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    The Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It
    The Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It
    The Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It

    Written by Robert Gandt

    Narrated by John Pruden

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Nazis are collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are vastly overpowering the Japanese in the Pacific. For a group of pilots in their early twenties who were trained during the twilight of the war, the biggest concern is that they'll never actually see real action and will go home without having a chance to face the enemy. They call themselves Tail-End Charlies. They fly at the tail end of formations, stand at the tail end of chow lines, and now they are prepared for battle at the tail end of the war. Little do they know that they will be key players in the most difficult and bloodiest of naval battles-not only of World War II but in all of American history: the campaign to take the Japanese island of Okinawa to serve as a basis for an eventual invasion of Japan.

    Derived from interviews with and newly discovered memoirs, journals, and correspondence of Okinawa veterans from both the American and Japanese sides, The Twilight Warriors provides a thrilling you-are-there narrative. Like the HBO series The Pacific, this book combines thrilling action with human stories of courage and sacrifice and triumph. It's Band of Brothers at sea and in the sky.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 17, 2010
    ISBN9781400187942
    The Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It
    Author

    Robert Gandt

    Robert Gandt is a former naval officer and aviator, an international airline captain, and a prolific military and aviation writer. He is the author of thirteen books, including the novels The Killing Sky and Black Star Rising and the definitive work on modern naval aviation, Bogeys and Bandits. His screen credits include the television series Pensacola: Wings of Gold. He and his wife, Anne, live with their airplanes in Spruce Creek, a flying community in Daytona Beach, Florida. You may visit his website at www.gandt.com

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    • 4/5
      Robert Gandt does a fine job retelling the oft-described Battle for Okinawa through the stories of the Twilight Warriors. These men were late to WW2 and were quite concerned that they might be missing it. The conflict for this Pacific Island was the most savage and costly battle ever for the US Navy. For the first time, the Japanese defenders had all the elements for fighting a well-equipped battle against American military. power. They had 100,000+ troops, artillery, food and ammunition as well as a new and devastating air weapon, the Kamikaze. Amazingly, he was able to interview survivors in 2009 testifying to how young they were during this difficult time.
    • 4/5
      At times, this book becomes rather tedious. The same facts seem to be repeating themselves over and over with little progress. From this and other sources, one has to raise the question: was it necessary to fight this battle? It is clear that while the top brass of Army and Navy saluted the same flag, they weren't always on the same course. Once into the battle, for fear of igniting another episode of Navy vs. Army leadership, a World War I type general was allowed to plod along in his own way.But as one reads the same scenario over and over, one begins to see a foretelling of what the next step (the invasion of Japan proper) would be like. The things that might provoke a western-style leadership to think of ending the war were utterly foreign to the Japanese mind. Briefly, there was in Japanese thinking a sense that dying for the Emperor was the highest honor a person could achieve. Where the western mind would call for great sacrifice to protect home and family, the Japanese mind seems all that can possibly be done for the Emperor should be done.If there ever was an object lesson for Harry Truman to convince him to use the Atomic Bomb, Okinawa provided that lesson. Our losses there were extraordinary for the end achieved. One would have to be very gullible indeed to think that at this stage of the war with Japan that Japan would suddenly reverse itself. The morality of dropping the bomb has to be measured against the morality of not dropping the bomb. It is argued that Japan was on its last legs and that it couldn't prosecute the war much longer -- one need only study the use of a device utterly foreign to western thinking: the kamikaze. Every type of aircraft that could get a man into the air with a bomb was used and this even included bi-planes! Okinawa proved beyond doubt that Harry Truman did the right thing.