This month, three lucky readers have the chance to win a copy of Implacable Foes by Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio, courtesy of Oxford University Press.

On 8 May 1945, VE Day marked the demise of Nazi Germany. But for the Allies, the war was only half-won. Exhausted American soldiers, ready to return home, were sent to join the fighting in the Pacific. By the spring and summer of 1945, this had turned into a gruelling campaign of blood attrition against an enemy determined to fight to the last man.

Germany had surrendered unconditionally, but the Japanese would clearly make the cost of victory extraordinarily high.

In Implacable Foes, award-winning historians Waldo Heinrichs (a veteran of both theatres of war in World War II) and Marc Gallicchio bring to life the final year of World War II in the Pacific.

Taking us right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the book unpicks not only Japanese policies of desperate defence, but also the rancorous debates on the home front.

They deliver a gripping and provocative narrative that challenges the decision-making of US leaders, and unravels the consequences of prioritising the European front.

The result is a masterly work that evaluates the nearly insurmountable trials associated with waging global war, and the sacrifices necessary to succeed.

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