U.S. flag raised on Iwo Jima 1945
During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the
3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division
take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most
strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis
Lowery was with them and recorded the event. American soldiers fighting
for control of Suribachi’s slopes cheered the raising of the flag, and
several hours later more Marines headed up to the crest with a larger
flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them
along the way and recorded the raising of the second flag along with a
Marine still photographer and a motion-picture cameraman.
Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which
showed five Marines and one Navy corpsman struggling to hoist the heavy
flag pole, became the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a
Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests to the
fact that the picture was not posed. Of the other two photos, the second
was similar to the first but less affecting, and the third was a group
picture of 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these
men, including three of the six soldiers seen raising the flag in the
famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle
for Iwo Jima in late March.
In early 1945, U.S. military command sought to gain control of the
island of Iwo Jima in advance of the projected aerial campaign against
the Japanese home islands. Iwo Jima, a tiny volcanic island located in
the Pacific about 700 miles southeast of Japan, was to be a base for
fighter aircraft and an emergency-landing site for bombers. On February
19, 1945, after three days of heavy naval and aerial bombardment, the
first wave of U.S. Marines stormed onto Iwo Jima’s inhospitable shores.
The Japanese garrison on the island numbered 22,000 heavily
entrenched men. Their commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had been
expecting an Allied invasion for months and used the time wisely to
construct an intricate and deadly system of underground tunnels,
fortifications, and artillery that withstood the initial Allied
bombardment. By the evening of the first day, despite incessant mortar
fire, 30,000 U.S. Marines commanded by General Holland Smith managed to
establish a solid beachhead.
During the next few days, the Marines advanced inch by inch under
heavy fire from Japanese artillery and suffered suicidal charges from
the Japanese infantry. Many of the Japanese defenders were never seen
and remained underground manning artillery until they were blown apart
by a grenade or rocket, or incinerated by a flame thrower.
While Japanese kamikaze flyers slammed into the Allied naval fleet
around Iwo Jima, the Marines on the island continued their bloody
advance across the island, responding to Kuribayashi’s lethal defenses
with remarkable endurance. On February 23, the crest of 550-foot Mount
Suribachi was taken, and the next day the slopes of the extinct volcano
were secured.
By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island,
and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were wiped out.
Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive.
More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo Jima, and some 17,000 were
wounded.
(More Events on This Day in History)
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American Revolution
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Automotive
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Civil War
- 1861 Lincoln arrives in Washington
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Cold War
- 1955 First council meeting of SEATO
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Crime
- 1885 A remarkable reprieve for a man sent to the gallows
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Disaster
- 1887 Earthquake strikes Mediterranean
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General Interest
- 1954 Children receive first polio vaccine
- 1981 Spanish rebels storm Parliament
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Hollywood
- 1997 Schindler’s List shown uncut on network television
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Literary
- 1868 W.E.B. DuBois is born
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Music
- 1978 It’s a tie for Song of the Year at the 20th annual Grammy Awards
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Old West
- 1940 Guthrie writes “This Land is Your Land”
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Presidential
- 1861 Lincoln avoids assassination attempt
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Sports
- 1980 Eric Heiden speed skates into Olympic history
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Vietnam War
- 1966 Desertion up in South Vietnamese army
- 1971 South Vietnamese advance stalls
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World War I
- 1917 Germans begin withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line
-
World War II
- 1945 Marines raise the flag on Mt. Suribachi
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