Korean War Marines

On 25 June, 1950, the invasion of South Korea by the Communist North launched one of the bloodiest conflicts of the last century. The seemingly limitless power of the Chinese-backed North was thrown against the ferocious firepower of the UN-backed South in a war that can be seen today as the stark prelude to Vietnam.

It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle. Max Hastings, preeminent military historian, takes us back to the bloody, bitter struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950.

In sobering detail, The Korean War chronicles a US home front agitated by Joseph McCarthy, where absolutist conformity discouraged open inquiry and citizen dissent. Cumings incisively ties our current foreign policy back to Korea: an America with hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home, the ultimate result of a judicious and limited policy of containment evolving into an ongoing and seemingly endless global crusade.  

“If I were God, what would you want for Christmas?” With a thousand-yard stare, a haggard and bloodied marine looked incredulously at the war correspondent who asked him this question. In an answer that took “almost forever,” the marine responded, “Give me tomorrow." After nearly four months of continuous and bloody combat in Korea, such a wish seemed impossible.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War. "Superb ... A masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and arresting...

Estes describes the mobilization, organization, and operations of First Brigade during the first three months of American participation in the Korean War. Focusing on the battalions, companies, and platoons that faced the hardened soldiers of the North Korean army, he brings the listener directly to the battlefield. The story he reveals there, woven with the voices of soldiers and officers, is one of cooperation rather than interservice rivalry. At the same time, he clarifies differences in the organizational cultures of the US Army and the Marine Corps.

HEARTS OF IRON is the epic true story of a little-known but significant part of the Korean War, told by the brave men of the Flame Platoon, First Tank Battalion, First Marine Division. This book shares the honest, personal accounts of combat, fear, death, and survival of these comrades of the Forgotten War, most of whom were not even trained to be Flame Tankers yet fought with weapons possessing some of the most lethal fire ability of any rolling armament in the war.

Bloomsbury presents The Farthest Valley: Escaping the Chinese Trap at the Chosin Reservoir by Joseph Wheelan, read by Jeff Harding. A history of the legendary extraction of the Fifth and Seventh Marines from a Chinese trap, told for the first time using Chinese sources. Knee-deep in snow, and...

Bloomsbury presents Holding the Line: The Naval Air Campaign In Korea by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, read by Robert G Slade. Naval and air power were crucial to the United Nations’ success in the Korean War, as it sought to negate the overwhelming Chinese advantage in manpower. In what became...

FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of Train Wreckers and Ghost Killers by Leo J. Daugherty III. During the Korean war from 1950 to 1953 the U.S. Marines fought shoulder to shoulder with the allied Marine forces of the United Kingdom and Korea. In this book the author examines the allied forces in detail, and the valuable contribution they made to the war effort.

Richard Edward Carey came from a broken home. Enlisting in the Corps in 1946 he later earned a commission, fighting at Inchon and Chosin in Korea before becoming a pilot. During his thirty-eight-year military career he witnessed and participated in major historical events, though a high school wrestling injury would eliminate him from the Mercury-7 space program. As a second lieutenant, he tackled General Douglas MacArthur on the way to Seoul in 1950. Carey would provide critical intelligence decisions enabling the successful defense of the Chinese attack on Hagaru-ri at the Chosin Reservoir.