Winner of the 2011 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, The Twilight Warriors is the engrossing, page-turning saga of a tightly knit band of naval aviators who are thrust into the final—and most brutal—battle of the Pacific war during World War II: Okinawa.April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Third Reich is collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are … Europe, and the Americans are overpowering the once-mighty Japanese Empire in the Pacific. For a group of young pilots trained in the twilight of the war, their greatest worry is that it will end before they have a chance to face the enemy.
They call themselves Tail End Charlies: They fly at the tail end of formations, stand at the tail end of chow lines, and now they are catching the tail end of the war. What they don’t know is that they will be key players in the bloodiest and most difficult of naval battles—not only of World War II but in all of American history.
The Twilight Warriors relives the drama of the world’s last great naval campaign. From the cockpit of a Corsair fighter we gaze down at the Japanese task force racing to destroy the American amphibious force at Okinawa. Through the eyes of the men on the destroyers assigned to picket ship duty, we experience the terror as wave after wave of kamikazes crash into their ships. Standing on the deck of the legendary superbattleship Yamato, we watch Japan’s last hope for victory die in a tableau of gunfire and explosions.
The fate of the Americans at Okinawa, including a twenty-two-year-old former art student, an intrepid fighter pilot whose life abruptly changes when his Corsair goes down off the enemy shore, and a young Texan lieutenant who volunteers for the most dangerous flying job in the fleet—intercepting kamikazes at night over the blackened Pacific—is intertwined with the lives of the “young gods”: the honor-bound kamikaes forces who swarm like killer bees toward the U.S. ships.
The ferocity of the Okinawa fighting stuns the world. Before it ends, the long battle will cost more American lives, ships, and aircraft than any naval engagement in U.S. history. More than simply the account of a historic battle, The Twilight Warriors brings to life the human side of an epic conflict. It is the story of young Americans at war in the air and on the sea—and of their enigmatic, fanatically courageous enemy.
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My father was in the Navy on Okinawa during WWII, but he never talked about it much other than to say he worked on keeping the airfields open and that the best advice he got was from his CO telling him to sleep on his side so that the kamikaze’s had less to hit.
I read this book to understand more about the battle for Okinawa, though I am not a WWII history buff or a war buff. This book will appeal to both as it is extremely well researched. The author alternates between the Japanese officer’s point of view and that of the American forces CO’s battle by battle. He makes the history come alive by using real soldier’s names and stories. I now know why my Dad followed his CO’s advice when he went to bed, and I also know that it saved his life the night a bomb landed in his barrack.
The battle for Okinawa told from the point of view of the U.S. Navy and it’s aviators! Excellent history, and a well-written story.
Well written documentary
It became a little confusing. The author started following several Naval aviators who were getting into the war at the very end – hence the name. However, it wanders afield encompassing the lead up to the battle for Okinawa and the Kamikazi attacks on the US fleet. Still not a bad read.
Goes from action to action, rather than a lot of conversation.
One of the best accounts I have read if this WWII theater.
Now that I am in my twilight years I feel I still have something for some one or a company that could use my expertise. These old warriors gave us victories in almost every battle in the Pacific. Great reading.
A definitive telling of a complex series of moves by US Marines and naval aviators to reduce the Japanese forces by brute force. The Japanese were the nearly immovable object against which the powerful hammer of US might was unleashed. A watershed campaign that foretold the horrors that would come if invasion of the main islands of Japan were to be accomplished. This led directly to the choices made to deploy atomic bombs rather than a conventional slugfest of armies and an entire country that could have been the end of Japan as a country.
The author convincingly takes the reader into the various individual life and death struggles between two warring nations. His insights reveal how seamen, aviators and the common combatants pit their skills, bravery and survival skills against each other in the final battles that will lead to the end of the hell that was the naval duel in the South Pacific at the close of WW II. Poignant recounting of the myriad details of individual actions and decisions that ultimately evolve into vast desperate battles in an unforgiving ocean.
Great perspective on island hopping in the Pacific during WWII and the assault on Okinawa. It especially delved into the roles that the new terror weapon of the Kamikaze.
Excellent and factual account of the Naval Aviators who “almost missed the war”. Emphasis was n the youth of many, and life taking chance to gain experience in aerial combat with a nod to “bad luck” as well as “good luck”.
Very well written … History is the only books I read and this was a page-turner..
Love WWII non-fiction. Awesome account of what happened with the fly boys!
A very interesting account of WWII’s bloody struggle for Okinawa, that is well written, nicely researched, and fast paced, –history at its best. A most enjoyable and informative read particularly for old pilots, former marines, and old Navy men.