Iwo Jima Theory

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Throughout history, there have been battles that have defined a war, changed tactics, or even changed an entire branch. On February 19, 1945, 30,000 Marines landed on the beach of Iwo Jima after 3 days of naval bombardment and 70 days of aerial bombardment turned up every bit of dirt on the island. Little did the Marines know that their enemy wasn’t on the island. The Japanese had gone underground into bunkers deep in the volcanic rock of the island, sheltering them from bombardment. An hour after the Marines landed, they came under withering artillery fire and by sundown on the first day, the US had suffered 2,420 casualties (Cowley, 1996). The Battle for Iwo Jima was marked by a change of tactics for the Japanese as they concentrated inland …show more content…
But the airfields at Iwo Jima played a vital role in refueling and providing escorts for the B-29 Superfortresses and the subsequent advance on Okinawa. One of the more popular justifications of the attack on the island is the “emergency landing” theory. “Essentially, the theory argues that 2,251 B-29 Superfortresses landed on Iwo Jima and each carried eleven crewmen; accordingly, Operation Detachment saved the lives of 24,761 Americans” (Burrell). Even before the island was completely taken, it was proving its importance. On March 4, 1945 a B-29 Superfortress sent a message to the naval forces saying that it would be landing on Airfield No. 1. The construction crew rebuilding the airfield scrambled to clear the bath for the gigantic plane as it flew ever closer to the landing strip. As the plane successfully landed on the clay soaked with the blood of American Marines, the troops were extremely excited to see their effort pay off. There had been questions about the lasting military significance of the island but by the end of the fighting, 26 B-29s had successfully landed on the island, cementing the importance of the …show more content…
70 days prior to the landing, the planes had dropped 5,800 tons of bombs on the 8.1 square mile island in 2,700 sorties. Not only did the Air Force support the Marines but the capture of the island benefitted the Air Force greatly by allowing 2,251 B-29s make emergency landings on the captured airfields saving thousands of lives in the process. The US Navy not only provided the transportation for the Marines to be able to land, but they also provided artillery fire on the island for 3 days with about 22,000 shells on top of the Air Force’s bombs to weaken the enemy defenses on the island to attempt to allow the landing forces to take the island as easily as possible. Aside from the combat aspect of the support, Navy Corpsmen also landed with the Marines which saved many as the little resistance the leadership originally thought the Americans would be faced with turned out to be persistent and deadly accurate artillery fire along with ferocious fighting by Japanese soldiers as they recklessly threw themselves at the enemy with the full expectation that they would not survive the
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