By Joe Leach
By October of 1944, the American military in the Pacific decided to invade the small Japanese held island of Iwo Jima. Being only 600 miles from the Japanese home islands, it would put the now mighty American war machine on the very doorstep of Japan. It would also be used as an emergency landing field for damaged bombers returning from missions over japan. Crews were being lost when damaged planes had to ditch in the Pacific. As it turned out the Marines would pay a very bloody price to save these airmen.

Japan had fortified this island decades previously but in 1944 decided to fortify it further. Under the command of General Kuribayashi some 22,000 troops were dug in deeply and prepared to defend the island to the last man. Both ends of the island were defended in such a way as to have fields of fire in every direction.The morale of the Japanese defenders was high,and they were prepared to "give their lives for the Emperor." The Marines would accommodate them.

The date of February 19th, 1945 was established for the invasion, which would be under the command of Marine General Holland M. "Howlin' Mad" Smith. There would be some 80,000 Marines available for the operation. Bombing of the island started in December,'44 and Smith requested intense bombardment for the 10 days prior to the attack. He was promised 4 and actually given three days. Supplies were short due to the invasion of the Philippines that was also due to take place.



Sixth Fleet during invasion of Iwo Jima. Mt. Suribachi in background. 02/19/1945 National Archives Photo

The requested bombardment started on the 16th but due to bad weather much of the air attacks were cancelled and many specific targets were left untouched. The second day was somewhat better but still most of the defenses were left intact. On the 3rd day the fleet blasted the island the entire day. On the next day it would be up to the Marines to finish the job.

After a 2 hour air and naval barrage, the Marines started landing at 9AM on the 19th of February, 1945. Tney first came ashore on the southeast part of the island below the 556 foot high Mount Suribachi. Resistance was light and there soon were 6,000 men on the beach. By 10AM the inland movement started and the Japanese struck back mightily. Casualties began to pile up almost immediately as the advancing Marines and the newly arriving landing crafts were raked by machine gun and artillery fire. Further landings were halted temporarily while the dead and wounded were cleared from the beach. The Marines already on shore continued to press forward despite the heavy casualty rate.



Out of the gaping mouths of Coast Guard and Navy Landing Craft, rose the great flow of invasion supplies to the blackened sands of Iwo Jima, a few hours after the Marines had wrested their foothold on the vital island. National Archives Photo

The landings resumed and by the end of the day there were some 30,000 Marines on the island. They were ready now to attack Suribachi and the airfield in the north. By the end of the day the Marines were ordered to dig in where they were. Further advancing was called off even though all the pre-planned objectives hadn't been reached. The expected banzai attack never came but the Japanese did shell the dug in Americans through the night. The U.S. fleet responded with their own bombardments. 566 Marines had already been killed and almost 2,000 had been wounded.

The next day the climb up Suribachi started. The Japanese were dug in in hundreds of spots along the slope and these had to be killed as the Marines went up. The top was an observation post from which the Japanese were directing fire on the Americans throughout the island. The Marines fought hand-to- hand and face-to-face with the defenders all day and into the next day. There were at least 2,000 Japanese dug in on the mount. The 3rd day was even worst than the other two days if that was possible. It was on this day that a platoon of Marines became the most decorated platoon in all Marine history. 3rd.platoon,of E company, 2nd Battalion. 28th Marine Regiment,5th Marine Div. received the following decorations from that battle; 1 Medal of Honor (posthumously to PFC Don Ruhl), 2 Navy Crosses, 1 Silver Star, 7 Bronze Stars, and 17 Purple Hearts.

The battle raged the next day but the Marines had finally neared the summit while killing at least 1,000 Japanese defenders on the way up.(By the end of this day Marine casualties would reach 4,500 on this 8 square mile island.) On the next day the summit was taken and it was here that the Marines raised the American flag not only raising the morale of all Marines on that island but eventually all Americans everywhere.

On the 24th of Febrary the battle raged just as hard as the Marines advanced northward. The enemy would come out of underground positions that were untouched by the aerial and naval bombardments and had to be killed by rifle and machine gun. The casualties on both sides were horrendous. The fighting continued on through the end of the month and on March 4th the first U.S. bomber (a B29) made an emergency landing after bombing the Japanese main islands.

The island was pronounced secured on the 14th of March,though the Marines would suffer 6,000 more casualties cleaning up this "secured"island.The last Japanese attack came on the 26th of March when 1,000 Jaoanese charged the American line. The Marines suffered more KIA's but killed the Jap attackers almost to a man.

When the shooting finally stopped there were only 250 Japanese prisoners out of the original 22,000 defenders. The rest were killed. General Kuribayashi commited suicide (hari kari). The Marines lost 7,000 killed and 19,000 wounded. The Navy suffered also. Five ships were sunk by Kamikazi planes, as was the carrier HMS Bismarck with 500 of its crew.

Twenty seven Marines received the Medal of Honor for actions they took in this battle. It's said that 2,000 B29's made emergency landings on Iwo coming from Japan, thus saving some 2,500 airmen.



From the crest of Mount Suribachi, the Stars and Stripes wave in triumph over Iwo Jima after U.S. Marines had fought their way inch by inch up its steep lava-encrusted slopes. National Archives Photo


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