My great-uncle was in the army and drove a tank in the 70th Armored Battalion during the war. I’m trying to locate a good history of the war from a combat (especially tank warfare) perspective, or at least more so than the political aspects. His sister told me he came back “shell shocked” and would break out in a sweat around loud noises. Just trying to get a better picture of what he might’ve experienced beyond what he mentioned in interviews. The reading list didn’t come up with anything, unfortunately. Thank you!
I highly recommend “The Last Stand of Fox Company” by Robert Drury & Tom Calvin. It’s the story of a single company (~230 men) of US Marines who survived five days of assaults by Chinese forces in sub-zero temperature during the Chosin Reservoir campaign. The modern US Marine Corps places a great amount of prestige on their role in the Korean War and this book conveys why. While it’s focused on a fairly narrow slice of a much larger conflict, it’s a superb eyewitness account and one of the most compelling war narratives I’ve ever read. When I was a young Marine lieutenant I read it and promptly lent it to my platoon sergeant who also devoured it (he approached my desk after finishing it and said “sir, that book...holy sh*t.”)
For a much broader view of the conflict, “This Kind of War” by T.R. Fehrenbach (himself a Korea veteran) is considered by many to be the most comprehensive & insightful work written about the Korean War. It also goes into detail about the war’s political & diplomatic facets.