Reviews for Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945--the Last Epic Struggle of World War II

The average rating for Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945--the Last Epic Struggle of World War II based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-22 00:00:00 Chris Man 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.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-21 00:00:00 John Hayes 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