Okinawa: The Last Battle. Cet article n’est pas disponible.Okinawa: The Last Battle

As the war in the Pacific progressed, the United States and Allied troops fought the Japanese in places like New Guinea and the Marshall Islands, as they made their way closer to Japan’s mainland. Okinawa was the intended base for the planned invasion of Japan. The Japanese, however, were entrenched, and the U.S. and Allied forces found themselves in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Over 100,000 Japanese soldiers, 50,000 U.S. and Allied troops, and more than 100,000 civilians lost their lives during this epic eighty-two-day battle.

From Operation ICEBERG (the invasion of Okinawa) and the invasion of the Ryukyus to the fall of Shuri, Okinawa: The Last Battle offers eyewitness accounts by four U.S. Army combat historians. From their stories, faithfully reported here, learn how American soldiers softened up the Japanese targets before invading the Ryukyus. Read how supply operations, evacuations, and base developments were established. And, learn what it was like to be in battle. With over 200 black-and-white photos, charts, and maps, Okinawa: The Last Battle is the book for anyone who wants to know what the war in the Pacific was really like.

(Includes maps) The conflict with the Axis Powers confronted the United States Army with problems on a scale never faced before—problems as great in administration, training, supply, and logistics as in strategy and tactics. THE UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II sets forth in detail the nature of the problems faced, the methods used to solve them, and the mistakes made as well as the success achieved. The object is to provide a work of reference for military and civilian students as well as a record of achievements which deserve an honorable place in the pages of history. Its value to the thoughtful citizen as an aid to his comprehension of basic problems of national security has been a major consideration. Its preparation has also been prompted by the thought that in a faithful and comprehensive record all who participated in the Army's vast effort would find a recognition merited by their service and sacrifice. The present volume concerns one of the most bitterly fought battles of the Pacific war, in which the Army, the Marine Corps, and the Navy all played a vital part. In order to make the Army's role and the campaign as a whole as intelligible as possible the historians have treated in detail the operations of the Marine Corps units attached to Tenth Army, and have also sketched the contribution of the Navy both in preliminary operations against Okinawa and in the campaign itself. Another characteristic of this as of other volumes on Pacific campaigns is that tactical action is treated on levels lower than those usually presented in the history of operations in the European theaters. The physical limitations of the terrain fought over in the Pacific restricted the number and size of the units which could be employed and brought into sharp focus the operations of regiments, battalions, and smaller units. A wealth of verified material on such operations is available for all theaters, but it is only that of the Pacific which can be used extensively, since in other theaters the actions of smaller units are lost in the broad sweep of great distances and large forces. The description of small-unit action has the merit of giving the nonprofessional reader a fuller record of the nature of the battlefield in modern war, and the professional reader a better insight into troop leading. Okinawa: The Last Battle was written by U.S. Army historians who participated in the Ryukyus campaign as members of a group organized to accompany the American forces to the Ryukyus and secure at first hand the materials for a history of their operations. This group was formed in Hawaii as a section of the 1st Information and Historical Service, which was attached to Tenth Army in January 1945.