Iwo Jima Falls: America Secures a Critical Base

The United States Marines secured Iwo Jima on March 16, 1945, after 36 days of the most concentrated combat in Marine Corps history. The battle killed 6,821 Americans and virtually all 21,000 Japanese defenders on an eight-square-mile volcanic island that was needed for exactly one purpose: an emergency landing strip for B-29 bombers returning damaged from raids on mainland Japan. The island's strategic value was simple but critical. B-29s flying from the Mariana Islands to bomb Japanese cities covered a round trip of over 3,000 miles, and damaged aircraft that could not complete the return flight ditched in the Pacific with little hope of rescue. Iwo Jima sat almost exactly halfway between the Marianas and Tokyo. Capturing it would provide an emergency airfield and allow fighter escorts to accompany the bombers, dramatically increasing their effectiveness and crew survival rates. Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, recognizing that he could not prevent the American landing, abandoned the conventional beach defense strategy and instead built an elaborate network of tunnels, bunkers, and interconnected fighting positions throughout the island's volcanic terrain. The tunnel system ran for eleven miles, connecting over 1,500 rooms and fighting positions that were virtually impervious to naval bombardment and aerial bombing. Marines of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Divisions landed on February 19 under heavy fire. The iconic flag-raising on Mount Suribachi occurred on February 23, only four days into the battle, but the worst fighting lay ahead. Clearing the northern portion of the island required weeks of close combat, often with flamethrowers and demolition charges against fortified positions. Marines advanced at rates measured in yards per day. By the war's end, 2,251 B-29s had made emergency landings on Iwo Jima, carrying approximately 24,761 crewmen who might otherwise have been lost at sea. The arithmetic of Iwo Jima was brutal but clear: 6,821 Americans died to save nearly 25,000 others.