In the short history of our country,
the United States rose to global military dominance.
Yeah, I said it.
Come at me, China.
But the road to the top was paved
with the blood of good men and women.
Looking back, there are some pivotal battles we remember
with solemn pride and a little bit of hoo-rah.
Let's check out 10 of the most intense battles
in United States History.
We'll kick this off with number 10 on our list,
the Battle of Chosin.
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir
was one of the defining battles of the Korean War
and the stuff of legend in the Marine Corps.
In the Fall of 1950,
U.N. Forces under the command of General MacArthur
had almost captured the entirety of North Korea
when they were attacked
by thousands of Chinese Communist soldiers.
The U.S. was forced to retreat,
and by mid-November,
the 1st Marine Division
and elements of the 7th Infantry Division
found themselves outnumbered,
surrounded,
and at risk of annihilation
in the high North Korean Mountains at the Chosin Reservoir.
Their only way out was a fighting retreat back to the coast.
Although, as Chesty Puller put it,
they weren't retreating,
they were "fighting in the opposite direction."
Over the course of the next 17 days,
the Marines and soldiers fought the Chinese,
and bouts of frostbite,
with fierce determination and epic endurance.
They broke through the enemy's encirclement
and even rebuilt a bridge the Chinese destroyed
using prebuilt bridge sections
dropped by the U.S. Air Force.
By the end of the battle,
the U.S. Marines suffered 836 dead
and roughly 10,000 wounded.
The Army had 2,000 dead and 1,000 wounded.
The Chinese had the most catastrophic losses.
Six out of their ten divisions were wiped out
and only one would ever see combat again.
Although exact numbers are unknown,
historians estimate that anywhere between 30,000
and 80,000 Chinese were killed.
Although technically a loss for the Marines,
the Battle of Chosin Reservoir lives on in memory
as an example of the Marine fighting spirit
and the ability to find strength
even when the odds are stacked against them.
Number nine, the Battle of Antietam.
A year and a half into the Civil War,
President Abraham Lincoln needed a Union victory.
He finalized the Emancipation Proclamation
during the summer,
but his cabinet feared it would be too difficult to enforce
after a string of northern losses,
including the Second Battle of Bull Run.
Lincoln charged Major General George B. McClellan
with the defense of Washington D.C.
against Confederate General Robert E. Lee's
first invasion of the North.
Earlier in the month,
Lee divided his men,
sending General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
to capture Harper's Ferry.
Following Jackson's success,
Lee decided to make a stand in Maryland at Antietam Creek.
After two days of posturing,
fighting began early in the morning on September 17, 1862
and lasted well past sundown,
with staggering casualties on both sides
and no ground gained.
The next day, both armies gathered their dead and wounded,
and Lee retreated south.
It was the bloodiest one day battle in American history,
with 23,000 casualties from both sides,
and nearly 4,000 dead.
Sticking with the Civil War,
let's move on to number eight,
the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg
was not only the largest battle of the Civil War,
it remains the largest battle ever fought in North America.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee had just won
a decisive victory against Union General
George Meade's Army of the Potomac in Virginia.
Wanting to capitalize on the recent victory,
Lee led his troops on a second invasion
into the Northern states
to defeat the Union on their own soil
and hopefully gain recognition
of the confederacy by European countries.
General Meade's Army of the Potomac pursued
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
and the two forces met near Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.
The Confederates outnumbered the Yankees
at roughly 30,000 to 18,000.
By the end of the first day,
the Yankees were forced to retreat through town
to Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill.
By then, both sides had gained reinforcements.
Meade now had roughly 94,000 soldiers
in a fish hook formation,
allowing him to successfully move troops
from one front to another.
Lee, meanwhile,
had roughly 72,000 soldiers wrapped around that fish hook.
The Confederates attacked first
but at the end of the second day,
the Union defense lines held strong.
On the 3rd day,
Lee tried an aggressive attack to crush the federals.
He sent General Pickett with approximately 12,500 men
to crush the Union Army with a direct charge.
It turned out to be one of Lee's most ill-fated decisions.
50% of Pickett's men were wounded or killed,
and the rest of his troops were forced to retreat.
On July 4th,
Lee and his men waited for the Yankees to attack,
but they didn't.
That night, the Northern Army of Virginia
began its retreat back to the South.
His train of wounded men stretched 14 miles long.
Lee's greatest opportunity became his greatest failure
and his hopes of European recognition for the Confederacy,
and a quick end to the war,
were dashed.
Casualties were high on both sides.
The Union suffered around 23,000 casualties
while the South suffered 28,000,
more than a third of Lee's army.
The battle was the deadliest in the Civil War
and prompted Lincoln's iconic Gettysburg address
four and a half months later
at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery.
Although the fighting continued for nearly two more years,
Gettysburg was an irrevocable turning point in the war
in the Union's favor.
Number seven, Hue City during the Vietnam War.
The North Vietnamese captured
the venerated capital city of Hue
as part of the Tet offensive,
a coordinated series of attacks on over 100 American
and South Vietnamese positions countrywide.
The battle to regain Hue began in February 1968
and lasted nearly a month,
as Marines ferociously drove North Vietnamese
and Communist Viet Cong forces from the city.
The Perfume River divided the city of Hue in two.
To the north was the Citadel,
a three-square mile fortress
surrounded by walls 30 feet high
and up to 40 feet thick,
with a moat on three sides
and the river on the 4th.
To the south, the smaller and more modern section of Hue
was connected to the Citadel by a bridge.
U.S. Marines and soldiers were tasked with clearing out
the entrenched enemy in the southern portion of the city,
while the Army of the Republic of Vietnam,
or ARVN,
would clear out the Northern portion and the citadel.
Untrained for urban combat,
U.S. battalions had to come up
with tactics and techniques on the spot
while facing a brutal enemy.
The process was methodical,
time-consuming,
and casualty heavy.
They went from house to house
and room to room to gain ground.
Speed, surprise,
and shock were essential to achieve victory.
After clearing the south side,
U.S. battalions broke into the Citadel from the bridge
to assist ARVN troops.
Finally, on February 24th,
the South Vietnamese flag flew over the citadel.
On March 2nd, the longest sustained infantry battle
the war had seen to that point
was officially declared over.
Casualties were high on both sides.
The U.S. suffered 216 dead,
1,364 wounded.
South Vietnamese losses totaled 384 dead,
with 1,830 wounded,
and thousands of civilians
were caught in the the cross-fire or murdered.
The North Vietnamese casualties included 5,000 dead
and countless more wounded.
Virtually all of Hue was destroyed,
leaving roughly 100,000 homeless.
While technically a win for the U.S. and South Vietnamese,
the news coverage of the event
shocked the American population
and broke their faith in the war.
U.S. troops would not experience
that intensity of urban fighting again
for another 36 years,
until the second battle of Fallujah,
which is number six on our list.
The Second Battle of Fallujah was the bloodiest battle
American troops fought in the entire Iraq conflict
and the deadliest battle for the Marine Corps
since Hue City in 1968.
From November through December 2004,
a joint American, British, and Iraqi-government offensive
fought to clear the insurgents
from their Anbar Province stronghold.
An estimated 4,000 enemy combatants
were in the city when the fighting began.
It's even suspected
that al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
held his headquarters there.
They fortified their defenses before the attack,
preparing spider holes, traps, and concealed IEDs
throughout the town.
They created propane bombs hidden in buildings,
cut off access to escape routes and roofs,
and designed fields of fire
where they believed coalition forces would maneuver.
Nearly 70% of the civilian population fled the city,
reducing civilian casualties
and allowing coalition forces to launch their assault.
Army, Marine, and Iraqi forces attacked with an air barrage,
followed by an insertion of Marines and Navy Seabees,
who bulldozed obstacles.
The worst of the fighting continued for the first week,
but insurgents resisted throughout the six-week campaign.
By the end of December,
82 U.S. troops were killed,
with another 600 wounded.
British and Iraqi forces sustained 12 killed,
with another 53 wounded.
Over 2,000 insurgents were killed,
while another 1200 were captured.
Keeping with Post-9/11,
let's talk about Afghanistan.
Specifically, number five on our list,
the Battle of Sangin.
The Battle of Sangin was one of the deadliest campaigns
in Operation Enduring Freedom.
The Sangin River Valley was a Taliban stronghold
and was considered the center of opium production.
In 2010, United States Marines
replaced the British forces in Sangin
and initiated a deadly campaign
to clear out the insurgent presence in the region.
The counterinsurgency lasted for four years,
and during this time Marines sustained casualties
at some of the highest rates seen
during the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan.
IEDs peppered the landscape,
killing or maiming hundreds.
During the height of the fighting,
there was daily contact with the enemy
just meters outside allied FOBs.
In October 2010,
3rd Battalion 5th Marines began
a 7-month tour that would kill dozens of them in action
and injure hundreds more,
with at least 34 of them becoming
single, double, or triple amputees.
But the "Dark Horse" Marines made progress
extending their security perimeter
and clearing Highway 611,
which allowed for the transportation
and operation of future units.
By 2012, Sangin was transformed
from a battlefield into a thriving rural town,
but the price was over 100 British and American lives lost
and hundreds more wounded.
The Taliban never fully released their hold on Sangin,
and today, the area remains in contention.
Number four on our list
is the only air-to-air fight we'll cover.
It's decidedly less deadly than any other battle here,
but the tactics and implications merit a discussion.
So, let's talk about Operation Bolo,
the biggest air battle in the Vietnam War
and one of the most successful ambush actions
in military history.
In the last months of 1966,
the North Vietnamese Army's MiG-21 Fishbed
had become more active and successful at intercepting
the F-105 Thunderchief formations
of the United States Air Force.
The F-105 "Thuds" were super-sonic fighter-bombers
with the mission
of destroying communist air defense systems.
They did this in the role of the Wild Weasels,
a group that would fly slow
and low enough to bait the communist surface-to-air systems
into targeting them,
thus giving away the enemy position
and allowing the Wild Weasels to attack and destroy.
But with the MiG-21 added to the fight,
the Thuds were falling vulnerable to air-to-air attacks.
The U.S. Air Force decided
they needed to neutralize the MiG threat.
Air Force legend and World War II ace,
Colonel Robin Olds,
designed a gutsy plan to accomplish this.
Known as Operation Bolo,
the mission was to lure the enemy MiGs into battle
by hiding supersonic F-4C jets among the slower
and less-maneuverable Thud formations.
On January 2nd, 1967,
Olds and his formation of phantoms
took to the cloudy skies to fly the F-105 bomb run.
They kept to the F-105 speed
and flew in the F-105 formation.
The NVA took the bait and engaged.
Popping up from the clouds,
the Fishbeds attacked in pairs.
Olds and his formation began a legendary dogfight,
where US forces exploited their tactical
and technical advantage over the enemy.
Within 13 minutes,
seven MiGs were destroyed,
roughly half the NVA Mig -21 fleet.
The Americans hauled ass back to Thailand
with zero casualties.
In the next week,
similar missions took out more communist aircraft.
As a result,
the North Vietnamese were forced
to ground their aircraft for several months
as they re-trained their pilots
and sought new air defense tactics.
Colonel Olds remains the only U.S. Air Force ace
with victories in both World War II and Vietnam.
To illustrate how terrible
it can be when our birds are shot down,
number three on our list is Mogadishu.
On December 9, 1992,
1,800 United States Marines arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia
to help affect peace in the war-torn country.
As part of Operation Restore Hope,
the Marines supported
international aid workers in the country
for humanitarian aid operations,
including food and supply distribution.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton reduced the U.S. presence
as the United Nations
formally assumed responsibility for operations.
In June, however, Pakistani UN peacekeepers were ambushed
by militias loyal to Somali warlord
General Mohammad Farrah Aidid,
and 24 UN soldiers from Pakistan were killed.
In response, the UN authorized the arrest of Aidid,
and President Clinton dispatched 160 Army Rangers
and Delta Force operators
on a mission to capture the warlord
and other leaders of his militia.
The operation went disastrously wrong.
The first Black Hawk was struck by an RPG,
killing the pilot and co- pilot in the crash,
and injuring five more passengers,
including one who would die later from his wounds.
A rescue mission retrieved the rest of the survivors,
but then the second Black Hawk was struck,
killing three in the crash.
Pilot Mike Durant survived,
but his back and leg were broken
and he was taken prisoner.
Two Delta Force operators,
Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart,
were killed attempting to rescue Durant,
who was held prisoner for 11 days
until his release was secured
through diplomatic negotiations.
Gordon and Shughart would be posthumously awarded
the Medal of Honor for their actions.
President Bill Clinton immediately ordered
the withdrawal of American troops from Somalia,
and other U.N. countries followed suit,
leaving the region unstable
and without a functioning government.
Moving on, let's talk about World War Two,
a conflict where military fatalities
were estimated between 50 and 80 million.
Number two on our list is Iwo Jima.
In the final stretch of World War II,
the allies sought to gain control
of strategic islands in the Pacific.
Iwo Jima was a barren Pacific Island
located roughly 660 miles from Japan,
making it an ideal forward-deployed location
for the Allies and Axis powers alike.
On February 19, 1945,
after three days of naval and aerial bombardments
which launched over 6,800 tons of bombs and 22,000 shells,
the first wave of United States Marines stormed
Iwo Jima's volcanic shores.
Over 21,000 Japanese were there to greet them,
heavily entrenched in a complex network
of underground tunnels and artillery positions.
What followed was some of the most violent fighting
of the Pacific in World War Two,
due in large part to the determination
of the Japanese to die before they would surrender.
The Japanese burned any vegetation
that might have provided the Marines with cover,
then launched artillery fire
at the Marines' exposed locations.
Naval Seabees got to work on U-S artillery positions,
forward command posts,
and field hospitals,
all while holding their own in the fight.
The iconic raising of the American Flag over Mount Suribachi
took place four days into the battle,
but the fighting continued for a month.
Marines used artillery
and flamethrowers to destroy enemy defenses,
and the final battle on March 26th
included a massive attack against the Americans
that ultimately came down to hand-to-hand combat.
In the end,
nearly all of the Japanese defenders were killed,
except for a couple hundred prisoners.
6,000 Americans died helping to take the island,
with 17,000 more wounded.
Finally, number one,
ranked for its intensity, carnage, and outcome.
D-Day.
D-Day was the largest air, land,
and sea operation undertaken to date
and a logistics marvel.
One of the most important battles in World War II,
it turned the tide of the conflict in the Allies' favor
and eventually led to their victory in Europe.
The original invasion date was set for May,
but due to poor weather conditions
it was postponed until June.
Despite the continued poor weather,
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces,
General Eisenhower,
gave the order to attack.
D-Day would commence on June 6, 1944.
On Eisenhower's orders,
roughly 176,000 troops embarked
on their journey from England to France
on 6,000 landing craft, ships, and other vessels.
Just before midnight,
airborne troops parachuted into occupied France,
surprising the Germans.
Air and naval bombardments were underway
to weaken the German defenses
before the main invasion began.
At 6:30 a.m., land insertions struck across five sectors
in a 60 mile coastal stretch of Normandy.
British and Canadian troops overcame light opposition
to capture Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches,
as did the Americans at Utah.
But the American G.I.'s at Omaha faced a tough fight.
The aerial and naval bombardment had done little
to diminish the heavily fortified German defenses,
both on the shore
and on the cliffs above the beaches.
Allied amphibious tanks were launched too far from shore
and only 2 out of 29 made it to the beach.
Many soldiers drowned in the waves,
dragged down by the weight of their rucksacks
and many more were mowed down by the constant German fire.
Small groups of Americans managed
to make it across the beach
and traverse up the cliffs.
Allied casualties on June 6 have been estimated
at 10,000 killed, wounded, and missing in action,
consisting of 6,600 Americans,
2,700 British,
and 946 Canadians.
By the end of the day,
155,000 Allied troops successfully stormed
and held Normandy's beaches.
By August 21st, the allies had successfully landed
over two million men in Northern France
and suffered 226,386 casualties.
German losses included over 240,000 casualties
and 200,000 captured.
Between 13,000 and 20,000 French civilians died,
and many more were seriously wounded.
The success of the invasion
was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.
It forced the Germans to fight a two-front war
with the Soviets on the East
and U.S., British, and Canadian forces on the west.
The Nazi Third Reich would fall the following May.
So, join in this conversation
and let us know
which battles you think should make our next list.
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