Sugar Loaf Hill Archives

The savage final land battle between “the eagle and the sun” was America’s longest and bloodiest campaign in the Pacific Theater.

Sugar Loaf Hill

Steep Typhoon at Okinawa

By Blaine Taylor

As one island or island group in the Pacific was fought over by American and Japanese forces, it became clear that Japan’s days as a combatant in World War II were numbered. Read more

As South Vietnamese relaxed during the Tet holiday in 1968, North Vietnamese and Vietcong launch the most audacious offensive of the Vietnam War.

Sugar Loaf Hill

Dickey Chapelle: First Female Photojournalist Killed in Action

By Al Hemingway

Colonel H.B. Miller, a Marine public relations officer on Guam during World War II, looked up from his desk to see before him a boyish-looking woman dressed in a baggy khaki shirt and pants and wearing horn-rimmed glasses. Read more

Sugar Loaf Hill

Hell’s Own Cesspool: Okinawa in WWII

By John Walker

On Easter morning, April 1, 1945, the Pacific island of Okinawa trembled beneath an earthshaking bombardment from American combat aircraft overhead and ships steaming offshore in preparation for an amphibious landing of unprecedented magnitude. Read more

Sugar Loaf Hill

Sugar Loaf Hill Survival: U.S. Marines in the Okinawa Campaign

By John Wukovits

The grimy, weary Marines heard with little emotion the instructions shouted by their officer. He wanted them to mount yet another charge to the top of the nondescript hill blocking their way, another collection of rock housing an enemy that tried to halt their advance. Read more

Sugar Loaf Hill

Survival at Sugarloaf: Battle Fatigue at Okinawa

by John Wukovits

Because of the severe conditions at Sugar Loaf and elsewhere on Okinawa, the fighting produced an alarmingly high number of battle fatigue cases. Read more