History - D-Day In The Pacific Death At The Tideline

D-Day military-speak for start of an amphibious attack operation has become exclusive property of the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944. But there were more than a dozen D-Days in the Pacific, half of them every bit the scale of Normandy, and one of them considerably greater (Okinawa makes Normandy look like a family outing at the beach). In a 3-part overview of WWII Pacific storm landings, we examine the sometimes disastrous, often brilliant learning curve of the Japanese/American opponents. The seriesshows how we developed from the shockingly inept and under-equipped landing on Guadalcanal to the massive, specialized steamroller assaults of 1944-45. On a vast battlefield, 98% ocean, over 1, 600, 000 men, Allied and Japanese, died over four years fighting for pieces of land sometimes not bigger than Central Park. In Part 1, we begin at the beginning Guadalcanal in '42 and follow the Marine assault on Tarawa in '43.