Hell Is upon Us

This is the story of the other D-Day invasion, this one in the Pacific Ocean, which would turn the tide of the war against Japan in the summer of 1944. On June 14 1944, little more than a week after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, another mighty fleet steamed towards its own D-Day landing. The target of this mighty US armada was the Marianas Island group, which included Saipan, home to an important Japanese base, and Guam, the first American territory captured in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. When the brutal fighting ended eight weeks later, 60,000 Japanese ground troops and most of the carrier air power of the Japanese Imperial Navy were annihilated. Hell is Upon Us skilfully describes the entire Marianas campaign - World War II's most ambitious combined service operation and the largest carrier battle in history - and provides riveting first-hand accounts of the soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen who fought through the hell of Japan's Pacific defence.