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Our Most Recent Update or Message
February 23, 2010
John Basilone
One of our dear fellow servicemen, Mr. Harry Beeman, USN, wrote to let us know about a new movie coming to HBO. It is the biography of John Basilone, USMC and Medal of Honor recipient. Watch for the movie in March. Go to the link below to view a news story about John Basilone.
News Story
February 19, 2010
Dear Friend of Iwo Jima Survivors,
** Please see corrections at the end of this article.
As WWII was raging in the Pacific, preparations were being made for the invasion of the Island of Iwo Jima by the U. S. The island was part of Japan and was strategically located. The island was to be used as an airfield from which U. S. B-29 long range bombers could strike Japan. The Japanse had heavily fortified the island with 11 miles of underground tunnels in which they could hide. The Japanses also made vast numbers of bunkers from which to make surprise attacks on the Americans There were over 22,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island. At 9 am on February 19, 1945, the first Marines landed on Iwo Jima. Approximately 110,000 Americans fought on the island. Of those, over 19,000 were wounded and 6,821 killed. In the end, only a few Japanese survived.
We want to remind you of the 65th anniversary of this important event in WWII history. The Iwo Jima Survivors placed a wreath, dedicated to those who fought or died in this battle, at the National Iwo Jima Memorial Monument in Newington. Below, is a photo of this wreath at the monument.
Another good source of information and pictures of the invasion can be seen at this website: http://wwarii.com/blog/archives/2010/02/19
On the 5th day of battle, February 23, 1945, the flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi. Please remember all those who served.
** We were fortunate and privileged to hear from a few Iwo Jima Survivors who would like to make the following corrections to this article:
1. "The tunnels were connected to the sniping positions and gun emplacement so that their soldiers could move to a safe location, fire, and move to another position before we could do anything more than attack the empty position from which they had just fired. They did the same thing with artillery emplacements by firing a couple of rounds and moving into safe tunnels so that we could fire on the gun but had to hit the actual piece to prevent them from emerging to repeat the fire. They had a headquarters and a hospital dug into solid rock, and w e never touched either."
2. "I did not get off the ship until the second day. Did I not see the first wave at D day get off at 6AM? And the bombing of Japan was not from IWO as the strip was not long enough for B-29s but were perfect for fighter to join and protect them as they took off from IWO as the fighters were in perfect range (750 miles from target instead of 1500.) B-29s could land on IWO if they were battle damaged however. ...I know this because I was in the 7th Fighter Command temporarily attached to the Marines for this invasion...And as I remember it the most potent weapon we had was the flame thrower, both hand held and tank operated. It killed enemies by sucking the air out of the caves, not by burning anyone."
Thank you, Gentlemen.
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