Renowned military historian S.L.A. Marshall was in Korea in 1953, deep in enemy territory when Pork Chop Hill was overrun with Red Chinese troops. A handful of U.S. GIs on the frontline fought the Chinese and won. His classic account of the battle is a distinguished contribution to the literature of war (The New York Times).
July 1953. The Korean War had become a bloody stalemate. Peace was imminent but-as bitter fighting continued-each soldier could only ask himself, would he be the last to die? Despite this, a small group of the U.S. 7th Infantry Division fought back the Chinese Army on Pork Chop Hill. In round-the-clock counterattacks, devastating artillery assaults, and vicious hand-to-hand fighting, the Korean War's final, hellish chapter played out-while truce negotiations dragged on. On Hallowed Ground uses previously classified documents and never-before-told accounts by the soldiers and medics whose extraordinary heroism held "the Chop" to reveal, for the first time, the full story of the greatest test of U.S. soldiers' resolve since Valley Forge.
“The authors of the bestselling Halsey’s Typhoon do a fine job recounting one brutal, small-unit action during the Korean War’s darkest moment.” —Publishers Weekly November 1950, the Korean Peninsula. After General MacArthur ignores Mao’s warnings and pushes his UN forces deeper into North Korea, his 10,000 First Division Marines find themselves surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir. Their only chance for survival is to fight their way south through the Toktong Pass, a narrow gorge that will need to be held open at all costs. The mission is handed to Captain William Barber and the 234 Marines of Fox Company, a courageous but undermanned unit of the First Marines. Barber and his men climb seven miles of frozen terrain to a rocky promontory overlooking the pass, where they will endure four days and five nights of nearly continuous Chinese attempts to take Fox Hill. Amid the relentless violence, three-quarters of Fox’s Marines are killed, wounded, or captured. Just when it looks like they will be overrun, Lt. Colonel Raymond Davis, a fearless Marine officer who is fighting south from Chosin, volunteers to lead a daring mission that will seek to cut a hole in the Chinese lines and relieve the men of Fox. This is a fast-paced and gripping account of heroism in the face of impossible odds.
Men Against Fire, first published in 1947 (and updated in 1961), is an in-depth analysis of military leadership and infantry tactics, with numerous recommendations to improve the effectiveness of ground troops in combat situations. The psychology of combat (e.g., chapters “Why Men Fight” and “Men Under Fire”) is also examined by Marshall, himself a veteran of World War I and a combat historian during World War II. S.L.A. "Slam" Marshall was a veteran of World War I and a combat historian during World War II. He startled the military and civilian world in 1947 by announcing that, in an average infantry company, no more than one in four soldiers actually fired their weapons while in contact with the enemy. His contention was based on interviews he conducted immediately after combat in both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II.
Formed in 1916, the U.S. Army 31st Infantry Regiment--known as the Polar Bears--has fought in virtually every war in modern American history. This richly illustrated chronicle of the regiment's century of combat service covers their exploits on battlefields from Manila to Siberia--including Pork Chop Hill, Nui Chom Mountain and Iraq's Triangle of Death--along with their survival during the Bataan Death March and the years of brutal captivity that followed.
The definitive biography of Harold G. Moore, hero of the Vietnam War and author of the bestselling memoir of the battle at Ia Drang. Hal Moore, one of the most admired American combat leaders of the last fifty years, has until now been best known to the public for being portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie We Were Soldiers. In this first-ever, fully illustrated biography, we finally learn the full story of one of America’s true military heroes. A 1945 graduate of West Point, Moore’s first combats occurred during the Korean War, where he fought in the battles of Old Baldy, T-Bone, and Pork Chop Hill. At the beginning of the Vietnam War, Moore commanded the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry in the first full-fledged battle between US and North Vietnamese regulars. Drastically outnumbered and nearly overrun, Moore led from the front, and though losing seventy-nine soldiers, accounted for 1,200 of the enemy before the Communists withdrew. This Battle of Ia Drang pioneered the use of “air mobile infantry”—delivering troops into battle via helicopter—which became the staple of US operations for the remainder of the war. He later wrote of his experiences in the bestselling book We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. Following his tour in Vietnam, he assumed command of the 7th Infantry Division, forward-stationed in South Korea, and in 1971, he took command of the Army Training Center at Fort Ord, California. In this capacity, he oversaw the US Army’s transition from a conscript-based to an all-volunteer force. He retired as a lieutenant general in 1977. Hal Moore graciously allowed the author interviews and granted full access to his files and collection of letters, documents, and never-before-published photographs.
An anthology of first-hand accounts of the Baker Bandits, U.S. Marines on the front line of battle during the Korean War. B-1-5 was a unique company in the Korean War. The Baker Bandits fought at Inchon, Naktong, Chosin Reservoir, Guerrilla Hunts and the many numbered hills. They inspired one B Company Commander, Gen. Charlie Cooper, to the extent that when he became Commanding General of the Marines First Division in 1977, his time with B-1-5 inspired his “Band Of Brothers Leadership Principles” used widely in the Corps for many years. Emmett Shelton was a nineteen-year-old Marine Reservist in 1950. He was called to duty after graduating Austin High School and, within six months, he was a rifleman in Korea. The Korean winter of 1950 was brutal, and Emmett was evacuated shortly after Chosin due to frostbite. After the war, Emmett got on with life, then in the 1980s he attended a Chosin Few Reunion. He was overwhelmed by a need to reconnect with his old Company, his Baker Bandits. Emmett tracked down B Company members one-by-one and started a newsletter, The Guidon, to share stories and reconnect. For twenty years Emmett published The Guidon, monthly. The contributing readership grew to a high of 300, including a number of young B Company Marines fighting in Afghanistan. The Baker Bandits brings together firsthand accounts from The Guidon, written by the men of B-1-5 about their time in Korea: their battles, their fallen commanders, death in the foxhole, lost platoons, injuries, and what happened to them after the war. Praise for Baker Bandits “The accounts include writings by officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men, all of whom shared the terrible experiences of the Korean War together. This method of organizing the book is unusual, but it works well here, with a natural flow to the narrative due to careful editing and ordering. The veterans of the Korean War are almost all gone now. While their war was smaller in scope, their actions and service deserve to be remembered.” —Military Heritage Magazine “The accounts give an intensely personal look at [the marines’] experiences in the war, interspersed with historical narrative and sobering lists of casualties.” —Seapower
From his induction and boot camp to the terrible fighting to capture a Korean hill called Old Baldy, from his gut-wrenching work in the medic corps to the mind-numbing cold in the trenches, this is one G.I.'s story of the Korean War. It is not a story of heroes, but one of everyday soldiers fighting and surviving in some of the worst conditions imaginable.
Asked to head up Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s environmental organization's "hog campaign," Nicolette Hahn Niman embarked upon a fascinating odyssey through the inner workings of the “factory farm” industry. What she discovered transformed her into an intrepid environmental lawyer determined to lock horns with the big business farming establishment. She even, unexpectedly, found love along the way. A searing account of an industry gone awry and one woman’s passionate fight to remedy it, Righteous Porkchop chronicles Niman’s investigation and her determination to organize a national reform movement to fight the shocking practices of industrial animal operations. She offers necessary alternatives, showing how livestock farming can be done in a better way—and she details both why and how to choose meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, and fish from traditionally farmed sources.