May.
The Navy and Marines were widely criticized for expending so many men, so much time and so much material for an island that was not part of the strategic goal.
The harbor and two airfields were never used for further operations.
Nay
29 Mariner - you don’t t know your history. Among Iwo’s post conquest roles was that acting the forward most landing place for US bombers and fighters making emergency landings due to damage or running out of fuel. Saved the lives of many fliers and saved many planes for any future operations.
My father-in-law was there, U.S. Signal Corps, recovering from combat ops wounds. He saw the raising of the American flag on Mt. Surabaichi from his recovery near the 5th Marine Corps cemetery. I have his photograph of that place.
From Ri hard F. Newcomb’s book “Iwo Jima” - Special 50th Anniversary Edition, plus. 243-244, he wrote:
“Land-based fighters from Iwo Jima accompanied the B-29s to Japan on April 7, For the first time. Nearly every day the island rescued crippled bombers. On June 7, 102 B-29s landed on Iwo Jim’s, and on July 24, 186 of the giant planes came in to the island. By the end of the war, 2,400 B-29s with 27,000 crewmen had used the Iwo Jim’s airfields.
Not all of these men would have been lost had the island not been in American hands, but Admiral Kong’s final report said that lives saved ‘exceeded lives lost in the capture of the island itself’”.
It pays to know your history.