What an idiot, they said that about every Island, any honest history student of Marine Battles KNOWs theyunderestimated enemy strength on almost every Island.
This is completely contrary to what I learned about Iwo Jima. As I recall, the island was subjected to a devastating barrage of naval gunfire, but the elaborate tunnel system kept most of the defenders protected.
What did Nimitz know and when did he know it?
Very good, detailed article here.
George Washington packed way too many men into that boat on the Delaware. Idiot! What about the Women who suffered at Valley Forge? How about that? And Jesus really didn't feel pain on the Cross because he was God and God can't feel pain and neither can fetuses, but lobsters scream, they feel pain, buddy boy, and my last analyst told me that feeling good is only aboout me. I can't worry too much about others ,. .... .;. ;/. Modern thinker
This writer certainly doesn't know his history. Practically every war has had this type of scenario. During the Civil War, one such incident was Morris Island and Fort Wagner. Union gun ships had bombarded Morris Island and Wagner repeatedly, in an attempt to prepare for an assault. Thinking that their heavy bombardment had depleted the number of Confederates inside the fort, the Union forces stormed Fort Wagner on three separate occasions during July, 1863. Each time they suffered high losses, and never captured the fort. Union forces then turned to digging trenches in an attempt to gain control of Wagner. After a lengthy siege, Confederates evacuated the fort on or about the evening of September 6th, leaving the island in the possession of Northern forces.
And yet, we kicked their a$$es! Ooh-rah, Race!
I read somewhere once, and I'm now not sure where, that we knew the battle for Iwo Jima was going to be a major blood letting, and we even considered using poison gas on the Japanese defenders. The only reason gas wasn't used was because we thought we coudn't keep the world from finding out about it.
I've never thought that the sacrifice of 6,000 Marines on Iwo Jima that allowed a few dozen B-29 crews to survive the war was a good trade. The lose of those fine young Marines from our gene pool can really be seen in the American youth of today.
God Bless all those Marines. Those Marines are a large part of the reason that I sleep soundly and safely at night, in a free coutry called America.
Hitler and the whole Axis debacle sorely and gravely underestimated the Allied forces that would sorely, gravely and ultimately grind them into dust and consign them to the ash heap of history.
I have always had serious reservations about Tarawa,but Iwo Jima provided a"safety net"for air-crews whose planes were damaged bombing Japan from The Marianas.The figure is something like 20,000 that(if we had not taken Iwo Jima)would have been forced to ditch at sea.
I wonder if he would say that at LA times about Stalingrad