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Iwo Jima Defensive: Japanse point of view
Tuesday, 29 May 2007 - 10:27 AM SL Time |  | |
Introduction
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The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought by the United States of America and Japan in February and March 1945.
The U.S. invasion was aimed at capturing the airfields on Iwo Jima.
The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with vast bunkers, hidden artillery, and 18 km of tunnels.
Iwo Jima is approximately 21 square kilometers and Mount Suribachi is its most prominent feature, which is located the southern tip of the island.
Tadamichi Kuribayashi
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Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned to command the defense of Iwo Jima.
Kuribayashi ordered the creation of strong, mutual supporting positions in depth.
The southern area around Mt. Suribachi was organized as a semi-independent sector (fortification 1), while the main defensive line was built in the north (fortification 2, Motoyama).
Landing
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About 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, Southern beach.
Japanese General Kuribayashi to hold fire until the beach was full of American marines.
Only after the front wave of Marines reached a line of Japanese bunkers defended by machine gunners did they take hostile fire.
Mt. Suribachi
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The Marines faced heavy fire from Mount Suribachi at the south of the island.
By the morning of the fourth day of the battle, Mount Suribachi was effectively cut off from the rest of the island.
Marines did encounter small bodies of Japanese defenders on Suribachi, but the majority of the Japanese troops stayed underground in the tunnel network.
Eventually a battalion of marines was needed to capture the mountain.
Motoyama fortification
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Despite the loss of Mt. Suribachi, the Japanese still held a strong position in the North.
The struggle to take the Motoyama Plateau was to take the better part of three weeks.
The Japanese actually had the Marines outgunned in this area.
The fighting was extremely fierce. Japanese troops would occasionally spring out of tunnels and ambush the Marines.
Final assault
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With the landing area secure, more troops and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields and the remainder of the island.
Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death.
Of the over 22,000 Japanese soldiers, 20,703 died and 216 were captured.
The Allied forces suffered 27,909 casualties, with 6,825 killed in action.
Although still a matter of speculation due to conflicting accounts from surviving Japanese veterans, it has been said that Kuribayashi himself led this final assault.
If ever proven true, Kuribayashi will have been the highest ranking Japanese officer to ever personally lead an attack during World War II.
Letters from Iwo Jima
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The movie Letters from Iwo Jima was directed by Clint Eastwood.
It is about the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of Japanese soldiers.
It is a complementary film to Eastwood`s Flags of Our Fathers which depicts the same battle from the American viewpoint.
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Source(s)
Wikipedia / Movie clips from Letters from Iwo Jima / Sritharan |
Sritharan
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Joined: Apr 2006
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29 May 2007 03:33:04 GMT Report for Abuse
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The last picture that has been captioned 'Artillery fire form Mount Suribachi' may not be titled correctly.
It should be titled as 'Artillery fire from Motoyama fortification', which was located Northern side of the Island.
Sri |
karunadase
Joined: Apr 2006
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29 May 2007 07:02:32 GMT Report for Abuse
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Sri,
nice article, 'Flags of Our Fathers', a film about the Battle of Iwo Jima and tells great deal about it!
Edited By - karunadase - 29 May 2007 07:19:11 GMT |
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