Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River

Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River

The battle that decided the outcome of the Korean War, only to be obscured by the Battle of Chosin Reservoir that happened two days later. This got to be the most challenging project I have done so far, given that almost all of UN records were lost during the battle, plus the "bug out" myth that hides the full story of the US Eighth Army. Anyway, please review for content, POV, RS, etc for further improvements. Jim101 (talk) 22:39, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Nick-D

This is a very solid article on an important topic. My suggestions for further improvements are:

• The lead is a bit short given the article's length

Will look into that, I'm still a bit hazy on how to write lead.

2x expansion.

• The footnotes need citations

footnote 1 and 4 are just a matter of translation issues between Chinese and English. put citations into the rest through

• The quotes at the start of the sections look a bit gimmicky, and place undue weight on these interpretations

I believe the quote is used to describe how badly the UN miscalculated the number of Chinese before the battle. But since you put it this way, I'll go over my sources and restate the same idea.

Removed for now.

• I would have thought that the Onjong and Unsan battles destroyed the UN forces' left flank, not the right

I believe in all three articles, I stated that the UN right flank collapsed, can you provide me with a passage that gave the opposite ideas?

• The article needs a copy edit - I spotted quite a few typos

Got it, always a problem for me.

• "Chinese reconnaissance teams resorted to sweet musics and dancing to lure the Americans into the open" needs some further explanation - where the Chinese pretending to be civilians, or mad? (or both)

The way the writers put it, a Chinese reconnaissance company first marched into the no mans' land with no disguise and with the Americans watching, few guys started playing flute while the rest danced around the flute players. The suprised G Company then replied by firing at the reconnaissance company, but the Chinese ran before the Americans could inflict any casualties. After a short while, the Chinese mortars and machine guns hit all the American positions that opened fire, and by the morning the G company only has one survivors left. All my PLA studies just stated this is how Chinese conduct reconnaissance - by luring using tricks like this.

Reword it a little bit. Jim101 (talk) 19:47, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

• "By the end of the battle, the Eighth Army was reduced from its original three corps to four divisions and two brigades" is imprecise as the Corps headquarters remained in existance - the issue is the number of divisions lost and put out of action

Will look into the issue. All sources hinted that the US 25th Division were badly mauled, and the US 2nd Division and the ROK II Corps were completely destoryed. But the problem is that the UN records are very fragmented for this battle, plus South Koreans did not report their casualty numbers. It requires additional research to confirm this hint.

Clarfied which UN formations were out of action in the aftermath of the battle. Jim101 (talk) 20:06, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

• None of the see also links appears all that relevant to this article as they cover much larger topics. Nick-D (talk) 09:46, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Removed

Thanks for the feedback. Jim101 (talk) 16:38, 6 February 2010 (UTC)