D-Days in the Pacific

Donald L. Miller

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2008
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439128817
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

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 Pacific tells 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 Pacific is the finest one-volume account of this titanic struggle.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgment’s
• Dedication
• A Note for the Reader
• A Note on Japanese Names
• Photo Credits
• 1. The Rising Sun
• 2. The Hard Way Back
• 3. Amphibious Advance
• 4. Saipan
• 5. A Marine at Peleliu
• 6. The Return
• 7. The B-29s
• 8. Uncommon Valor
• 9. Okinawa
• 10. The Setting Sun
• 11. Victory
• Epilogue: Remembering
• Pacific D-Day Invasions: 1942-1945
• Organization of the United States Ground Forces, World War II
• Notes
• Index