American equipment on the beach at Iwo Jima
On this day in 1945 Operation Detachment kicked off. Detachment was the amphibious assault on the Japanese held island of Iwo Jima. It was to become one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two.
The island was home to a pair of Japanese airfields. Capture of those two airfields were part of the primary objectives for the invasion. The other objectives were to remove the Japanese garrison that was providing early earning of B-29 Superfortress raids en route to Japan and to establish the island as an emergency landing place for the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Capturing Iwo Jima would also protect the right flank for a future American invasion of Okinawa and provide air fields to support long-range fighter escorts for bombing missions over the Japanese home islands.
At 08:59, one minute ahead of schedule, the first wave of Marines landed on the beaches of the southeastern coast of Iwo Jima. For nearly an hour the Marines seemed to be landing unopposed. It wasn’t until just after 10:00 that the Japanese defenders opened fire.
After crossing the beach, the Marines were faced with 15 ft-high slopes of soft black volcanic ash. The ash made for tough going. Marine AMTRACs struggled to move and it wasn’t until the SeaBees of of Naval Construction Battalions 31 and 133 landed with a couple of bulldozers and cut roads through the ash that the Marines started to make progress.
In the left-most sector of the landings, the Americans did manage to achieve one of their objectives for the battle that day. Led by Colonel Harry B. “Harry the Horse” Liversedge, the 28th Marines drove across the island at its narrowest width, around 870 yd, thereby isolating the Japanese dug in on Mount Suribachi.
By the evening of 19 February, 30,000 Marines had landed. About 40,000 more would follow. The intense combat would continue for more than a month. The famous photo of the Flag raising on Mt. Suribachi was taken on 23 February 1945. It depicts 6 Marines from E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, raising a U.S. flag.
By the end of the Battle on 26 March 1945, the Marines would suffer 6,821 dead and another 19,217 wounded. The Japanese would suffer between 17,845–18,375 killed and wounded out of a pre-battle strength of about 21,000.