Leadership in the Crucible: The Korean War Battles of Twin Tunnels and Chipyong-ni
By: Kenneth E. Hamburger / Narrated By: Bill Nevitt
Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
Forgotten battles in a forgotten war
So here I am again with yet something else that I never learned in high school—the Korean War. It was never touched upon, never discussed, never even mentioned in ANY history class I had. So anything I know, I learned through audiobooks. Inchon? Got it. Chosin? Got that too.
But Leadership in the Crucible brought two battles I’ve, of COURSE, never heard of: Twin Tunnels and Chipyong-ni. And I’m so grateful. Because men suffered and died all through a war that should be heard of, known.
It’s a scholarly work, published in book form for the Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series, so it’s heavy on the study of just how leadership worked in those battles and, more largely, in the war as a whole. Kenneth E. Hamburger mostly chronicles Paul Freeman’s leadership style and history—Freeman being the benevolent father figure who cares about you, paired with other officers who were of the big brother style—discipline and comeuppance. Through skirmishes and engagements, qualities are judged; through the failings of other officers, those who didn’t care about the men, we see how leadership does NOT work.
And though this is a detached look, never offering opinions, Leadership in the Crucible manages to be a humane work also. Hamburger assesses the gear the men had to work with, and we see a lot of exhaustion, a lot of cold and hunger. How can you NOT feel for men who were given layers to work with rather than warmer parkas? He documents the fighting power, with jets that flew too high and wound up napalming Friendlies, with smaller, ancient aircraft that flew low to the ground to get a better view of terrain and spots with the enemy, so low, as in: 15-ft. above the ground, exposing themselves to enemy fire.
I’ve grown quite fond of Bill Nevitt as a narrator of the more scholarly works of history (Victory Fever on Guadalcanal). And while I can’t say his pronunciations of battle and geographical names is correct (Seeing as I neither speak Korean, nor can I say I know much…), he read straight through with nary a stumble. I think I’m looking forward to checking out some of his other works on older military history.
This is a jolly decent accounting of battles and of men. And it certainly has inspired in me a longing to check out the more comprehensive works on the Korean War as a whole.
Okay: There’s T.R. Fehrenbach, Max Hastings, Halberstam, and even Bruce Cumings. Which to choose, which to choose! Any suggestions?
I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my request for a fair and honest review.
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