_“Dinah Might,” the first crippled B-29 to make an emergency landing on
Iwo Jima during the fighting, is surrounded by Marines and Seabees on 4
March 1945._]
Among the veterans preparing for Iwo Jima were two Medal of Honor
recipients from the Guadalcanal campaign, Gunnery Sergeant John “Manila
John” Basilone and Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Galer. Headquarters
Marine Corps preferred to keep such distinguished veterans in the
states for morale purposes, but both men wrangled their way back
overseas--Basilone leading a machine gun platoon, Galer delivering
a new radar unit for employment with the Landing Force Air Support
Control Unit.
The Guadalcanal veterans would only shake their heads at the abundance
of amphibious shipping available for Operation Detachment. Admiral
Turner would command 495 ships, of which fully 140 were amphibiously
configured, the whole array 10 times the size of Guadalcanal’s task
force. Still there were problems. So many of the ships and crews were
new that each rehearsal featured embarrassing collisions and other
accidents. The new TD-18 bulldozers were found to be an inch too
wide for the medium landing craft (LCMs). The newly modified M4A3
Sherman tanks proved so heavy that the LCMs rode with dangerously low
freeboards. Likewise, 105mm howitzers overloaded the amphibious trucks
(DUKWs) to the point of near-unseaworthiness. These factors would prove
costly in Iwo’s unpredictable surf zone.
These problems notwithstanding, the huge force embarked and began the
familiar move to westward. Said Colonel Robert E. Hogaboom, Chief of
Staff, 3d Marine Division, “we were in good shape, well trained, well
equipped and thoroughly supported.”
On Iwo Jima, General Kuribayashi had benefitted from the American
postponements of Operation Detachment because of delays in the
Philippines campaign. He, too, felt as ready and prepared as possible.
When the American armada sailed from the Marianas on 13 February, he
was forewarned. He deployed one infantry battalion in the vicinity of
the beaches and lower airfield, ordered the bulk of his garrison into
its assigned fighting holes, and settled down to await the inevitable
storm.
[Illustration: _An aerial view of Iwo Jima before the landing clearly
shows “pork chop” shape. Mount Suribachi, in the right foreground, is
at the southern end of the island._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 413529
]
Two contentious issues divided the Navy-Marine team as D-day at Iwo
Jima loomed closer. The first involved Admiral Spruance’s decision to
detach Task Force 58, the fast carriers under Admiral Marc Mitscher,
to attack strategic targets on Honshu simultaneously with the onset of
Admiral Blandy’s preliminary bombardment of Iwo. The Marines suspected
Navy-Air Force rivalry at work here--most of Mitscher’s targets were
aircraft factories which the B-29s had missed badly a few days earlier.
What the Marines really begrudged was Mitscher taking all eight Marine
Corps fighter squadrons, assigned to the fast carriers, plus the new
fast battleships with their 16-inch guns. Task Force 58 returned to Iwo
in time to render sparkling support with these assets on D-day, but two
days later it was off again, this time for good.
[Illustration: