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The Battle of Iwo Jima took place in February and March 1945 during World War II and was marked by some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The American invasion, known as Operation Detachment , was charged with capturing the airfields on Iwo Jima.
Similar to previous battles on Japanese-held islands, on Iwo Jima Japanese soldiers who knew English were used to harass and or deceive Marines units; English-speaking IJA troops often yelled "corpsman", pretending to be a wounded Marine, in order to lure and kill the U.S. Navy medical personnel attached to Marine infantry companies. [34]
Wilson Douglas Watson (February 16, 1922 – December 19, 1994) [1] was a United States Marine Corps private who received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Iwo Jima during World War II. He single-handedly killed 60 [n 1] enemy soldiers, thus enabling his platoon to advance, earning him the name "One-Man Regiment of Iwo Jima". [4]
After 5 to 6 months, only one-seventh of the soldiers were still healthy. [50] On Woleai, a small island in the Western Carolines, 6,400 Japanese troops guarded an airstrip, American forces bypassed Woleai, so there was no ground fighting. Nevertheless nearly 5,000 of the men died, almost all from malnutrition and disease.
Hayes boarded the USS Winged Arrow [3] and left Iwo Jima with his unit for Hawaii on March 27. Easy Company had many casualties, Hayes was one of five marines remaining from his original platoon of forty-five men, including their corpsmen. [22] Sgt. Strank and Cpl. Block were killed on Iwo Jima on March 1, and Pfc. Sousley was killed on March 21.
The US declared Iwo Jima secure on 26 March 1945, after suffering 26,039 casualties. Only 1,083 of the 22,786 Japanese defenders survived to be captured. A small number of holdouts continued to remain at large, leaving their fortified caves at night in order to steal food from the American garrison.
Jacklyn Harold "Jack" Lucas (February 14, 1928 – June 5, 2008) was an American Marine in World War II who was awarded the Medal of Honor at the age of 17 as a private first class in the Marine Corps during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
John Basilone (November 4, 1916 – February 19, 1945) was a United States Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle for Henderson Field in the Guadalcanal campaign, and the Navy Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism during the Battle of Iwo Jima.