Triumph to Tragedy : World War II Battle of Peleliu, Invasion of Iwo Jima, and Ultimate Victory on Okinawa in 1945 (WW2 Pacific Military History Series)

by Daniel Wrinn

  While the fighting was raging on Iwo, Admiral Nimitz said: “Among the Americans serving on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.” This line was chiseled into the base of Felix de Weldon’s giant bronze sculpture of the Suribachi flag-raising.

  On Iwo, Twenty-two Marines, four Navy corpsmen, and one LCI skipper were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the battle—half were awarded posthumously.

  General Erskine put the Allied sacrifices into perspective during his remarks at the dedication of the 3rd Marine Division’s Cemetery on Iwo Jima: “Our victory was never in doubt. Its cost was. What was in doubt, in all of our minds, was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate this cemetery at the end. Or if the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gunner.”

  Iconic Flag Raising

  There were two flags raised over Mount Suribachi—but not at the same time. On the morning of February 23, 1945, (D +4) Captain Dave Severance, Company E Commander, 2/28 Marines, ordered Lieutenant Harold Schrier to take a patrol and put up an American flag on the top of Mount Suribachi.

  Staff Sergeant Lou Lowery, a Leatherneck magazine photographer, joined the patrol. After a short firefight, the 54” x 28” flag was attached to a piece of pipe found at the ridge of the mountain and was raised. This was the flag-raising that Staff Sergeant Lowery photographed. But this flag was too small to be seen from the beach below, and another Marine went on board LST 779 to get a larger flag. Then, a second patrol took this flag up to the top of Suribachi, accompanied by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal.

  In an interview after the war, Rosenthal said: “my stumbling on that picture was in all respects accidental. When I got to the top of the mountain, I stood in a decline just below the crest of the hill with Sergeant Bill Genaust, a motion picture cameraman (later killed on Iwo Jima). We watched a group of five Marines and a Navy corpsman fasten the new flag to another piece of pipe. I turned, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the second flag being raised. I swung my camera around and held it until I could guess where the peak of the action was and then took the shot.”

  Some people accused Rosenthal’s second flag-raising photograph of being posed. According to Rosenthal’s postwar interview: “had I posed that shot, I would, of course, have ruined it. I would’ve made them turn their heads so they could be identified, and nothing like the existing picture would have resulted. This picture and what it meant to me—and it has a meaning to me—has to be peculiar only to me.

  “I can still see blood running down the sand. I can see those awful, impossible positions to take in a frontal attack on such an island, where the batteries opposing you were not only staggered up in front of you but also stood around you as you came ashore. The extraordinary situation they were in before they ever reached that peak. If a photograph can remind us of the sacrifices these boys made—then that was what made the photo important—not the man who took it.”

  Rosenthal took eighteen photographs that day. Afterward, he went down to the beach to write captions for his undeveloped film packs and, with other photographers on the island, sent his film out to the offshore command vessel. They were flown to Guam, where the photos were processed and censored. Rosenthal’s pictures arrived on Guam before Lowery’s and were processed and sent to the states for distribution. Rosenthal’s flag-raising picture became one of the most famous photographs ever taken in the war—or in any war.

  Allied Commanders

  Four veteran Marine generals led the assault on Iwo Jima. Each one of these generals received the Distinguished Service Medal for inspired combat leadership in this epic battle.

  Major General Harry Schmidt was fifty-eight years old when he was on Iwo Jima. He’d already served thirty-six years in the Marine Corps. Born and raised in Holdrege, Nebraska, he attended the Nebraska Normal College. His expeditionary assignments kept him from serving in World War I, but Schmidt saw considerable small unit action in China, the Philippines, Guam, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

  Schmidt attended the Army Command and General Staff College and the Marine Corps Field Officer’s Course. During World War II, General Schmidt commanded the 4th Marine Division at Roi-Namur and in Saipan before assuming command of the V Amphibious Corps at the Tinian landing.

  On Iwo Jima, he commanded the largest force of Marines ever committed to a single battle. According to Schmidt: “it was the greatest honor of my life.”

  Major General Graves B. Erskine was forty-seven years old on Iwo Jima, and one of the youngest major generals in the Marine Corps. He’d already served twenty-eight years on active duty by then. A native of Columbia, Louisiana, he received a Marine Corps commission after graduating from Louisiana State University.

  Erskine immediately deployed to France for duty in World War I. He served as a platoon commander in the 6th Marines and saw combat at Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, St. Mihiel, and Belleau Wood. He was wounded twice and awarded the Silver Star. He served in China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, and Haiti in the interwar period.

  In World War II, Erskine was Chief of Staff to General Holland Smith during the Marianas, Marshalls, Gilberts, and Aleutians campaigns. He took command of the 3rd Marine Division in October 1944.

  Major General Clifton B. Cates was fifty-one years old at Iwo Jima. He’d served the last twenty-eight years in the Marine Corps. Cates was one of the rare Marine general officers who had held a combat command at the platoon, company, battalion, regiment, and division levels in his career.

  Cates was born in Tiptonville, Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Tennessee. In World War I, he served as a junior officer in the 6th Marines at Blanc Mont, Soissons, Belleau Wood, and St. Mihiel. He was awarded two Silver Stars, the Navy Cross, and a Purple Heart for his service and wounds.

  In the interwar years, he served at sea and in China. In World War II, he commanded the 1st Marines at Guadalcanal and the 4th Marine Division at Tinian. Three years after Iwo Jima, General Clifton Cates became the 19th Commandant of the Marine Corps.

  Major General Keller E. Rockey was fifty-six years old on Iwo Jima and a thirty-one-year veteran of the Marine Corps. A native of Columbia City, Indiana, he graduated from Gettysburg College and studied at Yale. Like his fellow division commanders, Rockey served in France in World War I and was awarded the Navy Cross as a junior officer in the 5th Marines at Chateau-Thierry.

  He earned a second Navy Cross for heroic service in Nicaragua. He also served in Haiti and had two years of sea duty. After spending the first years of World War II at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, in February 1944, General Rockey took command of the 5th Marine Division and prepared them for their first and last great battle of the war.

  Three other brigadier generals played a considerable role in the amphibious seizure of Iwo Jima:

  Leo Hermle, Assistant Division Commander of the 5th Marine Division.

  Franklin Hart, Assistant Division Commander of the 4th Marine Division.

  William Rogers, Corps Chief of Staff.

  General Kuribayashi

  According to Colonel Chambers, Battalion Commander of the 3/25 Marines, whose four days on Iwo Jima resulted in a Purple Heart and a Medal of Honor: “On Iwo, their smartest general commanded. This man did not believe in the banzai business. He ordered each Jap to kill ten Marines—and for a while, they made their quotas.”

  Chambers was referring to Lieutenant General Kuribayashi, Commander of the Ogasawara Army Group and Commanding General of the 109th Division. Tadamichi Kuribayashi was fifty-three years old on Iwo. He was from the Nagano Prefecture and served the Emperor as a cavalry officer since graduating from the Military Academy in 1914. Kuribayashi spent several years as a junior officer posted to the Japanese embassies in Canada and the United States. During the war in Asia, Kuribayashi commanded a cavalry regiment in Manchuria and a brigade in northern China. Later he served as Chief of Staff for the Twenty-third Army during the capture of Hong Kong.

  After returning from China, the Emperor chos
e Kuribayashi to command the Imperial Guards Division in Tokyo. When Saipan fell in June 1944, he was assigned to command the defense of Iwo Jima.

  Kuribayashi was a realist. He believed the crude airstrips on Iwo were a liability for the Empire. They provided nuisance raids against the B-29s but would undoubtedly draw attention from Allied strategic planners. The Iwo Jima airfields in Allied hands would pose a terrible threat to Japan.

  Kuribayashi knew he had only two options: blow up the entire island or defend it to the death. Blowing up the entire island would be impractical, so he adopted a radical defensive policy. His troops would not use the suicidal banzai nor linear water’s edge tactics used in previous island battles. This caused a massive controversy at the highest levels—Imperial headquarters even asked the Nazis for advice on how to repel American invasions.

  While Kuribayashi made some compromises with his forces on the island, he fired eighteen senior army officers, including his chief of staff. Those who remained would implement Kuribayashi’s policy to the letter.

  The general knew he was doomed without air and naval support. Still, he proved to be a tenacious and resourceful commander. His only tactical error was in authorizing sector commanders to engage the Allied task force covering the UDT operations on D -2. This gift revealed to the gunners the masked batteries which would have slaughtered more of the landing force assault waves on D-Day.

  Controversial Japanese accounts reported Kuribayashi committed Seppuku (Japanese ritual suicide) in his cave near Kitano point on March 23, 1945—the thirty-third day of battle. General

  Holland Smith said: “of all our adversaries in the Pacific, Kuribayashi was the most redoubtable. Let’s hope the Japs don’t have any more like him.”

  Japanese Spigot Mortar

  One of the deadliest weapons faced on Iwo Jima was the 320mm spigot mortar. These gigantic defensive weapons were placed and operated by the Imperial Japanese Army’s 20th Independent Mortar Battalion.

  The mortar tube had a small muzzle cavity. It rested on a steel base plate supported by a wooden platform. Unlike typical mortars, this five-foot-long projectile was placed over the tube instead of dropping down the barrel. The mortar shell’s diameter was thirteen inches, while the tube was only a little more than ten inches wide.

  This weapon hurled a 675-pound shell over 1,500 yards. The range was adjusted by varying the powder charge, while deflection changes were accomplished by brute force: pushing and shoving the base platform. Although tubes only held out for six rounds, enough shells were lobbed onto Allied positions to make a lasting impression.

  A rifleman in the 28th Marines referred to it as “The Screaming Jesus.” Most Marines had a healthy respect for the mortar. General Robert Cushman, who commanded the 2/9 Marines on Iwo Jima (later becoming the 25th Commandant of the Marine Corps), recalled the inaccuracy and terror of the tumbling projectiles: “you could see it coming. But you never knew where the hell it was going to come down.”

  Iwo’s Air Support

  For a few memorable moments before the D-Day landing, the Marines’ vision of an integrated air-ground assault team became a reality. As assault troops neared the beach in their tracked amphibian vehicles, dozens of F4U Corsairs swept in and paved the way with rockets and machine-gun fire. According to one Marine: “it was magnificent.”

  Unfortunately, the Marine fighter squadrons on Iwo Jima that morning came from the fast attack carriers of Task Force 58, not the amphibious task force. Three days later, Task Force 58 left for good in pursuit of more strategic targets. Following that, Navy and Army Air Force pilots provided support for the landing force fighting ashore. Sustained close air support of amphibious forces by Marine air was (once again) postponed for some future combat proving ground.

  Other Marine aviation units contributed to the capture of Iwo Jima. One of the first to see action was VMB 612 (Marine Bombing Squadron) out of Saipan. Flight crews on PBJ Mitchell medium bombers ran long-range nightly rocket attacks against enemy ships trying to resupply. These nightly raids, along with the Navy’s submarine interdictions, slashed the amount of ammunition and fortifications (mostly barbed wire) delivered to the enemy before the invasion.

  Pilots and aerial spotters from Marine observation squadrons flew in from escort carriers or were launched from the infamous LST 776’s slingshot. These crews played a crucial role in spotting enemy artillery and mortar positions and reporting them.

  Marine transport aircraft based in the Marianas delivered critical combat cargo to the island at the height of the battle. Marines relied on aerial delivery before the landing force could establish a fully functional beachhead. On D +1, marine transport squadrons airdropped critically needed machine gun parts, mortar shells, and blood plasma within the lines. On March 3, Colonel Malcolm Mackay landed the first Marine transport aircraft on the island—a Curtiss Commando R5C loaded with ammunition. The three other Marine squadrons followed and brought in much-needed supplies and evacuated the wounded.

  On March 8, Marine Torpedo Bomber Squadron 224 flew in from Tinian and took responsibility for day and night anti-submarine patrols. Colonel Vernon Megee had the honor of commanding the first Landing Force Air Support Control Unit (a landmark in the evolution of amphibious combat).

  Megee came ashore on D +5 with General Schmidt, but the offloading process was still in such shambles that it took five days to gather communication jeeps. This did not deter Megee. He “borrowed” gear and moved inland to coordinate the Air Liaison Parties. He persuaded Navy pilots to use bigger bombs and listened to the assault commanders’ complaints.

  McGee’s work in training and employing Army P-51 Mustang pilots was masterful. Kuribayashi transmitted to Tokyo “lessons learned” in defending against the Allied amphibious assault during the battle. One of his messages said: “the enemy’s air control is strong. At least thirty aircraft flew ceaselessly from early morning to night over this very small island.”

  Sherman Zippo Tanks

  For many Marines on Iwo Jima, the Sherman M4A3—with the Mark I flamethrower—was the most effective weapon employed in the battle.

  On Iwo, Marines had come a long way with the tactical use of fire. Fifteen months earlier on Tarawa, only a handful of backpack flamethrowers were available to fight hundreds of the island’s fortifications. While the assault force relied on portable flamethrowers, most Marines saw the value in marrying this technology with armored vehicles for use against the island’s toughest targets.

  In the Marianas, Marines modified M3A1 light tanks with the Canadian Ronson flame system to a deadly effect. But the small vehicles were vulnerable to enemy fire. On Peleliu, the 1st Marine Division mounted the improvised Mark I system on a thin skin LVT. But again, the vehicle’s susceptibility to enemy fire limited the effectiveness of the system. The obvious solution was to mount the flamethrower on a tank.

  Early modifications to the Shermans were made by replacing the bow machine gun with the small E4-5 mechanized flamethrower. Replacing the bow machine gun was only a minor improvement. The short-range, limited fuel supply and awkward aiming process did not compensate for losing the machine gun. Each of the three tank battalions used the E4-5-equipped Shermans on Iwo Jima.

  The best solution for effective flame projection and mechanized mobility came from the Army’s Chemical Warfare technicians on Hawaii before the invasion. Colonel Bill Collins, CO 5th Tank Battalion, inspired this tinkerer group to modify the Mark I flamethrower to operate within the Shermans’ turret. By replacing the 75mm main gun with a look-alike launch tube, this modified system could be trained and pointed like any standard turret gun using napalm-thickened fuel. These Zippo tanks streamed 250 yards of flame for eighty seconds—a significant tactical improvement.

  But the modification team only had enough time to modify eight M4A3 tanks with the Mark I flame system. The 4th and 5th Tank Battalions were each issued four. The 3rd Tank Battalion on Guam didn’t receive any M4A3 Shermans nor field modifications in time for the battle
on Iwo Jima. Although several of their A2 tanks kept the E4-5 system mounted in the bow.

  The eight Sherman Zippo tanks were ideal against Iwo’s rugged caves and concrete fortifications. The enemy was terrified of this weapon. Suicide squads of human bullets would attack flame tanks directly only to be shot down by covering forces or charred by napalm. Enemy fire took a toll on the eight flame tanks—but maintenance crews worked around the clock to keep them in the fight.

  Captain Frank Caldwell, Company Commander of the 26th Marines said: “it was a flame tank more than any other supporting arm that won this battle.”

  The tactical demand for flame tanks never diminished. The 5th Tank Battalion used 10,000 gallons of napalm-thickened fuel a day. When the 5th Marine Division had cornered the last Japanese defenders in “The Gorge,” their final after-action report stated the flame tank was one of the weapons that caused the enemy to leave their caves and rock crevices and run for their lives.

  Buck Rogers Men

  Provisional rocket detachments were attached to the subdivisions of the landing force on Iwo Jima. Marines had a love-hate relationship with the little rocket trucks and their brave crews. These trucks were a one-ton, four wheel drive truck modified to carry three box-shaped rocket launchers containing a dozen 4.5-inch rockets.

  Crews fired a ripple of thirty-six rockets within seconds and provided a carpet of high explosives on the target. While effective and deadly, each launch drew heavy return fire from the Japanese—who dreaded the automatic artillery.