The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945--The Last Epic Struggle of World War II

by Bill Sloan

A narrative account of the large-scale land-sea-air battle during the spring of 1945 profiles the conflict as a sobering clash that was marked by the death of America's highest-ranking officer killed during World War II, the hara-kiri deaths of two top-ranking Japanese commanders, and the deaths of more than 250,000 soldiers, sailors, and civilians. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Military History, Military Fiction, War, American History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Bill Sloan is a respected military historian, former newspaper reporter/editor and author of more than a dozen books, including Brotherhood of Heroes: The Ultimate Battle. He lives in Dallas, Texas

Reviews

[Sonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father celebrated his 21st birthday less than a month before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. When Congress declared war, he quickly enlisted in the Navy. Although he chose to be assigned to the Navy’s Seabees (construction battalion), he went ashore with the Marines whenever they landed on an island. While I know my father was still on Okinawa when the war ended, that’s the extent of my knowledge about his time there. Like so many men who fought in the war, he never said much about his experiences during the war. When I came across The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa, 1945: The Last Epic Struggle of World War II, it seemed that this was a good opportunity to discover what it might have been like for my father and his buddies while serving on Okinawa. I wasn’t disappointed.

Goodreads’ author page describes Bill Sloan as “a respected military historian, former newspaper reporter/editor and author of more than a dozen books.” Some people might take exception to calling Sloan a historian. Sloan is not an academician. He is a freelance writer who was an investigative reporter and feature writer for the Dallas Times Herald before spending moving to the tabloid industry where he served as the editor of the National Enquirer, the National Tattler, and the Star. But I won’t hold that against him.

The Ultimate Battle is the story of the last great battle of World War II. The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, began on April 1, 1945 with the largest amphibious assault in the Asia-Pacific theater of World War II. While the three-month battle was one of the largest, most fiercely fought battles in American history, the Americans were stunned by the lack of Japanese resistance when they landed. A week passed before they encountered the enemy; but when the fighting started it lasted for three brutal months. The U.S. Tenth Army landed 183,000 combat troops against 77,000 troops of Japan’s 32nd Army supplemented by 40,000 Okinawan conscripts. Instead of defending the beaches, the Japanese commander had located his troops on the island’s mountainous southern third, where they had dug a series of interlocking underground tunnels. When scouts of the 96th Division stumbled onto the formidable Japanese defenses near Kakazu Ridge, fierce fighting erupted that would continue without relief for nearly three months.

The nature of the Japanese entrenchment “rendered many of the military concepts and tactics employed at Okinawa … as obsolete on the battlefield as spears, arrows and stone catapults." Much of the modern Allied air power and armament was of little use to them. This was now an individual infantryman's war, with individual American and Japanese solders fighting to the death among the caves and rocks of Okinawa. Perhaps this explains why the book is not a traditional military history that focuses on warfare at the highest levels, including planning and resource management. Instead, The Ultimate Battle is told from the perspective of the of the individual soldiers, airmen and sailors who participated in the Okinawa campaign. Sloan interviewed roughly seventy veterans of the battle in addition to researching other oral histories. The result is a series of vignettes covering the campaign that resulted in nearly 50,000 American casualties and cost more than 100,000 Japanese lives. This is the story of men pinned down under relentless fire on difficult terrain, sailors fighting the flames on ships besieged by kamikazes, and airmen in their cockpits fighting off Japanese planes.

Sloan makes it clear that the fight for Okinawa was so ferocious and the casualties so horrific that it helped to convince President Truman to use the atomic bomb in the hope that it would shorten the war. Japan’s defense of Okinawa convinced U.S. leaders that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would lead to massive American casualties.

The result is a powerfully moving story and uniquely personal account. The Ultimate Battle comes as close as any book can to conveying the horrors of the campaign. As well-written and graphic as this book is, it is not without flaws. This book is written almost entirely from the American viewpoint; it lacks accounts from Japanese soldiers. In addition, the book is written for non-academics. Readers interested in the strategic and tactical issues associated with the battle will probably find the book wanting.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Demasiado peraltado.-

Género. Historia.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Okinawa (publicación original: The Ultimate Battle. Okinawa 1945, 2007), con el subtítulo La última batalla, es la narración, desde el punto de vista casi exclusivo de las fuerzas estadounidenses, de la Operación Iceberg, la lucha por la isla de Okinawa, el último paso antes de acercarse a Japón, durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Jesper Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently commuting alone by car I have the opportunity to listen to audio books. And I like it, it adds another layer to the story. And “The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945--The Last Epic Struggle of World War II is” is splendidly narrated by Robertson Dean

I like the way the author switches from personal stories from Army, Navy and Marine veterans to the overall picture to the history of more specific areas like night fighters and the origin of the idea of kamikaze attacks.

In the end, President Truman, chose to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, based on extrapolated numbers of dead and wounded as high as 500.000 to one million Americans and allies.
The decision is still widely disputed. I, for one, am grateful that I was the not one who had to decide

The history of the battle is gruesome and impossible to comprehend. However, still, the book is one of my all time favorites

[Megan Joice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book, I realized how much I knew about the European front and how little I knew about the Pacific front of WW2. I had a vague notion of what the fighting was like on Okinawa, but this book perfectly gave me a sense of how exacting a toll that battle really took on our troops. The soldiers who are introduced throughout the book give this story a personal touch. It is extremely well researched and well written. For those looking for a great history book on the Pacific War, I would strongly recommend this.

[Chadd VanZanten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sloan borrows liberally from other WWII writers (e.g., Sledge and McMillan), but the result is an engaging, high-resolution account of the air, sea, and ground battles of this unique campaign.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Sloan's "Brotherhood of Heroes" about Peleliu and found it to be a quality volume covering a seldom referenced battle. Continuous quotations from only a few sources was a nuisance, but I felt that it did not detract from the work. I hoped that "The Ultimate Battle" would be comparable in quality, but was mistaken. What was a nuisance in "Brotherhood" was taken to the next level in "Ultimate." If you have read Sledge's "With the Old Breed," you can skip over what seems to be a quarter of this book. And the text that is left is full of errors and oddities that a knowledgeable editor would have caught. For example, when discussing the plight of LSM(R)s 197 and 198, the author claims one was sunk by kamikazes early in the battle while the other had to continue to face them. However, in the next paragraph the ships are switched, and that which had been "sunk" returns to fight the following day. I still don't know which ship was sunk in action and which survived the war. The author references Japanese "snipers" firing Nambu LMGs. It's entirely possible that these crew served weapons were well sighted within a defensive belt on the island, but they are not a sniper's weapon. The author claims the Japanese fired thermal AT rounds from 47mm guns at American tanks. I know this was not the case because the Japanese military doesn't have thermal AT shells today. The author at various times inserts a bulleted list of items in the text. The lists have little continuity, and it seems that they were there to list events to be discussed in that section at a future date, but the author never came back and filled them out. The reader is in essence reading from an outline. My favorite literary mishap is the following line, taken directly from the text: "The Yamato's, 100 antiaircraft batteries, with guns ranging up to five miles, formidable provided aerial defense."

Ths book has recieved a lot of praise and was named Book of the Year by various WWII periodicals. However, it is at times factually inaccurate, poorly written, or simply quoted from a memoir. If you want to read Sloan, read "Brotherhood of Heroes." If you want to read about Okinawa, don't waste your money on this book.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Battle of Okinawa was the last great battle of the Pacific War between the Americans and the Japanese. Bill Sloan gives us a very gripping retelling of the story. It's a "grunt's -eye" view relying on the firsthand accounts of the American fighting men in the battle. In this way, he very vividly recreates the horrors of war--and the heroism and sacrifices of the soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen. It's definitive but only from the American side. We don't see so much from the Japanese side.
The body count was horrendous. 107,539 Japanese soldiers KIA, killed in action. American losses totaled 12,520 dead. Interestingly, while most Japanese fought to the death, 10,755 Japanese prisoners were taken. And Sloan does not overlook the terrible effect on the civilian population of the island. As many as 150,000 Okinawan civilians died, 1/3 of the population. The Japanese military had convinced or forced Okinawans to commit suicide, but many deaths were certainly due to the civilians getting caught in the middle of the horrific combat. This battle, like the overall war, should never be forgotten.

[Matthew Dambro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart wrenching account of the last and one could argue the most vicious battle of the Second World War. The sheer carnage of close in, no quarter asked or given, battle that went on for three months is recounted brilliantly. Any who would argue that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unnecessary should read this volume and weep. Our fathers and grandfathers, as children, saved the world.

[Paul Callister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vast in scope of human lives in the horror of Okinawa for everyone involved. Book shows Japan's determination to fight for the homeland and the staggering cost such an invasion would have been.

[Rex Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

They gathered in the Kerama Islands - now a National Park - to invade Okinawa. The brass told them to expect worse on the beaches than it was on Iwo and Pelelieu. They just could not imagine that. But, they made wills, wrote last letters, checked weapons...and then they went. How can we imagine such courage?

At first, it was a walk in the park. But the Japanese had deliberately designed the defense as a series of interlocking lines of underground forts and killing zones away from the beaches. They would fight to the last man and cost the Americans as many as possible for each of them. And they did. Once the rain started, it was not only a complex set of ambushes and nearly impregnable caves and fortresses built into the rock, but a quagmire on top covered with unburied bodies. One American officer said, "If you slipped there was no way of stopping until you slid to the bottom. And when you got there your pockets were full of maggots."

On land, some 14,000 GIs and Marines died. The accompanying sea battle was just as bad, with the Navy suffering its single greatest loss of life, some 12,000, due mainly to kamikaze attacks.

The Japanese strategy was to make Okinawa so painful as to dissuade the Americans from invading the home islands where they would have to fight not only the military but the population and could expect to lose a million casualties. It did not work that way, preparations for the invasion continued. But Okinawa persuaded Truman to use the atom bomb to try to avoid the invasion. That did work.

Sloan gives an almost hour by hour account of this, the last battle of World War II, often in the form of personal stories told by participants. You feel the battle. So compelling it is exhausting.

[Mateo Toledo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido. Versión oficial.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Sloan’s The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945 differs from the “classic” descriptions of the Battle for Okinawa in at least one important way. The classics, like E.B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed at Peleilu and Okinawa, William Manchester’s Goodbye, Darkness, and R. V. Burgin’s more recent Islands of the Damned were first-person accounts of things directly seen and experienced. The view is through a narrow-angle lens, and one has enormous respect for those like Sledge, Manchester, and Burgin who experienced such traumatic events and wrote about them so well.

Sloan’s contribution is a journalistic third-person account based on official records, interviews of participants, and from the classics themselves. It is a wide-angle view of the Okinawa campaign with information on the initial planning, the final execution, and the multiple Army, Navy, and Marine units involved. Still, its value-added is limited. We learn that until mid-1944 the Japanese defenses on the island were sparse, but after Saipan was lost the Japanese realized that Okinawa would be high priority for the U.S. forces. In the last half of 1944 and first quarter of 1945 an intricate system of interlocking caves was dug throughout the island, some containing large artillery pieces, some containing hospitals, others containing barracks. These caves were interconnected so that troops could be redirected from one area to another. In short, once Allied intentions became clear—that Japan would be attacked from the Marianas in the south—Okinawa was turned into the Corregidor of the East China Sea. Regrettably, it was a far stronger defensive platform than Corregidor.

In the earlier planning phase, Formosa had been the U. S. objective, but attention turned to Okinawa because it was closer to Japan and on a direct route to Japan’s Main Islands, making it a better staging base for the ultimate invasion of Japan. The Okinawa invasion plan—Operation Iceberg—required over 1,500 ships and created the Tenth Army, consisting of four Army divisions and three Marine divisions, with total manpower exceeding 540,000; one of the Army divisions that gained notoriety was the 27th Division hastily organized from less-well trained National Guard units. Over time Operation Iceberg’s manpower increased to about 800,000. Of those about thirteen percent would be casualties—killed, wounded, missing in action, and psychiatric—during the eleven weeks of active battle.

While Army and Marine forces faced these formidable defensive fortifications, the Navy had its own problems. The 1,500 ships used in the invasion were harassed by kamikazes, Japanese planes sent on suicide missions to sink ships. This was the heyday of the Kamikaze, the Divine Wind, named after the typhoon that saved Japan from Mongol invasion centuries earlier. The XXI Bomber Command of the XX Air Force, located in the Marianas Islands, blunted the Divine Wind in March of 1945 when Curtis LeMay diverted B-29s from fire raids on Japanese cities and bombing of Japanese military facilities to attacks on the Kamikaze airfields of Japan’s Kyushu Island: as many as 500 Kamikaze aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

The Okinawa landing on April 1, 1945 was predicted to have 80 percent casualties. Instead, there was no initial Japanese resistance. General Ushijima had radically changed Japan’s defensive strategy: gone was the defensive strategy at earlier island invasions—fierce resistance on the beaches and at the airfields, and repeated nighttime banzai attacks. Replacing these was a strategy of attrition of U. S. forces and morale by deeply entrenched Japanese forces—the U. S. Army and Marines would simply batter themselves into defeat by attacks on an unseen and highly mobile enemy.

There were three Japanese defensive lines on Okinawa, all in the southernmost ten miles of the seventy-mile long island south of the landing beaches. The First Defensive Line was the Maeda Escarpment, also called (among other names) Hacksaw Ridge. Located a few miles south of the landing beaches, the Escarpment was a high cliff to a southern plateau held by the Japanese. The First Line followed the Escarpment along Kakazu ridge and across the island. The Second Defensive Line—the Shuri Line—was south of the First Line, cutting across the island passing through the ancient Shuri Castle, under which the Japanese command center was located. The Final Defensive Line was south of the Second Line, at the southern tip of Okinawa, where the densest concentration of Japanese troops would be found.

From the beaches the Army and Marine units searched both northward and southward for the enemy, but significant contact didn’t come until they reached the First Defensive Line on April 5, 1945, four days after the landing. As U. S. troops proceeded southward there was a steady escalation of fighting as Japanese force density increased and the complex cave systems came into play. General Ushijima soon realized that there would be no Japanese victory, but the defense of the island was aggressively followed as a matter of military and national pride, and in the hope of encouraging a negotiated peace by showing the total commitment of Japan to protecting its home islands. Ironically, perhaps one could attribute use of the atomic bomb to the intense Japanese resistance on Okinawa, which clearly demonstrated the excessive losses that would come with an invasion of the Japanese mainland.

Much of Sloan's book contains vignettes of the experiences of individual soldiers and Marines. Many of those are taken from secondary sources and add little to our understanding of the Battle of Okinawa. Rather, they reinforce the horror of that battle, and the total committment of both sides to destroying the other.

Four Stars.

[Lauren Hiebner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last major battle of WWII, three months long with an estimated 240,000 lives lost. The significance of Okinawa is that this was believed to be an indictor of how an invasion of Japan proper would be like. Japan’s strategy here was to make this experience so bad that the US would not want to launch an invasion of Japan. The Japanese had excellent leadership and discipline and were well entrenched for defensive fighting to the last man. Japan conceded the beach area to take the fight rather to the hills where they were able to use the numerous caves to their advantage. Japan also used massive kamikaze attacks on the fleet off shore but with limited success. US attacks took heavy casualties on such places as Sugar Loaf Hill, Shuri Heights, and numerous hills simply numbered, such as Hill 89 where the final attack occurred and the Japanese leadership committed hari kari. An entire chapter is devoted to the plight of the civilians caught between two enemy forces and brainwashed by the Japanese so effectively that many thousands of Okinawans committed suicide rather than surrender. Also Sloan discusses the psychological impact of war on soldiers where the trauma of being “shell shock” was a reality. So, in telling the story of Okinawa Sloan relies largely on the personal stories told by the soldiers/marines/sailors involved rather than an general overview of events. So at times the narrative seems to jump around however this has the benefit of making the story very personal. Sloan puts you on the beach, in the fox hole, on the ship being hit by kamikazes, inside a tank being hit by morters, with soldiers advancing on Kakazu Ridge and many other places. This is all very dramatic and effective. Okinawa was critical for laughing the B-29 bombing raids on Japan and later the base from which the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war. There wasn’t a lot of celebration in Okinawa when the war ended for two reasons. One, many of the soldiers were next to be sent to Japan as occupation forces and not sure what kind of reception they would receive and secondly, soldiers remembered the deaths of many of their comrades buried on the island. This is a very good military historical account of the final deadly battle of WWII.

[Bernard Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 700 page record of the campaign on Okinawa written by reknowned military historian Bill Sloan 60 years after the events.

A visit to Okinawa always mandates a visit to the Peace Park at the south east corner of the island, where the dead from WWII are remembered. There is also a very good museum there detailing the lead up to the American invasion and post war occupation. Wanting to know more of this gruesome chapter in history, I picked up this excellent book.

I got very lucky. Sloan's book is an excellent primer. It offers a perspective of the entire campaign, the fighting from land sea and air, from the operational level, to the view of fighting of the infantry grunt in the trenches. The book is written with material from both official records and scores of interviews with survivors, understandably almost all from the American side. It paints a vivid picture of the campaign.

Sloan's style of recording events from interviews touches on the very tragic loss of life on both sides. Over 250000 people died in Okinawa. Of course, many veterans would name buddies that gave up their lives in the fighting. But 1 in 4 Okinawan civilians also perished in that campaign, which is at a scale that is unimaginable.

There is also a view of the fighting. From the infantry man fighting mud, rain, terrain and dug in Japanese, to tank crews being shot at, to bases and ships facing the onslaught of kamikaze pilots. Sloan's descriptive style allows the reader to almost smell the action. Courage on the battlefield is real.

Millions of tons of munitions must have been used in Okinawa. Something that must have left most of South Okinawa - where the main fighting took place - flattened. Thankfully, modern day Okinawa bears little of the scars left by WWII.

A sombre but very educational read.

[William Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Bill Sloan tells the story of Okinawa 1945 through the eyes of those who fought the battle! What I enjoyed most was his detailing the fighting of the US Army Divisions. Four Army Infantry Divisions fought, the 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th. Three Marine Divisions fought, 1st, 2nd and 6th. The Japanese 32nd Army was the opposition. In the end, 107,539 Japanese soldier bodies of the 110,000 in the 32nd Army were counted. US losses were 12,274 dead and 36,707 wounded and 26,000 were evacuated as non-battle injuries. Japanese tactics were different from previous island battles. The previous experience was a fight for the landing beaches then a prolonged fight to the death by the Japanese. On Okinawa the Japanese did not contest the beaches. They concentrated in natural defensive positions that they embellished and improved and made the conquest of the Island a deadly fight. This fight was no different in that the junior leaders, Sergeants, Lieutenants and Captains suffered heavy losses but additionally senior leaders, Majors, Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels and even Generals were killed or wounded in action. The highest ranking US officer killed was General Simon Buckner the commander of the Tenth Army and leader of the invasion.
The abject fear that they soldiers had because of the Japanese tactics, the stress of continuous fighting at times during terrible weather can be felt by the reader. One can feel also the relief the soldiers and marines felt when the Atomic Bombs ended the war in the Pacific rather than have them invade the Japanese homeland! This is a great book for those interested in the Pacific War.

[D Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

The initial folksy tone of the first pages put me off to some extent, but I forged ahead and was rewarded by an author who has written an emotive and memorable history of the Battle of Okinawa. The battle as it evolved from Love Day through to the end is described in specific terms of marine and combat infantry unit designations and their movements. However, the author's attention to unit details contributes to the understanding of various battlefields across the island. The truly engaging parts of the history are the stories of the individual soldiers as they found themselves confronting an implacable enemy. My only major criticism is that the book suffers from a lack of supplemental, well-marked maps. The included maps lack the necessary details such as specific landmarks and troop dispositions. Nevertheless, the result of all these methods is a history whose personal perspectives and relative thoroughness are rarely encountered in books with this amount of detailed unit designations.

[Kyle Pichler · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are tons of books about every battle from World War II, each with their own unique, incredible stories. The Ultimate Battle shows the extreme dedication of the Japanese to their homeland. They were ruthless in their defense of Okinawa - surrender was not an option, and it was very difficult for the Americans to fathom how to combat an enemy with seemingly no regard for their own lives. If the Japanese could fight this hard for a tiny island outpost and cause tens of thousands of American casualties, how many lives would be lost if the battle were taken to the Japanese home islands? This was a crucial decision that played a large part in the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the belief that the Japanese would never surrender and the war would drag on endlessly. Great book

[Ken Burkhalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better histories of the Okinawa battle, the last big contest of WWII. My father fought in the Aleutians, Marshalls, at Leyte, and Okinawa, so this volume has special interest to me. Sloan does an excellent job of weaving a very complex narrative into a book that portrays the hardships, heartbreak, and sheer power of will during the climactic battle. Readers familiar with E.B. Sledge's With the Old Breed will meet the author again, as he and others become touchstones for Sloan, especially in the latter stages.

On a personal note, I learned more about dad's experiences, which helps to explain some of the troubles he struggled with. The term PTSD was not around back then, but it was certainly as real as today. There is understanding in this work for those who are interested, and with it comes a bit of healing.

[Bill V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about the fourth book I've read on the Battle of Okinawa and none of them have really impressed me. Of the 4, I would rank this the second best title. I was disappointed in the lack of maps. The author's choice of areas to focus on left something to be desired. It seemed the air, sea and ground components got about equal coverage. I would have devoted more to the ground aspect. While I understand their role in the campaign was for a longer period of time, it struck me as odd that more space would be devoted to the destroyer escorts on picket duty than to the final voyage of the Yamato. Some of the facts struck me as odd, such as referring to some Japanese float planes as Kates, which were carrier-based torpedo and ground attack aircraft.

[Roger Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stationed at Camp Courtney 1968.

The island was beautiful. The native Okinawans did have organized protests in front of Kadena air base carrying signs,"Yankee go home". Some live ordinance and unexploded shells were still occasionally found. Otherwise little remained of the incredible battles described by Sloan. Okinawa was one of several R and R sights for Vietnam soldiers. I would personally like to thank author Bill Sloan for a marvelous book recreating the intense drama of a never to be forgotten time in our history.

[Skuli Saeland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nokkuð góð frásögn af baráttunni um Okinawa í Síðari heimsstyrjöldinni. Þetta voru síðustu árásir bandaríska hersins og hernaðarlega mikilvægur hluti japanska eyjaklasans. Japanski herinn varðist af mikilli færni og þrautsegju sem kostaði Bandaríkjamenn fjölda hermanna og sálrænt ástand hermannanna varð mjög bágborið. Erfiðleikarnir við hertöku eyjanna áttu stóran þátt í því að Truman ákvað að varpa kjarnorkusprengjum á Japan til að komast hjá miklu mannfalli við hertöku Japans.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical account of the battle of Okinawa. Really well detailed and researched. The only improvement would have been the addition of maps. It can be hard to follow all the the military units and places. Even some simple maps would have helped a lot. Otherwise a fascinating and detailed book.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific. The author does a great job of moving between the historic events and national level decision makers on both sides that led to this battle and explaining why it became such an important moment in the war, but also showing the battlefield level experience of the front line soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen.

[Pei-jean Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Battle for Okinawa would be the final campaign fought by American forces as they closed in on Japan in the final months of WWII.
This is a great look into the horrors experienced by the men who landed and how the toll it took influenced President Truman to authorise the use of the atomic bombs.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many people have forgotten the brutality and desperation of this battle. It traumatized the people who were involved and helped shape American decisions for how to conclude the war with Japan. Well worth the read but ve aware the author pulls few punches.

[Doug Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great first-person account interviews with warriors in the battle; land, sea and air.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't noticed I'm working my way thru Bill's Books in my Local Library. This one on the Battle of Okinawa is the Best Yet.

[John Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great insight into the extreme hardships and tragedy of this one campaign. Could not imagine being there one day, let alone two months.

[Candace Simar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This non-fiction account reads like fiction. I couldn't put it down. I've known WW2 vets who fought in the Pacific Theatre. This book explains what they could not. A must read for WW2 buffs.

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Very well researched.