Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh
    Unavailable
    The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh
    Unavailable
    The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh

    Written by Edward F. Murphy

    Narrated by Charles Stransky

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    While the seventy-seven-day siege of Khe Sanh in early 1968 remains one of the most highly publicized clashes of the Vietnam War, scant attention has been paid to the first battle of Khe Sanh, also known as "the Hill Fights." Although this harrowing combat in the spring of 1967 provided a grisly preview of the carnage to come at Khe Sanh, few are aware of the significance of the battles, or even their existence. For more than thirty years, virtually the only people who knew about the Hill Fights were the Marines who fought them. Now, for the first time, the full story has been pieced together by acclaimed Vietnam War historian Edward F. Murphy, whose definitive analysis admirably fills this significant gap in Vietnam War literature. Based on first-hand interviews and documentary research, Murphy's deeply informed narrative history is the only complete account of the battles, their origins, and their aftermath.

    The Marines at the isolated Khe Sanh Combat Base were tasked with monitoring the strategically vital Ho Chi Minh trail as it wound through the jungles in nearby Laos. Dominated by high hills on all sides, the combat base had to be screened on foot by the Marine infantrymen while crack, battle-hardened NVA units roamed at will through the high grass and set up elaborate defenses on steep, sun-baked overlooks.

    Murphy traces the bitter account of the U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh from the outset in 1966, revealing misguided decisions and strategies from above, and capturing the chain of hill battles in stark detail. But the Marines themselves supply the real grist of the story; it is their recollections that vividly re-create the atmosphere of desperation, bravery, and relentless horror that characterized their combat. Often outnumbered and outgunned by a hidden enemy-and with buddies lying dead or wounded beside them-these brave young Americans fought on.

    The story of the Marines at Khe Sanh in early 1967 is a microcosm of the Corps's entire Vietnam War and goes a long way toward explaining why their casualties in Vietnam exceeded, on a Marine-in-combat basis, even the tremendous losses the Leathernecks sustained during their ferocious Pacific island battles of World War II.

    The Hill Fights is a damning indictment of those responsible for the lives of these heroic Marines. Ultimately, the high command failed them, their tactics failed them, and their rifles failed them. Only the Marines themselves did not fail. Under fire, trapped in a hell of sudden death meted out by unseen enemies, they fought impossible odds with awesome courage and uncommon valor.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 29, 2003
    ISBN9780739303290
    Unavailable
    The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh

    Related to The Hill Fights

    Related audiobooks

    Military Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hamburger Hill

      Jan 24, 2019

      Hamburger Hill
      11 min read

    • Article

      Northern Exposure

      Jul 18, 2023

      Northern Exposure
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Great Stewardess Rebellion

      Jul 12, 2022

      The Great Stewardess Rebellion
      9 min read

    • Article

      FILMS, FOTOS & FATES

      Oct 11, 2022

      FILMS, FOTOS & FATES
      4 min read

    • Article

      Plenty of Fight Left

      Aug 18, 2020

      Plenty of Fight Left
      8 min read

    • Article

      Black in Navy Blue

      Aug 18, 2020

      Black in Navy Blue
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Lesson of the Great War

      Jul 9, 2018

      The Lesson of the Great War
      5 min read

    • Article

      Find History Of War Books On Sale Now!

      Apr 15, 2021

      WWII claimed over 70 million lives during six years of savage fighting, many of them civilians trapped in the path of invading armies hellbent on victory at all costs. Yet despite events such as Dunkirk, Pearl Harbour and D-Day rightly being commemor

      1 min read

    • Article

      DOUGBOYS & FLAGS

      Jun 2, 2023

      DOUGBOYS & FLAGS
      1 min read

    • Article

      Siege Of Khe Sanh

      Oct 4, 2018

      WORDS WILLIAM E. WELSH “JOHNSON REQUIRED THE MEMBERS OF THE JCS TO SIGN A PLEDGE THAT THEY WOULD NOT ALLOW KHE SANH COMBAT BASE TO FALL TO THE ENEMY” QUANG TRI PROVINCE, SOUTH VIETNAM 21 JANUARY – 8 APRIL 1968 North Vietnamese artillery and mortar

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Army’s Pacific

      Oct 29, 2019

      The Army’s Pacific
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Bloodiest Day

      Aug 15, 2023

      The Bloodiest Day
      7 min read

    • Article

      Plane Baffled

      Apr 25, 2023

      Plane Baffled
      3 min read

    • Article

      Arizona Blues

      Dec 3, 2021

      Arizona Blues
      3 min read

    • Article

      Facing The Enemy

      Mar 26, 2019

      Facing The Enemy
      12 min read

    • Article

      Fall Of Bataan

      Nov 1, 2018

      Fall Of Bataan
      11 min read

    Reviews for The Hill Fights

    4/5

    16 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Short book about a single battle within the Vietnam war. It was a great reminder and an overview of what when on during the fight.