D-DAYS IN THE PACIFIC: The Final Graveyard

With the capture of the Marianas, the US amphibious war had pierced the inner defence ring of the Japanese Empire, and with MacArthur and Nimitz poised to attack the Philippines and islands on the Japanese doorstep, the enemy prepared a fight to the death, one too bloody for America to bear.

None of the warriors who fought their way across the Pacific will ever slight the great Normandy D day. But in some 75 major amphibious operations, Pacific veterans showed the same valour on landings every bit as vital and deadly.