Marines Landed on Iwo Jima 75 Years Ago: Victory Declared March 26, 1945

Marines Landed on Iwo Jima 75 Years Ago  2/19 1945

March 26 1945, the Battle of Iwo Jima Ends.

“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 via usmcu 

75th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima

On 23 Feb. 1945, the Marines took control of Mount Suribachi. Onlookers cheered as the assault platoon fought to the summit and raised a small flag.  Later that day, different troops raised a larger flag while others respectfully lowered the original. Several combat photographers captured these stirring events on film, but Joe Rosenthal’s snapshot of the men struggling to raise the second flag in a stiff wind became an enduring symbol of American resolve.

75 years ago, a battle raged in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  

Located roughly half way between Saipan and Tokyo, and directly under the flight path of B-29 Superfortress bombers headed to Japan, the island of Iwo Jima was a Japanese stronghold of crucial strategic importance and could not be bypassed. Not only would Iwo Jima make an excellent base for Allied fighters escorting B-29 raids, but it would also project the flank of the forthcoming invasion of Okinawa.

Three Marine divisions, more than 80,000 men, were assigned the task of taking the island, which was barely 10 square miles in area and dominated by 556 foot Mount Suribachi.  The assault began on 19 Feb. 1945 following a terrific naval bombardment which Japanese LtGen Kuribayashi described as “far beyond description.” The first wave of Marines had more trouble with the terrain than enemy fire, but the Japanese responded quickly from their dug in positions and swept the beaches with concentrated fire. Iwo Jima would be a very tough fight.

The battle for control of Iwo Jima lasted 36 days. The final death toll among Marines was 5,931 killed in action, died of wounds or missing in action and presumed dead — more than twice as many Marines than had been killed in all of World War One. An additional 209 deaths occurred among the Navy corpsmen and surgeons assigned to the Marines. The Fifth Fleet and participating U.S. Army and Army Air Corps units suffered other fatalities during the battle. In all, more than 800 Americans gave their lives for every square mile of Iwo Jima’s black volcanic sand. 

Location: Volcanic island 660 miles south of Tokyo Size: 2 miles wide by 4 miles long (8 sm)

Background: Summer/Fall 1944
Even before ground operations to secure the Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian ended, U.S. Naval construction battalions were already clearing land for air bases suitable for the new B-29 “Superfortresses.” These huge bombers had a rangecapable of reaching the Japanese Home Islands. The first B-29 bombing runs began in October 1944. But there was a problem—Japanese fighters taking off from tiny Iwo Jima were intercepting B- 29s, as well as attacking the Mariana airfields. The U.S. determined that Iwo Jima must be captured.

The Battle:
U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, after months
of naval and air bombardment. The Japanese defenders of the
island were dug into bunkers deep within the volcanic rocks.
Approximately 70,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers
took part in the battle. In thirty-six days of fighting on the island,
nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed. Another 20,000 were
wounded. Marines captured 216 Japanese soldiers; the rest were killed in action. The island was finally declared secured on March 26, 1945. It had been one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history.

After the battle, Iwo Jima served as an emergency landing site for more than 2,200 B-29 bombers, saving the lives of 24,000 U.S. airmen. Securing Iwo Jima prepared the way for the last and largest battle in the Pacific: the invasion of Okinawa.

The Flag Raising:
The flag-raising atop Mt. Suribachi took place on February 23, 1945; five days after the battle began. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took the famous photograph of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the flag. The flag raisers were Cpl. Harlon Block, Navy Pharmacist’s Mate JohnBradley, Cpl. Rene Gagnon, PFC Franklin Sousley, Sgt. Michael Strank, and Cpl. Ira Hayes. Three of these men—Strank, Sousley, and Block—were killed before the battle for Iwo Jima was over.

The photograph was quickly wired around the world and reproduced in newspapers across the United States. The image was used as a model for the Marine Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Awards:
Twenty-seven Medals of Honor (our country’s highest military award for bravery) were awarded foraction on Iwo Jima—more than any other battle in U.S. history.

“Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue”

—Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

FEB. 19, 2020 | BY DAVID VERGUN, DOD NEWS

By February 1945, U.S. forces had island hopped across the Pacific Ocean and were rapidly closing in on the Japanese mainland.

Before attacking Japan, war planners hoped to capture Iwo Jima, a tiny island in the Western Pacific that would put U.S. bombers within a 750-mile strike range of Japan.

The task for doing this fell to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine divisions, the Army’s 147th Infantry Regiment and the Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Plans to capture Iwo Jima unfolded June 15, 1944, with Army Air Forces and Navy bombardment of the island. This continued until troops landed on the island Feb. 19, 1945, 75 years ago today.

Despite the heavy and sustained bombardment of the island, the Japanese had their own defensive plans, which included about 11 miles of tunnels and underground rooms for command and control and other functions.

So, the bombardment by the Americans of Iwo Jima had relatively little effect on about 21,000 Japanese troops holed up underground.

To make matters worse for the Americans, many of the tunnels were located on the slopes of Mount Suribachi. The Japanese directed artillery, small arms and mortar fire from openings downward on U.S. troops landing on the beaches and advancing inland with great difficulty on the slippery, black volcanic sand.

The invasion fleet consisted of the three Marine divisions of about 70,000 men, around 450 naval ships of various types, as well as several thousand Navy Seabees. The Seabees were naval engineers who were experts at building roads and would be needed to open the island’s three airfields.

Over five weeks of fierce fighting, the Marines suffered more than 25,000 casualties, including nearly 7,000 dead. The casualty rate was so high that the Army’s 147th Infantry Regiment landed a month later to help with mopping-up operations.

The Japanese suffered even more devastating losses, with around 18,000 killed. Despite efforts to get the Japanese to surrender, only 216 were taken prisoner. The rest were listed as missing and presumed dead.

Sporadic fighting continued until the war ended on Aug. 15, 1945. However, two Japanese holdouts hid in the island’s caves and tunnels until they finally surrendered in 1949.

One of the most iconic images of World War II was taken by The Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. His photograph captured six Americans raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945. Marine Sgt. Bill Genaust, who was standing beside Rosenthal, captured the same moment on video. Genaust was killed nine days later.

The image of the flag raising was so powerful that it was featured on a U.S. postage stamp, and a large statue of the flag raising is featured at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

Many books were written and movies made about the battle for Iwo Jima. Three of those films are the 1949 “Sands of Iwo Jima,” starring actors John Wayne and Forrest Tucker, and two 2006 movies directed by Clint Eastwood: “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”

The U.S. returned Iwo Jima to Japanese control in 1968. Today, the Japan Maritime, Ground and Air Self-Defense Forces maintain a presence on the island.

Japan is now one of America’s most important allies.