Bob DruryThe Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat

You feel like you are there. As a Marine veteran I met many of the Korean vets when I served.They never really talked about it but in a two month period in our Company at Camp LeJeune in 1955 two were section 8td because of reoccurring nightmares, now called PTSD. I think from that time on the government finally started to recognize the problem.

An intriguing and compelling account of a battle in a remote and little remembered war. Intriguing detail from exhaustive research.

The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of US Marines in Combat by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin is a detailed account of one of the coldest battles on record. In November 1950, General MacArthur ignored Mao’s warnings and pushed his UN forces deeper into North Korea. The 10,000 First Division Marines find themselves surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by the 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir. Fighting their way south through the Toktong Pass, a narrow gorge, is their only chance for survival. Led by Captain William Barber and the 234 Marines of Fox Company, the courageous but undermanned unit of the First Marines. They climb seven miles of frozen terrain to a rocky point overlooking the pass where they will endure four days and five nights of unrelenting Chinese attempts to take Fox Hill. Three-quarters of Fox Company are killed, wounded, or captured. Only a daring and impossible mission to cut through the Chinese lines may be their only chance for survival.I have been fascinated with learning more about the Korean War since learning that my late father-in-law fought in the war. The Last Stand of Fox Company is an in depth, no-holds-bar account of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (November 26 - December 13, 1950) which is often referred as Frozen Chosin as it was the coldest winter on record in 30 years. I know that Marines have a reputation for being tough as nails with a lot of bravado. However, reading about the courageous and determined men of Fox Company, they have certainly earned that bravado. Drury and Clavin do a nice job spotlighting the many men who played an important part in the battle from the leadership to the enlisted men in the foxholes. They also do not shy away from the horrors of battle and the aftermath that these men went through. I highly recommend The Last Stand of Fox Company. It has opened my eyes to the Korean War than just dates and important battles.The Last Stand of Fox Company is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

I found this book to really tear at my heart for the men who fought in a Korea. The agony they suffered was un Godly. Between being vastly out numbered the snow and the cold was more than I think most men could endure. The Korean War doesn't get the recognition it reset why I don't know but it doesn't.After reading this book I definitely think it should.

This is one of the best historical war books I’ve read (and I’ve read many). The book is quite limited in scope as it covers the fighting by about 240 marines as they try to hold a hill for about a week. Why bother to hold one lousy hill for just a week? Because China’s sudden, surprising entry into the war threatened to cut off the fighting retreat of thousands of marines away from the Chosin Reservoir. So the book provides some historical background, but the book’s focus is on the marines themselves and their tenuous efforts to hold out against the Chinese’s vastly numerically-superior forces.The conditions they were fighting under were horrendous. Temperatures as low as -20 deg F. Some guns were too frozen to fire. Some grenades were too frozen to explode. Frostbite was a constant concern. The only positive was that some wounded didn’t bleed to death because their bleeding wounds froze closed. It’s hard to imagine more inhospitable conditions.But most important, this book focused on the individual marines doing the fighting. For some of the marines, there was a small but personal bit of background so that each of those marines could be seen as an individual rather than just a name. But many died. And many were wounded. Still, some survived. And it seemed like the reader learns the fate of nearly every one of those marines. So this book is one of the most personal war histories I’ve read (that isn’t a one-man account such as “With the Old Breed”).Bottom line: One of the most personal war histories I’ve read.

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.

Excellent book

Outstanding book, an amazing recollection of heroics that almost seem impossible to believe that it really happened. An honour to read.