Risultati di "Joseph H. Alexander" in Tutte le categorie

The battle of Okinawa, a grueling three-month conflict spanning a 700-mile stretch from Formosa to Kyushu, involved over a million combatants, including Americans, Japanese, British, and native Okinawans. This monumental clash was not only the largest but also the most costly single operation of the Pacific War, rivaling the Normandy invasion that had occurred just months earlier. Throughout its 82 days of intense combat, the battle claimed an average of 3,000 lives daily—both from the fighting forces and tragic non-combatants. (Joseph H. Alexander)

On Sunday, March 4, 1945, the brutal battle for Iwo Jima reached a critical juncture as the U.S. Marines faced mounting exhaustion after two weeks of relentless fighting. The valiant display of the American flag raised by the 28th Marines on Mount Suribachi had taken place ten days earlier, but the harsh realities of war were settling in. With the V Amphibious Corps (VAC) suffering 13,000 casualties, including 3,000 fatalities, the situation was dire. The front lines had become a chaotic tableau, with American forces still grappling against a tenacious and elusive Japanese enemy. Meanwhile, ...

Tarawa Atoll, located 2085 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor and 540 miles southeast of Kwajalein in the Marshalls, is home to Betio, its principal island. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese swiftly captured Tarawa from the British within just three days. In August 1943, Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance traveled to New Zealand to meet in secrecy with Major General Julian C. Smith and his senior staff. During this pivotal meeting, Spruance instructed the Marines to prepare for an amphibious assault on Japanese positions in the Gilbert Islands come November. Lieutenant Colonel ...

On November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, 5,000 men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the 300-acre Pentagon parking lots. Before the first day ended, one-third of the marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor and six thousand combatants would die.