Diamond, Chris Iwo Jima

The Marine Corps Epic Victory

The campaign for Iwo Jima (Operation Detachment) from 19 February to 26 March 1945 pitted the USMC's 5th Amphibious Corps (V AC) and the USN's 5th Fleet against the IJA's 109th Division and various IJN ground forces under the command of Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. After neutralising the Japanese air forces on Iwo Jima, the objective was to capture the two completed airfields in the southern and central sectors of Iwo Jima and make them operational after the heavy air, sea and naval artillery bombardments before and after the invasion. The USAAF's 7th Fighter Command would then use this volcanic island as a base to escort four-engine B-29 bombers on their attacks on the Japanese home islands from their bases in the Marianas and to provide emergency landing sites for damaged or low-fuel Superfortresses on their return flight, which would otherwise have crashed into the sea. The combined American forces numbered over 100,000 soldiers, compared to 20,933 Japanese soldiers and sailors. Kuribayashi's defences were so well fortified with caves, tunnels and very difficult terrain that the V AC suffered 6,821 dead and 19,217 wounded, while on the Japanese side, approximately 18,000 soldiers were killed or missing and only 216 were captured. In a mopping-up phase to track down Japanese soldiers hiding in the island's caves, the 147th Infantry Regiment of the Army's 37th Division took another 867 prisoners. This USMC campaign resulted in an unprecedented ratio of three American casualties for every two Japanese soldiers. A total of 2,251 emergency landings were made by B-29 bombers, rescuing nearly 25,000 crew members. The raising of the flag on the summit of Suribachi on 23 February 1945 boosted the morale of the American people at home.