| 19 February 1945 U.S. Forces Land on Iwo Jima |
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| The American conquest of Saipan (location #25) gave
the Allies an air base close enough to allow heavy bombers to begin targeting Japanese cities.
However, the Japanese began assigning fighters to defend those cities, and bombers began to be
shot down. This led Allied military planners to seek control of an island even closer to Japan;
one that was within range for fighters to accompany the bombers. They settled on Iwo Jima, which
was 660 nautical miles from Japan. The Japanese, anticipating that Iwo Jima would be a target,
had begun reinforcing and fortifying the island in mid-1944, so that by the beginning of 1945 it
held 21,000 Japanese soldiers and was honeycombed with pillboxes and gun emplacements connected
by underground passages.
Naval and air bombardment of Iwo Jima began in the final weeks of 1944, but the landings did not begin until February 19. The invaders met fierce resistance, including Kamikaze attacks that sunk one U.S. aircraft carrier and damaged another. However, four days afterward American soldiers captured Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the island, which became the scene for one of the most famous photographs of the war. Japanese resistance on the island continued through March in what would end up being the costliest battle of the war thus far; there were 25,000 U.S. casualties, including nearly 7,000 dead. Fewer than 1,100 of the Japanese garrison survived; the final two did not lay down their arms until 1951—six years after the war ended. History: Campaign Maps: Personal Accounts: Photographs: |
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