Operation Detachment: 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima (WW2 Pacific Military History Series Book 8)

This is a book about one of the bloodiest battles American soldiers have ever been in and that's the assault on Iwo Jima. It was felt that the island was necessary to the plans of the military as it could serve as a base for damaged B-29 plans to land on.

It's also the sight of one of the most famous photos ever taken in American history, and that's the raising of the United States flag on Mount Suribachi.The book goes over how the Japanese commander threw out the 'accepted' ideas of island defense and instead emphasized pillboxes, numerous tunnels within the mountains and under the land and the ignoring of the typical beach defense and banzai charges in favor of as much crossing firepower as possible.

There was also some, at least in my opinion, very poor management of the invasion including not allowing the ships to bombard the island long enough and not some reserves when they were really needed.

The book goes into the various problems the invasion had (such as bad weather, technical problems and kamikaze pilots, the importance of the corpsmen, the use of flame-throwing tanks and the importance of the Navajo code talkers.

The book goes into a lot of details but never gets boring. Quite well done.



Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page