Memory strands of Iwo Jima (60th Anniversary)

Philly Inquirer | 18 Feb 2005 | Edward Colimore

[HankReardon]

The corpsman's name was Bradley. He saved the lives of many injured Marines that day, always at great risk of his own. He never spoke of Iowa Jima to his family and friends. For years, when reporters or journalists would call to talk to him his family was told to them, "Dad went fishing."
Bradley's son wrote a book about the lives and deaths of the flag raisers, before and after. "The Flags of Our Fathers." I'll never have a what I think is a difficult day again.

[Iwo Jima]

Memorial ping.

[HankReardon]

One more thing. I know these men were there. All accounts of Iwo Jima relates that the Japanese allowed the marines to land on the beach before they opened up on them.

Maybe they were not in the initial landing.

[jigsaw]

Ping!

[libertylover]

There's a show currently running on the Military Channel about the carnage that would have occurred if we had had to invade the Japanese mainland, and of course it uses footage from Iwo Jima.

The thing that struck me most about the anticipated horror of what was to come was the bit about the Purple Hearts. In preparation for the the invasion the military ordered a large number of Purple Hearts. How large? A stockpile so large that we're still using the medals from that order in 1945!

[ContraryMary]

My dad, may he rest in peace, saw the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi. Our WWII vets are truly America's greatest generation.

[Chgogal]

BTTT

[canalabamian]

Unfortunately, the greater sacrifices of the Sixth and First Marine and 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions during April - June of the same year are often over looked.

[MEG33]

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ItisPeke/VDay.html

To Our Veterans ...

[Big Digger]

Great article! I'd like expand a bit on the role Iwo Jima was to play in our air campaign against the Japanese home islands. The long range B-29 bombers already could fly to Japan and back from the Marianas (Saipan, Guam, Tinian) that the Marines, Navy, and Army had liberated and converted to massive bomber bases in the summer and fall of 1944. Trouble was, the P-47 and P-51 fighter escorts that were by then providing escort to B-17s flying from England against Germany didn't have the range to accompany the longer range B-29s to Japan and back. Also, the flight home from Japan was tough for all B-29s, and with any battle damage, a number of the big planes, with their crew of ten men had to ditch at sea, short of their Marianas airfields. USN submarines, flying boats, and USAAF bombers (Dumbos) specially equipped to drop lifeboats rescued many, but not all of these aircrews, and the planes, of course were lost at sea. Iwo was approximately halfway betweem the Marianas and Japan, and once taken (at great cost) Iwo Jima was rapidly converted to a base for fighter escorts and emergency B-29 landings and emergency first-aid and repair. The first crippled B-29s were recorded landing at Iwo before the Seabees had even finished building the landing strips. In the calculus of war, an estimated 25,000 US airmen and their planes were saved by having a safe haven at Iwo Jima, thanks to the 6,000 GI's who died taking the island. These were all some pretty special people, and we owe them a great debt of gratitude. The ABC documentary series AIR POWER and NBC's VICTORY AT SEA both have excellent episodes that tell this story.

[astounded]

You are referring to Okinawa? Okinawa was a tough battle, but I think per capita and per square mile, Iwo Jima was more hellish than Okinawa, at least on land. The types of battle wounds and casualties caused by large-caliber weaponry were of a kind never seen in the war. The Japanese tactic of waiting until the Marines had crowded the LZs and then opening up with artillery was devastating. But, the kamikazes made Okinawa hell on water for the Navy.

[Big Digger]

In all of WW II, one seventh of all US Navy casualties came at the battle for Okinawa.

[LavaDog]

I do believe that present day military personnel will someday be spoken of as the next great generation.

[WorkingClassFilth]

A man I know was a Navy pilot of the LST's that brought the Marines into shore - worked that job straight through the worst of it. He still hates the Japanese ferociously.

[Max in Utah]

"In all of WW II, one seventh of all US Navy casualties came at the battle for Okinawa."

I thought I knew a thing or two about WWII, but I didn't know this. Can you give us more information on why so many Navy casualties occurred in the Okinawa operation? Was it due to the kamikazes? My father was there, and he had vivid memories of the attacking Japanese planes and the AA fire from the fleet.

[katana]

The capture of the island and its airfields put American warplanes within striking distance of the main islands of Japan.

Minor point, but the airfield on Iwo Jima was actually useful because the island rests about half way between Saipan, Tinian, and the other islands in the Marianas Archipelago which were already within flying distance of Tokyo for B29's.

We needed the Iwo Jima airfield to provide a place where damaged or low on fuel bombers, that couldn't get back to Saipan or Tinian, could safely land. Otherwise those planes and crews had to ditch at sea, in most cases resulting in the loss of both. In fact, shortly after the capture of the airfield, with the battle still raging around it, a crippled B29 came in for a landing.

[RaceBannon]

They waited for the beaches to be filled with men, that way, the maximum effect of the shrapnel would hit more men because they were all closer together relatively, not spread out where one shell might hit only 2 or 3 men.