And we lost more than 12,500 during Operation Iceberg, the capture of Okinawa.
I question the Iwo operation, was it needed? Could another island or Okinawa have served the same purpose? Also the invasion of Peleliu which I can find no reason for not hoping right past this island. MacArthur I always thought was way over rated. His reaction to the surprise at Pearl Harbor is mind blowing, it’s like they knew what was coming and still couldn’t prepare and his movement to the Bataan peninsula trapping his army, I don’t get it.
In Europe Montgomery was a disaster along with Mark Clark on the American side. They prolonged the war, but then again hindsight is 20/20. They did the best they could with what they had.
Victor Davis Hanson’s cousin Victor Hanson was one of the US Marines killed on Okinawa in May 1945, in the fighting on Sugar Loaf Hill. June 18th will be the 70th anniversary of the death of Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., on Okinawa (son of the man who surrendered Fort Donelson to U.S. Grant in 1862).