About the book

In October 1969, William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret captain in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Fire Base Kate, held by only 27 American soldiers and 150 Montagnard militiamen. He found their defences woefully unprepared. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments - some 6,000 men - crossed the Cambodian border and attacked. The US regiment refused to surrender and held out for five days. This is an astonishing memoir of leadership, sacrifice and brutal violence, and of the power of heroism.