The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 / James D. Hornfischer,

With its thunderous assault on the Mariana Islands in June 1944, the United States crossed the threshold of total war. In this tour de force of narrative storytelling distilled from extensive research in new primary sources, James D. Hornfischer brings to life the campaign that was the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender--and forever changed the art of modern war. With a close focus on high commanders, front-line combatants, and ordinary people, American and Japanese alike, Hornfischer tells the story of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War as has never been done before. Here are the epic seaborne invasions of Saipan, Tinian and Guam; the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot; the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams; the largest banzai attack of the war; and daring combat operations large and small that made possible the strategic bombing offensive culminating in the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.