By early May 1945, the Battle of Okinawa had become the bloodiest fight of the Pacific War. The 77th Infantry Division was tasked with seizing the Maeda Escarpment — a 400-foot cliff the GIs called “Hacksaw Ridge” — where dug-in Japanese defenders held a maze of tunnels, caves, and pillboxes. Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, a 26-year-old Seventh-day Adventist from Lynchburg, Virginia, served as a combat medic in B Company, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry Regiment. He had refused to touch a weapon out of religious conviction, enduring beatings and ridicule in basic training...
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