pics of Iwo Jima after the battle

[medic2264]

http://picasaweb.google.com/7thfight...69341671376946

I never saw these pics before. There are some pics of Garands in there, but the rest are slightly off topic.

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[kikokat]

What an incredible collection of photos! Thanks for sharing Medic.

John

[A. F Medic]

Sorry if I posted in wrong place. I had read about these attacks by the remaining Japanese on IWO but had never seen the results.

Lots of holes in the tents and a number of GIs lost. At least one gets to see what a M1 can do. Thanks..

[218bee]

They had a program that explained in detail what happened on this last Banzai charge....It seems there was a general order given a few days before to collect all ammo....
The GI they interviewed said some guys (luckily) weren't comfortable with this and squirreled away some full mags, etc....

Probably would have turned out much worse if they all decided to "turn in" all their ammo....at least they killed the attackers....

Wonder who the rocket scientist was who gave the "collect the ammo" order, prior to the island being %100 secure?

[Redleg]

The story just played on the history channel.

The Army had just about taken over the Iwo, and was building airstrips.

The few remaining Marines were leaving the very next day and had to turn in ammo as a safety measure.

It is believed that General Kurabayashi may have led the Banzai Charge of 250Japs. They attacked the sleeping aircrews in the tents with Samauri swords, slaughtering 65 men.
The tents where the battle occured can be seen in the photo essay above, both before and after. So likely are the very airmen who perished, shown in some photos.

The Japs then attacked the Marines who had virtually no ammo left. A company commander ordered a bayonet charge and hand to hand fighting resulted. The battle ended back at the slaughter tent area, when tanks came to help clean up the mess.

65 Americans died and 120 were wounded. 250 Japs died.
Very rare to see such photos.