The Lions of Iwo Jima: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Bloodiest Battle in Marine Corps History (John MacRae Books)

Fred Haynes, a WWII veteran and Major General, presents an account of the battle for Iwo Jima. Combat Team Twenty-Eight, a U.S. Marine unit of approximately 4,500 men, landed on Iwo Jima's black sands on February 19, 1945, and engaged in intense combat that extended beyond the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. Seventy percent of the team's three assault battalions were killed or seriously wounded. Haynes, who served as a young captain during the battle, was directly involved in planning and coordinating the operation. Working with military journalist James A. Warren, he draws on previously untapped documents, personal narratives, letters, and survivor interviews to detail what the Marines experienced. Many of these accounts are presented for the first time, documenting the extreme human cost of the fighting.