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Well Rob, I don't really know what to say. My experiences at the Chosin were varied and many. I don't think you wnat to hear about the hordes of Chinese attacking- volumes have already been written about that. The Chinese almost always attacked only at night. We had two men to a foxhole, one slept while the other was on watch' To keep our feet from freezing, the sleeper had his boots off and his feet in the coat and on the stomach of the man on watch. This process did not work well for one of your Marines. The Chinese hit us and he didn't have time to put his boots on, so he spent the entire night fighting in his stocking feet. I later meet him in Yokosuka Naval hospital in Japan, he was in the bed next to me, his feet were blackened up to his ankles. He would snap his toes off like they were potato chips. I was in the hospital with another BRM, a tall skinny, redhead, he was from Norwich at Norfolk- or Norfolk at Norwich, I could never get it right. I had the honor of meeting many of the old 41st Commando at the Chosin Few Reunion in Portland Oregon several years back. The BRM band was also there.
As you know, it was incredibly cold-sometimes 40 below with a fifty mile an hour wind blowingout of Siberia. Our rations were frozen, so we survived on Tootsie Rolls (they could be melted in the mouth). Anti-freeze could not prevent the engines of vehicles from freezing- they had to start the engine every half hour. The traditional method was for Marines to keep a light coat of oil on our weapons, At the Chosin, the oil would freeze and render the weapon inoperable, we found we had to take all the oil of the weapon.
I can truthfully say, that as a United States Marine If I were to fight alongside any other organization, without hesitation, I would choose the British Royal Marines.