Sixty Eight years ago this morning, 19Feb45, 77,000 US Marines from the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions stormed ashore on the tiny volcanic island of Iwo Jima in the northern Pacific Ocean. Ashore, more than 22,000 Japanese defenders awaited them.

The island was so small (only 8 square miles) and so barren (it had been denuded by bombing and shelling day and night for the past 5 months) that the U.S. War Department felt the whole battle should last only about 3 days.

But they were expecting 12,000 Japanese, and they met 22,000. They expected the incessant bombing might have killed at least half of them, but they had all lived underground in 15 miles of interconnected caves and tunnels and all were alive.

Iwo Jima was the first actual Japanese soil we attacked during WWII. All the other islands we took had belonged to someone else before the war, and had been stolen by Japan. We simply liberated them from the Japanese. But Iwo was different ~ it was actually a part of Japan proper. The mayor of Tokyo was also the mayor of Iwo Jima. No nation had ever raised a foreign flag over Japanese soil in over 400 years.

The Japanese expected to die, and knew they would lose Ioto (Japanese for 硫黄島, later called Io Shima or Iwo Jima). Each Japanese soldier only wanted to kill 10 Marines before he died. Those were their orders, and that was the personal intent of each Japanese soldier who awaited the invasion. None expected to survive. They had mailed home all their personal possessions to their families, said goodbye to their friends and loved ones and sent all their money to Emperor Hirohito to be used in the war effort. Then they dug those 15 miles of connected underground tunnels, turned the entire island into a fort, and registered every square yard of the island for their artillery. They could drop a shell on any given point of the island at will. They waited for the Marines.

The Marines came ashore in continuous waves of amphibian tractors, about 400 men in each wave. They found the beach steeply inclined and terraced, and made not of beach sand, but of knee-deep black volcanic ash. A man couldn't move in that stuff. Vehicles couldn't drive in it. And you couldn't dig a fighting hole in it, either. Marines described is as "trying to dig a hole in a barrel of wheat", or "wading thru a grain silo" or "laying in a tub of black talcum powder". [The soil on Iwo was hot ~ Marines could later actually heat cans of food by burying them in the sand. And "Iwo Jima" ("sulphur island") stunk; the whole place smelled like rotten eggs; the whole place seemed like hell).

Those who managed to reach the top of the black-sand beach were met by withering fire from countless unseen Japanese machineguns, buried in interconnected concrete bunkers all across their front. That kept them down on the beach, where wave after wave of new arrivals crowded ashore behind them.

As the 4th wave was landing, Japanese artillery began raining down on the entire length of the beach. The Marines were trapped ~ they couldn't retreat, they couldn't advance, and they couldn't stay there. About 2500 of them died on the clogged landing beach that first day. Their equipment was wrecked or sunk or couldn't move in the black ash. They couldn't see the Japanese, who were underground and shooting at them from hard point pillboxes and bunkers. All the Marines could do was charge headlong into the machineguns, or stay on the beach and die.

Common 'mechanical' means of warfare were ineffective on Iwo Jima. Artillery and bombs couldn't reach the Japanese underground. The Marines were forced to fight that battle step by step, using hand grenades, flamethrowers, and their bayonets.

The battle took 36 days instead of 3. The Japanese refused to surrender (altho there were many suicides) and never stopped fighting a delaying-action defensive battle of attrition, which made the Marines come to them, losing men at every step. More than 26,000 Marine casualties (100 from CT) paid for the 8 square miles of Ioto, with 6823 killed in action and more than 19,000 wounded. It became the first and only battle of WWII where the attackers lost more men than the defenders did, and the bloodiest battle the Marines have ever fought in their 238yr history.

One third of all the U.S. Marines killed during WWII died on Iwo Jima.
Let that soak in a bit: 1/3 of all the Marines killed during the war, were killed on Iwo Jima.

27 Medals of Honor were awarded for heroism on Iwo; 22 to Marines, 5 more to US Navy Corpsmen ("combat medics" assigned to the Corps). That was more MoH than were ever awarded for a single battle since The Medal was established in 1861. "Uncommon Valor was a common virtue" became the descriptive phrase about the Iwo Jima Marines.

On the 5th day of the battle, 23Feb45, Marines raised the US flag atop Iwo's prominent hill, Mount Suribachi. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's picture of the flag raising became world famous and was used to signify the united effort of the Allies (and especially of the Marines) during the entire war. But the battle still had more than a month of hard fighting ~ and dying ~ left to go. In March 1945 the Marines declared Iwo secure and turned it over to the US Army.

In January 1947, two YEARS after the battle (and the war itself) had ended, the final two remaining Japanese soldiers emerged from Iwo's vast underground tunnel system and surrendered to US forces there. They were dressed in full and proper uniforms, and surrendered fully functional weapons. They had survived by raiding the Army supply depot each night for 23 months.

If you know an Iwo Jima veteran, today's the day to thank him. He's one of the few remaining members of a dwindling group of heroes. His life was forever changed by what he experienced in that battle 68 years ago. If you don't know an Iwo Marine, that's not unusual. Of the 77,000 original warriors, there are fewer than 150 left alive today. Think of them today anyway. Had they not laid aside their youth and dreams (and their very lives) and done what they did during WWII, you might be reading this in Japanese Kanji.

I am very proud to note that the national Iwo Jima Survivors Association support group is headquartered right here in our own Branford, CT (www.SOSIwoJima.Com).

For an excellent detailed analysis of the battle of Iwo Jima and the Marines who fought there, I recommend reading FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley. While there are many other excellent books on this incredible battle, FOOF is the best-written, carefully detailed and most-absorbing presentation.

Where do we find such men?


OooRah!
Frank T

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1970 240Z

By the way, most of you have seen me wear a camouflaged US Marine Corps "cover" (not a 'hat', please). If there's an appropriate time to make a note about that cover, it's now.

The famous flag raising on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi has some pretty complex details, but the bottom line is that 5 Marines and a Navy Corpsman were assigned "just another dirty detail" and happened to get their picture taken doing it.

The men involved in the photograph are all known. They are:

1. On the far right, planting the 'flagpole' (a drain pipe) into the ground, is Harlon Block from Texas;
2. At the far left, releasing the pole as it is raised beyond his reach, is Ira Hayes from Arizona;
3. In between are Corpsman John "Doc" Bradley from Wisconsin, Franklin Sousley from Kentucky, and on the far side, out of sight, are Michael Stank from Czechoslovakia and Pennsylvania, and Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. They were all members of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division.

I will focus on Rene Gagnon. He was the only infant of a young newlywed couple in New Hampshire. His parents divorced and his dad had another son with his new wife. That other son (Rene's half-brother) grew up and had a son of his own, who joined the Marines and became a Marine recruiter in CT.

I met that Marine when I stopped into his Recruiting Office one afternoon. At that time I was already retired and wearing my own unserviceable (worn out) USMC cover from my own duty years. He gave me his to replace it. I have proudly worn it ever since. I consider it an indirect link to USMC history and a prized possession.

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1970 240Z

Thanks for sharing this, Frank. Even with the passage of time, these events are as compelling and filled with "human" stories as ever and should never be taken for granted or overlooked.

I do not apologiZe for harping-on about this. I feel we all need to know about it and remember what these men did for us.

68 years ago today, Fri/23Feb45, the Marines raised the US Flag atop Iwo Jima's prominent hill, Mount Suribachi. It was the first day any nation had forcefully raised a foreign flag over Japanese soil in more than 400 years.

There were two flagraisings that morning, both on the same site. The earlier one was small, and raised a happy ruckus all over the tiny island when it went up. Every Marine who saw it cheered and all 800 ships offshore blew horns, sirens and whistles and rang their bells in salute. The whole battle stopped momentarily.

This second, larger flag was dispatched to the hilltop to replace that first, smaller one. About 90 minutes after the first one had caused such a fuss, this second one replaced it ~ without a word.

Two photographers filmed it going up ~ Marine Sergeant Bill Genaust was a combat photographer, filming the battle with highly-prized color film. He had only about 7 seconds of film left in his wind-up camera when he filmed this 5-second event. Sgt Genaust was later killed and buried on Iwo. His camera and film were found and returned.

The other photographer was civilian Joe Rosenthal, from the Associated Press. He had a hand-held news camera shooting B&W stills. He and Sgt Genaust stood together, waiting for the flag to be raised. Rosenthal wasn't paying attention and when it happened, he had only an instant to spin and snap a 'hip shot' with the final frame of film left in his camera. He didn't even aim the shot, nor did he set the f-stop or focus.

And he didn't see his own photograph until many weeks later, when he was safely off the island. By then it had become world-famous and was well on its way to becoming the most-copied photograph in history. Considering all the elements going against a successful picture (no aim, no focus, shot while turning), it's a wonder it came out, at all. Instead, it came out perfectly, with exact detail, clarity, and focus. A simple miracle. The picture became representative of the Allies' war effort (and especially that of the Marine Corps') during WWII. Rosenthal was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this incredible, moving photograph.

Here is an excellent video commemorating this year's 68th anniversary of that flag raising. This shows the final 7-seconds of color film available in Sgt. Bill Genaust's camera at that moment. The background music is THE MARINES' HYMN and ETERNAL FATHER.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/68th-annive ... Wdl;_ylv=3

Both flags were preserved and are now displayed under constant guard at the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE MARINE CORPS in Quantico, Virginia. It's a humbling feeling to stand in the same room with both 48 star flags, both battle torn and revered.

And that's all I have to say about that until this time next year, when (God willing) I will remind y'all again.


OooRah.
Frank T

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1970 240Z