War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's

founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased

its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to a special episode of Key Battles of American History.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

In this episode, we are going to go back to the Pacific Theater of World War II.

In particular, we're going to talk about one company that had a major role in the entire Pacific

theater. The Devil Dogs of King Company, third battalion, fifth Marines. They were part of the

legendary First Marine Division, and they were among the first American

troops to take the offensive in World War II, and also the last.

They landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal on the Solomon Islands in August 1942, the first

ground offensive of the war, the first American one, and they were present when Okinawa,

Japan's most southerly prefecture, finally fell to American

troops after a bitter struggle in June 1945. In between, they fought in the green hell of Cape

Gloucester on the island of New Britain and across the coral wasteland of Pelaloo in the Palau

Islands, a campaign described by one King company veteran as 30 days of the meanest around-the-clock slaughter that desperate men can inflict on each other.

Ordinary men from very different backgrounds and drawn from cities, towns, and settlements across America, the devil dogs were asked to do something extraordinary.

Take on the victorious Imperial Japanese army, composed of some of the

most effective soldiers in world history, and defeat it. This is the story of how they did just that,

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