castor troy
Posts: 14330
Joined: 8/23/2004
From: Austria
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
The Allies crossed the island on day two, isolated Surabachi, and then took the high ground a few days later. But the campaign took much more than a week and the Japanese defended in depth rather on the beaches, so I don't think you're analysis is correct, Castor. The Allies were still slugging it out around the airfields in the central part of the island three weeks after D-Day - at places like Motoyama, the Meat Grinder, etc. Even after the Allies got the airfield operational, a Japanese attack killed a number of pilots in their tents (that's going from memory, but I think that's right). While Iwo's ultimate fate was decided on D-Day, there's no way anyone can claim "it really didn't even take a week to take the island."
I think this is because I see it from a different point of view than you. You are American, I am Austrian. For an American, Iwo Jima is pretty much one of the bloodiest affairs the US Military had to go through in modern history, while it is for me something like I wouldn't really remember if it would have happened on the Eastern Front (where most of the modern history - of war - happened for someone being Austrian or German) because everything was just so much bigger. That's why you for example can remember about a couple of pilots being killed in their tents after thinking the airfield was secure already. Going from memory, the US lost something like 6 or 7000 dead on the island with three times as many injured, the Japanese lost pretty much all men - like they did in all other battles for islands, so in total some 20,000 men IIRC.
It took slightly over a month to kill the last Japanese soldier on the island but that was after fighting for three weeks for the one mountain on the island and it's surroundings with all the strongholds. The so called mountain Suribachi is often referred to as "highest elevation on the island" which better suits it as it is something like not even 200m high. This is like saying the Dutch got mountains too. IIRC it only took the first day and Mt. Suribachi was cut off from the rest of the island and some 50% of the terrain was secured within not even a week, 80% within the second week. Suribachi in the South and favourable terrain for the Japanese in the North of the island held until the island was called secure after a couple of days more than a month but most of the island was overrun in short order. It was bloody for the Marines and I don't want to belittle anything, it had to be horrible for the Marines and even more so for the Japanese. And you are of course correct that the island wasn't taken within a week as it took over a month in total and for a Marine the battle lasted until the last bullet was fired on the island but the big picture had the central and southern airfield secured within the first 7 or 8 days, the northern airfield wasn't even ready if I recall that right and secured within the second week.
Again, you are of course correct to say it didn't only last a week as it actually took more than a month and I should have better put it the way you did in saying the battle was decided on D-Day or even at the day the plannings for the invasion began.
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