History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: Victory in the Pacific 1945

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University of Illinois Press, 05.02.2002 - 407 Seiten
"This final narrative volume of Morison's history recounts the infamous campaigns for Iwo Jima and Okinawa, two of the most bitterly contested campaigns of the war.When the U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima, they expected to secure it within a few days. No one had anticipated Japan's determination to defend the island to the last man. Morison describes the Japanese defense system of camouflaged rifle pits and fortified gunning positions that held the Allies at bay and the heavy and continuous cover of naval gunfire that prevented even greater losses. As it was, the securing of Iwo Jima cost the United States more casualties than had been incurred in taking any other island in the Pacific. On Okinawa, the conflict stretched over six long, bloody months.As land forces struggled for every inch they took on the islands, the U.S. Navy faced the desperate fury of the kamimaze corps and its harvest of flaming terror: explosions, burning and flooded ships, searing injuries and death. Fierce weather, logistical complexities, Japanese submarines, and the unexpected death of President Roosevelt also took their toll. Morison concludes his epic account with the final skirmishes of the war, the fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb, and the delicate negotiations leading to Japanese surrender."

Im Buch

Inhalt

Decisions Plans and Preparations October 1944
3
Preliminary Poundings 1018 February 1945
20
Buildup and Support
40
The Conquest of Iwo Jima 19 February16 March
47
Securing the Island 17 March1 June 1945
67
Preparing for the Ryukyus October 1944March
79
The Fast Carriers Contribution 1831 March
94
The Royal Navys Participation
102
Task Force 58 Operations 11 April
209
The Second Week at Okinawa 713 April 1945
215
The Crucial Fortnight 1430 April
233
May Days at Okinawa
251
Okinawa Secured JuneSeptember 1945
273
Pacific Fleet Submarines December 1944August
285
Third Fleet in Japanese Waters JuneJuly 1945
298
Parthian Shots and Final Passes 24 July15 August
317

Moving In on the Ryukyus 18 March1 April
108
More Preliminaries 2531 March
130
The Landings 1 April 1945
140
ICEBERG Logistics MarchJune 1945
156
Feeling Each Other Out 25 April 1945
170
TENGO Gets Going 68 April
181
The End of Yamato 7 April
199
Victory and Peace
336
Task Organization for the Capture
371
United States Ships Sunk or Badly
389
156
398
165
405
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Autoren-Profil (2002)

Samuel Eliot Morison was born in Boston in 1887. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912 and began teaching history there in 1915, becoming full professor in 1925 and Jonathan Trumbull professor of American history in 1941. He served as the university's official historian and wrote a three-volume history of the institution, the Tercentennial History of Harvard College and University, which was completed in 1936. Between 1922 and 1925 he was Harmsworth professor of American history at Oxford. He also was an accomplished sailor who retired from the navy in 1951 as a rear admiral. In preparing for his Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1941) and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1952) he took himself out of the study and onto the high seas, where he traced the voyages of his subjects and "lived" their stories insofar as possible. When it came time for the U.S. Navy to select an author to write a history of its operations in World War II, Morison was the natural choice for the task. In 1942, Morison was commissioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to write a history of U.S. naval operations in World War II and given the rank of lieutenant commander. The 15 volumes of his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II appeared between 1947 and 1962. Although he retired from Harvard in 1955, Morison continued his research and writing. A product of the Brahmin tradition, Morison wrote about Bostonians and other New Englanders and about life in early Massachusetts. He was an "American historian" in the fullest sense of the term. He also had a keen appreciation for the larger history of the nation and world, provincial is the last word one would use to describe Morison's writing.

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