The Battle of Iwo Jima took place from Feb. 19, 1945, to March 26, 1945.
The island, only 8 square miles in area, was considered crucial to the strategy of the Pacific campaign because capturing it would put heavy bombers within a close 750-mile strike range of mainland Japan using the island's three airfields.
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.
The invasion fleet consisted of about 70,000 Marines, 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 reopen the island's three airfields.
Over the course of the battle, the Marines suffered more than 25,000 casualties, including nearly 7,000 deaths. The casualty rate was so high that the regiment landed a month later to help with mopping-up operations. Some lessons can be learned from battle. First, boots on the ground matter.
Plans to capture Iwo Jima unfolded, June 15, 1944, with Army Air Forces and Navy bombardment of the volcanic island. This continued on and off again right up until and after the invasion. Battleships blasted the island for three days prior to the invasion, pulverizing almost the entire island.
The bombardment by the Americans of Iwo Jima had relatively little effect on about 21,000 Japanese troops holed up underground. In fact, the heavy bombs created numerous craters that proved to be advantageous to the defenders, providing additional cover for them while slowing the Marines' advance.
Marine Corps Gen. Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith, commander of Task Force 56 during the battle, said of the pre-invasion bombardment, "All this added up to a terrific total of destructive effort, which the uninitiated might expect to blast any island off the military map, level every defense, no matter how strong and wipe out the garrison. But nothing of that kind happened. Like the worm, which becomes stronger the more you cut it up, Iwo Jima thrived on our bombardment. The airfields were kept inactive by our attacks and some installations were destroyed, but the main body of defenses not only remained physically intact, but they strengthened markedly.
It would take the Marines on the ground to secure the island. Second, a good defense can have a deleterious impact on an amphibious operation.
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.
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 slopes of black volcanic sand, with little to no cover.
The Japanese had learned from their suicidal charges on Guadalcanal in 1942 and 1943 that this tactic resulted in unacceptably high casualty rates. In April 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese used the same tactic of digging in as they did on Iwo Jima.
Third, the battle proved how a fanatically loyal enemy would fight to the death rather than surrender.
Despite efforts to get the Japanese to surrender, only 216 were taken prisoner, and about 18,000 were killed. The rest were presumed dead. By the time of the Battle of Iwo Jima and after, Japanese aviators were flying kamikaze, or suicide missions, against allied naval vessels such was their fanatical loyalty.
The Battle of Iwo Jima took place from Feb. 19, 1945, to March 26, 1945.
The island, only 8 square miles in area, was considered crucial to the strategy of the Pacific campaign because capturing it would put heavy bombers within a close 750-mile strike range of mainland Japan using the island's three airfields.
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.
The invasion fleet consisted of about 70,000 Marines, 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 reopen the island's three airfields.
Over the course of the battle, the Marines suffered more than 25,000 casualties, including nearly 7,000 deaths. The casualty rate was so high that the regiment landed a month later to help with mopping-up operations. Some lessons can be learned from battle. First, boots on the ground matter.
Plans to capture Iwo Jima unfolded, June 15, 1944, with Army Air Forces and Navy bombardment of the volcanic island. This continued on and off again right up until and after the invasion. Battleships blasted the island for three days prior to the invasion, pulverizing almost the entire island.
The bombardment by the Americans of Iwo Jima had relatively little effect on about 21,000 Japanese troops holed up underground. In fact, the heavy bombs created numerous craters that proved to be advantageous to the defenders, providing additional cover for them while slowing the Marines' advance.
Marine Corps Gen. Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith, commander of Task Force 56 during the battle, said of the pre-invasion bombardment, "All this added up to a terrific total of destructive effort, which the uninitiated might expect to blast any island off the military map, level every defense, no matter how strong and wipe out the garrison. But nothing of that kind happened. Like the worm, which becomes stronger the more you cut it up, Iwo Jima thrived on our bombardment. The airfields were kept inactive by our attacks and some installations were destroyed, but the main body of defenses not only remained physically intact, but they strengthened markedly.
It would take the Marines on the ground to secure the island. Second, a good defense can have a deleterious impact on an amphibious operation.
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.
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 slopes of black volcanic sand, with little to no cover.
The Japanese had learned from their suicidal charges on Guadalcanal in 1942 and 1943 that this tactic resulted in unacceptably high casualty rates. In April 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese used the same tactic of digging in as they did on Iwo Jima.
Third, the battle proved how a fanatically loyal enemy would fight to the death rather than surrender.
Despite efforts to get the Japanese to surrender, only 216 were taken prisoner, and about 18,000 were killed. The rest were presumed dead. By the time of the Battle of Iwo Jima and after, Japanese aviators were flying kamikaze, or suicide missions, against allied naval vessels such was their fanatical loyalty.