Eric M. Hammel Books

The highly-acclaimed history of the siege of Khe Sanh from January to April 1968, using the accounts of 100 participants.

Ambush Valley is an unforgettable account of bravery and survival under impossible conditions during the Vietnam War.

First published in 2010 as Islands of Hell: the U.S. Marines in the western Pacific, 1944-1945.

The definitive and highly-acclaimed account of the battle for Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

"For 40 years from 1961, the late Eric Hammel interviewed more than 150 American participants in the air campaign at Guadalcanal, none of whom are still alive. These interviews are the most comprehensive first-person accounts of the battle assembled by any historian. More importantly, they involved the junior officers and enlisted men whose stories and memories were not part of the official history, thus providing a unique insight. The battle of Guadalcanal was the first offensive operation undertaken by the US and its allies in the Pacific War. "Cactus," the code name for the island, became a sinkhole for Japanese air and naval power, experienced forces whose losses could never be made good. The three months of air battles between August 20, 1942, when the first Marine air unit arrived on the island, and November 15, when the last enemy attempt to retake the island was defeated, were perhaps the most important of the Pacific War. After November 15, 1942, the US never looked back as its forces moved across the Pacific to the war's inevitable conclusion. The Cactus Air Force is a joint project between the late Eric Hammel and Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, and is unlike any other of the many histories of this event that have been published over the years."--Amazon.

76 Hours The Invasion of Tarawa By Eric Hammel and John E. Lane On the morning of Saturday, November 20, 1943, the U.S. 2d Marine Division undertook the first modern amphibious assault against a well-defended beachhead. The objective was tiny Betio Island in Tarawa Atoll. The result was an immortal story of tragedy and near defeat turned around into an epic of victory and indomitable human spirit. Although the admirals commanding the Tarawa invasion fleet had assured the Marines that Betio would be pounded to coral dust by a massive naval and air bombardment-the largest of its kind ever seen to that time-the first waves of Marines found the Japanese defenses intact and manned by determined foes. Within minutes of the start of the head-on assault, the American battle plan was a shambles and scores of Marines had been killed or wounded. The assault virtually stopped at the water's edge, its momentum halted before many Marines ever dismounted from the amphibian tractors that had carried them to the deadly, fire-swept beach. Follow-up waves of Marines suffered grievous casualties when they were forced to wade more than 500 yards through fire-swept, knee-deep water because tidal conditions had been miscalculated by the invasion's planners. Follow the bloody battle for Betio in graphic detail as heroic American fighting men advance every life-threatening step across the tiny island in the face of what many historians agree was the best and most concentrated defenses manned by the bravest and most competent Japanese defenders American troops encountered in the entire Pacific War.

The definitive account of the epic retreat under fire of the 1st Marine Division from the Chosin Reservoir.

The full story of the lead up to and aftermath of the iconic raising of the American flag by the 28th Marine Regiment on Iwo Jima in 1945, using recent investigations to show what really happened. číst celé

Studie o jedné z rozhodujících epizod americko-japonské války v jižním Pacifiku nás seznamuje nejen s boji v nezvyklém prostředí, ale i do té doby neznámým fenoménem válečné neurózy, který i z nezraněných činil vojáky nepoužitelné v dalších bojích. Předností studie o jedné, byť v podstatě rozhodující epizodě války Američanů s Japonci v jižním Pacifiku je nejen podrobné vylíčení bojů na Nové Georgii, v prostředí pro nás tak exotickém, a pro americké vojáky tak strastiplném, ale i to, že se zabývá dopadem zcela odlišného způsobu boje na psychiku lidí. Autor se podrobně zabývá jevem, který se neprojevil na evropských či afrických bojištích, a který američtí lékaři nazvali vyčerpáním z boje či válečnou neurózou. Fenoménu, který se opakoval o dvacet let později ve Vietnamu. Proto má kniha širší platnost, než jen historická výseč z roku 1943. Obsahuje dokumentární fotografie.