Bøker av Jon Diamond

The campaign for Iwo Jima (Operation Detachment) from 19 February-26 March 1945 pitted the USMC Fifth Amphibious Corps (VAC) and the USN's Fifth Fleet against the IJA 109th Division and assorted IJN ground troops under the command of Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. After neutralizing Japanese air assets on Iwo Jima, the objective was to seize Iwo Jima's two completed airfields in the southern and central sectors and make them operational after the heavy pre- and post-invasion aerial, naval and Marine artillery bombardment. USAAF 7th Fighter Command would then have this Volcano Island as a base from which to escort the four-engine B-29 heavy bombers on their Japanese Home Islands' raids from their Mariana Islands bases and to provide emergency airfields for battle-damaged or low-on-fuel Superfortresses on their return flight that otherwise would have crashed in the sea. The combined American force numbered over 100,000 troops against 20,933 Japanese soldiers and sailors. Kuribayashi's defences were so well fortified with caves, tunnels and daunting terrain that the VAC lost 6,821 KIA and 19,217 wounded compared to approximately 18,000 Japanese troops KIA or MIA with only 216 prisoners taken. In a 'mopping up' phase to clear the remaining Japanese hidden in the island's caves, the Army's 147th IR, 37th Division captured an additional 867 prisoners. This epic USMC campaign resulted in an unprecedented ratio of three American casualties for every two Japanese soldiers. In all, 2,251 emergency B-29 landings were made saving the lives of almost 25,000 aircrew members. The flagraisings atop Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945 galvanized American morale at home.

This latest Images of War series book examines the controversial development of the Allied campaign in Normandy in the weeks after the D-Day landings. After overcoming Rommel's beach obstacles and 'Atlantic Wall' fortifications, a secure Allied lodgment of the five beaches developed along the Caen-Bayeux-Carentan axis with a period of consolidation while reinforcements and supplies were built up.The early arrival of 12th SS Hitlerjugend, 21st Panzer and the Panzer Lehr Divisions delayed Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian capture of Caen until mid-July and prevented an early breakout into the countryside inland from Gold, Juno and Sword which was suitable for armored combat.An early American goal was to cut the Cotentin Peninsula in two at its southern base to prevent the Germans from supplying and strengthening the deep-water port of Cherbourg, which U.S. VII Corps captured on 26 June.Inland from Omaha and Utah, the close 'bocage' country proved advantageous to the German defenders. The Allied breakout occurred at the end of July with Bradley's Operation COBRA near St. Lo followed by the entire Allied front first moving to close the Falaise Gap before heading southward and then pivoting to the east for the capture of the Seine River crossings.These crucial and testing weeks for the Allies are described in graphic contemporary images with full captions and authoritative text.

Fierce Pacific ground, sea, and aerial combat raged between the Allies and Imperial Japan to halt the latter's inexorable advance in 1942-1943. After the American victory at Guadalcanal in February 1943, Admiral Halsey's South Pacific Area (SPA) naval and amphibious forces battled through the Solomon Islands building new and acquiring extant Japanese airfields. Simultaneously General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) Australian-American ground forces, supported by General George Kenney's US Fifth Air Force and other Allied air squadrons, captured Japanese installations in Papua New Guinea before campaigning along Northeast New Guinea's northern coast ousting or bypassing enemy installations there. Using newly-built Papuan airfields, the Allies gained air superiority over New Guinea and also interdicted Japanese maritime supply lines. Yet, the main Japanese southwest Pacific bastion at Rabaul on the northeastern tip of New Britain, the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago, remained. In March 1943, realizing an amphibious assault and ground campaign against Rabaul's naval and army bases would be too costly, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to neutralise Rabaul with a joint SPA and SWPA aerial siege rather than capture it. This IOW volume recounts this strategy during 1943 and 1944 and the December 1943 amphibious landings by the US 1st Marine Division and US Sixth Army units at Cape Gloucester and Arawe, respectively, which successfully isolated the Japanese fortress and satellite bases.

Concise account of the defeat of the Japanese in 1944 and 1945.

The victory at El Alamein proved to be the turning point of the War against Hitler and led to the victory in North Africa.

Covers operations by the British multinational 14th Army and also the American-Sino troops of General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek.

Latest Pacific War Images of War series.

Covers an early little known but hard fought Pacific War campaign. Classic amphibious operation.

Covers an early little known but strategically important Pacific War campaign.

This superbly illustrated and researched book describes the March 1945 assault crossing involving naval amphibious craft, the air and artillery bombardment and diversionary attack by the British 1st Commando brigade at Wesel.

The Invasion and capture of Okinawa was one of the fiercest battles of the Pacific War. The Story of this historic campaign is told in words and well captioned, graphic contemporary images.

Covers the Anzio Landings, breakthrough of Gustav Line and the iconic Monte Cassino battle.

Op HUSKY was a vast and daring multi-national amphibious and air landing. The dramatic story is told in well-researched text and superb images true Images of War style.

In November 1942, eleven months after Pearl Harbor, the United States launched Operation Torch, the invasion of Morocco and Algeria.

Covers the most humiliating British surrender of the Second World War. The campaign remains hugely controversial.

Offers key insights into the tactics, leadership, combat performance and subsequent reputations of six representative Chindit and Japanese infantry units involved in three pivotal actions that hastened Japan's defeat in Burma during World War II.