Operation Iceberg

Here is a unique recreation of one of the century's most decisive battles - the terrible, four-month conflict that preceded by a scant eight weeks the Japanese surrender on V-J Day. Operation Iceberg, as it was known, saw the fiercest attacks of kamikazes in the entire Pacific Theater of War. The U.S. fleet suffered 34 ships sunk, 368 damaged, 5,000 sailors killed and 5,000 more wounded. Before it was over 7,700 American soldiers were killed and 31,800 were wounded until the Japanese, with a garrison of 100,000, finally surrendered. In Operation Iceberg Gerald Astor draws on the raw experiences of marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen under fire, from generals and admirals to correspondents, line officers and enlisted men on both sides of the battle lines. Their accounts are dramatic and graphic, brutal and awe-inspiring. Based on these first-hand accounts, and presenting a view of the battle that places it in the greater context of the entire Pacific theater, Operation Iceberg is a remarkable account of the last great battle of World War II.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.