February 19th, 2020 - 75th Anniversary of Iwo Jima

Today is the 75th anniversary of the landing and brutal fighting on the island of Iwo Jima. February 19th, 1945.

The brutality of that fight was unprecedented when you talk about what happened on the island of Iwo Jima. Everyone always says that the Japanese were not on Iwo Jima, they were in Iwo Jima. 

All the pre-invasion bombardment and everything else didn't do a single thing to help the landing. It became an individual Marine fight against the Japanese, and it was at close quarter battle. Bayonet to bayonet, pistol fighting and then, it was the flame thrower. 

Marines had to go cabe to cave, fortification to fortification and violently fight to get the Japanese out. And there were 21,000 Japanese on the island, and by the end of the fight, there were less than 1,000. The brutality of the battle is what makes this battle stand out from all the battles of WWII.

Brutal losses to the third, fourth, and fifth Marine divisions, as the Japanese would not come out and chose and were ordered to fight to the death. So that's where the flame throwers came in, and as the war drew to a close, the battle became even more horrific.