PAPERBACK EDITION

Making the Ultimate Sacrifice - December 7, 1941

On the morning of December 7, 1941, within the first minute of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a torpedo slammed into the port bow of the USS Arizona. Major Alan Shapley, the senior Marine officer aboard, was thrown from the foremast into the water; he flew at least 100 feet, but managed to swim clear to Ford Island and to rescue two shipmates along the way. Most of his men were not so lucky.

Among the more than 1,500 men assigned to the Arizona, 88 were Marines. And of the Marines who scrambled to their battle stations that infamous Sunday morning, including to one of the ship's 5-inch gun mounts and many of the small-caliber, anti-aircraft positions, 80 lost their lives. This book is the first to tell the little-known story of the Arizona's Marines.

Rich in the traditions of the Corps and its years of service to our country and Navy, the history of this detachment on that fateful day also involves a broader history of shipboard marines. Even as it captures the harrowing moments of December 7, Battleship Arizona's Marines At War conveys the story of America's battleship marines between the world wars, richly evoking a way of life now past. With more than 100 historic photographs, many never before published; the book is a fitting tribute to marine detachment Arizona and to all of America's ship-borne Marines.