Hacksaw Ridge

Desmond Doss, a devout Seventh-day Adventist who refuses to carry a weapon, enlists as an Army medic and faces hostility from fellow soldiers who doubt his courage. During the brutal Battle of Okinawa atop the Maeda Escarpment, nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge, Doss singlehandedly rescues dozens of wounded men under fire without firing a shot. His actions earned him the Medal of Honor as the first conscientious objector so honored.

Desmond Doss served as a combat medic during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, and is credited with saving approximately 75 men during the assault on the Maeda Escarpment while refusing to carry a firearm due to his religious convictions. He became the first conscientious objector awarded the Medal of Honor.

The film is largely faithful to Doss's documented actions and Medal of Honor citation, though some combat sequences are dramatized and compressed for cinematic pacing.

The largest amphibious assault of the Pacific war, and the bloodiest, fought on Japanese home soil with a large civilian population caught in the middle.

Landings were unopposed, but the Shuri Line in the south held for weeks at places such as Hacksaw Ridge (the Maeda Escarpment). Mass kamikaze attacks struck the fleet offshore. Civilian deaths were catastrophic.

Directed by Mel Gibson

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughn, Teresa Palmer

Positioned at April-May 1945 within the Pacific 1945 phase of the war, as part of the Battle of Okinawa. This is entry 145 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Desmond Doss
• Okinawa
• conscientious objector
• Medal of Honor
• combat medic

• 

  The Battle of Okinawa

  April-June 1945

• 

  The Pacific

  1942–1945

• 

  The Great Raid

  January 28-30, 1945

• 

  Flags of Our Fathers

  February-March 1945

• 

  Letters from Iwo Jima

  February-March 1945

• 

  Sands of Iwo Jima

  February-March 1945