On Christmas Day, January 20, 1846, General George W. H. J.W. Washington set out on a mission to turn the tide of battle against the British at Trenton, New Jersey. But the odds were stacked against him.
00:06:12.900The first effort – that effort with the Glover, they cross.
00:06:16.520They're about 12 miles north of Trenton.
00:06:20.940And then they have to somehow stealthily get to Trenton without Johan Rawl knowing that they're coming.
00:06:28.040And it's here that there's another really extraordinary coincidence that occurs.
00:06:34.220It's in the middle of the night that Washington comes across several company of riflemen that are on the other side.
00:06:43.200And he's absolutely dumbfounded that these men are there.
00:06:47.300And they're there because they make – according to most theories, they make a revenge attack because they lost some men on an earlier raid.
00:06:56.980They should have never been there under Adam Stevens' command.
00:07:01.060And they make the raid, and they suddenly find Washington's men.
00:07:07.060Many people believe that in this raging snowstorm, that it's that militia – those militia companies, those riflemen that Johan Rawl believed was the attack.
00:07:19.020And then they basically are dispersed by the Hessian soldiers.
00:07:24.620And it's that belief that they already overcame the attack and that they also – nobody would attack in the middle of the Nor'easter.
00:07:34.960And it's this that screens Washington as he trudges down the 12 miles.
00:07:40.080And at daybreak or a little bit after, they attack Trenton.
00:07:44.040And they surprise Johan Rawl, who then puts up really a tough fight.
00:07:48.420They move a number of guns in place, and he rallies his men.
00:07:54.660But in this battle, a number of prongs of Washington's main force break out.
00:08:02.460And John – the one force under Glover is able to seize the Asset Peak Creek, the Vidal Creek, which – bridge that would allow Johan Rawl to escape.
00:08:12.760Instead of a situation where it's a typical 18th century battle where they fight, and then if one side feels that they have an advantage, they will retreat.
00:08:22.620Johan Rawl did not have an opportunity to retreat because he also receives a rifleman's bullet to his – that mortally wounds him.
00:08:35.160And his escape route is basically – is snuffed out by the Marbleheaders, and it's an overwhelming victory for Washington.
00:09:17.320But what happens is one of those other forces under John Cadwallader – these are the Philadelphia Associators.
00:09:23.660These are a militia group in Pennsylvania.
00:09:25.940They cross without orders because they still think that they're supposed to attack Trenton.
00:09:31.380And now what happens is there's a force of about 2,000 militiamen on the other side, and the local militia in New Jersey uprise because of the great victory at Trenton.
00:09:44.020And Washington is faced with the decision.
00:09:46.140Does he order Cadwallader back, or does he reinforce him?
00:09:49.160And he reinforces him at Trenton, which a week later sets up the showdown for the second battle of Trenton or the Battle of S&P Creek.
00:09:58.780And it's another situation, Steve, where they hold a bridge at all costs.
00:10:03.940I tell the story in Washington's Immortals and the Indispensables.
00:10:07.120It's one of the great untold stories of the American Revolution.
00:10:10.140If they break through and they seize the bridge, they surround the army, the Revolutionary War is over for all intents and purposes.
00:10:19.280But they hold the ground, and then Washington rolls the iron dice once again and attacks Princeton and overwhelms the garrison there.
00:10:30.420Part of the 10 crucial days that will change world history forever and the momentum of the Revolutionary War.
00:10:36.460It started with just the boldest gamble of all.
00:10:42.340When the time we got left, I want to start in Annapolis about the thinking on Washington change dramatically, but also in London and also in the British Army, because they thought we were pretty hapless.
00:10:53.420And then they saw this incredibly, not just bold initiative, but the combat, really tenacity of the troops.
00:12:46.260And it's – they want to consolidate their gains and just basically hopefully wear down the Americans when in fact it's the Americans that are wearing down the great empire.
00:13:00.720Where the Hessians – lore has it that the Hessians, as Germans, are wont to do on Christmas, were pretty under the weather with grog, with adult beverages.
00:13:33.520They're armed to the – as much as they can be.
00:13:37.060And they've just been – they're in the ready, if you will.
00:13:41.060But they've been worn down by all these little raids that have taken place.
00:13:44.560And they're constantly going out and chasing the Americans.
00:13:48.460So there's a little bit of a lag that occurs because they think that the militia that attacked earlier may have been the main effort that they were – that they – the British intelligence had predicted would occur.
00:14:02.600And then also the snowstorm itself, I think, quells their fears of an American attack, thinking almost nobody would attack in this massive snowstorm.
00:15:27.240They sell a write-off to debt to clear their books.
00:15:29.860That means if you have credit card debt and unpaid bills, lenders may be more open to negotiating and settling your account before you're in.
00:15:39.200That means right now, and I mean right now, you may actually have leverage.
00:15:45.060And Done With Debt knows how to use this to your advantage.
00:15:48.720They monitor lender trends and understand the year-end pressure on creditors.
00:15:52.700They use that timing to negotiate hard on your behalf.
00:15:57.760Now's the time to get out from under crushing debt and interest payments without bankruptcy or taking on new loans.
00:16:05.280Done With Debt goes to work for you month one with one clear goal, to reduce your total debt and leave you with more money every month.
00:16:14.540Get started now, because your leverage may disappear at the end of the year.
00:16:21.600Chat with a Done With Debt specialist at donewithdebt.com.
00:16:38.660The Combat History of Christmas, and we've got Patrick K. O'Donnell with us.
00:16:44.840Patrick, first off, real quickly, the first two books you find out about the Revolution, Washington and the Immortals, about this incredible regiment from Maryland, and the Indispensables.
00:18:15.280The main story on that is the Jesse Scouts, or Lincoln Special Forces, who hunted the South's most dangerous men, and that would be John Singleton, Mosby, and the Confederate Secret Service.
00:18:27.800And it's the story of those three units really converging.
00:18:32.560And the piece that I wrote at Breitbart is about the death of Blazer Scouts, which occurs in a forgotten field in Meyerstown, West Virginia, which is right along the Potomac near the Virginia border.
00:18:45.960And it's here that these forces clashed.
00:18:50.120And the main, the first Blazer Scouts, or the Jesse Scouts, it's an element of the Jesse Scouts, they formed the first hunter-killer teams to go after Mosby.
00:19:01.400And these guys were total badasses that were very, very effective as a partisan hunters.
00:19:07.880But they were modern in the sense that they weren't using like a blowtorch.
00:19:12.420They were using intelligence to gather, you know, tactical intelligence to go after their partisans where they needed to go after them.
00:19:19.740And they were going after Mosby with the latest weapons, the Spencer repeating carbine, for instance, and rifle.
00:19:27.200But at Meyerstown, at a forgotten field, farmer's field, they clash.
00:19:31.360And Mosby's got three companies, and they basically lure them into a trap.
00:19:38.560And as Mosby's men feign a retreat off the field, Blazer's men who are about to dismount are about to then remount their horses and then pursue.
00:19:51.040And at that point, a massive, they are enveloped by Mosby's men, and they are in a open field, which is a, it's a giant gun battle on horseback in this forgotten field in Meyerstown in West Virginia.
00:20:07.300And it's one of the great untold stories of the Civil War.
00:20:10.180This field, for instance, is now going to be a solar panel farm.
00:20:14.980They've never done an archaeological survey.
00:20:19.900Pretty much one of the only places it's ever been written about is the Unvanquished.
00:20:24.280But it's here that the leader of Blazer's scouts is running for his life along with these Jesse scouts.
00:20:32.180Many of these guys are dressed in Confederate uniforms, and they are pursued in a massive horse race by about 30 or 40 of Mosby's men on horseback with their old pistols that bring them, eventually capture Blazer.
00:20:46.120And what's important about the story is that the man that captures Blazer, one of them, is Lewis Powell, who is John Booth, John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator.
00:20:57.900And what makes this important is that he is a member of the Confederate Secret Service.
00:21:03.860And the Unvanquished puts together a lot of, connects many, many dots on the assassination and the important thing being the kidnapping of the president.
00:21:18.040The kidnapping, the kidnapping that didn't take place, they tried.
00:21:21.680Jesse scouts is named after one of my favorite characters in American history, Jesse Benton Fremont, who was General Fremont's, the great pathfinder, his wife, who was a hammer, right?
00:21:37.340One of the greatest women in American history.
00:21:39.260Talk to me about the Christmas episode.
00:21:42.580Well, I mean, in a sense that there are multiple things that take place, the first being in 1862, which I bring into focus in the Unvanquished, is the Great Battle of Fredericksburg, Steve, which is a tremendous tragedy.
00:22:03.500That, you know, they're hoping to end the war by Christmas and seize Richmond.
00:22:10.320And, you know, Burnside, General Burnside, who has a bridge named after him in Antietam because it was a bloody affair there, has one of the most, you know, brutal and devastating battles of the American Civil War.
00:22:23.940Well, hang on. We talked about Washington in the previous, that the Christmas Day of Trenton came about because he was under such pressure.
00:22:33.660He had to think of something outside the box and said, let's attack them on Christmas night when they're all going to be drunk and eating, you know, and celebrating Christmas.
00:22:40.820These German, you know, Christians will be taking the day off.
00:22:46.240We got attacked. The same thing happened really in Fredericksburg in that Antietam, although it was a draw, Lincoln was under pressure, like, dude, you are, this thing is a disaster.
00:22:58.300This is a fiasco. The Southern Army is winning the Times, the Illustrated Times of London.
00:23:03.180Every time you pick up the, it's like the Daily Mail today, right, on the Internet.
00:23:07.740You pick up a thing, it's got a picture of Stonewall Jackson or Robert E. Lee on the cover.
00:23:12.280All the European capitals are going, hey, this Confederate Army is probably, pound for pound, the best army we've ever seen.
00:23:19.320Lincoln is under tremendous pressure by the governors, by Congress, by everybody who said, you've got to start booking some wins here, right?
00:23:26.820And so that's why they do something that everybody argues against.
00:23:30.120You cannot go down and leave Washington on a direct line to Richmond as entrenched as the Confederate Army is with the type of leaders they have and try to cross a river at Fredericksburg and try to beat the Confederate Army.
00:23:44.980I mean, it's a suicide attack, is it not?
00:23:46.960Well, the biggest problem was they sort of telegraph where they're going to go, and oh, by the way, the pontoons that they need to use to span the Rappahannock, they don't show up for eight to ten days.
00:24:00.220And then they dither away until December 11th, where they finally decide to put the pontoons together and cross, and then Confederate sharp shooters and snipers are pelting them.
00:24:14.380They delay them again, and it's not until really the 13th of December that they make the attack.
00:24:20.520Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, they have time to build up their defenses, and they have really one of the greatest defenses in the Civil War, which is behind a stone wall on a sunken road at Mary's Heights, which, oh, by the way, is really just a diversionary attack.
00:24:42.760The main effort being at a place called Prospect Hill, which is five miles down the line.
00:24:47.620But it's an absolute fiasco, especially the diversionary attack, which consumes about 16 brigades.
00:24:58.26030,000 men attempt to storm the stone wall and are basically annihilated in one way or another by the rifled musket, which can now reach out and touch you, and there's no cover at all before that stone wall.
00:25:17.120In fact, the Confederate Army, I mean, even members of the Confederate Army, when the Irish Brigade and others attacked over that open field, were saying, this is not even war.
00:25:38.800One of the reasons it's not talked about is that Lincoln and his team did not want the northern media to cover it because it was the type of thing that people would throw in the towel right after that.
00:25:51.000I mean, and then it's just, it's a victory for the, I mean, the south holds, they have a, they do it on the cheap effectively in the sense that anything that went up against that stone wall was like eight to one odds that, you know, the men that were valiantly storming that wall, but they were, they were slaughtered, as you mentioned, in front of that field, which has no ground.
00:26:12.700There's a, there's a small swale where many of the men were hunkered down behind, but there's really very little cover.
00:26:21.660There are like, there's, there's Confederate artillery atop the hill itself that are firing down upon them, as well as the rifled muskets from behind the stone wall.
00:26:30.940Many of the, if you read the memoirs of the, of the, the leaders of the Union Army, and I'm talking about not the senior leaders, but the, the combat leaders, the colonels, the majors, the captains after the war, that was one of the hardest nights after that attack, because they said the, the, it felt like the earth was moaning.
00:26:51.320There were so many wounded soldiers out there, so bitter cold, uh, they couldn't go get them, uh, that it was just a horrible night to hear the agony of these soldiers before they died.
00:27:00.920And it left, it really burnt into the soul of the Union Army, uh, exactly what a catastrophe this was.
00:27:07.920It was, it was a memory that just seared into the, the soul of the Union Army.
00:27:11.780It looked like a total, just waste of manpower.
00:27:13.660Like you said, up near that stone wall, I think it was eight to one casualty ratio.
00:27:18.340But it shows you, once again, the, um, during some of the, the holiest times of our, you know, Christian calendar, and during the times of, uh, when people think of families, we had some of the most horrible, horrific, uh, combat.
00:27:32.060We're going to get in, uh, you've got, uh, in your book, Unvanquished.
00:27:35.900I can't recommend enough, uh, the Jesse Scouts, this whole story of, uh, really, America's real, the beginning of the special forces of the United States.
00:27:45.360And for, for, for folks like, if you're like me from the South and you've read about Mosby's Rangers, uh, in, uh, Colonel John Mosby, this is a different take on things.
00:27:55.040It's really, uh, very, very enlightening.
00:27:56.740The Unvanquished from Patrick K. O'Donnell.
00:27:59.440Uh, the Battle of the Bulge and Chosun Reservoir.
00:28:03.160I mean, think about the horrible fighting that's gone over the Christmas season.
00:28:06.480Next, we're going to go to World War II and the Korean War with Patrick K. O'Donnell.
00:28:47.680We're now going to go to the 20th century.
00:28:50.280Shows you the spans of pretty big part of time.
00:28:53.52020th century, we're going to go to, uh, which really happened six years apart, which I don't think people make that much connections between the Battle of the Bulge and Chosun Reservoir.
00:29:03.500Uh, World War II, uh, towards the last year of World War II and the first year of the Korean conflict.
00:29:10.280Uh, let's go first off to the Battle of the Bulge.
00:29:57.320And they have to hold the hill against all odds for three days, which they do.
00:30:01.080One reason I want people, one reason I want people, I want people to, I want people to understand this is that at this time towards, when we're delivering the hammer blows to Germany and we're trying to cross the Rhine and try and get to the heart of Germany, just we're pouring troops in.
00:30:17.780And these troops are very ill-trained.
00:30:22.160I think the biggest surrender wasn't an entire regiment that like surrendered virtually unharmed because just the leadership kind of collapsed.
00:30:29.120Because the intensity of what happened at the bulge and a lot of this was just from green troops that had 90, basically 90 days of kind of some de minimis training.
00:30:38.280And they were just, they were just pouring troops in here right now because it was a slugfest between the Americans and the Germans on the Western Front.
00:30:44.500Well, what's going on here is it's, it's December 1944 and it's, there's a, there's some people to believe that the war can be won by Christmas.
00:31:11.480It's a bold counter-offensive to somehow split the allies.
00:31:16.760And he attacks in the quiet front, which is the Ardennes.
00:31:21.600And this is where in 1940 to attack France, this is where Hitler makes his bold gamble.
00:31:28.140And they go through the Ardennes and they, they split the French army here.
00:31:33.360And it's, he thinks that he, history can repeat itself and they strip many of the finest units, the Waffen SS, paratroopers and others from the Eastern Front.
00:31:43.040And they secretly assemble them in front of the Ardennes force.
00:31:48.920And they, you know, they, they realize that they, they suspect that the allies have cracked some of their codes and they, they insist that all communications have to be done in paper.
00:31:58.940And much of the preparations is as stealthful as possible.
00:32:02.600And then the allies make it a little bit worse because for instance, the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services is stripped from some of these frontline armies.
00:32:14.900And it's December 16th, the morning hours of December 16th, and a massive juggernaut of the German army led by the Waffen SS and the first Panther army basically descends upon the, the sleepy Ardennes.
00:32:32.340And it's here that they have an overwhelming surprise.
00:32:36.520The weather is not cooperating with the allies and it's, it's wintry initially.
00:32:42.560And this grounds many of the, the allies' greatest asset, which is the air power.
00:32:48.520They're able to, the Yabos, they call the Germans, the fighter bombers that can strafe armor columns are basically put on hold because of the weather.
00:32:57.280And the, and the Germans are able to pursue an attack.
00:33:00.900And their goal is to reach the river crossing, the Meuse River, and then push on to Antwerp.
00:33:07.880And then thereby, that's the, that's the goal to divide the allies between the, the British and the Americans.
00:33:13.300And they have stunning initial momentum and many units surrender.
00:33:20.520But then there are small groups of men that hold out and they stop the SS.
00:33:27.060And the, the only real reserve that the allies have of quantity is the 18th, 18th Airborne Corps.
00:33:35.900And it's the airborne, the, the 82nd, the 101st, and then later the 17th Airborne, which will be thrust into this, you know, vortex of battle.
00:33:46.580So, as the, the Waffen-SS is, is quickly advancing towards these bridges, small groups of men like the engineers, combat engineers, mine bridges or destroy, you know, trees to block their advance.
00:34:02.060But they're still moving forward at, at great speed.
00:34:05.660You know, within this battle space is, um, the SS or, uh, specifically special units within the German Armed Forces are disguised as, as Americans, uh, speaking American, changing roadsides, you know, creating mass confusion.
00:34:22.840Um, and it's, it's, it's here that the 82nd finds itself first, they're, they, they move into a place called Warbemont around December, uh, 19th or so.
00:34:34.060And they are, they're quickly moving towards where the SS are trying to cross, uh, several rivers to get towards the Meas River.
00:34:43.480And, um, they're near a place called Trapong.
00:34:46.780And, um, another place, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.
00:34:52.840that, that is just, it's just swarming with SS troops. I mean, one of my favorite stories is
00:34:59.400with the 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment led by Reuben Tucker. And these guys are the guys that
00:35:05.220went after the Nijmegen Bridge, in a bridge too far. They are tasked with, with, with clearing
00:35:12.960out Cheneau, which is a town that is swarming with SS. And they have dismounted, there's armor,
00:35:21.760you know, there's, there's Panther tanks, they have flak guns and all kinds of stuff.
00:35:25.900They're waiting for tank destroyers to attack. These guys say it's too dangerous. They're waiting
00:35:31.740for a, you know, artillery barrage to support the attack. They don't get any of that and they attack
00:35:37.760anyways. And these men take out several of the SS. They slow down the SS advance, which is absolutely
00:35:46.380critical. And then they position themselves in and around this territory. And it's, it's hand-to-hand
00:35:53.100combat with some of Germany's toughest troops. And, um, you know, they eventually, there are massive
00:36:01.280reinforcements that are coming in from the Germans and they are, there's a decision that's made to pull
00:36:07.460back the 82nd by British General Montgomery, who's in charge of the Northern shoulder at this stage
00:36:16.360to shorten the line and to tidy it up, so to speak, which is probably a good decision because
00:36:23.080many of these German units could have surrounded, uh, elements of the 7th, uh, armor division and
00:36:29.940others, uh, as well as the 82nd, uh, which were still holding the line, which are really a critical
00:36:36.140role. And it's at this time, the 101st comes in and they, um, move into position at a place called
00:36:44.400Bastogne, which is a, a crossroads town where multiple, it's called a road octopus because there's
00:36:49.880so many crossroads, critical roads that are, that, you know, that, that span out from it. And, uh, they're
00:36:57.000joined by elements of, uh, tank destroyers and armor. And they, um, they basically have to hold the line
00:37:05.960at Bastogne and after the 82nd basically stabilizes things and they, the Germans realize that they're
00:37:15.220not going to be able to reach the Meuse river. They then focus their attention on, on Bastogne
00:37:21.180itself. And it's the 101st and then many of these other smaller units that make an epic stand.
00:37:27.280And, uh, you know, at this point also, this is the, this is the, this is the, yeah, this is the
00:37:33.100famous one where Patton's Patton's army, the third army comes racing what in 72 hours or 90 hours to
00:37:39.580save the, it's like Fort Apache. They, they, they're at Bastogne and to completely surrounded,
00:37:43.840outnumbered, getting shelled, bombed in Patton's army hurdles across, uh, really, uh, really that,
00:37:50.800that part of, uh, Germany to, to, to relieve the 101st of Bastogne, correct? Correct. And
00:37:57.280uh, I mean, uh, it, it's worth pointing out that paratroopers are always surrounded. So this is not
00:38:05.300anything new for them in many cases. And, um, and they were willing to hold out, but, uh, it, it was
00:38:12.380a welcome sign when, when Patton's troops do break the siege, they were being air supplied, uh, at this
00:38:18.200time. And they were really holding their own too. It's worth noting, uh, along with the other elements
00:38:23.420of tank destroyers in armor and other sort of cats and dogs that were in, uh, Bastogne. They were
00:38:30.100holding these sort of the villages that were around Bastogne. The Germans, the Germans didn't want to
00:38:37.980figure they weren't going to, didn't want to annihilate these guys. So they gave them an
00:38:42.540opportunity to surrender. And I think it was the general that sent back a, uh, a, at least in history,
00:38:48.220it's passed down as saying nuts about an unconditional surrender, but, uh, the lore has it. He might've
00:38:54.560used a more spicy term to inform the Germans that the 101st are going to fight. We're a standard
00:39:00.380fight. I, um, I interviewed hundreds of paratroopers and Rangers that were in as well as their opponents
00:39:08.940too. I'll put that up, point that out. The SS interviewed the SS and German paratroopers,
00:39:13.400but I interviewed general Kennard, who is, uh, Henry Kennard, who was there right next to Anthony
00:39:20.320McAuliffe, who's the assistant division commander who was in charge of the 101st at the time.
00:39:25.640And, um, his response is there was something to the effect that, uh, a word I won't use on the air,
00:39:32.000but the official response was one word nuts. And they send it back to the Germans who are befuddled
00:39:39.620by this because they have an overwhelming force that has surrounded Bastogne. Because what happened
00:39:46.040is as the, you know, SS attack up North collapses, many of those units are then sent down towards
00:39:53.480Bastogne to crush Bastogne. Hitler wants a, uh, a moral victory of, of destroying, uh, Bastogne and
00:40:01.900the 101st in it, and as well as the other units.
00:40:04.220People have to remember that with Normandy and the landing in June of that year,
00:40:10.680there was a huge effort because the American people, people were getting tired of this war
00:40:13.780and the casualties were mounting. There's a big pressure to end the war by Christmas,
00:40:18.460the Christmas of 1944. In fact, if you've seen a bridge too far, that whole, uh, that whole effort
00:40:24.200of Market Garden to take those bridges in, uh, in Holland, uh, and get to the Rhine quickly was all
00:40:30.180targeted to end the war by Christmas. And of course that wasn't going to happen. And you saw the
00:40:34.420Christmas, the Christmas season fighting at Bastogne. People realize that the Germans,
00:40:39.500although they're tied up on the Eastern front and getting bombed every day, that the Wehrmacht had a
00:40:43.720lot of fight left in them, uh, Patrick, people realized this was going to be tough. And of course,
00:40:47.600we finished it in May of the following year, but folks realized that this is going to be tough every day.
00:40:52.460The Battle of the Bulge lasts almost a month, Steve. It, it, it goes well into the second week
00:40:58.760of January and it's one of the bloodiest battles for, for America in World War II. It's, it's a,
00:41:05.880a tremendous 19,000, uh, killed, um, you know, nearly over 85,000 casualties total. It's a,
00:41:15.500it's an incredible battle, um, of, that was very tenacious and ruthless. And then it's also the
00:41:22.120cold, the cold weather. Uh, many of the men are not properly equipped to deal with the cold weather.
00:41:27.860And, and almost all of the veterans I interviewed had frostbite either in their, their, you know,
00:41:33.440their hands or their feet from, from battling in the Battle of the Bulge.
00:41:40.200Amazing. Incredible. Uh, that book again is what I want to make sure people get access to. Give me
00:41:44.900your books on the, uh, that book is, uh, on the Bulge. It's Beyond Valor. It's an oral history of the
00:41:50.420men that I interviewed as well as a bit of a narrative history. It ties all the, the stories
00:41:55.800of the Bulge. And then Dog Company is a band of brothers on Dog Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion,
00:42:01.120the boys of Pointe d'Haw and, uh, their story all the way through the liberation of Europe.
00:42:08.000We're going to put them all up and get them all out. Hang on one second. We're going to come back.
00:42:11.880We've got the Chosin Reservoir to finish up Christmas Day here, or Christmas morning,
00:42:16.560actually, in the war room. Back in a moment.
00:42:38.440Okay. Welcome back. Christmas morning. I want to thank you for being with us on our traditional
00:42:42.860combat history of Christmas done to show the American sacrifice during this, uh, you know,
00:42:48.920most family-oriented, holiest of seasons. Patrick K. O'Donnell, your book, Give Me Tomorrow,
00:42:55.060the Chosin Reservoir, the Marines, and, and Army Elements, but man, is one of the most moving. Of
00:43:00.340all your books, it's the one that I think often sticks with you the longest, just given the suffering.
00:43:06.140And, and honestly, the lack of preparation these troops had, it's just incredible. The lack of
00:43:11.100material, the lack of clothes, the weapons, it's horrific. Talk to me about Christmas 1950
00:43:18.080in the, uh, in the Chosin Reservoir, sir.
00:43:23.220Um, all the books I've ever written have found me. This one is a classic. I got back from Iraq
00:43:28.040and I was alone. I told my family not to show up. I just didn't want to, I had a lot to deal with
00:43:33.860pollution and everything else. And these old men, uh, came up to me and said, well, who are you? And I
00:43:40.060said, who I was a combat historian. He said, we were George company three, one in the Chosin
00:43:45.020Reservoir. And we held a hill against a Chinese regiment of about 2000 men. And this is the company
00:43:51.860of 200. And the next thing I know, they're like, would you like to go to lunch? I said, sure.
00:43:57.660You need to come to our reunion. And I said, no problem. And the next thing I know, I've got
00:44:02.480a book that, uh, give me tomorrow, which is really a band of brothers on the Korean war,
00:44:08.940which is an untold story until this time. It was an epic one. And it's Christmas 1950, Steve. And
00:44:17.620the first Marine division is in near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. It's not far from the
00:44:26.380Chinese border. And they, the Marines know that the Chinese are active and around them. And, um,
00:44:34.960you know, the last weeks of, of around Thanksgiving, the, um, the Chinese army of 120,000 or more
00:44:44.760of Mao Zedong's so-called volunteers, uh, descend upon elements of the first Marine division. And it's,
00:44:53.040it's, it's really one of the greatest stories of the Marine Corps of how the Marine first Marine
00:44:58.660division, um, is surrounded. And as they like to say, they were advancing in a different direction.
00:45:04.620And they basically, in many cases, they really tear up the Chinese forces that overwhelmingly,
00:45:11.680uh, they have all the, uh, odds on their side. I mean, they're in some cases it's a 10 or 20 to one