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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.
Praise for The Last Stand of Fox Company:
“Gut-clenching and meticulously detailed . . . Puts you in the throes of battle . . . Using the journals, letters and memories of Fox Hill survivors, Drury and Clavin tell a story so realistic that many readers will have to stop and take deep breaths as the story unfolds. The authors’ ability to make individual Marines come to life makes their heroics and sacrifices all the more compelling.” —USA Today
“Vigorous . . . Skillfully written . . . The Last Stand of Fox Company captures the weeklong battle’s essence as well as most of its facets: the anxiety, the loneliness, the comradeship, the humor, the terror, the heroism, the futility, the boredom, and the tragedy of war with all its death. It also captures the wonder of war—those marines who miraculously survived.” —Leatherneck
“Invaluable . . . Drury and Clavin have researched thoroughly, especially the memories of Fox Company survivors, and have written with their customary vividness. . . . A must for the Korean War shelves.” —Booklist
“Vivid . . . Riveting . . . The Last Stand of Fox Company is the best book about twentieth-century combat at the individual level that I have seen in the last decade.” —The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA)
“The authors tell a terrific story thrillingly, occasionally borrowing the rough colloquial language of the Marines. Maps are excellent. The book is, like many good military narratives, in large part a series of individual stories. This brings some humanity to the savagery and helps the reader comprehend the bewildering, swiftly changing combat.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A riveting work of action and drama, as well as a crucial record of an event that deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest feats in American military history. . . . My greatest challenge in reading The Last Stand of Fox Company was finishing the book. I stopped repeatedly to remove my glasses and wipe the tears from my eyes. . . . The book deserves a place on our bookshelves next to Band of Brothers and We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.” —The Daily Item (Sunbury, PA)
“Bob Drury and Tom Clavin have set the standard for wartime accounts on the Korean conflict. Packed with fascinating personal accounts of courage and sacrifice on the part of a handful of Marines assigned to keep thousands of Communist Chinese soldiers from breaking through the strategic Toktong Pass in 1950, this is a story that is almost too incredible to be true. Told largely in the words of the participants, The Last Stand of Fox Company deftly captures the spirit of the Marine Corps and its legendary tenacity on the battlefield.” —Dr. Charles P. Neimeyer, director, United States Marine Corps History Division
“Bob Drury and Tom Clavin have written a paean worthy of one of the most extraordinary battles in Marine Corps history. You can almost feel Korea’s biting cold, and hear the terrifying bugles in the dark. Most of all, they remind us that although the places and dates change, the valor of America’s fighting forces remains the same. A magnificent book.” —Nathaniel Fick, New York Times best-selling author of One Bullet Away
A contributing editor and foreign correspondent for Men’s Health magazine, Bob Drury has reported from Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan, Liberia, Belfast, Haiti, and Sarajevo. He has written for all four New York City newspapers as well as a variety of national publications. A Pulitzer Prize nominee and the recipient of several national journalism awards, Drury is the author, coauthor, and editor of seven previous nonfiction books whose subjects range from the Cosa Nostra to the National Football League. His last book, the adventure saga The Rescue Season, was made into a documentary by the History Channel.
Tom Clavin is a bestselling author of 25 nonfiction books on American and military history, sports, and entertainment. His writing career began in journalism, as a roving reporter for The New York Times for 15 years as well as a contributor to national magazines including Smithsonian, Men’s Journal, Parade, Reader’s Digest, and Sports Illustrated. Along the way, he was awarded numerous prizes by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Newspaper Association. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.