk about the weather because it was the Northeast.
00:03:54.900 Why did he pick Christmas night?
00:03:57.420 And why did he refuse to back off that given the weather?
00:04:00.680 Not the weather forecast, but I mean the actual weather.
00:04:03.360 The weather is a double-edged sword.
00:04:05.640 It's treacherous to cross, but also it screens his movements.
00:04:12.740 What he didn't know, but what he suspected,
00:04:15.000 was that the Hessians and the British knew that he was coming.
00:04:18.360 And they did.
00:04:19.160 They had spies everywhere.
00:04:21.300 They had bits and pieces of information that the attack was coming.
00:04:25.380 And they knew it was coming.
00:04:27.040 But a series of events,
00:04:28.940 a really very fascinating series of events,
00:04:32.780 occur that prevent Johan Rahl from believing that this is the main attack.
00:04:39.100 And that night, they cross Christmas night during this massive Nor'easter.
00:04:45.640 There's snow everywhere.
00:04:47.780 But as Washington has to make this mile,
00:04:51.700 it's nearly a 10-mile march from the crossing point all the way down to Trenton.
00:04:56.520 And they have to go through some gorges and other things.
00:04:58.540 It's pretty treacherous.
00:04:59.560 As they're making that march,
00:05:03.040 they run across the company of Virginians.
00:05:06.140 And they are astounded by, you know, what are you doing here?
00:05:11.480 And this is a group of men that attacked without orders earlier that day.
00:05:18.500 They were basically, the thought is that it was a vengeance mission,
00:05:22.640 that they were trying to get back at the Hessians for something that occurred earlier.
00:05:26.100 And they are there.
00:05:30.840 And the thing that happens is Rahl believes that those men,
00:05:36.360 that small company of Virginians, was the main attack.
00:05:40.060 And then he started to believe that nobody would cross in a Nor'easter.
00:05:46.520 This is impossible.
00:05:48.340 And he lets his guard down,
00:05:50.560 even though the intelligence is coming in that the attack is coming.
00:05:53.940 In fact, there's an enslaved servant of one of the locals that comes that night
00:06:00.000 to give Rahl, Johann Rahl, who's an amazing commander,
00:06:05.240 Hessian commander, German commander, who had been fighting since his youth,
00:06:09.480 literally was born into war practically with his father.
00:06:13.620 And in one, it had been part of the several critical battles
00:06:16.980 during the American Revolution at Fort Washington, at White Plains.
00:06:21.000 He is playing checkers with a local.
00:06:25.080 And this enslaved person is about to hand him a message,
00:06:28.780 and he just shoves it, pushes it off.
00:06:30.780 The message was that the Americans are coming.
00:06:33.940 And he doesn't know that they're, without the message, he doesn't know.
00:06:38.440 And Washington's army and the Marbleheaders continue to march down.
00:06:42.480 And right around dawn, they appear.
00:06:46.880 And the Hessians, unlike the Christmas books that, you know,
00:06:50.740 we read, you know, maybe when, in our youth,
00:06:53.740 that these guys were drunk on Christmas Day and not ready, is false.
00:06:57.780 They were all, they were prepared.
00:06:59.940 In fact, they were, the raids by Adam Stevens,
00:07:03.160 the Virginians that I mentioned,
00:07:05.020 and other raids had put them on high alert.
00:07:07.040 Literally, they were sleeping with their rifles in a uniform,
00:07:10.640 in their cartridge boxes, ready for anything.
00:07:14.280 And they were roused up,
00:07:17.320 and they tried to immediately counterattack.
00:07:20.800 And there's a, really quite an epic sort of story
00:07:23.900 that occurs here in Trenton,
00:07:25.560 where they seize the Hessian guns,
00:07:30.220 and they're taken back.
00:07:31.180 And it's quite a battle.
00:07:33.860 Well, an amazing aspect of American history takes place right here.
00:07:39.460 But another key element to this entire thing,
00:07:42.660 and this is why Washington's divided his army,
00:07:45.280 was to envelop the Hessian garrison.
00:07:48.380 And it's John Glover and the Marbleheaders and their brigade
00:07:51.320 that marches down the river road
00:07:54.720 that basically parallels the Delaware.
00:07:58.680 And they seize a critical bridge over Assampeak Creek.
00:08:03.420 And they take the high ground.
00:08:05.020 And they cut off one of the main ways of escape
00:08:08.600 for the Hessians to go back towards Bordentown
00:08:11.580 and escape this envelopment which is occurring on them.
00:08:16.500 And most revolutionary war battles are fought
00:08:19.980 where they, both sides engage.
00:08:23.020 And then when one side is having the better of the other,
00:08:27.980 the other army withdraws.
00:08:30.020 And the engagement is not as decisive as it could be.
00:08:35.760 And this is what, Trenton is a decisive battle
00:08:38.600 where the entire garrison, nearly over 900 men,
00:08:44.100 along with their cannon and other equipment, are captured.
00:08:47.120 And it's part of 10 crucial days of two, three other battles,
00:08:54.360 total of three battles included.
00:08:56.120 The second battle of Trenton,
00:08:58.180 which is fought at the bridge that I mentioned
00:09:00.400 at Assampeak Creek,
00:09:02.160 which is another epic story
00:09:04.640 of where Washington has to hold the line at this bridge.
00:09:10.260 And they do so against all odds,
00:09:12.580 where there's multiple attacks across the bridge.
00:09:14.860 Washington himself, the commander in chief,
00:09:17.680 his horse is near the rail of the bridge.
00:09:21.300 But they are able to repel these attacks,
00:09:23.700 which had they been able to cross the bridge,
00:09:25.980 they might have split the army in two
00:09:27.380 and destroyed it right then and there.
00:09:28.840 It was potential for crushing defeat,
00:09:31.280 much like the Battle of Brooklyn
00:09:32.540 could have potentially had with the Continental Army.
00:09:36.500 And then there is, of course,
00:09:37.440 the Battle of Princeton,
00:09:38.500 which occurs later, a day later.
00:09:41.820 And these three battles combined are 10 crucial days
00:09:45.440 that change the course of absolute American history
00:09:50.460 as well as world history.
00:09:52.520 It has a seismic effect on empires in Europe.
00:09:58.240 The war suddenly changes from one of absolute defeat
00:10:02.320 where people that are even loyalists,
00:10:05.060 or I mean, people that are,
00:10:06.680 you know, a signer of the Declaration of Independence
00:10:08.900 signs amnesty that the British offer,
00:10:13.600 as well as other citizens that start to jump ship.
00:10:17.560 A New Jersey signer of the Declaration of Independence
00:10:23.120 actually took amnesty before this happened.
00:10:26.160 These 10 days happened over the Christmas period.
00:10:28.760 I just want to make sure the audience understands,
00:10:30.980 why are crack German troops, the Hessians,
00:10:34.540 why are they even there at the front line defending Trent
00:10:38.440 right across from the Americans?
00:10:39.720 Why do you have these essentially creme de la creme forces
00:10:43.520 from Germany in this fight?
00:10:47.040 The British have a problem.
00:10:49.120 They have a massive, you know,
00:10:51.160 they have 13 colonies,
00:10:53.060 and then also Canada, the 14th,
00:10:54.920 if you can't consider that,
00:10:56.640 that have to be contained or quelled.
00:10:59.500 And that requires a massive amount of manpower.
00:11:02.740 They have the largest fleet in the world at the time.
00:11:07.100 They have to man those ships,
00:11:08.440 but they also have to man their army.
00:11:10.280 And they don't have enough troops.
00:11:12.080 So what they do is they go to the various kingdoms
00:11:15.540 that are in Germany,
00:11:16.900 which offer their troops for hire.
00:11:21.060 If you have the money,
00:11:23.020 they will basically rent out their troops.
00:11:25.740 And that's what you have with these Hessian allies.
00:11:28.740 And these guys are crack, excellent fighters
00:11:32.840 that are well-trained and very disciplined
00:11:36.020 and, you know, exceptional on the battlefield in most cases.
00:11:40.120 So that's why they're there,
00:11:41.420 because they don't have enough troops.
00:11:43.300 And this is a continuing problem
00:11:45.460 with the American Revolution.
00:11:47.080 There's never enough troops to hold the land.
00:11:49.640 And this is a problem that would have been an issue
00:11:52.820 with the American,
00:11:54.760 and during the American Civil War as well.
00:11:56.620 trying to control or hold the land of a population
00:12:02.620 that's hostile.
00:12:04.300 It's incredible.
00:12:05.380 That's why the real story of the American Revolution
00:12:07.840 is that you were able to basically take the loyalists
00:12:11.060 and create more loyalists
00:12:14.760 as well as loyal troops
00:12:15.980 to combat patriot troops
00:12:19.220 that were during the American Revolution.
00:12:21.720 Had they done that earlier,
00:12:23.440 more focused,
00:12:26.120 it may have been decisive
00:12:28.120 for the British Empire.
00:12:30.440 Dividing and conquer.
00:12:31.280 Ten days that shook the world.
00:12:32.440 Ten days that got the world's attention
00:12:35.040 that the Americans could actually fight,
00:12:37.640 that things like Saratoga and others
00:12:39.260 were not just,
00:12:40.140 or even Bunker Hill,
00:12:41.880 where we technically,
00:12:43.120 we technically, I think, won.
00:12:45.220 It was just not a fluke.
00:12:46.580 Ten days that shook the world at Trenton,
00:12:48.860 the bridge at Trenton,
00:12:49.800 and then Princeton
00:12:50.440 that got people's attention
00:12:51.800 starting on Christmas night.
00:12:53.160 Okay, Patrick K. O'Donnell,
00:12:54.280 we're going to take a short commercial break here
00:12:56.840 in a moment.
00:12:57.580 He's going to come back.
00:12:58.600 We're going to get to the,
00:12:59.600 we're going to get to the Battle of the Bulge next,
00:13:02.100 and then Chosun Reservoir.
00:13:04.800 And this is a story of heroism
00:13:07.400 of the United States Army
00:13:08.780 and the United States Marine Corps
00:13:10.740 under forbidding conditions.
00:13:14.240 The Northeaster on the crossing of the Delaware
00:13:17.860 was almost, as Patrick's told me,
00:13:20.100 there's almost hurricane force winds.
00:13:21.880 I mean, this was a brutal night
00:13:23.600 that Washington crossed,
00:13:25.260 but I got to tell you,
00:13:26.640 it compares to the brutality of the weather
00:13:29.700 around Bastogne and other places
00:13:32.180 in the Battle of the Bulge
00:13:33.500 and also in Korea.
00:13:35.020 Just horrific, horrific conditions
00:13:36.840 that American soldiers
00:13:38.240 have fought through over the Christmas season
00:13:40.640 in defense of their country.
00:13:42.920 Absolutely amazing stories.
00:13:44.160 Patrick K. O'Donnell,
00:13:45.380 the best combat historian of the generation.
00:13:47.360 Here's the reason.
00:13:47.960 Every book is years of research
00:13:50.260 to go back to original documentation,
00:13:52.660 journals, letters, all of it.
00:13:55.080 So it's almost like reading a novel.
00:13:56.500 The characters themselves speak in their own voice.
00:13:59.460 Take a short commercial break.
00:14:00.920 We're going to enjoy some Christmas music
00:14:02.320 on Christmas morning here in the War Room.
00:14:04.420 I want to thank everybody
00:14:05.520 for gathering around
00:14:08.000 and maybe opening some gifts,
00:14:10.600 having some Warpath coffee
00:14:11.940 at warpath.coffee slash warroom,
00:14:14.440 having some Warpath coffee
00:14:16.080 and enjoying Christmas morning.
00:14:18.420 We're going to return in a moment
00:14:19.740 with Patrick K. O'Donnell.
00:14:20.780 We'll be right back.
00:14:50.780 As we head toward a presidential election
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00:16:33.640 Okay, welcome back.
00:16:38.560 Here on Christmas morning.
00:16:40.620 I want to thank everybody,
00:16:41.980 those throughout the world,
00:16:43.200 for watching, listening in.
00:16:45.240 Patrick O'Donnell, 1944.
00:16:49.260 We've landed at Normandy.
00:16:51.500 We swept through,
00:16:52.240 we broke out of Normandy.
00:16:53.660 We had the horrific battle of Normandy,
00:16:55.420 not just D-Day,
00:16:56.180 but the breakout.
00:17:01.300 Patton had to come in.
00:17:02.320 They had to relieve a couple of commanders.
00:17:03.920 We finally did that.
00:17:05.480 Montgomery came up with Market Garden
00:17:06.940 about how to get to the Rhine River
00:17:08.380 the quickest.
00:17:09.520 A lot of bloodshed.
00:17:10.840 Rome has fallen.
00:17:11.620 Paris has fallen.
00:17:13.340 But we're not quite there yet.
00:17:16.700 Talk to us.
00:17:17.320 Set it up.
00:17:17.860 Where are troops?
00:17:18.700 And how does this happen?
00:17:19.800 One of the most horrific of all
00:17:21.180 winter battles in American combat history, sir?
00:17:24.600 The Battle of the Bulge begins in early,
00:17:32.320 like mid-December.
00:17:34.600 And what's going on is,
00:17:36.820 as you mentioned,
00:17:37.440 there's the breakout.
00:17:38.880 But American supply lines are stretched,
00:17:41.740 very thin in many cases.
00:17:43.800 And we have army groups
00:17:45.480 that are positioned along a broad front.
00:17:48.220 And several of them are positioned
00:17:51.380 in an area known as the Ardennes Forest
00:17:53.740 that are,
00:17:55.560 which is considered as a quiet sector.
00:17:58.000 And it's here that Hitler picks
00:18:00.260 for a great counter-offensive in the West
00:18:03.200 to change the course of the war,
00:18:06.740 to somehow use some of his crack troops,
00:18:10.520 including the first SS Panzer Corps,
00:18:12.900 along with about 400,000 troops,
00:18:16.140 1,400 tanks,
00:18:18.500 thousands of planes
00:18:19.740 to attack the Americans
00:18:21.620 in this so-called quiet sector.
00:18:24.420 For me,
00:18:26.340 the bulge really begins
00:18:28.400 about a week,
00:18:30.140 10 days earlier.
00:18:32.120 And what I mean by that is
00:18:33.560 the 2nd Ranger Battalion
00:18:36.200 was fighting in the Hurkan Forest.
00:18:39.060 And their objective
00:18:39.820 was to take the highest hill there
00:18:42.080 called Hill 400
00:18:43.080 near a place called Bergstein.
00:18:45.960 And why this is important
00:18:47.060 is because Hill 400
00:18:49.280 overlooks the assembly areas
00:18:51.940 for the German army
00:18:53.460 and the SS
00:18:54.640 during the Battle of the Bulge.
00:18:56.260 And they wanted to protect it
00:18:57.780 at all costs.
00:18:59.940 So on December 6th,
00:19:03.440 the 2nd Ranger Battalion,
00:19:05.280 which is an elite unit,
00:19:07.420 these are the boys
00:19:08.180 of Pointe Hock
00:19:08.980 that Reagan talks about,
00:19:10.140 are assigned Mission Impossible
00:19:13.060 to take the hill.
00:19:15.320 An entire regiment,
00:19:17.920 Combat Command,
00:19:19.060 had been annihilated
00:19:20.040 trying to take the town
00:19:23.080 and the hill.
00:19:23.960 But they were barely holding on
00:19:25.620 in the cellars
00:19:26.380 in Bergstein.
00:19:28.120 And they moved
00:19:29.500 the 2nd Ranger in there
00:19:30.880 to seize it.
00:19:32.340 So on dawn,
00:19:34.540 on December 7th,
00:19:36.680 the men attacked.
00:19:38.600 And it's an epic
00:19:39.620 bayonet charge.
00:19:40.760 They literally have to
00:19:42.060 cross an open field
00:19:43.060 and they storm the hill.
00:19:45.800 But for three or four days,
00:19:47.860 they pound it
00:19:49.400 with everything
00:19:50.020 that they have.
00:19:50.840 And they send
00:19:51.480 one infantry battalion
00:19:53.420 after another
00:19:54.080 as well as armor
00:19:54.900 to try to dislodge
00:19:56.040 the Rangers.
00:19:57.260 And the reason
00:19:57.960 why they care
00:19:58.880 is because
00:20:00.140 this is the high ground
00:20:01.260 that overlooks
00:20:02.060 what's going on
00:20:02.880 for the greatest
00:20:04.320 counter-offensive
00:20:05.080 of World War II,
00:20:06.600 the Battle of the Bulge.
00:20:08.380 And the Rangers
00:20:09.560 are able to seize the hill.
00:20:11.440 They hold it
00:20:12.060 against all odds.
00:20:13.340 I mean,
00:20:13.540 there's,
00:20:14.280 I tell this story
00:20:15.040 in Dog Company
00:20:16.220 and you have
00:20:18.080 just epic scenes
00:20:19.360 in this movie,
00:20:20.140 in this book
00:20:22.140 where,
00:20:22.920 I mean,
00:20:23.160 for one,
00:20:24.280 the Rangers
00:20:25.120 are being overwhelmed
00:20:26.100 constantly by
00:20:27.240 crack paratroopers
00:20:29.820 that the Germans
00:20:30.420 sent against them.
00:20:32.020 And in one foxhole,
00:20:33.860 one of the individuals
00:20:34.680 literally grabs
00:20:35.560 two MP40
00:20:36.560 machine pistols
00:20:37.780 and fires
00:20:38.960 at his incoming,
00:20:40.320 the incoming German soldiers
00:20:41.640 and is able
00:20:42.160 to repel that attack.
00:20:44.660 But many of these men
00:20:46.120 are subjected
00:20:47.000 to nearly 20
00:20:48.600 battalions of artillery
00:20:49.880 as the hill
00:20:51.200 is plastered.
00:20:52.600 But they,
00:20:53.580 they send intelligence
00:20:54.680 that there,
00:20:55.160 there's something
00:20:55.900 going on
00:20:56.580 in the background.
00:20:58.160 But in many cases,
00:20:59.880 like many cases
00:21:01.040 of intelligence history,
00:21:02.920 nobody connects
00:21:03.700 the dots
00:21:04.280 and the Battle of the Bulge
00:21:06.620 begins
00:21:07.260 on December 16th,
00:21:09.740 1944,
00:21:11.080 where the largest,
00:21:13.020 one of the largest
00:21:13.480 counter-offensives
00:21:14.320 begins for the German army,
00:21:16.560 over 400,000 strong
00:21:18.280 with thousands of,
00:21:20.400 hundreds of tanks
00:21:21.560 and assault units
00:21:22.940 and guns,
00:21:24.260 attack in a weakened area.
00:21:28.660 And it's here
00:21:29.540 that there are small groups
00:21:31.460 of Americans
00:21:32.180 that delay
00:21:34.640 this incoming tide
00:21:38.520 of German soldiers.
00:21:40.540 And I've interviewed
00:21:41.560 thousands or hundreds,
00:21:44.080 thousands of American elite troops,
00:21:47.340 rangers and paratroopers,
00:21:51.320 OSS,
00:21:52.440 and I also interviewed
00:21:53.360 the elite
00:21:53.960 of the German army,
00:21:55.240 including the Waffen-SS.
00:21:57.160 And those are some
00:21:58.040 very compelling stories.
00:21:59.560 These guys
00:22:00.060 really literally felt
00:22:01.640 that they were back.
00:22:03.160 I remember interviewing
00:22:03.960 one member
00:22:04.560 of the 1st SS
00:22:05.540 Panzer Division,
00:22:08.280 and he was just like,
00:22:09.760 he saw,
00:22:10.660 you know,
00:22:10.920 the massive
00:22:11.620 Tiger II tank
00:22:13.040 that we have a picture
00:22:14.120 of right there,
00:22:14.820 and he felt
00:22:16.060 that they had been,
00:22:16.820 you know,
00:22:18.180 they had been reconstituted
00:22:19.480 and that they were
00:22:20.340 going to win the war.
00:22:21.740 And if it wasn't
00:22:22.520 for Americans
00:22:23.340 that just put up
00:22:24.840 an amazing defense,
00:22:25.740 there were many Americans
00:22:26.380 that had literally
00:22:28.260 collapsed
00:22:28.800 during this counteroffensive
00:22:30.640 in the early days.
00:22:32.440 And it was the,
00:22:34.460 the strategic reserve
00:22:35.640 that we had
00:22:36.400 was made up
00:22:37.940 of the 18th Airborne Corps.
00:22:39.640 This included
00:22:40.160 the 82nd Airborne,
00:22:41.540 101st,
00:22:42.300 and the 17th Airborne Division.
00:22:43.800 And these men
00:22:45.260 were quickly
00:22:46.280 rushed to the front
00:22:47.280 on December 18th
00:22:49.080 to stem the tide.
00:22:51.200 And we talk
00:22:53.520 about Bastogne,
00:22:55.700 but let's first
00:22:56.900 focus on the
00:22:57.640 northern shoulder.
00:23:00.120 Yeah,
00:23:00.740 hold on,
00:23:01.460 one thing,
00:23:01.900 and I know we're
00:23:02.580 pressed for time here,
00:23:03.580 so we'll figure
00:23:04.060 to get through it,
00:23:04.680 but why are
00:23:05.920 the American troops,
00:23:07.900 many of them,
00:23:08.840 that are there,
00:23:09.920 not the ones
00:23:10.460 that relieved them
00:23:11.080 of Bastogne,
00:23:11.700 or the 101st
00:23:12.560 that held a Bastogne,
00:23:13.220 but so many
00:23:13.960 of the regular army
00:23:14.860 seem like they're
00:23:16.080 not trained,
00:23:17.000 they're not combat ready,
00:23:18.360 they're not equipped,
00:23:19.860 people are not ready
00:23:20.660 for winter,
00:23:21.320 they're not ready
00:23:21.780 for this particular winter,
00:23:22.800 this is another one
00:23:23.400 with the elements,
00:23:24.000 just like in Trenton,
00:23:24.740 the elements are
00:23:25.420 unbelievable,
00:23:26.860 horrible.
00:23:27.200 there were entire regiments,
00:23:31.320 there was an entire,
00:23:31.840 I think the 501st,
00:23:33.020 there was one of the
00:23:33.660 famous or infamous
00:23:34.540 regiments,
00:23:36.000 surrenders
00:23:37.840 with very few
00:23:39.340 combat casualties,
00:23:40.200 psychologically,
00:23:40.940 what happened,
00:23:42.480 given how late
00:23:43.520 in the war we are,
00:23:44.720 how many troops,
00:23:45.520 millions of troops
00:23:46.080 were being trained
00:23:46.560 back home,
00:23:47.620 the combat leadership
00:23:48.620 of this,
00:23:49.700 the actual,
00:23:50.960 some of even the NCOs,
00:23:52.400 command structures
00:23:53.080 broke down,
00:23:53.800 what was it,
00:23:54.440 the Germans for a moment
00:23:55.460 there thought,
00:23:56.080 hey,
00:23:56.300 we might drive
00:23:56.900 these guys back
00:23:57.500 to Antwerp,
00:23:58.080 we may drive them
00:23:58.700 into the sea,
00:23:59.320 another Dunkirk,
00:24:00.460 and then these weak
00:24:02.100 nations in the west
00:24:02.940 will just collapse,
00:24:04.260 we'll cut a deal
00:24:04.880 with them and we'll
00:24:05.400 fight the Russians,
00:24:06.160 we could actually save,
00:24:07.280 the Germans for a minute
00:24:08.300 thought they could
00:24:08.860 actually save
00:24:09.620 the German Reich
00:24:10.840 by this,
00:24:11.720 given the unpreparedness
00:24:13.120 of the American troops.
00:24:14.980 There was a lot
00:24:15.600 of unpreparedness,
00:24:16.520 there was just,
00:24:17.460 people were poorly equipped,
00:24:18.960 they just felt that
00:24:19.620 it was the war
00:24:20.220 was nearing close,
00:24:22.920 that Germany
00:24:23.480 didn't have
00:24:24.340 the capabilities
00:24:25.880 or strength
00:24:26.620 to mount
00:24:27.040 such a counter-offensive,
00:24:29.280 I mean,
00:24:29.480 Germany had wisened up,
00:24:31.640 they cloaked
00:24:34.020 a lot of their signals,
00:24:35.340 they operated at night
00:24:36.700 to move
00:24:37.780 and position troops
00:24:38.740 into these positions,
00:24:40.800 these assembly areas.
00:24:41.560 They were also,
00:24:42.080 by the way,
00:24:42.640 once again,
00:24:43.340 just like you started thinking,
00:24:45.000 they also had
00:24:45.520 many German troops,
00:24:46.820 special forces
00:24:47.700 in American,
00:24:49.240 they were in American,
00:24:50.400 they were in American uniforms
00:24:51.660 and many of these
00:24:52.420 were German Americans
00:24:53.320 that spoke English,
00:24:54.200 right,
00:24:54.320 I mean,
00:24:54.480 one of the things
00:24:54.840 that people were fooled by,
00:24:56.500 or at least legendarily,
00:24:57.720 was that there were
00:24:58.340 actual German troops
00:24:59.940 dressed as Americans
00:25:00.780 that fooled some
00:25:01.540 of the untrained
00:25:02.080 American troops.
00:25:03.660 Yeah,
00:25:03.820 this was a German operation,
00:25:05.700 a special operation,
00:25:06.480 where they literally
00:25:07.340 parachuted some elements
00:25:08.820 of troops
00:25:09.260 behind the lines,
00:25:10.660 they were wearing
00:25:11.340 American uniforms,
00:25:13.120 they spoke perfect English,
00:25:14.740 they were changing
00:25:15.460 the signs around,
00:25:16.840 they created a tremendous
00:25:17.940 amount of chaos
00:25:18.980 in those early days,
00:25:20.940 and it just,
00:25:22.340 it made people
00:25:23.460 constantly look
00:25:24.640 over their shoulder,
00:25:25.820 were these men
00:25:26.540 really Americans
00:25:27.340 or not,
00:25:27.900 and I mean,
00:25:28.640 the famous thing
00:25:29.220 is they have
00:25:29.800 code words
00:25:30.880 that were based on,
00:25:31.860 you know,
00:25:32.540 baseball games
00:25:33.420 or football games
00:25:34.120 that were just generally
00:25:35.020 that Americans
00:25:36.540 would know
00:25:37.220 versus somebody
00:25:38.260 that was impersonating
00:25:39.280 an American,
00:25:39.800 but this created
00:25:41.180 a tremendous
00:25:41.820 amount of chaos.
00:25:43.740 Skorzenny was,
00:25:44.660 was the commando
00:25:45.900 in charge of this operation,
00:25:47.940 and they sowed
00:25:48.880 a tremendous amount
00:25:49.560 of chaos,
00:25:50.440 and it's the 82nd,
00:25:51.640 101st that come in,
00:25:53.720 and I'm wearing a,
00:25:55.360 I'm wearing a medal
00:25:56.680 from a member
00:25:58.540 of the 509 parachute
00:26:00.120 that was given to me
00:26:00.980 right before Fallujah,
00:26:02.620 and he wore that medal
00:26:03.880 at the first parachute jump
00:26:05.900 in North Africa in 1942
00:26:07.880 and fought through
00:26:09.260 the entire war.
00:26:10.280 He was at Anastasia.
00:26:11.840 Wow.
00:26:12.120 And at Battle of the Bulge,
00:26:13.780 the 509
00:26:14.480 was thrust against
00:26:15.960 the 25th SS Panzer
00:26:18.660 Grenadier Division
00:26:19.700 on December 28th,
00:26:21.200 and they closed
00:26:22.500 a gap in the line,
00:26:23.560 and they sacrificed
00:26:24.680 themselves
00:26:25.320 for America
00:26:26.720 that day,
00:26:27.820 and this unit
00:26:29.120 which started out
00:26:29.860 about 800 men
00:26:30.640 strong
00:26:31.020 was reduced
00:26:32.080 to about 60.
00:26:34.720 Good Lord.
00:26:35.740 Okay,
00:26:36.120 why don't we hang
00:26:36.780 over a second?
00:26:37.220 So I want to get back
00:26:38.040 to,
00:26:38.360 we're going to carve
00:26:39.060 a little time,
00:26:39.600 we'll expand into
00:26:40.420 the D block
00:26:40.980 for Chosin,
00:26:42.020 but I want to finish
00:26:42.880 Bastogne,
00:26:43.560 and particularly
00:26:44.000 the relief of Bastogne,
00:26:45.600 of how it was
00:26:46.500 virtually a miracle
00:26:48.200 in the middle
00:26:49.220 of the winter
00:26:49.620 General Patton,
00:26:50.540 and the heroism
00:26:51.240 of the 101st,
00:26:52.760 which really became
00:26:53.620 legendary,
00:26:54.320 you know,
00:26:54.600 after the 82nd
00:26:56.460 and the 101st,
00:26:57.800 the heroism
00:26:58.400 at D-Day,
00:27:00.540 and then followed
00:27:01.100 by Market Garden,
00:27:02.740 right,
00:27:02.920 remember the bridge
00:27:03.500 too far,
00:27:04.180 and then finally
00:27:05.200 at the defense
00:27:06.720 when they were
00:27:07.140 totally surrounded
00:27:08.020 and about to be
00:27:08.700 crushed,
00:27:09.280 the talk about
00:27:10.640 cussedness,
00:27:11.540 grit,
00:27:12.140 and determination,
00:27:13.780 the response
00:27:14.400 to the Germans
00:27:15.140 when the Germans
00:27:16.120 said,
00:27:16.540 hey,
00:27:16.700 either surrender
00:27:17.420 or you're going
00:27:18.240 to be destroyed,
00:27:19.300 truly an American
00:27:20.060 story,
00:27:20.800 a truly American
00:27:21.500 story over Christmas,
00:27:23.080 short commercial break,
00:27:23.860 the combat history
00:27:24.820 of Christmas,
00:27:25.480 an annual tradition
00:27:26.440 here at the War Room,
00:27:28.380 Patrick K. O'Donnell,
00:27:29.280 the combat historian,
00:27:30.120 is going to join us
00:27:30.600 for just a second.
00:27:31.140 of the Arts
00:27:55.920 leben
00:27:56.920 It's a brand new song, tum-tum-tum-tum-tum.
00:28:26.920 It's a brand new song, tum-tum-tum-tum-tum-tum.
00:28:56.920 Okay, welcome back to the War Room. Patrick K. O'Donnell, we're at Bastogne, and it is the Christmas season of 1944. What happens?
00:29:09.320 Bastogne is basically in the early, on December 16th, elements of the 10th Armored Division, as well as the tank destroyers and other sort of cats and dog divisions and units kind of fall back to Bastogne.
00:29:26.820 And they're very weakly holding it at this point. And it's the 101st Airborne that is trucked in in cattle cars.
00:29:35.040 The cattle trucks actually open their open-air things, and they're told in and around Paris that they need to get ready and prepare for combat.
00:29:43.740 And men just, like, jump into these trucks with their M1 Garands and whatever they have. Many of them are poorly equipped.
00:29:50.580 They don't have winter clothing. And they're trucked into Bastogne.
00:29:55.020 And they hold—Bastogne is a road octopus, it's called.
00:30:00.740 It's kind of a road—it's a hub of multiple roads that intersect it, and it's key to hold.
00:30:07.440 And the Allies know it, so do the Germans. They want it.
00:30:10.960 And they send some of the—after the northern push kind of fails, what happens is Bastogne becomes a critical point that the Germans want to take at all costs.
00:30:20.800 And they begin to surround it after the 101st gets in there.
00:30:24.980 101st takes the series of hamlets that surround Bastogne, and they hold it.
00:30:31.900 And they do an amazing job of holding these positions.
00:30:35.980 And they're—these are paratroopers, but they're elite troops.
00:30:39.500 They are trained to believe that they can take five to one of the enemy.
00:30:44.580 In many cases, these guys do the impossible, even though they're lightly armed.
00:30:48.160 I mean, the best that they have is a 60-millimeter mortar or a bazooka, probably.
00:30:52.940 And they're going up against German armor.
00:30:55.200 And there's Panther tanks, et cetera, that are—they're coming at them.
00:30:58.580 And they're holding their ground.
00:31:01.240 And Germans surround the town.
00:31:04.640 And in and around Christmas, the Germans provide an ultimatum to the commander of this—
00:31:11.940 the assistant division commander who's in charge at that point, Anthony McCall,
00:31:15.660 is asked to surrender the town to the German forces.
00:31:20.240 And I interviewed hundreds of these guys for Beyond Valor, including General Henry O'Kanard,
00:31:30.280 who was in the—he was in the intelligence section at the time.
00:31:34.100 He was there.
00:31:34.660 He witnessed the interaction between the Germans.
00:31:38.140 And McAuliffe said, nuts.
00:31:42.960 And that was the response.
00:31:45.860 But did he say nuts?
00:31:47.180 Did he say nuts, or is that the one they put out to the press?
00:31:50.480 He was a little more Army forthright, was he not?
00:31:54.020 There was also talk that it was something to the effect of—
00:31:58.140 Or something to that effect.
00:32:02.300 But he said—
00:32:03.460 Even more, even more, even more, even more in your face.
00:32:06.660 His command says, I think what you said, General nuts, would be appropriate.
00:32:11.180 And it was a nuts with an exclamation point.
00:32:13.480 And the Germans had no idea what that meant.
00:32:16.180 But it meant that they were holding the town, and they were not going to surrender an inch.
00:32:23.620 And the 101st, as well as the—
00:32:25.620 It was tough going.
00:32:27.640 They had no reinforcements.
00:32:29.460 They had no material.
00:32:30.760 I mean, they barely hung on.
00:32:32.420 Talk to me about the heroism in that winter of Patton's Third Army and coming to the relief.
00:32:38.140 Even Montgomery and his guys, who were pretty tough hombres, said no Army could pull out of a full-scale battle.
00:32:43.800 And I think in 96 hours, continually go across basically the length of France and Germany to relieve Bastogne.
00:32:53.280 But Patton did it.
00:32:54.520 That's what Patton does, and he's prepared.
00:32:56.780 And he just encourages his men to change position, to basically attack north, to push up towards Bastogne,
00:33:05.440 which the 101st was holding along with these other units that I had mentioned.
00:33:10.360 And they relieved them.
00:33:11.500 And there's—if you go to the U.S.—the New U.S. Army Museum, there is a jumbo Sherman tank there that is the first representation,
00:33:21.020 or the first tank that actually crossed the line there at Bastogne by an officer by the name of Bogus.
00:33:28.900 And it's—you know, that breaks the siege.
00:33:33.620 And then there's—the Germans then continue, though.
00:33:36.140 And the Battle of the Bulge isn't just a one-week affair.
00:33:40.640 This lasts over a month, month plus a week or so.
00:33:45.440 And it's a real grind that is dealt with in extreme weather.
00:33:51.840 This is the most—the coldest winter, you know, on history in Europe up in—you know, for many, many years.
00:33:58.200 And the men that are there are men of iron.
00:34:01.920 I interviewed so many of these veterans in Beyond Valor, and they would always tell me when they had to shovel the drive that they would get that tingle in their feet.
00:34:12.200 And many of these men had trench foot or frozen feet, which is just a horrendous thing.
00:34:18.560 And it would bring back the memories of the Bulge.
00:34:21.300 No, no, no, no, no.
00:34:22.240 But talk to that, because this is Chosin—this was Trenton.
00:34:24.880 This was Chosin Reservoir.
00:34:26.060 This was the Bulge.
00:34:28.300 They didn't have equipment.
00:34:29.180 Men were frostbit.
00:34:30.720 They had frozen feet.
00:34:31.680 They hadn't eaten in days.
00:34:34.080 They had no medical care.
00:34:35.320 I mean, this is the average man that the valor and just the stick to it and just hang in there and not quit is so inspiring.
00:34:45.600 I mean, not just Patton's army having to go through hell to get there, but the guys that held on and had every opportunity to surrender, right?
00:34:53.640 And they refused to surrender.
00:34:55.080 And in refusing to surrender brought the war to—probably would have taken another year or two.
00:35:01.480 If they had collapsed and they got an antwerp, it may have taken another year or two to defeat Nazi Germany.
00:35:06.520 These men were not equipped with shoe packs or rubber boots that would have prevented a lot of this stuff.
00:35:13.260 They were wearing paratrooper boots in most cases or other combat boots where the snow would literally just go right into your foot and freeze flesh.
00:35:22.320 In many cases, they had no mittens.
00:35:23.760 They had no winter jackets.
00:35:25.280 But they had to somehow unbelievably power through weather that just will kill you.
00:35:33.380 And it did.
00:35:34.000 It killed many of these men that literally sometimes men would fall asleep in their foxhole and never wake up.
00:35:39.000 Let's pivot to—I want to make sure we give appropriate time to Chosin Reservoir because of all the horrors we've mentioned,
00:35:49.400 the horrors in Korea in that winter are almost unbelievable.
00:35:53.600 Talk to me about the weather condition.
00:35:54.980 We're going to talk about Chosin Reservoir now.
00:35:56.200 But just talk to me about the setting for both the Chinese troops who were—the Chinese troops were—these were Chinese army that Mao wanted to have die because they were from a Kuomintang army,
00:36:06.760 that it shifts its sides and allowed the American State Department to grant the victory in the Chinese Civil War.
00:36:13.900 But Mao never trusted these generals, and he sent them to Korea.
00:36:17.140 He sent them to Korea to die, not so much even by the Americans, but to freeze to death.
00:36:22.960 The winter was that horrible.
00:36:23.900 Talk to me about the conditions at Chosin.
00:36:26.200 This is the Chosin Reservoir, which if we begin with June 25, 1950, the North Koreans attack, and they nearly overrun the Korean Peninsula.
00:36:41.820 MacArthur comes in.
00:36:42.900 There's a Pusan perimeter, and they're barely holding.
00:36:46.240 There's some really epic, heroic moments there.
00:36:48.440 They're barely holding, and then they land at Incheon, where they basically flank the North Koreans and force them to withdraw to the north.
00:36:59.140 And over a series of months, the Allied armies, under MacArthur's command, push towards the Chinese border.
00:37:06.820 And he believes the war will be won by Christmas.
00:37:09.960 That is the plan.
00:37:11.440 But what's going on is Mao Zedong has other plans.
00:37:15.160 And he sends so-called volunteers, which is his army, large groups of his army.
00:37:21.560 And as you mentioned, many of these men fought under Chiang Kai-shek, and they were there to die.
00:37:26.540 They were there, the CCP planned to basically put them into combat, and if they survive, that's fine.
00:37:33.960 But they were poorly equipped.
00:37:36.060 They were equipped with American arms in some cases and whatever else that they had.
00:37:41.520 But these were very much iron soldiers.
00:37:45.460 They were tough guys.
00:37:46.500 There was no enlistment period in the Chinese army.
00:37:50.080 It was for life.
00:37:51.400 And they were there.
00:37:52.080 They went into Korea.
00:37:54.860 And it's my book, Give Me Tomorrow, which is on George Company 3-1, that the story really picks up.
00:38:03.480 They landed in Chung.
00:38:04.460 That's their first combat.
00:38:06.040 Most of the men of George Company, many of them, had never been to boot camp.
00:38:11.000 And they were reservists, as they were called at that point, which didn't include sort of the training that we have now.
00:38:19.500 They would just go to a middle school and talk about the Marine Corps.
00:38:24.700 Several of these guys didn't even know how to throw a grenade.
00:38:27.560 But on the ship over, they were trained on how to use their umling marands and throw grenades and basically combat tactics by their NCOs.
00:38:36.740 Most of these men were battle-hardened veterans of the Pacific War that had fought at Guadalcanal or on Iwo Jima.
00:38:45.800 And they trained these men on the ship over.
00:38:48.680 They landed in Chung.
00:38:49.740 They march up towards the north.
00:38:51.820 And it's here that the Chinese surround, in the dead of night, the 1st Marine Division.
00:39:00.860 And the story of George Company is really an epic one, Steve.
00:39:05.420 The division is spread out over multiple little tiny hamlets.
00:39:10.840 And it's stretched out over many, many miles in an area known as the Chosen Reservoir, which is deep north.
00:39:16.700 It's a very mountainous terrain.
00:39:19.220 And the Chinese have over 120,000 men surrounding the 1st Marine Division as well as some attached army units, which are around 30,000 strong.
00:39:30.560 The numbers fluctuate, but they're vastly outnumbered, 8, 10 to 1, in many cases or more.
00:39:38.580 And they're spread out.
00:39:40.820 And the Chinese are basically attacked at the end of November 1950.
00:39:46.640 And their job is to destroy and annihilate elements of the 1st Marine Division as well as the division.
00:39:56.280 And George Company is in a place called Coterie, which is a small little hamlet.
00:40:00.860 It's under the command of Chesky Puller, the legendary Marine general.
00:40:04.700 And he is told to organize a task force to relieve a place called – to add reinforcements to Hagerory.
00:40:14.160 And it's here that everything is coming together for the division.
00:40:18.660 The various elements of the division are retreating towards Hagerory.
00:40:22.420 They're building an airstrip to reinforce the division and then bring out the combat wounded, but they need time.
00:40:30.460 And the George Company has to break through a cauldron to somehow get to Hagerory so that they can build the airfield and they can also hold the town.
00:40:43.760 And the Puller organizes a task force.
00:40:46.120 They have to go up an 11-mile road, and on each side of the road is a Chinese division, thousands of troops.
00:40:54.500 And it's called Task Force Drysdale.
00:40:56.620 It includes some Royal Marine commandos, a series of tanks, some Army units, but also George Company.
00:41:03.800 And they're in open trucks, and they have to basically burst through an entire division to get to Hagerory.
00:41:10.960 And the story is quite amazing.
00:41:14.760 He's the main character of the book.
00:41:16.980 I'll tell you what.
00:41:17.960 Hang on.
00:41:19.140 Why don't we hold that story to our return?
00:41:22.200 We've got our closing segment, and I want to close with the heroism of these individuals to inspire you on a Christmas morning.
00:41:29.080 Combat history of Christmas.
00:41:30.840 Short break.
00:41:31.620 Back in a moment.
00:41:32.200 We've got our closing segment, and we've got our closing segment, and we're going to close with the heroism of these individuals to inspire you.
00:41:48.160 We've got our closing segment, and we're going to close with the heroism of these individuals to inspire you on a Christmas morning.
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00:43:50.800 Okay, welcome back to War Room.
00:44:08.440 We're at the Chosin Reservoir.
00:44:11.020 Patrick K. O'Donnell.
00:44:13.020 Make sure you've got some, you want to get warm, just want to get some Warpath coffee.
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00:44:18.720 Make sure you get it.
00:44:19.480 You will not, once you have Warpath, you'll never go back to something else.
00:44:24.560 Patrick, this was human agency that got these folks out of this terrible jam.
00:44:30.080 And I tell you, from a disaster to one of the great moments of the United States Marine Corps, just a historic outfit.
00:44:39.140 Chosin Reservoir, sir.
00:44:41.040 The Marine Corps receives 10 medals of honor here at the Chosin Reservoir.
00:44:46.120 And one of the first is given to PFC Baugh, who's in this convoy that I mentioned.
00:44:53.580 And the Chinese are in and around these trucks.
00:44:56.980 They're ambushing it.
00:44:58.860 And Baugh, they throw a grenade at the truck.
00:45:02.200 And Baugh jumps on it to save all of the men in his squad.
00:45:06.000 And it costs him his life.
00:45:08.140 As they push forward in Task Force to Rysdale, they encounter what they think are American troops.
00:45:14.820 But they're actually Chinese soldiers that are wearing American uniforms.
00:45:19.220 They're near an aid station.
00:45:20.120 And Rocco Zulu, who's the main character in this book, who's a master sergeant, who's in Guana Canal and many other Pacific War campaigns, is on a .50 caliber machine gun and tries to take out many of these infiltrators.
00:45:37.700 And is shot through the chest multiple times with bullets.
00:45:42.980 I'll never forget when I interviewed him.
00:45:44.120 And he pulled up his shirt.
00:45:45.340 And the entire left side was all scar.
00:45:49.700 And all of his men that day thought he was dead.
00:45:52.640 And they put him on a pile of bodies.
00:45:54.820 They were stacking bodies like five or six feet high.
00:45:58.240 You know, there were that many people that were Marines that were killed.
00:46:02.340 He was put on one of those bodies.
00:46:04.400 And the unit went on.
00:46:05.720 And they pushed on to a place called East Hill.
00:46:09.260 And East Hill was the critical hill.
00:46:11.700 It was the high ground over Hagorah Re.
00:46:13.240 It had to be held at all costs.
00:46:16.000 And the small company of men, they had .30 caliber machine guns and their M1 Garands and grenades.
00:46:23.680 They would face an entire Chinese regiment.
00:46:26.460 They would face them, you know, on human wave attacks.
00:46:29.780 And I'll never forget the descriptions that night of, you know, they have a green flare go up.
00:46:37.680 And literally the entire ground was moving with thousands of Chinese troops that these guys were facing.
00:46:43.880 Their guns would glow white because they threw so many rounds downrange at the Chinese.
00:46:51.200 But they held the position against all odds for days.
00:46:55.040 Coming back to Zulu, somebody from another unit heard a cough eight hours later.
00:47:03.060 And they rescued him in the airstrip that I mentioned.
00:47:07.120 The critical time that was needed to build that, they evacuated him.
00:47:10.600 The men never knew that he survived until their first reunion, which was at the Thayer Hotel near West Point.
00:47:18.440 And they had a guy show up.
00:47:21.400 And they were all talking about Rocco Zulu, who had been killed at the Chosen Reservoir in 1950.
00:47:28.000 And he would just listen to their stories as he went around the room.
00:47:31.040 And he said, I am Rocco Zulu.
00:47:34.180 But they held the hill against all odds.
00:47:37.720 Wow.
00:47:38.260 It's unbelievable.
00:47:38.820 And that's the opening scene of Give Me Tomorrow.
00:47:40.080 How do we get – tell me about Give Me Tomorrow.
00:47:44.580 Of course, about the book, how can people get you from the revolution?
00:47:48.120 You were embedded in Iraq.
00:47:51.220 Yeah, go ahead.
00:47:52.840 Yeah, I was embedded in Iraq with 3-1.
00:47:57.920 And I came home on a plane at Camp Pendleton.
00:48:01.360 Came home alone.
00:48:02.180 I told McCurrence not to come.
00:48:04.100 And I was greeted by a man of George Company that said, by the way, you carried our battle guide on in Fallujah.
00:48:11.000 And we held off against a Chinese regiment.
00:48:12.920 Would you like to go to lunch with us?
00:48:14.100 I said, absolutely.
00:48:16.560 They took me to the train station.
00:48:18.060 And the next thing I know, a year or so later, I'm at their reunions.
00:48:22.560 And it's one of the great untold stories of the – up until that point of the Korean War, of how these men helped save the 1st Marine Division, which then was able to evacuate Agri and make their way back to the coast.
00:48:37.520 And one of the greatest – I mean, the Battle of the Chosen Reservoir is an epic story.
00:48:41.620 No, a fighting retreat.
00:48:44.580 It's like something from the ancient Greeks.
00:48:46.660 It's like the march-up country, right?
00:48:49.060 And they annihilated and mauled.
00:48:49.980 So it's that level.
00:48:52.000 They annihilated and mauled the Chinese armies that they've been.
00:48:57.140 Absolutely.
00:48:57.620 The Chinese, I'm telling you, bad duty there.
00:49:01.360 All of Korea, the whole thing was just a nightmare.
00:49:04.580 And the lack of training and equipment and all of it, it just – you see oftentimes how the troops are not really at the top of people's minds.
00:49:12.260 That's what we do the Combat History Christmas every Christmas.
00:49:15.080 Patrick K.
00:49:15.520 Donald.
00:49:15.760 Patrick, where do they go to get all your writings?
00:49:17.480 You're obviously a favorite of the War Room.
00:49:19.300 And you're the favorite historian, combat or not, of MAGA.
00:49:25.740 They love you.
00:49:26.600 So where do they go for the books?
00:49:29.140 I'm at PatrickKO'Donnell.com.
00:49:32.220 I'm on Getter at Combat Historian as well as Twitter.
00:49:37.420 And I appreciate the posse.
00:49:41.320 And I've met so many of them.
00:49:43.140 And it's been a tremendous honor.
00:49:45.700 Thank you.
00:49:46.080 And make sure – posse, make sure you leave comments over at Getter particularly.
00:49:51.100 Patrick reads them all.
00:49:52.840 Maybe you'll respond to a couple, three.
00:49:54.040 Patrick K.
00:49:54.540 O'Donnell, Merry Christmas.
00:49:56.160 Thank you for doing this every year, brother.
00:49:57.940 Really appreciate it.
00:49:58.780 It's an honor.
00:49:59.320 Thank you so much.
00:50:01.420 Thank you, brother.
00:50:04.300 From Handel.
00:50:06.360 I think it premiered in Dublin.
00:50:08.600 Merry Christmas.
00:50:09.320 To the greatest audience and most powerful political force
00:50:14.120 and the most powerful, decent, and necessary nation on man's earth.
00:50:19.020 Merry Christmas.
00:50:19.500 O'Donnell, Merry Christmas.
00:50:49.500 O'Donnell, Merry Christmas.
00:50:50.500 O'Donnell, Merry Christmas.
00:51:19.500 Merry Christmas.
00:51:20.500 Merry Christmas.
00:51:31.480 radiance, Merry Christmas.
00:51:33.460 Merry Christmas.
00:51:43.960 Merry Christmas.
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