D-days In The Pacific

by Miller, Donald L.

• ISBN13: 9780743269292
• ISBN10: 0743269292
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-04
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

Although most people associate the term D-Day with the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, it is military code for the beginning of any offensive operation. In the Pacific theater during World War II there were more than one hundred D-Days. The largest -- and last -- was the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, which brought together the biggest invasion fleet ever assembled, far larger than that engaged in the Normandy invasion.D-Days in the Pacifictells the epic story of the campaign waged by American forces to win back the Pacific islands from Japan. Based on eyewitness accounts by the combatants, it covers the entire Pacific struggle from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Pacific war was largely a seaborne offensive fought over immense distances. Many of the amphibious assaults on Japanese-held islands were among the most savagely fought battles in American history: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, New Guinea, Peleliu, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, Okinawa.Generously illustrated with photographs and maps,D-Days in the Pacificis the finest one-volume account of this titanic struggle.

Author Biography

Donald L. Miller is the John Henry McCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Note for the Reader	xv
A Note on Japanese Names	xvi
Photo Credits	xvii
The Rising Sun	1	(47)
The Hard Way Back	48	(39)
Amphibious Advance	87	(36)
Saipan	123	(40)
A Marine at Peleliu	163	(20)
The Return	183	(25)
The B-29s	208	(35)
Uncommon Valor	243	(33)
Okinawa	276	(38)
The Setting Sun	314	(35)
Victory	349	(22)
Epilogue: Remembering	371	(5)
Pacific D-Day Invasions: 1942--1945	376	(3)
Organization of the United States Ground Forces, World War II	379	(2)
Notes	381	(30)
Index	411