Japan's Battle of Okinawa, April - June 1945; Leavenworth Papers, Number 18

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, May 1990. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. 195 pages. Some soiling and slight wear to covers. Includes Maps, Figures, Tables, Preface, and Acknowledgments. Chapters include information on Anticipation of the Battle, March 1944 to March 1945; Defensive Engagement, April 1945; Lethality in Motion: Tactics; Attack and Retreat, May 1945; and The Last Days, June 1945. Also includes information on Japanese Casualties, American Casualties, and a Conclusion. Appendix A lists 32nd Army Staff; Appendix B lists IJA 32d Army Order of Battle, March 1945; Notes appear on pages 131-139; Bibliography appears on pages 141-143. Dr. Thomas M Huber is a staff-member of the US Army Command and General Staff College, Combat Studies Institute, Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In modern military literature, there is no more pernicious theme than that the day of the infantryman has passed us by, overwhelmed by increasingly lethal technology. Japan's Battle of Okinawa takes us into the world of the modern infantryman and illustrates in vivid detail Clausewitz' dictum that combat is to war as cash payment is to commerce. Dr. Thomas M. Huber's work is unique: for the first time in English, the Battle of Okinawa is analyzed from the vantage point of the Japanese defenders. Basing his work on extensive research in Japanese military archives, Dr. Huber affords the reader a view of the Okinawa battles literally from "the other side of the hill." Okinawa was the most sanguinary of the Pacific island battles of World War II. Its occurrence came at a point in the war when both combatants had accumulated years of experience in planning and executing complex operations on island terrain and had developed an array of fearsomely lethal weapons whose doctrines of employment were in full bloom. This meant that the ground at Okinawa would be contested in ways that were reminiscent of the Western Front of World War I. In this respect, this book may provide its most valuable service by depicting a part of World War II far removed from the plains of Europe that are so familiar to us today. For, although the tools of war employed in Europe were present on Okinawa, the shape, the tempo, and indeed the character of the operations on Okinawa were entirely different from those in Europe. Still, the Okinawa operations were every bit as testing of men and materiel as those in any venue of battle in the whole war. Professional soldiers and students of modern war will be rewarded by reading this informative and insightful study, which is so suggestive of contemporary problems bearing upon the employment of infantry and other arms in high-intensity combined arms operations in inhospitable terrain against, it must be said, an implacable and skillful enemy. Leonard P. Wishart III Lieutenant General, USA Commandant. Condition: Good.

Keywords: World War 2, Japan, Battle of Okinawa, Imperial Japanese Army, 32d Army, Cave Warfare, Antitank Tactics, Ritual Suicide, 62d Division, Oroku Peninsula

[Book #79396]

Price: $45.00

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