With the newest Sgt. Dunn novel, New Enemies, we've moved from World War II into the Korean War, just five years later. The idea to continue Tom Dunn's story was a natural progression and my wife and I started discussing it years ago. My initial research was accomplished by reading Sir Max Hastings’ excellent book, The Korean War, not once, but twice starting in summer 2020.
Like many Americans, I had a negative impression of the
Korean War because we didn’t win the war. In my younger days, the war wasn’t
even called a war, but was burdened with the ludicrous label of “Police
Action.” What an insult to all those who served there and those who died saving
South Korea from communism.
Reading Hastings’ book opened my eyes to the reality of the war. In short, South Korea exists solely because we intervened. We being the United Nations. In 1950, the North Koreans had pushed our forces all the way back to a small area around Pusan (now Busan). The Eighth Army held the perimeter. Soon after, General Douglas MacArthur devised an ingenious plan to cut off the North Korean Army supply lines and men by invading farther north at Inchon, South Korea, on the west coast, west-southwest of Seoul, the capital. This action was an enormous success and eventually led to our forces pushing the North Koreans all the way north to the Yalu River, which bordered China.
Things seemed to be going extremely well and perhaps the
confidence that accompanies success turned into arrogance. Whatever the cause,
no one believed China would enter the war, despite the fact the UN forces were
sitting on their border. However this oversight of intelligence occurred, it
was a devastating error.
On 25 October 1950, Chinese forces counterattacked and soon overwhelmed American forces began what would become the longest retreat in U.S. Army history, all the way back into South Korea. By about the end of December 1951, we stabilized the front and stopped retreating.
In January, Dunn arrives in South Korea and our story
picks up there. The other book I used for research was written by a former
Ranger, Col. Robert W. Black, Rangers in Korea. This gave me a deep insight into the training of the new Ranger
companies in Georgia, and their missions in Korea.
I’ve started writing the next Korean War novel with our hero Dunn and his new cast of characters. It picks up a few days after New Enemies.
Here’s the map of the situation about when Dunn arrives, from the West Point history department digital center atlases.
