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Iwo Jima Recon: The U.S. Navy at War, February 17, 1945 (At War)
Iwo Jima Recon The US Navy at War February 17 1945 - At War Author:Dick Camp Iwo Jima, February 17, 1945: The mission: to scout the beaches for underwater obstacles and mines and determine whether the soil would support vehicles. Four Navy Underwater Demolition Teams (predecessor to the SEALS) and twenty-two Marine observers --- backed by battleships Tennessee and Nevada, a cruiser, several destroyers, and twelve Landing... more » Craft Infantry (LCI) ships configured as gunboats proceeded with the operation.
The story of what followed --- the battle for Iwo Jima no one knows --- is fully told for the first time in this book, a heart-stopping account of ill-equipped but heroic forces under fire from an unexpected, overwhelming enemy. Drawing on first-person accounts, deck logs, and after-action reports, Dick Camp brings the action to harrowing life: the thin-skinned reconfigured LCIs fighting it out with the Japanese in a valiant effort to protect the swimmers caught five hundred yards off the beach; the battleship Nevada ignoring orders to withdraw and moving in to knock out the enemys heavy caliber guns; the devastating action --- casualities of 40 percent --- that very likely saved the actual landing on the 19th.« less