On February 19, 1945, the United States Marines landed on the black, volcanic sands of Iwo Jima to bring the war in the Pacific to the front doorstep of Japan. Twenty thousand Japanese soldiers awaited them, protected by one of the most formidable systems of defense in the history of warfare. They had vowed to fight to the death, and that is exactly what they did. In this book Robert Leckie describes the horror and the heroism that accompanied the bloodiest and most renowned battle in the annals of United States arms.

From the description in the book