Iwo Jima is perhaps the hardest won and most famous battle in the Pacific theater during World War II. The award-winning, iconic photo of Marines raising the American flag during the battle is remembered by millions as the symbol of how hard fought the victory was in the war.Iwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle: United States Marines in the Pacific takes this iconic flag-raising image one step further. In incredible duotone reproduction, over 500 photos taken by Marine Corps combat photographers during the battle are featured, including over 300 never-before-published that were discovered in Marine Corps archives by author and military historian Eric Hammel. The photos vividly recreate the battle, as it happened: the pummeling of inland targets, the strafing, and the rocket fire that accompanied the landing; the eerie silence that greeted the Marines as they set foot on the island; and then, as the newly-landed Marines regrouped on the shoreline, the horrors of all hell breaking loose. The book also includes detailed maps as well as profiles of each Medal of Honor winner from the battle - including the citation from the President to each honoree reproduced in its entirety that includes detailed descriptions of courage and valor under fire.The fighting on Iwo Jima--thirty-four of the bloodiest days of the Pacific War--comes to harrowing life in this volume, and this book is an instant classic in the genre and a necessary addition to any serious collection of World War II literature.

Between late 1942 and early 1944, the Marines took part in a series of major campaigns in and around the Solomons--including New Georgia, Bougainville, and Cape Gloucester--all part of the effort to reach the Japanese at Rabaul. Eric Hammel has scoured the National Archives to unearth every extant combat photo of these campaigns that paved the way to victory in the Pacific.

Although the 1st Marine Division had broken the back of the Japanese on Guadalcanal in furious combat in October and November of 1942, there was still much hard fighting up the "slot" in the Solomons first in New Georgia, then Bouganville, and finally Cape Goucester on the west end of New Britain, where the 1st Marine Divsion returned to battle at the end of 1943 after being restored following its grueling fight for Guadalcanal.

The Marines campaigns in the Solomons and onto New Britain resulted in the mighty Japanese fortress at Rabaul on the northeast coast of New Britain being isolated and the flank of the continuing army campaign for New Guinea under MacArthur being secured from attacks from Fortress Rabaul. The high watermark of the Japanese in the South and Southwest Pacific had now passed, and the Marines would continue their island hopping in the Central Pacific all the way to Japan.

Some of the biggest battles fought by the Marines during World War II took place on tiny islands scattered throughout the western Pacific.  Among these, the battles for Tarawa and the Marshalls were some of the fiercest and most decisive of the Pacific campaign--critical engagements that this pictorial history brings vividly to life.  In hundreds of rare photographs, many never-before-published, the historic drama unfolds beginning with the 2d Marine Division’s landing on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on November 20, 1943.  Assured that the island’s defenses had been “pounded into coral dust” by naval and air bombardment, the Marines in fact found themselves in the thick of the first modern amphibious assault on a well-defended beachhead. Three days of intense fighting secured the island for the Allies, at the cost of 1,000 Marines dead and more than 2,000 wounded.

 

The book then turns to the Marshall Islands where, early in World War II, the Japanese had built airfields on the Kwajalein and Eniwetok atolls.  Dramatic photographs document the taking of Kwajalein by U.S. Marines and Army troops after the most massive bombardment of the war.  We then witness the landing of the 22d Marines on the five islands of Eniwetok on February 18, followed by the intense fighting that brought the entire atoll under Allied control within four days--securing crucial landing fields and operational support for the Allies’ island-hopping campaign to ultimate victory in the Pacific.  A tribute to the rare courage and heroism that, for the Marines in WWII, were merely a matter of course, this illustrated history keeps their spectacular sacrifices and feats of valor forever before us.

A powerfully written history . . .  Eric Hammel has demonstrated again his genius for bringing the past to life in language that is both understandable and digestible. He accompanies his magnificent prose with many never-before-published photographs of Marines in action during the war. The result is a history masterpiece. . . . A must-read for future generations of Marines. For those who fought the battles, endured the suffering and paid the price, this book is a tribute to their honor, glory and steadfast devotion to duty.—Leatherneck Magazine

Where did the U.S. Marines earn their reputation as being the "first to fight?" It was on the South Pacific Island of Guadalcanal, America’s first land victory of World War II. There, on August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division stormed ashore to begin one of the most difficult and brutal campaigns of military history—and an unbroken string of victories staged across the Pacific. Pacific Warriors takes you from the fighting leatherneck’s first victory at Guadalcanal to their final victory on Okinawa in 1945, their last battle of the war. The book features 300 photographs, many which were never before published.