"This book is a compilation of my interviews with Japanese survivors of the battle, and the family members of those who died during the battle, or since. I promised to tell their stories with no political correctness or modern day revisionism. I added historical references and context to help illsutrate their extraordinary eyewitness accounts."--Author's comments

Originally published: New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.

On February 19, 1945, seven battalions of U.S. Marines landed on the eastern beaches of Iwo Jima. On the southernmost flank, in the shadows of Suribachi, the First Battalion, 28th Marines, stormed ashore into the bloodiest and most renowned of all battles fought by the U.S. Marine Corps. Thirty-six days later, the Marines overran the "Bloody Gorge" and dislodged the last enemy holdouts. The battle was over, but at great cost: 225 of the First Battalion's men died on Iwo Jima. Based on official reports and personal accounts, this is a day-by-day history of the First Battalion, 28th Marines, on Iwo Jima. Each chapter presents an overview of that day's combat and other relevant events, and also contains the text of that day's official regimental and battalion narratives. The text is complemented by a chronology and transcribed muster rolls for February and March 1945.

An award-winning US Marine Corps armor historian's account of the role of US and Japanese tanks on Iwo Jima. The battle of Iwo Jima is iconic and known for its brutality: this was the only battle in which the number of US casualties outnumbered those of the Japanese. But as is often the case with the Pacific campaigns, the tank action on the island has generally been overshadowed by that of infantry. The tank, however, played an important role as a support weapon – especially on the US side – despite the rough terrain and unconventional enemy tactics. Using unpublished official records and veterans' accounts, award-winning USMC armor specialist Romain Cansière sheds new light on Japanese and USMC armored operations on the island. This book offers new information on the battle in a complete, concise, and accessible format, and its illustrations include unpublished photographs from private collections and meticulously researched new color profiles, highlighting the tanks' modifications and their diverse camouflage and markings.

Hailed as "the single most effective pilot at Midway" (World War II magazine), Dusty Kleiss struck and sank three Japanese warships at the Battle of Midway, including two aircraft carriers, helping turn the tide of the Second World War. This is his extraordinary memoir. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "AN INSTANT CLASSIC" —Dallas Morning News On the morning of June 4, 1942, high above the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway, Lt. (j.g.) "Dusty" Kleiss burst out of the clouds and piloted his SBD Dauntless into a near-vertical dive aimed at the heart of Japan’s Imperial Navy, which six months earlier had ruthlessly struck Pearl Harbor. The greatest naval battle in history raged around him, its outcome hanging in the balance as the U.S. desperately searched for its first major victory of the Second World War. Then, in a matter of seconds, Dusty Kleiss’s daring 20,000-foot dive helped forever alter the war’s trajectory. Plummeting through the air at 240 knots amid blistering anti-aircraft fire, the twenty-six-year-old pilot from USS Enterprise’s elite Scouting Squadron Six fixed on an invaluable target—the aircraft carrier Kaga, one of Japan’s most important capital ships. He released three bombs at the last possible instant, then desperately pulled out of his gut-wrenching 9-g dive. As his plane leveled out just above the roiling Pacific Ocean, Dusty’s perfectly placed bombs struck the carrier’s deck, and Kaga erupted into an inferno from which it would never recover. Arriving safely back at Enterprise, Dusty was met with heartbreaking news: his best friend was missing and presumed dead along with two dozen of their fellow naval aviators. Unbowed, Dusty returned to the air that same afternoon and, remarkably, would fatally strike another enemy carrier, Hiryu. Two days later, his deadeye aim contributed to the destruction of a third Japanese warship, the cruiser Mikuma, thereby making Dusty the only pilot from either side to land hits on three different ships, all of which sank—losses that crippled the once-fearsome Japanese fleet. By battle’s end, the humble young sailor from Kansas had earned his place in history—and yet he stayed silent for decades, living quietly with his children and his wife, Jean, whom he married less than a month after Midway. Now his extraordinary and long-awaited memoir, Never Call Me a Hero, tells the Navy Cross recipient’s full story for the first time, offering an unprecedentedly intimate look at the "the decisive contest for control of the Pacific in World War II" (New York Times)—and one man’s essential role in helping secure its outcome. Dusty worked on this book for years with naval historians Timothy and Laura Orr, aiming to publish Never Call Me a Hero for Midway’s seventy-fifth anniversary in June 2017. Sadly, as the book neared completion in 2016, Dusty Kleiss passed away at age 100, one of the last surviving dive-bomber pilots to have fought at Midway. And yet the publication of Never Call Me a Hero is a cause for celebration: these pages are Dusty’s remarkable legacy, providing a riveting eyewitness account of the Battle of Midway, and an inspiring testimony to the brave men who fought, died, and shaped history during those four extraordinary days in June, seventy-five years ago.

Blossoms from the Sky True stories from the Japanese pilots who volunteered to fly an experimental rocket-powered aircraft on a one-way mission to save their nation from looming defeat. The Japanese called it the OHKA (cheery blossom), but to the American sailors and fighter pilots it was known as the BAKA BOMB. Discover the untold challenges faced by naval aircraft engineers as they raced to create the "Yokosuka MXY-7 Marudai," a new secret weapon that promised to sink a battleship with a single blow. Follow the young pilots as they make their individual decisions to volunteer for the mysterious training program. Meet the bomber crews who carried these human-guided, anti-ship missiles towards the US fleet near Okinawa. Discover the courageous US Navy and Marine Corps fighter pilots who saved thousands of lives by throwing themselves between the devastating flying bombs and the ships of US Naval Task Force 58. With over 200 photos, maps, and illustrations the reader will learn about the Ohka "Baka Bomb" and the Betty Bombers that ferried these "flying torpedoes" into battle.

In February 1945, some 80,000 U.S. Marines attacked the heavily defended fortress that the Japanese had constructed on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Leaders of the Army Air Forces said they needed the airfields there to provide fighter escort for their B-29 bombers. At the cost of 28,000 American casualties, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions dutifully conquered this desolate piece of hell with a determination and sacrifice that have become legendary in the annals of war, immortalized in the photograph of six Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi. But the Army Air Forces’ fighter operations on Iwo Jima subsequently proved both unproductive and unnecessary. After the fact, a number of other justifications were generated to rationalize this tragically expensive battle. Ultimately, misleading statistics were presented to contend that the number of lives saved by B-29 emergency landings on Iwo Jima outweighed the cost of its capture. In The Ghosts of Iwo Jima, Captain Robert S. Burrell masterfully reconsiders the costs of taking Iwo Jima and its role in the war effort. His thought-provoking analysis also highlights the greater contribution of Iwo Jima’s valiant dead: They inspired a reverence for the Marine Corps that proved critical to its institutional survival and its embodiment of American national spirit. From the 7th War Loan Campaign of 1945 through the flag-raising at Ground Zero in 2001, the immortal image of Iwo Jima has become a symbol of American patriotism itself. Burrell’s searching account of this fabled island conflict will advance our understanding of World War II and its continuing legacy for the twenty-first century. At last, the battle’s ghosts may unveil its ultimate, and most crucial, lessons.