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82 days on Okinawa : one American's unforgettable firsthand account of the Pacific war's greatest battle / Col. Art Shaw (Ret.) with Robert L. Wise.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2020]Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First editionDescription: ix, 345 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062907448
  • 0062907441
Other title:
  • Eighty-two days on Okinawa
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Prologue: Prelude to battle. Okinawa ; Surprises ahead ; Settling in ; The enemy emerges ; Coming ashore ; A price to be paid ; Sharpening the focus ; The snakes come slithering in ; Trudging on ; The end of the honeymoon ; No rest for the weary ; Dark days ; Tombstones everywhere ; Cactus Hill coming up ; Cutting the cactus ; Time out ; Tragedy on the ridge ; Slaughter ; The struggle to escape ; Bravery unequaled ; Valor ; No letup in sight ; A storm unabated ; In the dead of night ; While no one sleeps ; What next? -- Starting over: the next phase. The next step ; Struggling on ; Nonstop! ; Clearing the crags ; Going on ; The escarpment ; One more hill to climb ; Onward and upward ; Deadly Deadeyes ; Endless struggle ; Digging in ; Making do ; Plowing ahead ; Disaster ; Conical Hill ; No chivalry left ; Monsoon season ; The lost platoon ; Air strikes ; Stalemate ; Rolling on ; The big apple ; The home stretch ; The final battle ; The bomb ; The road home ; Morning comes again.
Summary: On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, 1.5 million men gathered aboard 1,500 Allied ships off the coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa, to launch the largest amphibious assault on the Pacific Theater. Then-Major Shaw was the first American officer ashore, a unit commander in the U.S. Army's 361st Field Artillery Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Deadeyes. For the next three months their artillery proving decisive against a phantom enemy who had entrenched itself in the rugged, craggy island. This is his unprecedented soldier's-eye view of the Pacific War's bloodiest battle-- the climactic final land battle of World War II.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 940.5425 S534 Available 33111009818838
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 940.5425 S534 Available 33111009637600
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A gritty, first-person account. ... One can hear Shaw's voice as if he were sitting beside you." --Wall Street Journal

An unforgettable soldier's-eye view of the Pacific War's bloodiest battle, by the first American officer ashore Okinawa.

On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, 1.5 million men gathered aboard 1,500 Allied ships off the coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa. The men were there to launch the largest amphib­ious assault on the Pacific Theater. War planners expected an 80 percent casualty rate.

The first American officer ashore was then-Major Art Shaw (1920-2020), a unit commander in the U.S. Army's 361st Field Artillery Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Deadeyes. For the next three months, Shaw and his men served near the front lines of the Pacific's costliest battle, their artillery proving decisive against a phantom enemy who had entrenched itself in the rugged, craggy island.

Over eighty-two days, the Allies fought the Japanese army in a campaign that would claim more than 150,000 human lives. When the final calculations were made, the Deadeyes were estimated to have killed 37,763 of the enemy. The 361st Field Artillery Battalion had played a crucial role in the victory. The campaign would be the last major battle of World War II and a key pivot point leading to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to the Japanese surrender in August, two months after the siege's end.

Filled with extraordinary details, Shaw's gripping account gives lasting testimony to the courage and bravery displayed by so many on the hills of Okinawa.

Includes index.

Prologue: Prelude to battle. Okinawa ; Surprises ahead ; Settling in ; The enemy emerges ; Coming ashore ; A price to be paid ; Sharpening the focus ; The snakes come slithering in ; Trudging on ; The end of the honeymoon ; No rest for the weary ; Dark days ; Tombstones everywhere ; Cactus Hill coming up ; Cutting the cactus ; Time out ; Tragedy on the ridge ; Slaughter ; The struggle to escape ; Bravery unequaled ; Valor ; No letup in sight ; A storm unabated ; In the dead of night ; While no one sleeps ; What next? -- Starting over: the next phase. The next step ; Struggling on ; Nonstop! ; Clearing the crags ; Going on ; The escarpment ; One more hill to climb ; Onward and upward ; Deadly Deadeyes ; Endless struggle ; Digging in ; Making do ; Plowing ahead ; Disaster ; Conical Hill ; No chivalry left ; Monsoon season ; The lost platoon ; Air strikes ; Stalemate ; Rolling on ; The big apple ; The home stretch ; The final battle ; The bomb ; The road home ; Morning comes again.

On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, 1.5 million men gathered aboard 1,500 Allied ships off the coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa, to launch the largest amphibious assault on the Pacific Theater. Then-Major Shaw was the first American officer ashore, a unit commander in the U.S. Army's 361st Field Artillery Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Deadeyes. For the next three months their artillery proving decisive against a phantom enemy who had entrenched itself in the rugged, craggy island. This is his unprecedented soldier's-eye view of the Pacific War's bloodiest battle-- the climactic final land battle of World War II.

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