Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was one of the greatest land battles in World War II. It cost the Americans thousands of lives because of poorly planned techniques by the sergeants and generals of the Navy and Marines. It is located in the Volcano Islands off the coast of Japan. The battle lasted 26 days, and the island was secured ten days later. It was one of the most costly battles in World War II. Iwo Jima is an inactive volcanic island located 660 miles south of Tokyo, Japan (Josephy 93). Its name means sulphur island (Paull 1). It is eight square miles (Iwo 1) and in the shape of a pork chop. Iwo's southern tip is composed of an inactive volcano, Mount Suribachi, the highest point of the island (Josephy 93). The land is made of coarse black sand and jagged rock, and the air smelled of rotten eggs from the sulphur emissions. The water circling the island is twelve feet deep only two feet away from the shore. This made it difficult for the Marines to get on the island from boats (Paull 1). Iwo Jima is only two miles wide and four miles long (Josephy 93). The Americans were to fit 70,000 Marines on this tiny island, and would fight 22,000 Japanese soldiers. It took the Marines 36 days to travel four miles on Iwo (Iwo 1). The Americans began
The five leaders who raised the flag were Lieutenant Schrier, Platoon Sergeant Thomas, Sergeant Hanson, Corporal Lindberg, and Louis Charlo (Bradly 204-205). The actual invasion of Iwo Jima didn't begin until February 19th, 1945 at 8:59 A. During this fighting the movement was even slower than up the hill (Battle 2). The high angled slopes also posed harm. In the 43 months of World War II, 1/3 of all the American losses took place at Iwo Jima (Bradley 246-247). The Navy Bombardments from offshore were to last ten days requested by the Marine generals. This was the strongest concentration of the Japanese and the Marines had to use tanks and flame throwers burn out the soldiers. A forty-man platoon was to take the flag 5to the summit (Bradly 202). On February 18th the bombing was cut short because of heavy rains. on this whole cruddy island can see it!" All the other Marines thought nothing of it, to them there was only on flag raising. We paid 550 lives and 2,500 wounded for every square mile" (Josephy 101). The second reason was bomber planes flying to Japan were being shot down while flying over Iwo Jima.
Common topics in this essay:
Mount Suribachi,
Iwo Jima,
World War,
Navy Bombardments,
Jima March,
War II,
Iwo Japanese,
Colonel Johnson,
Japan Josephy,
USS Missoula,
iwo jima,
world war,
josephy 93,
mount suribachi,
iwo 1,
world war ii,
war ii,
16th iwo 1,
miles iwo,
air raids,
paull 1,
ten days,
battles world war,
cut short heavy,
march 16th iwo,
|
Acceptance Essays
