Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

AS A RULE, EACH SUCCESSIVE AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION in the Pacific was larger than the last. Okinawa was the last amphibious operation of the war; accordingly, it dwarfed all previous landings. The ground force included 183,000 combat troops drawn from the army and marines, with an additional 120,000 service troops and engineers. The transport and logistical fleet consisted of more than 1,200 ships. That figure did not include the roughly two hundred warships of Task Force 58 and the British Pacific Fleet, which would furnish air protection. Okinawa was 6,100 miles from San Francisco, 850 miles from Iwo Jima, 920 miles from Manila, 1,400 miles from Guam, almost 1,400 miles from Ulithi—but only 330 miles from the Japanese home islands.