Battle for Iwo Jima

 

“The battle of Iwo Island has been won.  The United States Marines by their individual and collective courage have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat.

By their victory, the 3d, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the V Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully.  Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN

Iwo Jima, which means Sulfur Island, was strategically important as an air base for fighter escorts supporting long-range bombing missions against mainland Japan.  Because of the distance between mainland Japan and U.S. bases in the Mariana Islands, the capture of Iwo Jima would provide an emergency landing strip for crippled B-29s returning from bombing runs.  The seizure of Iwo would allow for sea and air blockades, the ability to conduct intensive air bombardment and to destroy the enemy’s air and naval capabilities.

The seizure of Iwo Jima was deemed necessary, but the prize would not come easy.  The fighting that took place during the 36-day assault would be immortalized in the words of Commander, Pacific Fleet/Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who said, “Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

To the Japanese leadership, the capture of Iwo Jima meant the battle for Okinawa, and the invasion of Japan itself, was not far off.

Commanders

Commanders for the operation, code named Detachment, were assigned as follows:

Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, USN, was the operation’s overall commander.

Joint Expeditionary Force commander was Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, USN.  Second in command of the Joint Expeditionary Force was Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill, USN.

Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith, USMC, was assigned as the commanding general of expeditionary troops.

The V Amphibious Corps was commanded by Major General Harry Schmidt, USMC.  Under his command fell the 3d Marine Division commander, Major General Graves B. Erskine; the 4th Marine Division commander, Major General Clifton B. Cates; and the 5th Marine Division commander, Major General Keller E. Rockey.

Bombardment

Initial carrier raids against Iwo Jima began in June 1944.  Prior to the invasion, the 8-square-mile island would suffer the longest, most intensive shelling of any Pacific island during the war.  The 7th Air Force, working out of the Marianas, supplied the B-24 heavy bombers for the campaign.

In addition to the air assaults on Iwo, the Marines requested 10 days of pre-invasion naval bombardment.  Due to other operational commitments and the fact that a prolonged air assault had been waged on Iwo Jima, Navy planners authorized only three days of naval bombardment.  Unfavorable weather conditions further hampered its effects.  Despite this, VADM Turner decided to keep the invasion date, 19 February 1945, as planned, and the Marines prepared for D-day.

D-day

More than 450 ships massed off Iwo as the H-hour bombardment pounded the island.  Shortly after 9:00am, Marines of the 4th and 5th Divisions hit beaches Green, Red, Yellow and Blue abreast, initially finding little enemy resistance.  Coarse volcanic sand hampered the movement of men and machines as they struggled to move up the beach.  As the protective naval gunfire subsided to allow for the Marine advance, the Japanese emerged from their fortified underground positions to begin a heavy barrage of fire against the invading force.

The 4th Marine Division pushed forward against heavy opposition to take the Quarry, a Japanese stronghold.  The 5th Marine Division’s 28th Marines had the mission of isolating Mount Suribachi.  Both tasks were accomplished that day.

The Battle Continues

On 20 February, one day after the landing, the 28th Marines secured the southern end of Iwo and moved to take the summit of Suribachi.  By day’s end, one third of the island and Motoyama Airfield No. 1 was controlled by the Marines.  By 23 February, the 28th Marines would reach the top of Mount Suribachi and raise the U.S. flag.

The 3d Marine Division joined the fighting on the fifth day of the battle.  These Marines immediately began the mission of securing the center sector of the island.  Each division fought hard to gain ground against a determined Japanese defender.  The Japanese leaders knew with the fall of Suribachi and the capture of the airfields that the Marine advance on the island could not be stopped; however, they would make the Marines fight for every inch of land they won.

Lieutenant General Tadamishi Kuribayashi, commander of the Japanese ground forces on Iwo Jima, concentrated his energies and his forces in the central and northern sections of the island.  Miles of interlocking caves, concrete blockhouses and pillboxes proved to be some of the most impenetrable defenses encountered by the Marines in the Pacific.

The Marines worked together to drive the enemy from the high ground.  Their goal was to capture the area that appropriately became known as the “Meat Grinder.”  This section of the island included three distinct terrain features: Hill 382, the highest point on the northern portion of the island; an elevation known as “Turkey Knob,” which had been reinforced with concrete and was home to a large enemy communications center; and the “Amphitheater,” a southeastern extension of Hill 382.

The 3d Marine Division encountered the most heavily fortified portion of the island in their move to take Airfield No. 2.  As with most of the fighting on Iwo Jima, frontal assault was the method used to gain each inch of ground.  By nightfall on 9 March, the 3d Marine Division reached the island’s northeastern beach, cutting the enemy defenses in two.

On the left of the 3d Marine Division, the 5th Marine Division pushed up the western coast of Iwo Jima from the central airfield to the island’s northern tip.  Moving to seize and hold the eastern portion of the island, the 4th Marine Division encountered a “mini banzai” attack from the final members of the Japanese Navy serving on Iwo.  This attack resulted in the death of nearly 700 Japanese and ended the centralized resistances of enemy forces in the 4th Marine Division’s sector.  The 4th Marine Division would join forces with the 3d and 5th Marine Divisions at the coast on 10 March.

Operations entered the final phases 11 March.  Enemy resistance was no longer centralized and individual pockets of resistance were taken one by one.  Finally on 26 March, following a banzai attack against troops and air corps personnel near the beaches, the island was declared secure.  The U.S. Army’s 147th Infantry Regiment assumed ground control of the island on 4 April, relieving the largest body of Marines committed in combat to any one operation during World War II.

Campaign results

The 36-day assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead.  Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,083 survived.  The Marines’ efforts, however, provided a vital link in the U.S. chain of bomber bases.  By war’s end, 2,400 B-29 bombers carrying 27,000 crewmen would make unscheduled landings on the island 

Historians described U.S. forces’ attack against the Japanese defense as “throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete.”  In the end, Iwo Jima was won not only by the fighting spirit of the Marines, but by the meticulous planning and support provided by the Navy and Army through supply efforts, medical care, and air and naval gunfire.

Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines and sailors, many posthumously, which was the highest number awarded for any single operation during the war.

Two flag-raisings

At 8:00am on 23 February, a patrol of 40 men from 3d Platoon, E Company, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines, led by 1stLt Harold G. Schrier, assembled at the base of Mount Suribachi.  The platoon’s mission was to take the crater at Suribachi’s peak and raise the U.S. flag.

The platoon slowly climbed the steep trails to the summit, but encountered no enemy fire.  As they reached the top, the patrol members took positions around the crater watching for pockets of enemy resistance as other members of the patrol looked for something on which to raise the U.S. flag.

At 10:20am, the U.S. flag was hoisted on a steel pipe above the island.  This symbol of victory sent a wave of strength to the battle-weary fighting men below, and struck a further mental blow against the island’s defenders.

Marine Corps photographer Sgt Lou Lowery captured this first flag-raising on film just as the enemy hurled a grenade in his direction.  Dodging the grenade, Sgt Lowery hurled his body over the edge of the crater and tumbled 50 feet.  His camera lens was shattered, but he and his film were safe.

Three hours later, another patrol was dispatched to raise another, larger flag.  The battle for Iwo Jima is encapsulated by this historic flag raising atop Suribachi, which was captured on film by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.  His photo, seen around the world as a symbol of American values, would earn him many awards including the 1945 Pulitzer Prize.

Over the years, the flag-raising has come to symbolize the spirit of the Corps to all Marines.  On 10 November 1954, the Marine Corps War Memorial, a bronze monument of the flag-raising sculpted by Felix de Weldon and bordering the northern edge of Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, was dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of their country.

Then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon, speaking at the dedication, stated. “This statue symbolizes the hopes and dreams of America, and the real purpose of our foreign policy.  We realize that to retain freedom for ourselves, we must be concerned when people in other parts of the world may lose theirs.  There is no greater challenge to statesmanship than to find a way that such sacrifices as this statue represents are not necessary in the future, and to build the kind of world in which people can be free, in which nations can be independent, and in which people can live together in peace and friendship.”

Taken from the WWII 50th Anniversary Fact Sheet Prepared by
1stLt Kimberly J. Miller, USMC

SOURCES:

Gallant, Grady T. The Friendly Dead. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964.

Henri, Raymond. The U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima. Nashville: The Battery Press, 1987.

Hindsman, Carl E. The Iwo Jima Story. U.S.A. Hindsman, 1955.

Marling, Karal Ann and John Wetenhall. Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 12.  Leyte. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1958.

Moskin, J. Robert. The Marine Corps Story. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987.

Ross, Bill D. Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor. New York: Vanguard Press, 1985.

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Smith, S. E., ed. The United States Marine Corps in World War II. New York: Random House, 1969.

Wheeler, Richard. The Bloody Battle for Suribachi. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965.