75 years ago Marines gearing up for Iwo Jima

[whitehall]

About 6,000 Marines would die in a little over a month taking a smelly island that could have been bypassed. 22 Marines and 5 Navy would be awarded the Medal of Honor and one Marine who had been awarded the MOH on Guadalcanal would be KIA.

 

[playtime]

oofuckingrah.

 

[williepete]

About 6,000 Marines would die in a little over a month taking a smelly island that could have been bypassed. 22 Marines and 5 Navy would be awarded the Medal of Honor and one Marine who had been awarded the MOH on Guadalcanal would be KIA.

Saved a lot of airmen. Myth, excuse, justification or reality?

After the battle, both Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King and General of the Army George C. Marshall continued to maintain that Iwo Jima provided essential fighter cover for Superforts, but they began shifting emphasis to the B-29 landings on Iwo Jima. In Marshall’s report to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, he stated, “Iwo fields saved hundreds of battle-damaged B-29s, unable to make the full return flight to their bases in the Marianas, 800 miles farther to the south.” King argued that significantly more B-29s would have been shot down over Japan “had Iwo Jima not been available for emergency landings.” He estimated that “the lives [that would have been] lost at sea through this latter factor alone…exceeded the lives lost in the capture itself.”

Worth the Cost? Justificaton of the Iwo Jima Invasion





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[TheParser]

I know that it is a cliché, but it's true: Those boys who died fighting in World War II were truly the "greatest generation."


We owe so much to them.

I think that the disgusting way President Trump and his enemies are treating each other is an insult to the memory of those boys.

 

[Rambunctious]

 

[Rambunctious]

My avatar inspiration....solid gold...

 

[Rambunctious]

 

[Rambunctious]

 

[whitehall]

The mission to take the island didn't include using it for crippled bombers until the casualty list came out. There were already established bases for crippled bombers and it really didn't make much sense sending a crippled bomber away from the mainland to try to find a tiny dot in the ocean. I wonder how many bombers were lost trying to find Iwo Jima. Anyway. it seems the Navy had more important things to do than shell Iwo for the requisite time and intelligence had to know that the Japanese had half a century to fortify the tiny island. Every square inch was covered by intersecting machine gun fire and zeroed in by mortars. As Admiral Nimitz said, "uncommon valor was a common virtue". I'm a former Marine and I would be the first one to say that they don't make 'em like that anymore.

 

[Polishprince]

Today is the anniversary, but unfortunately, I don't see the "Sands of Iwo Jima" on the TV schedule for today. I always loved that film, one of John Wayne's greatest and most heroic.

 

[Oddball]

 

[whitehall]

The Flag raising photo by little Joe Rosenthal of the A.P. is arguably the most famous photograph of all time. Rosenthal was hiking up Mt. Suribachi when he met a Marine photographer who told him it's all over, they already raised a flag. Rosenthal thought he might get some shots anyway and took some "Gung-Ho" photos of the first Flag raisers when he heard "there she goes" and turned and snapped a quick photo with his Speed Graflex press camera of the second Flag raising with a larger Flag. He didn't think much of it and sent the film pack out to the ships.

 

[harmonica]

a lot of armchair generals here
hahhahahahahahha
I guess they should've bypassed everything and just went to Japan

 

[whitehall]

a lot of armchair generals here
hahhahahahahahha
I guess they should've bypassed everything and just went to Japan

Lots of laughs over 6,000 Marines killed in a single month. Every square inch of the island was covered by intersecting machine gun fire. Every square foot was registered by mortar fire. They made a big show of surprising the Germans at Normandy but there was no surprises at Iwo Jima and yet the Navy had better things than to shell the island for the requisite time. Shelling might not have done any good because the Japanese had forty years to erect pill boxes connected to underground tunnels. It was suicide. The ironic thing was that the "Bomb" was in the works and the war was over in six months. It's possible that Marines were sacrificed assaulting an impregnable fortress to encourage support for using a nuclear weapon on civilians.

 

[harmonica]

a lot of armchair generals here
hahhahahahahahha
I guess they should've bypassed everything and just went to Japan

Lots of laughs over 6,000 Marines killed in a single month. Every square inch of the island was covered by intersecting machine gun fire. Every square foot was registered by mortar fire. They made a big show of surprising the Germans at Normandy but there was no surprises at Iwo Jima and yet the Navy had better things than to shell the island for the requisite time. Shelling might not have done any good because the Japanese had forty years to erect pill boxes connected to underground tunnels. It was suicide. The ironic thing was that the "Bomb" was in the works and the war was over in six months. It's possible that Marines were sacrificed assaulting an impregnable fortress to encourage support for using a nuclear weapon on civilians.

ok General Armchair
hahahhahahahahhah..

 

[harmonica]

a lot of armchair generals here
hahhahahahahahha
I guess they should've bypassed everything and just went to Japan

Lots of laughs over 6,000 Marines killed in a single month. Every square inch of the island was covered by intersecting machine gun fire. Every square foot was registered by mortar fire. They made a big show of surprising the Germans at Normandy but there was no surprises at Iwo Jima and yet the Navy had better things than to shell the island for the requisite time. Shelling might not have done any good because the Japanese had forty years to erect pill boxes connected to underground tunnels. It was suicide. The ironic thing was that the "Bomb" was in the works and the war was over in six months. It's possible that Marines were sacrificed assaulting an impregnable fortress to encourage support for using a nuclear weapon on civilians.

.....you don't know your WW2 history....at Tarawa they had more than TWICE as many killed per day ---I guess we should've bypassed that one?? bypass them all???!!!!

 

[harmonica]

a lot of armchair generals here
hahhahahahahahha
I guess they should've bypassed everything and just went to Japan

Lots of laughs over 6,000 Marines killed in a single month. Every square inch of the island was covered by intersecting machine gun fire. Every square foot was registered by mortar fire. They made a big show of surprising the Germans at Normandy but there was no surprises at Iwo Jima and yet the Navy had better things than to shell the island for the requisite time. Shelling might not have done any good because the Japanese had forty years to erect pill boxes connected to underground tunnels. It was suicide. The ironic thing was that the "Bomb" was in the works and the war was over in six months. It's possible that Marines were sacrificed assaulting an impregnable fortress to encourage support for using a nuclear weapon on civilians.

...they had just as many killed per day at Salerno --I guess we should've bypassed Salerno and went to Berlin?

 

[gipper]

About 6,000 Marines would die in a little over a month taking a smelly island that could have been bypassed. 22 Marines and 5 Navy would be awarded the Medal of Honor and one Marine who had been awarded the MOH on Guadalcanal would be KIA.

Total waste by both nations. Entirely unnecessary.

 

[whitehall]

a lot of armchair generals here
hahhahahahahahha
I guess they should've bypassed everything and just went to Japan

Lots of laughs over 6,000 Marines killed in a single month. Every square inch of the island was covered by intersecting machine gun fire. Every square foot was registered by mortar fire. They made a big show of surprising the Germans at Normandy but there was no surprises at Iwo Jima and yet the Navy had better things than to shell the island for the requisite time. Shelling might not have done any good because the Japanese had forty years to erect pill boxes connected to underground tunnels. It was suicide. The ironic thing was that the "Bomb" was in the works and the war was over in six months. It's possible that Marines were sacrificed assaulting an impregnable fortress to encourage support for using a nuclear weapon on civilians.

.....you don't know your WW2 history....at Tarawa they had more than TWICE as many killed per day ---I guess we should've bypassed that one?? bypass them all???!!!!

About 1.600 Marines were killed on Tarawa in a week of fighting. A significant number but many Marines were killed when faulty intelligence failed to calculate the tides and the landing craft were stuck on the reefs while Marines had to wade ashore in deep water.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Are you aware that even while still taking the Island B29's were landing there because they could not make it home? Exactly where else were crippled bombers supposed to go?