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Japan's Battle of Okinawa, April-June 1945
Japan's Battle of Okinawa, April-June 1945
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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,
the newest of the Leavenworth Papers series, 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, Leavenworth Paper No. 18 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.
has passed us by, overwhelmed by increasingly lethal technology. Japan's Battle of Okinawa,
the newest of the Leavenworth Papers series, 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, Leavenworth Paper No. 18 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.
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