Hacksaw Ridge

This guide to Hacksaw Ridge in Okinawa tells the story of Private First Class Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist medic who enlisted willingly but refused to carry a weapon, and whom his own company had once called a coward. It follows the brutal five-day fight for the Maeda Escarpment in early May 1945, where nine assaults failed and an entire company was lost trying to scale the cliff on ladders before soldiers hauled themselves up on cargo nets instead. You'll hear about the honeycomb of Japanese bunkers dug into the ridge, and about the order to pull back on the fifth of May, when everyone else withdrew and Doss stayed behind. Look down the quiet, green cliff face now standing where the nets once hung.