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A Marine Division in Nightmare Alley is at once a personal memoir and an excellent piece of military reportage. Enlisting in the United States Marine Corps in 1950, the author, a youth of 17 at the time, describes vividly his 'boot training' at Parris Island, his hardening-up process at Camp Pendleton, California, and his transfer to Korea during the critical summer months of 1950 when the American troops were still tied down to the defense perimeter around the port of Pusan. Assigned to an artillery unit of the 11th Marines, PFC Campigno helped to mop up after the infantry during the famous Inchon Landing and its subsequent developments. With the swiftness, clarity and immediacy of the camera eye, the author describes in moving, intensely written prose the various incidents during the drive to the Yalu River in the fall of 1950 before the Chinese counter-attack. When the Chinese hordes finally swept down over the river, the Marines were caught in a deadly trap and had to spend harrowing days - in the face of cruel winter weather - fighting their way back to the seaport of Hungnam and safety.This highly concentrated book seethes with excitement and highly tensioned drama. No one reading the author's descriptions of the Red Chinese onslaught in the region of Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri- those surprise attacks which the Marines referred to as 'Nightmare Alley' - will ever forget them. Few books contain battle scenes - such as the long-drawn battle fought in the blinding fury of a sub-zero blizzard in the desolate mountains of Korea - that bristle so with authenticity and raw realism. Filled with the spirit of 'gung-ho' - that Chinese catch-all phrase for togetherness and teamwork, Anthony Campigno, extolling the tenacity and courage of his fellow Marines, brings sharply to life and recaptures the horror and heroism that took place on the strange plains and perilous mountainsides of faraway Korea in 1950.

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9781906033989

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