On Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill (ISBN 1591144809)

Book Description:
Foreword by Gen. Robert W. Sennewald, USA (Ret.) Evoking all the powerful emotions of a frustrating, bitter, bloody, stalemated Korean War, Bill McWilliams takes readers into the trenches and bunkers of Pork Chop Hill with the men of the 7th Infantry Division's 17th and 32nd Regiments as they withstand repeated assaults by the Chinese in July 1953. Their individual accounts of small victories and defeats, fear and valor bring alive the final battle for the hill. While a popular movie starring Gregory Peck made Pork Chop Hill a public legend, only one other book has been written about the subject and it focuses on earlier assaults. This book includes the never-before-told stories of the riflemen, machine gunners, forward observers, sergeants, platoon leaders, and medics whose heroic efforts helped hold the hill and produced two Medals of Honor and ten Distinguished Service Crosses, some awarded posthumously. The author succeeds at giving the reader both a feeling of being in the midst of the fighting and stepping back to view the bigger picture. He blends official documents, personal letters, interviews, oral histories, and other sources, to acquaint readers with the first three years of the war and prior assaults on Pork Chop and highlights the contributions made by combat support units and others to the mission. As the narrative progresses the whys of battlefield decisions become evident with an examination of the influence of national policies, protracted truce negotiations, a fledgling South Korean democracy, and the evolving American military policy of active defense, providing painful lessons for America's future struggles. Published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army, the book pays tribute to the greatest testing ground of U.S. soldier resolve since Valley Forge.

Helps fill a void in the history of the "Forgotten War":
The Korean War is often called the "Forgotten War." However, in truth, the war of maneuver that made up the first year of the war has been the subject of many excellent books. The stationary, or "outpost war," that was fought from 1951 to 1953 has received far less attention. Bill McWilliams' book, "On Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill," is a close study of one of the most brutal battles fought during that period. Pork Chop Hill may be familiar to some readers as the subject of SLA Marshall's book and the subsequent movie starring Gregory Peck. That book and movie deal with the April 1953 battle for the outpost on Pork Chop. McWilliams reviews that earlier battle as well as the overall strategic situation, but he focuses on the July 1953 battle in which regiments of the U.S. 7th Infantry Division fought against a Chinese enemy determined to seize Pork Chop. The author does a great job in describing this chaotic battle and the bravery of the soldiers in the rifle companies and their supporting elements that fought it. He examines in detail the decisions made at high levels of command that ultimately determined the outcome of the battle. And finally, in his section on the aftermath of Pork Chop, he puts it in the perspective of both history and the families of the fallen. This is a great addition to the literature of the Korean War. It should be of interest to both students of the Korean War and those readers with a general interest in military history and ground combat.

The Must-Have Book of the Korean War:
As an Australian military historian myself, I have written numerous books on the Australian military experience overseas, principally in the two world wars. Quite frankly, however, I admit I knew lamentably little about the Korean War, the so-called "forgotten war". In fact, I think it's true to say that most people's knowledge of that war these days would only have derived from watching episodes of MASH. That lack of knowledge for me, at least, changed forever after a friend relentlessly urged me to read Bill McWilliams' superb account of the battle for Pork Chop Hill in 1953. If anything, I found it to be even more evocative and powerful than James Bradley's wonderful "Flags Of Our Fathers" for the descriptions of the battles, and the compelling stories of the ordinary but extraordinarily gallant leaders and men who fought, died or survived in one of the bloodiest, most ferocious engagements of any war. You cannot read past the stories of such combatants and medics as Bob Northcutt, James McKenzie and Dick Shea without giving thanks for their astonishing valour and determination, and yet the book is filled with such stories, told at length or in a few simple but effective sentences. At first glance the book's earlier pages may seem a little overladen with background detail, but once you begin to read you realise that the author has done a superb and meticulously thorough job of research, and does not lead us into any situation without first fully presenting the preceding events, the units assigned, and those individuals particularly involved. It is a masterful blend, as McWilliams first informs us, then sets the scene, and finally takes us through the different battles and aftermath using the stark, sometimes horrifying, often poignant recollections and accounts of a host of participants and/or witnesses. There is a welcome abundance of excellent photographs and maps to show where the engagements took place, and many of the soldiers and leaders who took part. Family members also reflect back over half a century to the deeds and heroism of their loved ones, which adds yet another dimension to this engrossing book. The story of the 7th Infantry, and in particular the different battalions of the 17th and 32nd Regiments, is one that has been told before, but never with such descriptive detail, real-life drama, and compassion. This is certainly a book to be treasured, and read many times. Thank you, Bill McWilliams, for giving us this truly fascinating, truly compelling book.

I Was There:
As I was the first platoon leader of I Company 32 Infantry who was wounded in this engagement I can attest to the author's excellent and honest recreation of the events of those terrible days in July of 1953. It really is difficult to understand the carnage that occurred on that insignificant little outpost in front of the MLR if one had not been there. But, the author not only did a fine job in explaining the political situation(Pork Chop had no strategic value- so why expend so many lives?), and the tactical situation as it evolved day by day, but he managed to tell what it was like for the individual infantryman to fight and try to survive under merciless shelling and masses of enemy soldiers whose leaders cared little about the cost to these men in their wave assaults. As a side bar- the second battle of Pork Chop Hill was the most intense artillery action in the history of modern warfare. Never in such a limited area were so many shells fired from as far back as the big guns at the Corps level down to the battalion mortars.