Hell on Hacksaw Ridge 1945 | WW2

Hacksaw Ridge, a 500-foot-high plateau, is in southern Okinawa. The plateau on top stretched about 4,200 yards from east to west. Its face was a crest consisting of a sheer rock wall that could only be scaled with ladders or special climbing gear. The entire mass was covered with narrow, jagged ribbons of rock and completely zeroed in by Japanese guns. To the east the ridge ended with a gigantic sentinel-like monolith known as “Needle Rock” to the GIs.

It was called the Maeda Escarpment, after the nearest native village. An escarpment, according to the dictionary, is “a steep slope in front of a fortification” or “a long cliff.” The Maeda Escarpment was both. The American GIs who faced it had their own names, including “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Sawtooth,” and “that big son of a bitch.” If the Japanese had a name for it, it is lost to history.