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A "gut-clenching and meticulously detailed" (USA Today) account from the Korean War and how Captain William Barber led 246 courageous Marines of the Seventh Marine Regiment in the perilous defense of Fox Hill.

November 1950, the Korean Peninsula: After General MacArthur ignores Mao’s warnings and pushes his UN forces deep 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.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; First Trade Paper edition (November 3, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 355 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802144519
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802144515
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
Reviewer: mike6
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Epic Korean war battle
Review: I've read military history for decades. This book is one of the best ever done on a specific unit in one battle of the Korean war. Well researched and brilliantly written, you are taken back to the place where this happened. As each chapter unfolds, you are on the ground with those Marines in this fight. It was a true miracle any of them survived despite the intense cold, lack of supplies, wounds, and huge number of enemy soldiers fighting them. An incredible tale and so worth your time to read. A superb choice for all military history buffs. A great job of heroism and courage on an epic scale.

Reviewer: Daniel L. Driewer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An Amazing account of the exploits of Fox Co during the battle of the Chosin Reservoir
Review: Simply an incredible book, of the valor of the Marines of Fox Co, in the Korean War during the battle of the Chosen Reservoir. I'd heard and had become marginally familiar with what happened during the Korean War, when MacArthur disregarded intelligence and warnings that the Chinese would enter the war on behalf of the then defeated North Koreans, should the USA got near/to the Yalu River. The Chinese did and swarmed the American lines, outnumbering them by what 10, 25, 100 to one? Who knows for sure. What is for certain is the valor, bravery, fighting spirit, the esprit de corps of Fox Company and others that fought in spite of overwhelming numerical odds, in weather fit for the South Pole - who can live yet alone fight in actual temperatures of -25 to - 35 below zero?! If you read no other book on the Korean War, I suggest you choose this one. At the end I was simply in tears and even now as I type this, thinking about the accounts of the haggard, frostbitten and in many cases also walking wounded marines, that, having defended the escape route for the Americans around the Chosin Reservoir, when "marching" into the Hagaru-ri Supply Station/Airfield, "throats dry and raw, the entire company picked up the Marine Corps tune with each man singing" as best they could : "From he halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli"...." Simply Amazing.

Reviewer: Henry B. Davis IV
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Best Account of the Chosin Reservoir Breakout I have read yet. A must read. :0)
Review: With the proliferation of first person, common-soldier accounts it is easy to assume this style of history is becoming a bit worn. Fortunately, this book which was first published in 2008 breathes new life into this genre. While it is full of action and memorable characters, the authors' ability to develop these characters while keeping track of the local situation and putting the conflict in its global Cold War context is outstanding. In a very crisp, flowing narrative you come to know these characters backgrounds, their individual and group struggles during some of the war's most brutal fighting, and then are treated with excellent summaries of each men's lives (very much in Paul Harvey's "and that's the rest of the story" style). The American military's breakout from encirclement by Chinese Communist Forces in the Chosin Reservoir area was a mixed bag at best with Army units disintegrating into small groups of armed men and the Marines succeeding to remain in cohesive units albeit suffering great casualties as well. I have previously read accounts of both Army and Marine Corps units in this action, but I must say this book is the best written of them all. I highly recommend The Last Stand of Fox Company to anyone interested in people's reactions to extreme situations, the Korean War, United States Marine Corps history, or just military history in general.

Reviewer: Richard Cummings
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Fox Company-Braver than the 300
Review: Robert Drury and Tom Clavin's "The Last Stand of Fox Company" is a superb account of a forgotten battle during the Korean War, at which 246 men held off thousands of Chinese Communist troops. Fighting in thirty below zero temperature, the vastly outnumbered Americans, using every manner of weapon at hand, stood their ground until a force of 500 cut a hole in Chinese lines, releaving the surviving members of Fox Company. As in their excellent, but somewhat derivative "Halsey's Typhoon." the authors list the names of the men of Fox Company, a painstaking effort that gives life to the men who fought in what is now known as American's "forgotten war."At the famous battle of Thermopylae, at which the vastly outnumbered Greeks held off the Persians, the famous "300" Spartans were, in actualty, joined by several thousand other Greek soldiers, whereas at "Fox Hill," there were no other troops besides the 246 Marine and Navy men against the Chinese hoards. We know now that these Chinese troops were originally members of the defeated Nationalist army who were used by Mao Tse Tung to fight in Korea. He didn't care how may of them died. Mao was determined for China to be a world power and for his Communist Party to be on an equal terms with Stalin's. Meanwhile, Stalin, who encouraged the invasion by the North Koreans and China's intervention, wanted to assert himself as the undisputed ruler of the Communist world. Most people don't remember, but it was Stalin's mistake of boycotting the Security Council, that led it to adopt a resolution calling for a United Nations force to repel the invasion of South Korean by North Korea. When the Soviets finally returned to veto any further support for the troops, Truman outmanoevered them by getting the General Assembly to adopt a "uniting for peace" resolution that enabled the United Nations force to fight on. The American forces were part of this United Nations effort to stop the Communist aggression and they fought under the United Nations banner.As Drury and Clavin so brilliantly illustrate, the American troops fought valiantly, without regard to themselves, as most of them were cut down. Any military history of America would be incomplete without this magnificent book. How America has managed to produce such anonymous heroes in time of war is one of the great success stories of the country, and it is to Drury and Clavin's great credit that they recount this story of a battle that helped turn the tide in Korea, giving a face to each of those who fought. I would suggest that after reading this outstanding book, one should visit the Korean War Memorial in Washington. It is unlike any other memorial in the nation's capital. What you will see is a battlefield, with American troops, realistic statues, in combat mode in the mist. It is positively eerie, but also appropriate, as it reminds us of the conditions in which they fought. War is indeed hell, as Sherman told us, and nowhere is this reality more accurately portrayed than in "The Last Stand at Fox Hill."

Reviewer: steve andrews
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Outstanding book, an amazing recollection of heroics that almost seem impossible to believe that it really happened. An honour to read.

Reviewer: MS
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Puissant ! Le récit le plus détaillé, le plus puissant concernant le combat Marines contre chinois en Corée, 1950. Les témoignages multiplient l'impression d'oppression du combat que l'on touche du doigt.Attention, ce livre se concentre exclusivement sur les combats menés par la Fox company sur la colline de Toktong pass du 27 au 4 décembre.Il illustre presque charnellement et avec force les combats ultra violents ayant eu lieu entre les innombrables soldats chinois et une compagnie de Marines américains gonflés de jeunes réservistes envoyés brutalement à la guerre.En résumé :Une position qui doit être tenue à tout prix pour sauver leurs camarades. (pour les forces de l'ONU)Une position qui doit être conquise à tout prix pour liquider la 1 division de Marines (pour l'armée populaire chinoise).Le froid, l'absence de soutien (au début s'entend), l'impact de l'attaque (des attaques), la trivialité de la guerre, la mort et les blessures, les gelures, les armes enrayées, les hommes qui ronflent écrasés de fatigue en pleine bataille, les conduites héroïques banales tellement elles sont constantes. Les membres de l'USMC ont pour eux une résistance aux privations, au froid, une combativité surprenante pour ces jeunes soldats, civils 4 mois auparavant. A méditer pour ceux qui doutent des capacités des militaires de réserve ... A lire - en anglais - par ceux qui s'intéressent à la "forgotten war" et à la capacité de résistance, de résignation, d'abnégation, de combativité du soldat chinois, digne d'admiration.

Reviewer: Yvonne Davies
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent book