[Plutarch]

Unlike the invasion of Iwo Jima two months before, with heavy fighting on the beaches...

Weren't the Iwo Jima landings largely unopposed, with the heavy fighting and massive casualities occurring inland?

[The Shrew]

Weren't the Iwo Jima landings largely unopposed, with the heavy fighting and massive casualities occurring inland?

FWIW, There is no inland on Iwo Jima. The fighting was very bloody on the beaches. The turning point in taking Mt. Suribachi was when US Navy destroyers closed to 500 yards off shore and blasted the caves on the mountain as if the ships themselves were Marine artillery or tanks.

The ships had to be very careful to steam on only two sides of the island so that their naval gunfire wouldn't hit ships on the other side of the island from rounds that missed or bounced off.

What you may have been thinking of is that on Iwo Jima the bloodiest part of the fighting took place AFTER Mt.Suribachi was captured.

Semper Fi,

TS

[SwinneySwitch]

Iwo Jima...Red Blood on Black Sand

http://www.fightingfourth.com/Iwo.htm