M1 Carbine "Caught in the wild" Pictures.

[Gil Boyd]

Ovidio,
He has spoken about his personal feelings as a Section Commander on one of the History channels, but has said it is anyones nightmares all at once being on that island.
He went through many campaigns before Suribachi, and says they were a picnic compared to that.
It was, for the Japanese don't forget, their last stronghold, and if it fell, their home land and families were left open to the American invader. These Japanese soldiers fought for their lives and it showed. Thousands on both sides died................horrific for any soldier!

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Thousands on both sides died................horrific for any soldier!

Estimates say 6,800+ Americans, 21,000 Japanese deaths with a little over 1,000 Jananese surviving, Brutal.

[Gil Boyd]

There is a film around which has sub titles, about the boss defending Mt Suribachi. He rode a white horse. It went deep into the defence of the mountain and the island right through the attack etc. It was an unforgettable film, with the extras doing some wonderous stuff on the M1.............name anybody?

[browningautorifle]

name anybody

Letters from Iwo Jima by Clint Eastwood...

[Gil Boyd]

Jim,
Thats the one mate Cheers brilliant film. Here it is in German/English and of course Japanese

[painter777]

Read some of this from a book about the 3rd Marine Div. Wikipedia pretty much states the same thing when reading the battle of Iwo Jima.
The 36-day Iwo Jima assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead.

From Wiki: Battle of Iwo Jima - Wikipedia

Iwo Jima was a battle that didn't need to happen. There were plenty of other Islands that could have been taken with less resistance and used for the same thing a landing strip.
In hind sight, April 1945 retired Chief of Naval Operations William V. Pratt stated in Newsweek magazine that considering the "expenditure of manpower to acquire a small, God-forsaken island, useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base ... [one] wonders if the same sort of airbase could not have been reached by acquiring other strategic localities at lower cost."
The justification for Iwo Jima's strategic importance to the United States' war effort has been that it provided a landing and refueling site for long-range fighter escorts. These escorts proved both impractical and unnecessary, and only ten such missions were ever flown from Iwo Jima.

By June 1944 the Japanese Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned to command the defense of Iwo Jima. Kuribayashi knew that Japan could not win the battle, but he hoped to inflict massive casualties on the American forces, so that the United States and its Australian and British allies would reconsider carrying out the invasion of Japan Home Islands.

While drawing inspiration from the defense in the Battle of Peleliu, Lieutenant General Kuribayashi designed a defense that broke with Japanese military doctrine. Rather than establishing his defenses on the beach to face the landings directly, he created strong, mutually supporting defenses in depth using static and heavy weapons such as heavy machine guns and artillery. Takeichi Nishi's armored tanks were to be used as camouflaged artillery positions. Because the tunnel linking the mountain to the main forces was never completed, Kuribayashi organized the southern area of the island in and around Mount Suribachi as a semi-independent sector, with his main defensive zone built up in the north. The expected American naval and air bombardment further prompted the creation of an extensive system of tunnels that connected the prepared positions, so that a pillbox that had been cleared could be reoccupied. This network of bunkers and pillboxes favored the defense. For instance, The Nanpo Bunker (Southern Area Islands Naval Air HQ), which was located east of Airfield Number 2, had enough food, water and ammo for the Japanese to hold out for three months. The bunker was 90 feet deep and had tunnels running in various directions. Approximately 500 55-gallon drums filled with water, kerosene, and fuel oil for generators were located inside the complex. Gasoline powered generators allowed for radios and lighting to be operated underground.
By February 19, 1945, the day the Americans invaded, 11 miles of a planned 17 miles of tunnel network had been dug. Besides the Nanpo Bunker, there were numerous command centers and barracks that were 75 feet deep. Tunnels allowed for troop movement to go undetected to various defense positions.
Hundreds of hidden artillery and mortar positions along with land mines were placed all over the island.
After landings began an hour passed without any returned enemy fire. The beaches filled with men and equipment trying to address the 15' tall banks of volcanic ash, which was hard to get a foot hold or traction on. Thoughts arose that the pre-bombardment had severely weakened the Japanese troops. And the American intelligence sources were confident that Iwo Jima would fall in one week. Even Chester W. Nimitz had said: "Well, this will be easy. The Japanese will surrender Iwo Jima without a fight." American forces were unaware that the Japanese were preparing a complex and deep defense, radically departing from their usual strategy of a beach defense. So successful was the Japanese preparation that it was discovered after the battle that the hundreds of tons of Allied bombs and thousands of rounds of heavy naval gunfire had left the Japanese defenders almost undamaged and ready to inflict losses on the U.S. Marines. After that 1 hour the Japanese unleashed everything from machine guns and mortars to heavy artillery on the crowded beach, which was quickly transformed into a nightmarish bloodbath. Time-Life correspondent Robert Sherrod described it simply as "a nightmare in hell." As fighting progressed inland and over the days many Americans found that bunkers that were cleared with flamethrowers and grenades were reoccupied shortly afterwards by Japanese troops moving through the tunnels. This tactic caused many casualties among the Marines, as they walked past the reoccupied bunkers without expecting to suddenly take fresh fire from them.

After running out of water, food and most supplies, the Japanese troops became desperate toward the end of the battle. General Kuribayashi, who had argued against banzai attacks at the start of the battle, realized that defeat was imminent.

Marines began to face increasing numbers of nighttime attacks; these were only repelled by a combination of machine-gun defensive positions and artillery support. At times, the Marines engaged in hand-to-hand fighting to repel the Japanese attacks. Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death.
A final counterattack in the vicinity of Airfield No. 2, it has been said that General Kuribayashi led this final assault which unlike the loud banzai charge of previous battles, was characterized as a silent attack. But there are conflicting accounts from surviving Japanese veterans.

The last 2 Japanese defenders entrenched on the island,
Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki, lasted four years without being caught and finally surrendered on 6 January 1949.

There were no civilians to deal with like on Saipan and Okinawa.

Charlie-Painter777