Product Details

• Published on: 2003-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

On Hallowed Ground, An amazing story of human courage.
This book, On Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill, written by Bill McWilliams is one of the most compelling military history books available today. It is a "must read" story of human courage for anybody who has given any thought at all as to what it might "feel" like to be a military soldier engaged in a no-win war and the personal sacrifice it takes to do this!

Anybody with a human-interest (as well as a military history perspective) would surely seek wnt to tackle the hard truths this book uncovers about The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill. The cold, hard truths of this military battle will engage one's imagination and shock those who have never considered the brutality, personal traumas, and loyal duty it takes to be a military soldier protecting the freedoms of the people in the United States of America. The soldiers (and their families) in this battle are exemplary and very brave people.

The Author just happens to be my Father, and as an author seeks to honor the forgotten soldiers of this battle and many others. They deserve to be honored - all of them including the author.

For an engaging journey into the history and behind the scenes workings of a horrifying war situation I would highly recommend this book!

not the way to write a small action military history
When i first began to read the book, I was pleased to have it, until I got to the small-unit-action descriptions. There were no maps!!, or at least well-done maps. There is one map of the general area, and that does not show or name many of the hills and outposts for which actions are described; the details are impossible to follow. Because of this, I took out my copy of S.L.A.Marshall's book 'Pork Chop Hill' for this book has well-drawn maps and even better, good drawings of the ground with peaks and OPs identified. All of these made McWilliam's book intelligible. By doing this, I found one more strike aginst the newer book. In the description of the actions of the Ethiopian battalion at OPs Yoke and Uncle much of the writing was lifted word for word from Marshall's earlier book without attribution. (...). i am not sure how much more of the book is like that, if any. there are sections lifted from other authors but they are put into smaller and different type and given attribution, a perfectly acceptable way of using someone else's work. However that one perfect example makes me doubt what the author thought he was doing or how he was doing it. Further, along with these defects are a number of errors in English. An example is a sentence that read, and this is not an exact quote, 'the casualties were stretched across the hill...'; meaning the casualties were carried by stretcher. After correcting the mispelling, we are still left with a noun used as a verb, not a terrible set of mistakes but an example of how poor the editing was.
I can recommend reading the book, just not spending so much money to buy it until it is revised and corrected.

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.