Really interesting pictures of WW2 at Iwo Jima

http://picasaweb.google.com ^

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5th Marine Cemetery - Photo credit - Jerry Schoenbert

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Not the parking area at an aircraft factory, but the flight line at Iwo Jima where 7th Fighter Command North American P-51's capable of escorting the Superforts on their attacks over the Japanese homeland, line the runway as far as the eye can see. 78th Fighter Squadron - airfield #1

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Beauty!....313th Bomb Wing B-29 escorting unidentified 7th Fighter Command P-51 mustangs from Iwo Jima to Japan

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Guns and unexploded ammunition are salvaged from this North American P-51 which crashed and burned during take-off from Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands. 15 April 1945. 21st Fighter Group P-51

[editor-surveyor]

And out of all those planes, only a handful still exist today.

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Iwo Jima - After the Battle - Junk yard of crashed P-51's which are being salvaged by crews of the 363rd Service Group. 21st Fighter Group P-51’s

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more coming....so great to see and remember the great sacrifice of these men who knew what it was to fight to WIN!!!!

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Men of the 386th Air Service Group go over the side of a transport ship into a landing craft which will take them ashore at Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands, 6 March 1945

(A lot of soldiers went went over on these transports and never made it to dry land)

[editor-surveyor]

And there are people today that tell us that it wasn’t worth it...

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Taking a moment to honor the black men in that transport clearly visible... who knew what it was to fight for their country and did so. We still have some today who would do so again regardless of what the thug-ishness happening in Ferguson now.

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I never listen to that crap....no matter who is telling it wasn’t worth it....idiots and liberal brain-dead trash as far as I’m concerned.

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Returning frcm a Tokyo raid, this Boeing B-29 Superfortress crashed on night landing at Iwo Jima. Before coming to rest on the embankment, plane ran into a truck, killed a Seabee, and injured two men sleeping in a tent.

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A Northrop P-61 Black Widow on Iwo Jima, attempted a blind landing in a fog aided by AN/MPN-1 Unit. Wind carried the plane off line and it landed on top of another Northrop P-61 seen in distance, finally coming to a stop as shown.

one of the more secret and rare planes of WW II......C-46 Commando at left, B-29 at right.,,,Most folks are not familiar with the P-61 since there were so few of them built and fielded. It's prime role was that of a night fighter and the ones at Iwo Jima provided CAP over Iwo at night.

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414th Fighter Group Republic P-47N's began operations from Iwo Jima in July 1945. While on a shake-down mission, this one spun into a hill and killed the pilot.....rightly stated..."What a price you have to pay for freedom. I just wish this generation had the pride this one did!"

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A Boeing B-29 Superfortress and North American P-51 "Mustangs" burn furiously on a runway at Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands. The B-29, which was returning from a bombing mission on 24. April 1945, developed engine trouble over the island, and, while attempting to make an emergency landing, crashed into nine P-51s parked on the runway. Four of the Mustangs were destroyed and five were damaged. The bomber was from the 39th Bomb Squadron, 504th Bomb Group, 313th Bomb Wing, based on Tinian, Marianas Islands.

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46th Fighter Squadron North American P-51 Mustang "Drip & Dick" being moved away from a burning Boeing B-29 "Superfortress" which crash landed on Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands.

That's a Harley Army 45 motorcycle at left......The plane was that of Richard Drinkwater, thus Drip & Dick

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Wreckage of a North American P-51 which crashed while landing on Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands, after returning from a raid over Chichi Jima. The pilot, evidently, lost control of the wheels and the plane ploughed into tents, knocking a truck over and then burst into flames. The pilot died the next day and another person was killed when the truck overturned on him. 7 April 1945.

Shows how big the price of freedom really is.

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Wreckage of Lt. Dalquist's North American P-51 "Miss Jo III" of the 78th FS, 15th Fighter Group, which cracked-up" at the 7th Air Force base on Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands on 10 March 1945.

(I remember reading of all these crashes as soldiers gave their stories.....these men knew to fight whatever the cost and keep fighting til they won...they knew what it was to win and nothing was going to stop them til they had!)

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45th Fighter Squadron P-51 Mustangs fighters off of Iwo Jima being escorted by a B-29 Superfortress from the 498th Bomb Group T Square 5

The P-51's needed an escort to and from Iwo Jima to Japan where they would either join more B-29's to escort them, or they would attack airfields or other targets. The P-51's originally were shipped from Hawaii to Guam via carrier and then flew to Saipan and then were escorted to Iwo Jima by either B-29 or P-61

The B-29 was the one that carried the vital instrumentation and navigational aids for such a long trip over the inmensity of the Pacific and more capable of leading the pack. The P-51 was the first fighter during the war with the reach and autonomy to scort bombers all the way from England to Berlin and back; it was equally capable for the task to scort the B-29's during the Japan bombing campaign.

The reason for not being in front during the transverse from Iwo Jima to Japan, was because it wasn't necessary, they were never attacked on the way there, or while returning. Also, in this manner they avoided collision with the B-29's. It was not necessary to fly that close, either in front or back of the bomber. Upon reaching the target, the P-51's formed an umbrella around the B-29 for a combat air patrol. Most of the time it was not necessary because japanese fighters did not try to intercept formations

So it was up to the Mustangs to pick up secondary occasional targets. Still, few B-29's were lost due to japanese fighter attack.

The United States Army Air Force bomber command was so surprised with the lack of opposition to bomber formations by japanese aviators, that they decided to implement a lethal doctrine. General Curtiss LeMay, after sensing the negative results of high altitude bombing due to bad weather around Japan, with bombs being tossed about by high winds, decided to shift from high altitude daylight bombing, to very low altitude night bombing. The opposite concept for which the B-29 was originally built.

While the daylight strategic campaign continued over factories and military installations, night low level bombing began over the most important cities. Armor and defensive weaponry of the bombers was removed to allow increased bomb loads; Japanese night-fighters and anti-aircraft gun defense was so feeble it was hardly a risk.

Their city buildings, made of wood and paper, caused the fires to burn out of control. The bombing on Tokyo on march 9, 1945, by 334 B-29's, which incinerated 16 square miles and killed 100.000 people, was the most destructive conventional raid, and the deadliest single bombing raid of any kind in terms of lives lost, in all of military aviation history.

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FIGHTER CHIEF PLANS PACIFIC STRIKE — At a 7th Fighter Command Base on Iwo Jima, Brig. Gen. Ernest M. "Mickey" Moore, right, chief of the 7th Fighter Command in the Pacific, briefs Group Commander Col James O. Beckwith, Jr., 48 Grove Street, Burlington, Vt., on plans for a new fighter attack in the Japan theatre.