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Certainly the most celebrated battle of the war in the Pacific, the assault on Iwo Jima commenced on February 19, 1945, after 72 days of aerial and naval bombardment in which 12,600 tons of bombs had been dropped. In the three days immediately preceding the landings, a total of 6,800 tons of bombs were delivered, along with 21,926 naval artillery shells. On March 16, 36 days after the first landings, Iwo Jima was finally declared secure.

At stake in the Iwo Jima fight was a miserable volcanic island--"Iwo Jima" means sulfur island--just 4.5 miles long by 2.5 miles wide at its widest. The Japanese, however, had built three airstrips on the island and had fortified it by taking advantage of the island's natural network of caves and ravines, reinforcing these with concrete and steel. In all, there were some 1,500 fortified caves and 16 miles of tunnels. Perhaps no place on earth had ever been so formidably fortified. The Japanese regarded Iwo Jima as vital to the defense of their homeland. The Americans not only wanted to neutralize it, but to use the airstrips as an advance base for the emergency landing of B-29s raiding Japan.

U.S. Navy and marine planners knew that Iwo Jima would be an extremely difficult objective. However, they believed that, after the island had been softened up by extensive naval and aerial bombardment, a two-week ground battle would be required to take the objective. As it turned out, the ground phase of the battle consumed more than twice that time.

During the almost two and a half months of continual bombardment, the defenders of Iwo Jima dug deeper bunkers. The result was that the intensive preparation only hardened resistance by the Japanese garrison of 22,000 soldiers and Imperial naval troops, all under the command of Lieutenant General Kuribayashi Tadamichi. Against this force, on February 19, 1945, the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions were landed, with the 3rd Marine Division held in reserve. In all, 75,144 marines were initially committed to battle and 30,000 landed on the very first day. Before it ended, 110,000 men would be landed and some 220,000 would remain afloat offshore, manning some 800 warships. . .

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