Hell Is Upon Us: D-Day in the Pacific--Saipan to Guam, June-August 1944

by Victor Brooks

June 14, 1944, just nine days after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, another mighty fleet steamed towards its own D-Day landing. A huge U.S. flotilla of 800 ships carrying 162,000 men was about to attempt to smash into the outer defenses of the Japanese Empire. Their target was the Marianas Island group, which included Saipan, home to an important Japanese base and a large population of Japanese civilians, and Guam, the first American territory captured in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. During the next eight weeks, tens of thousands of men, hundreds of airplanes, and dozens of major warships were locked in mortal combat. When it was over, 60,000 Japanese ground troops and most of the carrier air power of the Imperial Navy were annihilated; Japan's leader, Tojo, was thrown out of office in disgrace; and the newly captured enemy airfields were being transformed into launching bases for the B-29s that would carry the conventional and, later, atomic bombs to Japan, turning the land of the Rising Sun into a charred cinder. After the U.S. victory in the Marianas campaign, the road to Tokyo was clearly in sight.

Genres: World War II, Historical, History

368 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2005

Reviews

[Dr. Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book as the son of a WWII combat veteran who fought in this battle during the Marianna's Campaign.
I enjoyed reading the details of this battle, not just because of my father's involvement in it, but because of the lack of notoriety it achieved in the historical record compared with the fighting that occurred in Europe around the same time. Although less well known than D-day, the carnage and intensity of the combat must have been no less frightening to the GI's involved. Of course, my father like most of the men involved in the war rarely shared their experiences, once they came back stateside, with their families. This was a chance, albeit posthumously, to reconnect with him and appreciate his valor.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good history of the Pacific war. Highly recommended!!

[Robert Gable · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable account of the US invasion of three islands held by the Japanese. The US won with many more men and weapons but the fighting was fierce and the Japanese fanatical and sometimes suicidal. The initial invasion of Saipan gets overlooked since it was a week after D-Day in France.

The book also covers the side story of a Marine commander firing an Army officer.

The coincident Battle of the Philippine Sea removed the threat of Japanese aircraft carriers for the rest of the war. And the US could begin bombing mainland Japan from these new conquests.

I would have liked to have seen more about whether the naval battle was too conservative and could have led to a rout of the Japanese Navy athough the afterward makes clear the island invasion itself went as well as could expected.

[Jackson Hendricks]

Hell Is Upon Us is a good book because it has a lot of information about D-Day i didn't know.
This book taught me things like: The Battle of Normandy lasted from June 1944 to August 1944.
156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on 5 beaches along a 5-mile stretch heavily
fortified coast of frances Normandy region. Hell Is Upon Us is a good suspenseful book that a I
recommend.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

All about the lesser known 1944 battles in the Pacific during WW2. I really liked reading about the Marianna Turkey shoot and the mudhole we stopped in the enemy which they had coming after Pearl Harbor. How quicky the tables were turned on the Japanese Zero. 20:1 shootdown ratio in that battle! Liked reading about the invasions of Saipan and Guam too, you only hear about Okinawa and Iwo Jima.