
Two Flags over Iwo Jima
Solving the Mystery of the U.S. Marine Corps' Proudest Moment
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $13.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Paul Woodson
-
By:
-
Eric Hammel
About this listen
The saga of the flags on Iwo Jima has fascinated America for decades. Hammel himself grew up in the company of WWII veterans and has always been intrigued by the photo of the flag, which became a powerful symbol of patriotism and national pride. But the story of how the flag got there, and even the identity of the soldiers in the photo, has been muddied by history. Eric Hammel here sets the record straight, viewing complex events through the lens of the story of the infantry company in which all the flag raisers served.
Joe Rosenthal's Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima photo is one of the best-known images of US war history. The photo captures the moment that the first American flag flew over the core of Imperial Japanese territory on the top of Mount Suribachi. The focus of this audiobook lies on the 28th Marine Regiment's self-contained battle in February 1945 for Mount Suribachi, the 556-foot-high volcano on Iwo Jima. It was here that this one regiment defeated more than 1,500 heavily armed Japanese combatants who were determined to hold the highest vantage point on the island.
Hammel attempts to untangle the various battles that led up to the first and second flag raisings, as well as following the men of the 28th Marine Regiment in the events that took place after.
©2018 Eric Hammel (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Cactus Air Force
- Air War Over Guadalcanal
- By: Eric Hammel, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Adam Henderson
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Cactus Air Force, Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.
-
-
Excellent Book!
- By Eric Peterson on 09-16-22
By: Eric Hammel, and others
-
With the Old Breed
- At Peleliu and Okinawa
- By: E. B. Sledge
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Joe Mazzello, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
This is the second audio book of Sledge's work
- By Richard on 10-21-13
By: E. B. Sledge
-
Lincoln's Lieutenants
- The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 32 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
-
-
Good, but not what I thought
- By Paul S. on 08-10-17
By: Stephen W. Sears
-
History Will Prove Us Right
- Inside the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- By: Howard P. Willens
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was murdered in front of hundreds of onlookers. For 50 years, the events of that day have been the subject of heated debate. The commission tasked with investigating the assassination published its findings the following year - Oswald had acted alone - but the report did little to quell conspiracy theorists.
-
-
History has proven you right.
- By Gregory J. Cummings on 01-06-23
-
FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944
- By: David M. Jordan
- Narrated by: Robert Ferraro
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although the presidential election of 1944 placed FDR in the White House for an unprecedented fourth term, historical memory of the election itself has been overshadowed by the war, Roosevelt’s health and his death the following April, Truman's ascendancy, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today most people assume that FDR’s reelection was assured. Yet, as David M. Jordan’s engrossing account reveals, neither the outcome of the campaign nor even the choice of candidates was assured.
-
-
Very enjoyable “listen”.
- By Ronald Meisburg on 11-23-22
By: David M. Jordan
-
American Ulysses
- A Life of Ulysses S. Grant
- By: Ronald C. White
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 27 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of the Civil War general and American president, by the author of the New York Times bestseller A. Lincoln. The dramatic story of one of America's greatest and most misunderstood military leaders and presidents, this is a major new interpretation of Ulysses S. Grant. Based on seven years of research with primary documents, some of them never tapped before, this is destined to become the Grant biography of our times.
-
-
A New Campaign to Reasses Grant
- By Mark on 11-02-16
By: Ronald C. White
-
The Cactus Air Force
- Air War Over Guadalcanal
- By: Eric Hammel, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Adam Henderson
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Cactus Air Force, Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.
-
-
Excellent Book!
- By Eric Peterson on 09-16-22
By: Eric Hammel, and others
-
With the Old Breed
- At Peleliu and Okinawa
- By: E. B. Sledge
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Joe Mazzello, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
This is the second audio book of Sledge's work
- By Richard on 10-21-13
By: E. B. Sledge
-
Lincoln's Lieutenants
- The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 32 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
-
-
Good, but not what I thought
- By Paul S. on 08-10-17
By: Stephen W. Sears
-
History Will Prove Us Right
- Inside the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- By: Howard P. Willens
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was murdered in front of hundreds of onlookers. For 50 years, the events of that day have been the subject of heated debate. The commission tasked with investigating the assassination published its findings the following year - Oswald had acted alone - but the report did little to quell conspiracy theorists.
-
-
History has proven you right.
- By Gregory J. Cummings on 01-06-23
-
FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944
- By: David M. Jordan
- Narrated by: Robert Ferraro
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although the presidential election of 1944 placed FDR in the White House for an unprecedented fourth term, historical memory of the election itself has been overshadowed by the war, Roosevelt’s health and his death the following April, Truman's ascendancy, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today most people assume that FDR’s reelection was assured. Yet, as David M. Jordan’s engrossing account reveals, neither the outcome of the campaign nor even the choice of candidates was assured.
-
-
Very enjoyable “listen”.
- By Ronald Meisburg on 11-23-22
By: David M. Jordan
-
American Ulysses
- A Life of Ulysses S. Grant
- By: Ronald C. White
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 27 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of the Civil War general and American president, by the author of the New York Times bestseller A. Lincoln. The dramatic story of one of America's greatest and most misunderstood military leaders and presidents, this is a major new interpretation of Ulysses S. Grant. Based on seven years of research with primary documents, some of them never tapped before, this is destined to become the Grant biography of our times.
-
-
A New Campaign to Reasses Grant
- By Mark on 11-02-16
By: Ronald C. White
-
The Nazi Hunters
- The Ultra-Secret SAS Unit and the Hunt for Hitler's War Criminals
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....
-
-
Fascinating and little known WW2 story
- By Paul Atwater on 10-16-20
By: Damien Lewis
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
I KNEW This Book Would Sting Me . . . .
- By Rum Runner on 07-28-17
By: Mark Bowden
-
Miracle at Midway
- By: Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the seemingly invincible Imperial Japanese Navy prepared a decisive blow against the United States. After sweeping through Asia and the South Pacific, Japan's military targeted the tiny atoll of Midway, an ideal launching pad for the invasion of Hawaii and beyond. But the United States Navy was waiting for them. Thanks to cutting-edge code-breaking technology, tactical daring, and a huge stroke of luck, the Americans under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz dealt the Japanese navy its first major defeat of the war.
-
-
Greatest Book on Midway Battle
- By WISDOC on 04-12-21
By: Gordon W. Prange, and others
-
D-Day
- The Battle for Normandy
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned historian Antony Beevor, the man who "single-handedly transformed the reputation of military history" (The Guardian) presents the first major account in more than 20 years of the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Paris. This is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, but also the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting.
-
-
A commendable book
- By Michael on 01-19-10
By: Antony Beevor
-
D-Day
- June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Jesse Boggs
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen E. Ambrose draws from hundreds of interviews with US Army veterans and the brave Allied soldiers who fought alongside them to create this exceptional account of the day that shaped the twentieth century. D-Day is above all the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their existence, when the horrors, complexities and triumphs of life are laid bare and courage and heroism come to the fore.
-
-
What an epic story what great men
- By Michael on 02-12-14
-
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- By: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
-
-
The truth
- By Bobbyg on 10-08-19
By: Harold G. Moore, and others
-
The Lions of Iwo Jima
- The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Bloodiest Battle in Marine Corps History
- By: Major General Fred Haynes (USMC-Ret.), James A. Warren
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history, claiming a third of all marines killed in World War II. The relentless fighting on Iwo Jima lasted for 36 days, but most of us only know the iconic photo of five soldiers raising the American flag on Mount Surabachi. For Fred Haynes, a young captain in Combat Team 28, Surabachi was one marker in a ferocious blood-letting against an enemy of 22,000 warriors who were dug into caves and tunnels.
-
-
Excellent Account of the Battle
- By Jesse on 11-25-11
By: Major General Fred Haynes (USMC-Ret.), and others
-
In Broad Daylight
- The Secret Procedures Behind the Holocaust by Bullets
- By: Father Patrick Desbois
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Holocaust by Bullets, Father Patrick Desbois documented for the first time the murder of 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine during World War II, based on wartime documents, interviews with locals, and the application of modern forensic practices on long-hidden gravesites. Nearly a decade of further work by his team, drawing on interviews with 5,000 neighbors of the Jews, has resulted in stunning new findings about the extent and nature of the genocide.
-
-
Wow! From Silence to Hair-Raising Details
- By deb on 01-24-18
-
Beyond Band of Brothers
- The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters
- By: Dick Winters, Cole C. Kingseed
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were called Easy Company, but their mission was never easy. Immortalized as the Band of Brothers, they suffered huge casualties while liberating Europe in an unparalleled record of bravery under fire. Dick Winters led them through the Battle of the Bulge, the attack on Foy, where Easy Company reached its breaking point, and finally into Germany, by which time each member had been wounded. Outside Munich, they liberated an S.S. death camp and captured Berchtesgaden, Hitler's alpine retreat.
-
-
I listen to this over and over
- By David Ewing on 08-10-07
By: Dick Winters, and others
-
Killing the Bismarck
- Destroying the Pride of Hitler's Fleet
- By: Iain Ballantyne
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1941 the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy's pursuit and subsequent destruction of the Bismarck was an epic of naval warfare. In this new account of those dramatic events at the height of the Second World War, Iain Ballantyne draws extensively on the graphic eyewitness testimony of veterans to construct a thrilling story, mainly from the point of view of the British battleships, cruisers, and destroyers involved.
-
-
1960 a young boy became awed
- By torpedo alley on 10-02-19
By: Iain Ballantyne
-
Lightning Sky
- By: R. C. George
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
October 6, 1944. Twenty-year-old Army Air Corps Second Lieutenant David "Mac" Warren MacArthur was on a strafing mission over Greece when a round of 88-mm German anti-aircraft flak turned his P-38 Lightning into a comet of fire and smoke. Dave parachuted to safety as the Lightning lived up to her name and struck the Adriatic Sea like a bolt of flames. In minutes, he was plucked from the water - only to find himself on the wrong end of a German rifle pointing straight at his head.
-
-
A True American Hero
- By David Kinne on 05-10-19
By: R. C. George
-
The Fall of Heaven
- The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran
- By: Andrew Scott Cooper
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this remarkably human portrait of one of the 20th century's most complicated personalities, author Andrew Scott Cooper traces Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He highlights the turbulence of the postwar era, during which the shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers.
-
-
Excellent account of a pivotal and sad time
- By Guerin Shea on 09-05-16