Iwo Jima, the best-known battle of the
Pacific war, a classic example of
amphibious warfare, and a vital objective to give more air bases for aircraft taking part in the US
strategic air offensive against Japan.
Iwo Jima (sulphur island), 8 km. (5 mi.) long, is one of the Volcano Islands, a volcanic pear-shaped piece of land 1,045 km. (650 mi.) south-east of Tokyo. It contained three airstrips and was a vital link in Japan's inner ring of defences. At the southern end lay Mt Suribachi, a 150 m. (500 ft.) extinct volcano, and volcanic ash at the northern end made
foxholes too hot to live in. The whole place stank of sulphur and the terrain, full of rocky ridges, caves, and deep ravines, was a honeycomb of concrete and steel. ‘It is probable that no other given area in the history of modern war has been so skillfully fotified by nature and by man’ ( J. Isley and P. Crowl,
US Marines and Amphibious War, Princeton, 1951, p. 486).
On 19 February 1945 the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions of 5th Amphibious Corps, with 3rd Marine Division in reserve, landed on the island after a preliminary naval bombardment and 72 days of continuous air strikes which had, however, only encouraged the defenders to build ever-deeper bunkers. Altogether 60,000 marines, commanded by Maj-General Harry Schmidt, were committed to an operation which eventually absorbed 800 warships, 110,000 men ashore, and another 220,000 afloat.
The US Navy gave the marines a rolling barrage (see
artillery, 2) and this helped them advance 320 m. (350 yd.) inland without severe casualties. As at
Peleliu, the garrison of 22,000 Japanese army and naval troops, commanded by Lt-General Kuribayashi Tadamichi, made little attempt to prevent the marines from landing. Instead, part of Kuribayashi's forces attacked them once they were ashore, with concentrated flanking fire that proved deadly, but most of the defenders remained under cover inland.
The first airstrip near the landing beaches was taken on the second day and Mt Suribachi and the second airstrip on the fifth, but the hardest fighting, to break through Kuribayashi's two remaining fortified lines, was still to come. One fortified feature, Hill 382, caused so many casualties that it became known as ‘The Meat Grinder’ and on one day alone five Congressional Medals of Honor (see
decorations) were awarded to men of 5th Division. The Japanese fought with astonishing bravery and made their last stand in a rocky canyon which became known as ‘Bloody Gorge’. It was only 650 m. (700 yd.) in length but it took ten long days to eradicate its occupants. Capturing Iwo Jima had been expected to take 14 days. It took 36, by which time over a third of the marine force—5,931 killed, 17,372 wounded—had become casualties.
