There is no shortage of good books on the bloody fighting in the Pacific during World War II. “With the Old Breed,” Eugene Sledge’s first-person account of the harrowing combat on Peleliu and Okinawa, and “Utmost Savagery,” Joseph Alexander’s history of three days of battle on Tarawa, are but two. Now add to their rank “Rock Force,” Kevin Maurer’s excellent and detailed account of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment’s daring airborne assault and conquest of Corregidor, a mile-wide, 4-mile-long, tadpole-shaped piece of volcanic rock jutting up nearly 600 feet at the mouth of Manila Bay.
Following the Spanish-American War, the U.S. made Corregidor nearly impenetrable with heavily fortified coastal artillery pieces installed throughout. But like any military asset, it was only as good as its supply lines, and those were cut off by the Japanese shortly after Pearl Harbor.
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