Happy 60th to the Battle of Iwo Jima

[BUCarino]

This is of course the week where they honor the battle of Iwo Jima as it's the 60th anniversary of that great battle.

There was a great story in yesterdays Parade insert in your Sunday paper showing the heroics of the man who photographed the movie of the famous raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima.


http://www.parade.com/current/coverstory/index.html (http://www.parade.com/current/coverstory/index.html)


This battle of course never gets the pub of Normandy, but the casualty total for the US Marines was comparable to Normandy as we lost 6,000 brave men on that island. This photographer was one of those 6,000 and sadly he was one of the few left behind as he was trapped in a acev that was deemed too dangerous to dig out as it was mined. The rest of the dead were eventually brought back to the US.

Iwo Jima was a very important battle as they needed that island and it's landing strips for our plans on their way to their bombing missions in Japan. This past Friday the 60th anniversary of the invasion and this Wednesday is the anniversary of the victory and the raising of the Flag.

One of the best military books I've ever read as I've read it at least 6 times is "Flags of our Fathers" by James Bradley about the 6 men who raised that flag and about the battle of Iwo Jima itself.


http://www.randomhouse.com/features/jamesbradley/index3.html (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/jamesbradley/index3.html)


I'm proud as hell to say, that my late father was one of those brave Marines who fought at the battle of Iwo Jima.

[BUCarino]

Here is a great quote from one of the commanding Generals there.


"Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was...What was in doubt, in all our minds, was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate our cemetery at the end, or whether the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gun and gunner"

-- Major General Graves B. Erskin in Reference To The Battle Of Iwo Jima

[Patriot Heart]

Kudos to your late Dad for his service. :patriot: (http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/misc.php?do=getsmilies#) Here is an excellent article I heard Laura Ingraham reading from on her talk radio show yesterday.




AT WAR

Iwo Jima
The famous battle offers lessons for us 60 years later.

BY ARTHUR HERMAN
Saturday, February 19, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Sixty years ago today, more than 110,000 Americans and 880 ships began their assault on a small volcanic island in the Pacific, in the climactic battle of the last year of World War II. For the next 36 days Iwo Jima would become the most populous 7 1/2 square miles on the planet, as U.S. Marines and Japanese soldiers fought a battle that would test American resolve even more than D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge had, and that still symbolizes a free society's willingness to make the sacrifice necessary to prevail over evil--a sacrifice as relevant today as it was 60 years ago.

The attack on Iwo Jima capped a two-year island-hopping campaign that was as controversial with politicians and the press as any Rumsfeld strategy. Each amphibious assault had been bloodier than the last: at Tarawa, where 3,000 ill-prepared Marines fell taking an island of just three square miles; at Saipan, where Army troops performed so poorly two of their generals had to be fired; and Peleliu, where it took 10 weeks of fighting in 115-degree heat to root out the last Japanese defenders, at the cost of 6,000 soldiers and Marines.

Iwo Jima would be the first island of the Japanese homeland to be attacked. The Japanese had put in miles of tunnels and bunkers, with 361 artillery pieces, 65 heavy mortars, 33 large naval guns, and 21,000 defenders determined to fight to the death. Their motto was, "kill 10 of the enemy before dying." American commanders expected 40% casualties on the first assault. "We have taken such losses before," remarked the Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, "and if we have to, we can do it again."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/images/storyend_dingbat.gif

Even before the attack, the Navy's bombardment of Iwo Jima cost more ships and men than it lost on D-Day, without making a significant dent in the Japanese defenses. Then, beginning at 9 a.m. on the 19th, Marines loaded down with 70 to 100 pounds of equipment each hit the beach, and immediately sank into the thick volcanic ash. They found themselves on a barren moonscape stripped of any cover or vegetation, where Japanese artillery could pound them with unrelenting fury. Scores of wounded Marines helplessly waiting to be evacuated off the beach were killed "with the greatest possible violence," as veteran war reporter Robert Sherrod put it. Shells tore bodies in half and scattered arms and legs in all directions, while so much underground steam rose from the churned up soil the survivors broke up C-ration crates to sit on in order to keep from being scalded. Some 2,300 Marines were killed or wounded in the first 18 hours. It was, Sherrod said, "a nightmare in hell."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006317

[BUCarino]

PH,

Thanks for the sentiments and for sharing that great article.

[Rink]

My friend Mr Johnson was in the 5th Marine Division at Iwo Jima. he's still alive today and still active in forestry :)