Iwo+Jima

= __Iwo Jima__ ~ Also known as Operation Detachment, was an intense batlle between the __United States__ and the __Empire of Japan.__ They fought for the island of Iwo Jima. This battle lasted approximately 36 days, from February 19 - March 26 1946. The United States were supposed to capture 3 of the airfields on Iwo Jima, thus resulting in a very epic battle between the two armies. It was a very rough time during the Pacific Campaign of the war.=

=The Japanese were expecting the Americans, they had 22 060 soldiers awaiting their attack. But, the Americans knew the Japanese were expecting them so they planned an attack with 70 000 american soldiers at their dsposal. They sent American Intelligence to investigate to see how they could come out on top. They were taken back at how many weaponthere wereon the island but the intelligence picked up 12 000 only Japanese soldiers, and this estimation was dreadfully low, nearly half of the soldiers went undetected. Alhough these soldiers went undetcted, there was still a large amoun of casualties. On the side of the U.S. there were 6 812= = = people who were killed/missing, 2 who were captured and 19 217 people who were wounded. Now on the Japanese side, 21 844 were killed in combat and 216 were captured, the research shows that no Japanese were //just// wounded.

< This is the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington.

This sculpture was inspired by the objective of capturing Mount Suribachi.

When the mountain was captured, five Marines and a Navy Corpsman raised a large U.S. flagon Mount Suribachi, to signify the fact that they were successful in the capture.

Fact: Only 3 of the six s

oldiers shown in the statue survived

the war. Sadly, the other 3 died during the rest of the war.

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=__The Japanese:__ =

=Obviously the Japanese did not want to lose Japan but the significance for them was just to win this battle so they wouldn't end up losing Japan forever, because the Americans were the ones who made the first move towards conquest. The Japanese Commander of Iwo Jima is General Kuribayashi. He helped create the strategy that the Japanese were well known for. This strategy was unlike any other for a few reasons. One of the reasons was because the Japanese didn't fight on the land at all, they faught underneath the ground. They dug 1500 rooms into the rock and they were connected by 6 miles of tunnels. The second reason was because the strategy was implying "no survivors" so the Japanese obviously weren't planning on surviving. And the third key idea was that every Japanese had to kill 10 Americans before they themselves got killed. General Kuribayashi was killed in action.=

=__The Americans:__= =The Americans hoped on winning this battle to ultimately lead to them capturing all of Japan. Capuring Iwo Jima was part of the Americans 3 point plan, toward winnin the war in the far east. They also wantd it bcause it has two airfields which was very good for extreme tactics. The U.S.A. ended up winning the battle of Iwo Jima and it was furious battle. On the side of the Americans there were 6 812 killed/missing, 2 captured and 19 217 wounded. The rest of the 70 000 survived as veterans. The U.S. was very successful and was lead by several leaders, such as:=
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/AAVandegrift.jpg/180px-AAVandegrift.jpg width="87" height="103" align="right" caption="Alxander Vandegrift"]]Alexander Vandegrift
 * Marc Mitscher
 * Clifton Cates
 * Graves Erskine
 * Holland Smith
 * Keller Rockey
 * Chester Nimitz

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="On approaching the island, our impression was of the desolation of the place - an island of volcanic rock and sand, almost completely barren of vegetation, and seemingly covered with craters from the terrific pounding by naval gun-fire, field artillery and mortar-fire, and aerial bombing" ~ Frank Belchar (U.S)=

=LCDR Frank Belchar was the flight brifing officer for a certain period of time during the Battle of Iwo Jima. On March 9, 1945 Frank and many other officers went on a tour through Iwo Jima and he wrote this report strictly upon re-arrival into the U.S.=

=__Timeline:__= =The Battle of Iwo Jima started on Feb 19, 1945. In the morning the guns sounded and D-day commenced, then the day was greeted by 100 bombs and bombers.= //**February**// Feb. 19th ~ Feb. 20th ~ Feb. 21st ~ Feb. 22nd ~ Feb. 23rd ~ Feb. 24th ~ Feb. 25th ~ Feb. 26th ~ Feb. 27th ~ Feb. 28th ~ //**March**// Mar. 1st ~ Mar. 2nd ~ Mar. 3rd ~ Mar. 4th ~ Mar. 5th ~ Mar. 6th ~ Mar. 7th ~ Mar. 8th ~ Mar. 9th ~ Mar. 10th ~ Mar. 11th ~ Mar. 12th ~ Mar. 13th ~ Mar. 14th ~