USS Ormsby (APA-49) Recommended Books

If you really want to understand the battle of Tarawa (as I did), I strongly recommend "Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa" by Col. Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret.). I read this book to help understand my father's experience at Tarawa. (Dad's landing craft was sunk at the reef, and he swam/waded in with the marines on the morning of the first day of the battle.) The book knocked my socks off. This is a thoroughly-researched history viewed from both sides of the conflict. It contains many fascinating quotes and anecdotes from the combatants. Maps illustrate the movements of combat units at various stages of the battle making the narrative easier to follow.
 

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Another book I have read and enjoyed was "Bloody Tarawa" by Eric Hammel & John E Lane. It is not as thorough a history of the battle as is "Utmost Savagery", but it is full of photographs (Many disturbing) and eye-witness accounts of the battle. It Provides a very interesting and visual account of the battle.

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