"The Okinawa Operation was in many ways the most difficult of the Pacific War. Conceived, launched, and supported at long range, it required meticulous detail in both planning and execution. Bad weather, defenses which employed the rugged terrain with great skill and cunning, and a well-trained, resolute defense force combined to give the enemy an advantage that was overcome only by courage, ingenuity, and endurance of the highest order." -- From the foreword by General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., USMC.

"Map section (insert)": 42 fold. maps (part color) inserted.

Background: Strategic background ; Historical notes ; Okinawa and the Okinawans -- Planning ICEBERG: Strategic concepts ; Command relationships ; Intelligence ; Tactical planning ; Logistical planning -- Preparation for the assault: Training and rehearsing ; Mounting and staging for the assault ; Preliminary covering strikes ; Seizure of Kerama Retto ; Prelanding operations -- Japanese defensive preparation: The Thirty-second Army ; Strengthening the defenses ; Reinforcing the Army ; Prelanding dispositions -- Seizure of the beachhead: Severing the Island ; Meeting the enemy ; Logistical progress ; Kamikaze -- Action in the North: Securing the Eastern Islands ; 6th Marine Division advances ; Battle for Motobu Peninsula ; Marines' "Guerrilla War," ; Capture of Ie Shima -- Developing the Shuri defenses: Penetrating the Outpost Line ; Build-up in the South ; Attack of 19 April ; Assaulting the Second Defense Ring ; 1st Marine Division joins XXIV Corps -- IIIAC enters the Lists: Japanese counterattack ; The battle lines are drawn ; Tenth Army attacks ; Logistical progress -- Reduction of the Shuri Bastion: Sugar Loaf Hill ; Wana Draw ; Shuri Heights and Conical Hill ; Struggle in the rain ; Japanese withdrawal -- Ushijima's last stand: Breakout to the South ; The capture of Oroku Peninsula ; Kunishi Ridge ; Iheya-Aguni Operation ; Yaeju Dake-Yuza Dake ; End of organized resistance -- Campaign summary: The clean-up drive ; The Tenth Army's Air Force ; Island Command activities ; Tactical evaluation ; Key to conquest -- Appendices: Bibliography ; Chronology ; Command and Staff List of Marine Unites on Okinawa ; III Amphibious Corps task organization ; Japanese order of battle ; Marine casualties ; Marine and Naval Corpsmen Medal of Honor winners ; Navy Unit Commendations.