The book recounts the 1975 American operation to recapture the U.S. container ship SS Mayaquez and her crew; an incident that is unfamiliar to most Americans. Previous literary work documenting the event have focused on the actions of the crew of the Mayaquez; the air force helicopter pilots and; President Ford and the National Security Council..The focus of the 14 Hour War is the airmen; sailors and Marines; primarily the Marines; who went in to rescue a crew that wasn't there; A force comprised of approximately 200 Marines most of whom were fresh out of boot camp was tasked with the rescue; They were briefed to expect minimal resistance from some 20 to 30 lightly armed fishermen militia; What they found was between 400 and 600 Khmer Rouge combat veterans with heavy weapons in entrenched and fortified positions; Plagued by incomplete and inaccurate intelligence and hindered by a micro-managed command and control structure that extended all the way to the Oval Office; the Marines held out for 14 hours against a vastly superior and more experienced enemy in a fight they dare not lose; Getting on the island was remarkable; Getting off the island was a miracle; As a result of that 14 hour battle; four Air Crosses and a Navy Cross were awarded; 41 U.S; servicemen lost their lives and three Marines were left behind and; America regained a small bit of luster to a reputation tarnished by its withdrawal from Cambodia and Vietnam; In addition to a comprehensive narrative of the planning and the battle itself; the book will contain over 30 first person accounts by Koh Tang veterans and unpublished photographs taken by veterans while engaged with the enemy; The appendices will include verbatim minutes of NSC discussions and decisions regarding the strategy and tactics to be carried out by local commanders; U.S. Marine Corps Post Action and Investigative reports and the latest information as of December 2009) on what happened to the three Marines that were left behind.
#460927 in Books Naval Institute Press 2013-01-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.90 x 1.60 x 5.90l; 1.80 #File Name: 1591142954536 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Highly readable and full of fascinating detailsBy ThrasybulusOne of the best WWII books I've read and the best on the blitzkrieg. The author accomplishes the difficult task of delving into details without distracting from the big picture narrative. The Blitzkrieg Legend is the most comprehensive and accurate account of one of the most spectacular military achievements in history. On his way to ascertaining the definitive account on why the German offensive succeeded; the author painstakingly dispels a plethora of myths surrounding the campaign; including the notion that the French and their allies were at a numerical disadvantage and had inferior weaponry.A memorable passage (one of dozens in this classic book) on Erwin Rommel:"As a Panzer leader in the campaign in the West; Rommel won breathtaking victories; ironically because he knew so little about Pander operational principles. The old rules; as spelled out in regulations; no longer applied because the entire nature of the war had been revolutionized. Instead; Rommel acted intuitively to the particular situation he faced."0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The Blitzkrieg legend is a useful resource; and provides a large amount of information ...By Adam CarvossoThe Blitzkrieg legend is a useful resource; and provides a large amount of information about the campaigns in France and the Low Countries in 1940. After the initial section discusses whether or not there was such a thing as a blitzkrieg in terms of behind the scenes planning in 1938-1940; the rest of the book acts primarily as a blow-by-blow account of the German spearhead. This section is more difficult reading as it gets bogged down in details and you wait for the inevitable to painstakingly reach its conclusion.At certain points the book feels a little bit nationalistic. It paints intimidating pictures of German battlefield foes (many paragraphs are dedicated to the Char B tank) while only mentioning German material or technical advantages in passing. It is presented mainly as a victory of German ingenuity over Allied superiority (partially true); and seems to obsess over small errors that were made by people on the German side; as if it were possible to expect any large hierarchical organization to "play a perfect game"; especially against an opponent whose blunders in this campaign are the stuff of legend.The historiography is slightly out of date but nothing unusual for the year it was originally published. This is worth a read if you want a focused view of this campaign; but you should as always keep a keen eye out for potential biases and supplement this book with others that cover broader periods.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A classic on the campaign.By Thomas M. MageeThis book will definitely become or is one of the classics on the fall for France. It has exceptional research down to the smallest detail. The book comes across as a redefinition or a take down of the blitzkrieg legend. I really didn't quite see that. However the research will tell a new story about the campaign. It does an excellent job of setting the scene. The author is German so the angle is from that side. He shows that the French were equal to the Germans in almost every category. Everyone now days thinks the French went hands up at the first shot. That wasn't the true by any stretch. There were various battles here and there. They just did not amount to much. The difference is leadership. It is how the leaders decided to make the most of what they had. Then the battles takes a new angle. The downside of the book is how it is written. It dives a bit to much into the weeds through personal accounts. Then wading through it at times becomes a labor.
