The Twilight Warriors
Read The Twilight Warriors Online
Authors: Robert Gandt
ALSO BY ROBERT GANDT
NONFICTION
S
EASON OF
S
TORMS
The Siege of Hong Kong 1941
C
HINA
C
LIPPER
The Age of the Great Flying Boats
S
KYGODS
The Fall of Pan Am
B
OGEYS AND
B
ANDITS
The Making of a Fighter Pilot
F
LY
L
OW
, F
LY
F
AST
Inside the Reno Air Races
I
NTREPID
The Epic Story of America’s Most Legendary Warship
(with Bill White)
FICTION
W
ITH
H
OSTILE
I
NTENT
A
CTS OF
V
ENGEANCE
B
LACK
S
TAR
S
HADOWS OF
W
AR
T
HE
K
ILLING
S
KY
B
LACK
S
TAR
R
ISING
BROADWAY
Copyright © 2010 by Robert Gandt
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Broadway Books,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
BROADWAY BOOKS and the Broadway Books colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gandt, Robert L.
The twilight warriors : the deadliest naval battle of World War II and the men who fought it / Robert Gandt.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Japan—Okinawa Island. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations, American. 3. United States. Navy—History—World War, 1939–1945. 4. United States. Navy—Biography. I. Title.
D767.99.O45G36 2010
940.54’25229—dc22 2010014062
eISBN: 978-0-7679-3243-1
v3.1
FOR PAULA AND PHOEBE WITH LOVE
O
LD MEN FORGET: YET ALL SHALL BE FORGOT
,
B
UT HE’LL REMEMBER WITH ADVANTAGES
W
HAT FEATS HE DID THAT DAY
.
—HENRY V TO HIS TROOPS ON THE EVE OF THEIR VICTORY AT AGINCOURT, 1415 (SHAKESPEARE,
KING HENRY V
)
M
ANY OF THESE THINGS I SAW
A
ND SOME OF THEM I WAS
.
—VIRGIL,
THE AENEID
1944
JUNE 17
At Saipan, Admirals King, Nimitz, Spruance discuss Okinawa as next major stepping-stone.
SEPTEMBER 15Air Group 10 re-formed under Cmdr. J. J. Hyland.
OCTOBER 23–26Battle of Leyte Gulf. IJN suffers calamitous defeat.
NOVEMBER 25USS
Intrepid
severely damaged by two kamikazes off the Philippines.