Battle of WWII: a major shot having lost war (3,4)

I haven't cracked this one yet — but the brilliant team at Fifteensquared have:

An anagram (‘shot’) of ‘WWII a major’ minus the letters of ‘war’ (‘having lost war’); with an extended definition. If ‘major’ is not taken as a specific rank, the clue might refer to General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, commander of the Japanese garrison at the time of the battle, who is beleived to have been killed during it.