March Up Country

Dr. X posts this from Korsun (the website is from Kiddofspeed, the woman who did the virtual tour of Chernobyl):

"There have been very few instances in military history where a force was cut off far from its base of support and yet managed to fight its way to safety. Usually fatigue, lack of supplies, and broken morale mean the end comes quickly. But when the obstacles are overcome and the force (or even a part of it) manages to escape, it becomes the stuff of legend.

"The great American example is the retreat of the U.S. Marines from Chosin Reservoir, knocking out seven Chinese divisions along the way. It is a legend that will not die. In fact, as Bruce McCall might point out, you couldn't kill it with a stick.

"Some of the largest and most incredible examples were during the German retreat on the Eastern Front in World War II, including the near-miraculous escape of the 200,000-man First Panzer Army from the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket in 1944, and the escape of 25,000 troops in the desperate Battle of Halbe in front of Berlin in 1945.

"Mao's Long March is another example, in which an Army managed to break out, maintain coherence, and travel several thousand miles without utterly dissolving.

"But I did not know until tonight about the first one (at least the first one in the written record). In 401 B.C., a force of 10,000 Greek mercenaries found themselves stranded 1,000 miles from home after the Battle of Cunaxa. Fortunately for them, Socrates's incredibly long-winded student Xenophon was on hand to help lead their fighting retreat, get them to the boats in Trapezus, and write his account of it - March Up Country.

"He writes: 'Separated from Hellas by more than a thousand miles, they had not even a guide to point the way. Impassable rivers lay athwart their homeward route, and hemmed them in. Betrayed even by the Asiatics, at whose side they had marched with Cyrus to the attack, they were left in isolation. Without a single mounted trooper to aid them in pursuit: was it not perfectly plain that if they won a battle, their enemies would escape to a man, but if they were beaten themselves, not one soul of them would survive?'

"Oh, by the way, The Warriors (Director's cut) is out on DVD. Your can read Allen Barra's meditation on it here.

"Tony Scott's re-make has slipped to 2008."