Tarawa: A Hell of a Way to Die 20-23 November 1943

by Derrick Wright

Book Overview

Tarawa Atoll in the Central Pacific was the November, 1943 testing ground for America's ability to take heavily defended Japanese-held islands. The trial lasted three and a half days and would cost... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859150284
• ISBN13: 9781859150283
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Combined Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Amazing!

I am always astounded by sheer brazen courage of men under fire. This book takes you there from start to finish you are in the heat of the battle. You can almost sense the horror the Marines felt wadding ashore, weapons held high, while enemy machine guns ripped them to pieces! That they endured such horrendous cost and ultimately triumphed over a deeply entrenched enemy is nothing short of miraculous. If you seek the truth about the awful battle for Taraww this is the book for you. I highly recommend it.

Well detailed gripping account of pure hell

This work takes you from an outline of the Pacific war so far, through the crucial planning stages, detailing the lack of imformation about the objective that was to prove fatal to so many good men and culminates in a blow by blow account of the action itself. Many eye witness testimonies bring the action to life and you find yourself along side them, sheltering behind the bullet raked log sea wall, out of water, with no way forward and no way back. But you are one of the lucky ones. All around you is the chaos of an assault from the sea. LVT's wrecked and burning, riddled with bullet holes, dead floating in the lagoon by the hundred, but the tiny island had to be taken at any cost. Gripping stuff from cover to cover, many black and white photos, useful maps and informative, orders of battle and other appendices. I highly recommend it to any historian or enthusiast of World War Two in the Pacific.