Lion Iwo Haynes, F. & Warren, J. (2008). The Lions of Iwo Jima. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

Some of the most prominent battles and battle sites fought and fought over by this nation's military have been discussed and described so frequently and in such great detail that it seems as though there is nothing more to be said about them. Elements of strategy, victories celebrated and lessons learned, and examples of heroism have all been recounted, and that might seem to be the end of it -- especially from the perspective of a military historian. When the perspective is that of military historian is Major General Fred Haynes, however, a man on the ground and intimately involved with the operations that took the island if Iwo Jima in World War II, there is always more to uncover, more to understand, and more to remember. Haynes' book The Lions of Iwo Jima, co-authored with civilian military historian James A. Warren, shows that this is undoubtedly the case with the fight for the small island directly due south from the big islands of Japan in which a great number of men lost their lives so that others' and even the war itself might be won. The authors do not simply tell a heroic tale here, or glorify what was a gritty and bitter struggle, but they rightfully honor the men who fought here through a careful and detailed inspection...

It is not just what the men at Iwo Jima achieved, however, but how they achieved it -- the spirit and the determination shown by the men of Combat Team 28 -- that Haynes and Warren focus on. What they try to tell is the personal side of the story, without foregoing the extreme importance of actual military encounters and certain elements of strategy. That is, Lions of Iwo Jima tells the stories of the men who made the military conquests that have made the island and its name famous even among the civilian population, but it tells the story of these men as soldiers, and as they were concerned with and involved in their objectives, successes, and frustrations in this capacity. In order to accomplish this, the two authors used a variety of primary documents directly from the battle itself and from other relevant sources, many of which had never been truly examined or included in previous scholarship on the battle. More importantly in this reviewer's mind, the authors conducted interviews with more than a…