Battle of Iwo Jima

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, battlefield, historical layer / disappeared object

At 0859hrs on February 19th, 1945, the small volcanic island of Iwo Jima was invaded by elements of the 3rd, 4th and 5th US Marine Corps Divisions, tasked with securing the island and capturing its three airfields so they could be used as a staging area for the eventual invasion of the Japanese mainland and provide a base for both B-29 bombers and their escort fighters. Initial estimates by US Armed Forces planners projected that the lightly defended island could be secured in as little as 1 week.

Officially beginning in June 1944 with concentrated airstrikes, American efforts to ‘soften up’ the islands defenses culminated with a sustained three-day naval and air bombardment of the landing beaches and shoreside installations directly preceding the invasion, allowing US forces to make their initial landings and preliminary advances inland unopposed.

Unbeknownst to American forces, the Imperial Japanese Army had begun fortifying Iwo Jima in March 1944 with a labyrinth of tunnels, subterranean facilities, armored pillboxes and bunkers and had a force of over 22,000 men stationed on the island at the time of the invasion. Despite the heavy bombardment directed at the island by American aircraft and warships, little damage was done to the well fortified and protected Japanese artillery and machine gun positions whose crews were under strict orders to hold their fire until a sufficient force of American men and material were on the beach. As the first wave of US Marines cautiously pushed their way towards the first seemingly destroyed Japanese defensive line at 0930hrs, concealed machine guns and artillery positions let them have it.

From that moment on, the Battle of Iwo Jima turned into vicious struggle between the two forces vying for control of the island, with US Marines making slow, costly but steady advances against fanatical Japanese resistance fighting from one well-defended position after another. With the Southern end of the island and its imposing Mt. Suribachi secured with the now-famous raising of the American Flag on February 23rd, the Northern end of Iwo Jima would remain bitterly contested until the island was declared secure on March 26th, 1945. Of the estimated 22,600 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the time of the invasion, approximately 220 were captured alive by American forces, the other 22,380 dying in combat, taking their own lives or missing in action. American losses in the 36-day battle amounted to 26,000 casualties, which includes the roughly 6,800 men killed or missing in action.