"Okinawa delivers you to the front lines of The Pacific Theater with the real-life stories behind the HBO miniseries.
Former Marine and Pacific War veteran Robert Leckie tells the story of the invasion of Okinawa, the closing battle of World War II. Leckie is a skilled military historian, mixing battle strategy and analysis with portraits of the men who fought on both sides to give the listener a complete account of the invasion. Lasting eighty-three days and surpassing D-Day in both troops and material used, the Battle of Okinawa was a decisive victory for the Allies, and a huge blow to Japan. In this stirring account, Leckie provides a complete picture of the battle and its context in the larger war."
"Written by Robert Leckie, whose wartime exploits are featured in the Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg HBO miniseries The Pacific, Strong Men Armed is the perennial bestselling classic account of the U.S. Marines' relentless drive through the Pacific during World War II. As scout and machine-gunner for the First Marine Division, Leckie fought in all its engagements until his wounding at Peleliu.
In Strong Men Armed, Leckie uses firsthand experience and impeccable research to re-create the nightmarish battles of the Pacific campaign—from Guadalcanal to Okinawa—as ships, men, and guns moved over vast distances to fight an enemy that was willing to defend to its last man. Here is the whole sweeping epic of the Marines who battled—and won—on the bloody beaches at Guadalcanal, the unforgiving reefs at Tarawa, the rain-soaked mud of New Britain, the dark gray soil and deadly caves of Mount Suribachi, and the muddy slopes of Shuri Castle on Okinawa. It is a masterful narrative by a writer the New York Times praised as possessing the 'rare gift of capturing all that is human in the most inhuman of man's activities.'"
