Ambush Valley, by Eric Hammel

Ambush Valley: I Corps, Vietnam, 1967--the Story of a Marine Infantry Battalion's Battle for Survival, by Eric Hammel
Presidio, 1990
327 pages plus bibliography, acknowledgments and index. 13 pages of b&w photos
Library: 959.704 HAM


Summary
In the summer of 1967, the Marines in I Corps, Vietnam's northernmost military region, were doing everything they could to lighten the pressure on the besieged Con Thien Combat Base.

Still fresh after months of relatively light action around Khe SAnh, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines, was sent to the Con Thien region to secure the combat base's endangered main supply route. On September 7, 1967, its first full day of patrolling in the new area of operations, separate elements of the batallion were attacked by at least two battalions of North Vietnamese infantry, and both were nearly overrun in night-long battles.

Three days later, September 10, while advancing to a new sector near Con Thien, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines, was attacked by an entire North Vietnamese regiment, the same NVA unit which had attacked it two days earlier. Isolated into two separate defensive perimeters, the Marines battled through the afternoon and evening against repeated direct assaults by waves of North Vietnamese infantry intent upon achieving a major victory. Only by the narrowest margins did the Americans prevail.

Ambush Valley is an unforgettable account of bravery and survival under impossible conditions. It is told entirely in the words of the men who faced the ordeal together-an unprecedented mosaic of action and emotion woven into an incredibly clear and vivid combat narrative by one of today's most effective military historians. Ambush Valley achieves a new standard for oral history. It is a war story not to be missed.

Table of Contents
Guide to Terms and Abbreviations
Prologue
Maps
Part I: The Churchyard
Part II: Staked Bait
Part III: Ambush Valley
Part IV: Parting Shots
Reflections
Updates
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index