New book on bloody WWII battle inspired by NY veteran


              FILE - In this May 8, 2014 file photo, World War II veteran Arthur Robinson points to himself in a 1940 photograph of the Army's 27th Infantry Division, while visiting the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. A new book by a Texas-based military history writer tells the story of one of World War II's bloodiest battles and the role a New York National Guard unit played in the fighting. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
FILE - In this May 8, 2014 file photo, World War II veteran Arthur Robinson points to himself in a 1940 photograph of the Army's 27th Infantry Division, while visiting the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. A new book by a Texas-based military history writer tells the story of one of World War II's bloodiest battles and the role a New York National Guard unit played in the fighting. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - When military history author Bill Sloan sought inspiration for his new book on World War II in the Pacific, he found it in a then-96-year-old combat veteran from upstate New York who survived one of the war's bloodiest battles.

John Sidur (SEE'-dur) rescued two hometown buddies during Japan's largest banzai attack of the war, near the end of the Battle of Saipan in July 1945. Sidur's regiment was nearly wiped out - 900 Americans killed or wounded.

The Dallas-based writer's new book is titled "Their Backs Against The Sea: The Battle of Saipan and the Largest Banzai Attack of World War II."

Da Capo Press publishes the book this month. Sidur, of Cohoes (kuh-HOHZ'), near Albany, died in 2015.

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