_A Marine inspects a Japanese coastal defense gun which, although
protected by steel-reinforced concrete, was destroyed in prelanding
naval gunfire bombardments._]
The other issue was related and it concerned the continuing argument
between senior Navy and Marine officers over the extent of preliminary
naval gunfire. The Marines looked at the intelligence reports on Iwo
and requested 10 days of preliminary fire. The Navy said it had neither
the time nor the ammo to spare; three days would have to suffice.
Holland Smith and Harry Schmidt continued to plead, finally offering
to compromise to four days. Turner deferred to Spruance who ruled that
three days prep fires, in conjunction with the daily pounding being
administered by the Seventh Air Force, would do the job.
Lieutenant Colonel Donald M. Weller, USMC, served as the FMFPAC/Task
Force 51 naval gunfire officer, and no one in either sea service knew
the business more thoroughly. Weller had absorbed the lessons of the
Pacific War well, especially those of the conspicuous failures at
Tarawa. The issue, he argued forcibly to Admiral Turner, was not the
weight of shells nor their caliber but rather time. Destruction of
heavily fortified enemy targets took deliberate, pinpoint firing from
close ranges, assessed and adjusted by aerial observers. Iwo Jima’s 700
“hard” targets would require time to knock out, a lot of time.
Neither Spruance nor Turner had time to give, for strategic, tactical,
and logistical reasons. Three days of firing by Admiral Blandy’s
sizeable bombardment force would deliver four times the amount of
shells Tarawa received, and one and a half times that delivered against
larger Saipan. It would have to do.
[Illustration: JAPANESE DEFENSE SECTORS]
In effect, Iwo’s notorious foul weather, the imperviousness of many of
the Japanese fortifications, and other distractions dissipated even the
three days’ bombardment. “We got about thirteen hours’ worth of fire
support during the thirty-four hours of available daylight,” complained
Brigadier General William W. Rogers, chief of staff to General Schmidt.
The Americans received an unexpected bonus when General Kuribayashi
committed his only known tactical error during the battle. This
occurred on D-minus-2, as a force of 100 Navy and Marine underwater
demolition team (UDT) frogmen bravely approached the eastern beaches
escorted by a dozen LCI landing craft firing their guns and rockets.
Kuribayashi evidently believed this to be the main landing and
authorized the coastal batteries to open fire. The exchange was hot and
heavy, with the LCIs getting the worst of it, but U.S. battleships and
cruisers hurried in to blast the casemate guns suddenly revealed on the
slopes of Suribachi and along the rock quarry on the right flank.
That night, gravely concerned about the hundreds of Japanese targets
still untouched by two days of firing, Admiral Blandy conducted a
“council of war” on board his flagship. At Weller’s suggestion, Blandy
junked the original plan and directed his gunships to concentrate
exclusively on the beach areas. This was done with considerable effect
on D-minus-1 and D-day morning itself. Kuribayashi noted that most of
the positions the Imperial Navy insisted on building along the beach
approaches had in fact been destroyed, as he had predicted. Yet his
main defensive belts criss-crossing the Motoyama Plateau remained
intact. “I pray for a heroic fight,” he told his staff.
On board Admiral Turner’s flagship, the press briefing held the night
before D-day was uncommonly somber. General Holland Smith predicted
heavy casualties, possibly as many as 15,000, which shocked all hands.
A man clad in khakis without rank insignia then stood up to address the
room. It was James V. Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy. “Iwo Jima, like
Tarawa, leaves very little choice,” he said quietly, “except to take it
by force of arms, by character and courage.”
[Sidebar (page 6): The Japanese Commander
In the estimation of Lieutenant Colonel Justice M. Chambers, USMC,
a battalion commander (3/25) whose four days ashore resulted in the
Purple Heart and the Medal of Honor: “On Iwo Jima, one of their
smartest generals commanded, a man who did not believe in the Banzai
business; each Jap was to kill ten Marines--for awhile they were
beating their quotas.” Chambers was describing Lieutenant General
Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Imperial Japanese Army, Commanding General,
_109th Division_ and Commander, _Ogasawara Army Group_. The U.S.
Marines have rarely faced a tougher opponent.
[Illustration: