In November 1943 the men of the 2nd Marine Division watched as bombardments destroyed the Japanese defenses on an islet in the Tarawa atoll. But when the Marines landed the Japanese poured out of their protective bunkers and began one of the most brutal encounters of the war. During the ensuing three days of non-stop fighting the entire island was transformed into an all-encompassing kill zone in which combatants found themselves mixed together in a chaotic hell of crossfires where there was no possibility of retreat-because there was nowhere to retreat to. Drawn from sources such as participants' letters diaries and interviews with survivors this is the riveting true account of a battle between two determined foes neither of whom would ever look at each other the same way again.
