NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER With the war in Europe winding down in the spring of 1945, the United States turns its vast military resources toward a furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan—the heavily fortified island of Okinawa. The three-month battle in the Pacific theater will feature some of the most vicious combat of the entire Second World War, as American troops … as American troops confront an enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the shame of surrender. Meanwhile, stateside, a different kind of campaign is being waged in secret: the development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists who build it know just what they are about to unleash. Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city. As President Harry S Truman mulls his options and Japanese physician Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a clinic near Hiroshima, citizens on the home front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming.
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Usually I rate Shaara books with five stars. Obviously well researched story with real characters realistically portrayed, but the last 1/2 of the book fell flat and unemotional to me.
This was the last book in the series about WWII Mr. Shaara who has always made you feel the action of the battle though you are not there. has taken the battle of Okinawa and has combined brothers one who is fighting with the 82nd in Europe and made the Normandy drop, with bringing in the past of the civil war with a new set of generation fighting …
5 stars
Coming to power in 1940 is General Hideki Tojo who is stridently anti-American comes to power as the War Minister. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is set against Tojo’s plan to take over America, he calls Tojo’s plan “utter foolishness.”
While battles such as Saipan, Guam and the Philippines are mentioned, the main focus of this book is the …
Great book. Gives eye opening view of Okinawa battle. Not quite as good as European trilogy – in my opinion.
Any book by this author is wonderful
Only disappointment that I have with Shaara’s WWII series is that his last book is the only one of the four to look at the Pacific theater. Would have been better if he had written this as a three-part series for that theater.
You don’t need to have read the previous three novels in his WWII series to enjoy this one.
Shaara is an enjoyable …