"Tarawa was hell but Saipan is worse. For Sergeant Pete "Hardball" Talbot, recently returned from being wounded on Tarawa seven months earlier, Saipan is just another battle as the United States leaps island to island toward an invasion of the Japanese homeland. But the Japanese have learned, all too well, how to defend their islands, with carefully constructed and concealed bunkers and machine gun nests. Talbot and the dozen men of Second Squad have no idea they are running headlong into thirty-five thousand Japanese soldiers who have sworn to fight to the last man. In vivid, startling detail, Shattered Jade explores the strategy and horror of battle in one of World War II's most brutal conflicts and illuminates the extraordinary courage of ordinary young men" -- Provided by publisher.