Roy E Appleman

Okinawa: the Last Battle Roy E Appleman

Publisher Marketing: (Includes maps) The conflict with the Axis Powers confronted the United States Army with problems on a scale never faced before-problems as great in administration, training, supply, and logistics as in strategy and tactics. THE UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II sets forth in detail the nature of the problems faced, the methods used to solve them, and the mistakes made as well as the success achieved. The object is to provide a work of reference for military and civilian students as well as a record of achievements which deserve an honorable place in the pages of history. Its value to the thoughtful citizen as an aid to his comprehension of basic problems of national security has been a major consideration. Its preparation has also been prompted by the thought that in a faithful and comprehensive record all who participated in the Army's vast effort would find a recognition merited by their service and sacrifice. The present volume concerns one of the most bitterly fought battles of the Pacific war, in which the Army, the Marine Corps, and the Navy all played a vital part. In order to make the Army's role and the campaign as a whole as intelligible as possible the historians have treated in detail the operations of the Marine Corps units attached to Tenth Army, and have also sketched the contribution of the Navy both in preliminary operations against Okinawa and in the campaign itself. Another characteristic of this as of other volumes on Pacific campaigns is that tactical action is treated on levels lower than those usually presented in the history of operations in the European theaters. The physical limitations of the terrain fought over in the Pacific restricted the number and size of the units which could be employed and brought into sharp focus the operations of regiments, battalions, and smaller units. A wealth of verified material on such operations is available for all theaters, but it is only that of the Pacific which can be used extensively, since in other theaters the actions of smaller units are lost in the broad sweep of great distances and large forces. The description of small-unit action has the merit of giving the nonprofessional reader a fuller record of the nature of the battlefield in modern war, and the professional reader a better insight into troop leading. Okinawa: The Last Battle was written by U. S. Army historians who participated in the Ryukyus campaign as members of a group organized to accompany the American forces to the Ryukyus and secure at first hand the materials for a history of their operations. This group was formed in Hawaii as a section of the 1st Information and Historical Service, which was attached to Tenth Army in January 1945. Contributor Bio:  Appleman, Roy E Major Roy E. Appleman (1904 1992) served in the U. S. Army in both World War II and the Korean War. He is the author (or co-author) of several military history studies, including "South to Naktong" and "North to the Yalu". Contributor Bio:  Burns, James M James MacGregor Burns (1918-2014) received his doctorate in political science from Harvard. In 1971, Burns won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his biography Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom. He was a former president of the American Political Science Association, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the Academy of Leadership that bears his name at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. Contributor Bio:  Gugeler, Russell A Captain Russell A. Gugeler is the author (or co-author) of several military history studies, including "Combat Actions in Korea". He served in the U. S. Army during World War II.