Iwo Jima was the United States Marine Corps' toughest ever battle and a turning point in the Pacific War. In February 1945, three Marine Divisions stormed the island's shores in what was supposed to be a ten-day battle, but they had reckoned without General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the enemy commander. 'Do not plan for my return,' wrote Kuribayashi in one of his many letters to his wife, Yoshii. He knew that he and his garrison could not defeat the Marines, but he was determ...

The American 'island-hopping' campaign in the Pacific during the Second World War was a crucial factor in the eventual defeat of Japan in 1945. The assault and capture of these islands meant US bombers and their fighter escorts could now reach mainland Japan, disrupting and eventually crippling its war economy. The battles on Tarawa, the Marshall Islands, the Marianas group, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa were all characterised by savage fighting and heavy casulaties on bot...

A definitive account of the famous battle of Iwo Jima, and the men who fought there.The battle of Iwo Jima saw one hundred thousand men fighting over a tiny volcanic island of just 8 square miles. The island was of major strategic importance to the US Air Force. However, it was also of supreme importance to the 20,000 Japanese troops who were deeply entrenched in the island when the Marines invaded, and to whom surrender was not an option. The titanic struggle drag...

Meticulous detail and insightful analysis combine with a gripping chronological narrative to provide the essential guide to the Pacific Theater of World War II.On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes appeared from the clouds above Pearl Harbor and fundamentally changed the course of history; with this one surprise attack the previously isolationist America was irrevocably thrown into World War II.This definitive history explores each of the major battl...

A definitive account of the battle of Iwo Jima, from its origins to its hard-fought conclusion.One of the decisive battles of the Second World War in the Pacific, Iwo Jima was described by Lieutenant-General Holland Smith, Commander Fleet Marine Forces Pacific, as 'The most savage and most costly battle in the history of the Marine Corps' - a titanic struggle that eclipsed all that had gone before.Situated halfway along the B-29 Superfortress route to the J...

An detailed examination of this bloody Pacific battle, featuring maps, artwork and archive photography.The island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll was defended by the elite troops of the Special Naval Landing Force, whose commander, Admiral Shibasaki, boasted that "the Americans could not take Tarawa with a million men in a hundred years". In a pioneering amphibious invasion, the Marines of the 2nd Division set out to prove him wrong, overcoming serious planning errors...

A harrowing account of an epic, yet nearly forgotten, battle of World War II—General Douglas MacArthur's four-year assault on the Pacific War's most hostile battleground: the mountainous, jungle-cloaked island of New Guinea.“A meaty, engrossing narrative history… This will likely stand as the definitive account of the New Guinea campaign.”—The Christian Science MonitorOne American soldier called it “a green hell on earth.” Monsoon-...

On 19 February 1945, Operation Detachment began with US marine forces storming Iwo Jima, aiming to capture the island and its airfields. This was the first campaign on Japanese soil and would result in some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific. A brutal example of war at all costs, the defending garrison fought to almost the last man; it was a fight they couldn't hope to win against the superior US numbers, but they exacted horrific casualties on the invading forces bef...

No war has tested the resolve of the American people and her fighting men as did the battles in the Pacific. This book is a visual testament to the key battles fought in the Pacific.On December 7, 1941, as the Japanese dived out of the clouds above Pearl Harbor, America's future was fundamentally altered. Ever since the first world conflict, the United States had resisted the temptation to be drawn into wars outside of its borders. But with this one surprise attack...

An in-depth examination of the United States' invasion of two Pacific islands, featuring a variety of illustrations throughout.The 1944 invasion of Saipan was the first two-division amphibious assault conducted by US forces in World War II. Saipan and Tinian had been under Japanese control since 1914 and, heavily colonized, they were considered virtually part of the Empire.The struggle for Saipan and Tinian was characterized by the same bitter fighting that...

Although U.S. Marines had broken the back of the Japanese on Guadalcanal in furious combat between August 1942 and February 1943, much hard fighting remained to be endured on jungle-choked islands to the north. Between late 1942 and the end of 1943, the Marines on the ground and in the air took part in a series of battles and campaigns in the central and northern Solomon Islands, all part of the effort to reach and neutralize the Japanese regional air, naval and supply base at Rabaul, at t...

This vividly detailed WWII history chronicles the bitter conflict at sea between Allied and Japanese naval forces.The Pacific War was primarily fought at sea. Naval power allowed the Japanese to mount their attack on Pearl Harbor and then advance westwards and southwards. It also enabled the Allies to strike back and even take the war to Japan itself. The tide turned very quickly, with the US victory at Midway in June of 1942 ending any Japanese hope of domination.