Message:19335 In: TODAY.WW
From: KF5JRVDate: Mon, 23 Feb 26 07:48:00 Z
Newsgroups: TODAY.WW
Subject: Today in History - Feb 23
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February 23, 1945: During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Reg
iment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi—the island’s highest peak and most strategic position—and rai
se the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis Lowery, who was with them, recorded the event. Americans fighting for control of Su
ribachi’s slopes cheered the raising of the flag.
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-p
icture cameraman.
Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which showed six Marines struggling to hoist the heavy flag pole, b
ecame the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests t
o 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 Marines smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these men, including three of the Marin
es seen raising the flag in the famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle for Iwo Jima in late Ma
rch.
In early 1945, U.S. military command sought to gain control of the island of Iwo Jima in advance of the projected aerial campai
gn against the Japanese home islands. Iwo Jima, a tiny volcanic island located in the Pacific about 700 miles southeast of Japa
n, was to be a base for fighter aircraft and an emergency-landing site for bombers. On February 19, 1945, after three days of h
eavy 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 undergrou
nd tunnels, fortifications, and artillery that withstood the initial Allied bombardment. By the evening of the first day, despi
te 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 char
ges 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 b
loody advance across the island, responding to Kuribayashi’s lethal defenses with remarkable endurance. On February 23, the c
rest 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 w
ere wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iw
o Jima, and some 17,000 were wounded.
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