On April 1, 1945, Allied forces invade the island of Okinawa and engage the Japanese in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.

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On April 1, 1945, the U.S. 10th Army under Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner began the invasion of Okinawa, a Japanese-held island in the Pacific considered the final stepping stone in an advance toward the Japanese mainland. Two days into the invasion, a news report relays the story of the U.S. Army's fast-paced advance.

Learn more about the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Allies' first major offensive - and a decisive victory - in the Pacific theater during World War II.

In a live recording, Sgt. Fred Walker gives a blow-by-blow description of a battle with Japanese forces as he lands on one of the Marshall Island atolls in the Pacific with the Marines Fifth Amphibian Corps in 1944.