_As the fighting moved inland, the beaches of Iwo Jima became very busy
places with the continual incoming flow of supplies. Note the many
roads leading off the beaches over which trucks, LVTs, and DUKWs headed
to the front lines._]
Meanwhile the beachmasters and shore party personnel performed
spectacular feats to keep the advancing divisions fully armed and
equipped. It is difficult to imagine the scope of logistical management
and sheer, back-breaking work required to maintain such a high volume
of supplies and equipment moving over such precarious beaches. A single
beach on the west coast became functional on D+11, but by that time the
bulk of landing force supplies were on shore. General unloading ended
the next day, releasing the vulnerable amphibious ships from their
tether to the beachhead. Thereafter, ammunition resupply became the
critical factor. On one occasion, well-aimed Japanese fire detonated
the entire 5th Marine Division ammo dump. In another tense moment, the
ammunition ship _Columbia Victory_ came under direct Japanese fire as
she approached the western beaches to commence unloading. Watching
Marines held their breath as the ship became bracketed by fire. The
ship escaped, but the potential still existed for a disaster of
catastrophic proportions.
The 2d Separate Engineer Battalion and the 62d Naval Construction
Battalion (Seabees) repaired and extended the captured runways. In
short order, an entire Seabee brigade moved ashore. Marines returning
to the beaches from the northern highlands could hardly recognize the
place they had first seen on D-day. There were now more than 80,000
Americans on the small island. Seabees had bulldozed a two-lane road up
to the top of Suribachi.
Communications, often maligned in earlier amphibious assaults, were
never better than at Iwo Jima. Radios and handsets were now waterproof,
more frequencies were available, and a variety of radio systems served
the varying needs of the landing force. Forward observer teams, for
example, used the back-pack SCR-610, while companies and platoons
favored the SCR-300 “walkie-talkies,” or the even lighter SCR-536
“Spam Can” portables. Said Lieutenant Colonel James P. Berkeley,
executive officer of the 27th Marines and a former communications
officer, “At Iwo we had near-perfect communications, all any commander
could ask for.” As the battle progressed, the Marines began stringing
telephone lines between support units and forward command posts, wisely
elevating the wire along upright posts to avoid damage by tracked
vehicles.
Japanese counterintelligence teams expected to have a field day
splicing into the proliferation of U.S. telephone lines, but the
Marines baffled them by heavy use of Navajo code talkers. Each division
employed about two dozen trained Navajos. The 5th Marine Division
command post established six Navajo networks upon arrival on the
island. No one, throughout the war, insofar as anyone knew, was ever
able to translate the Navajo code talkers’ voice transmissions.
[Illustration: _“Iwo Jima,” proof lithograph of two Navajo code
talkers, by Sgt John Fabion._
Marine Corps Combat Art Collection
]
African-American troops played a significant role in the capture of Iwo
Jima. Negro drivers served in the Army DUKW units active throughout
the landing. Black Marines of the 8th Ammunition Company and the 36th
Depot Company landed on D-day, served as stevedores on those chaotic
beaches, and were joined by the 33d and 34th Depot Companies on
D+3. These Marines were incorporated into the VAC Shore Party which
did Herculean work sustaining the momentum of the American drive
northwards. When Japanese counterattacks penetrated to the beach areas,
these Marines dropped their cargo, unslung their carbines, and engaged
in well-disciplined fire and maneuver, inflicting more casualties than
they sustained. Two Marines, Privates James W. Whitlock and James
Davis, received the Bronze Star. Said Colonel Leland S. Swindler,
commanding the VAC Shore Party, the entire body of black Marines
“conducted themselves with marked coolness and courage.”
News media coverage of the Iwo Jima battle was extensive and largely
unfettered. Typical of the scores of combat correspondents who stuck
with the landing force throughout the battle was Marine Technical
Sergeant Frederick K. “Dick” Dashiell, a former Associated Press
writer assigned to the 3d Marine Division. Although downright scared
sometimes, and filled with horror often, Dashiell stood the test, for
he wrote 81 front-line communiques, pounding out news releases on his
portable typewriter on the edge of his foxhole. Dashiell’s eye for
detail caught the flavor of the prolonged assault. “All is bitter,
frontal assault, always uphill,” he wrote. He described how the
ceaseless wind filled the air with fine volcanic grit, and how often
the Marines had to stop and clean the grit from their weapons--and how
naked that made any Marine feel.
Most Marines were exhausted at this point in the battle. Occasional
hot food delivered close behind the front lines, or more frequently
fresh fruit and milk from the nearby ships, helped morale some. So
did watching more and more crippled B-29s soar in for emergency
landings, often two or three a day. “It felt good to see them land,”
said Sergeant James “Doc” Lindsey, a squad leader in Company G, 2d
Battalion, 25th Marines. “You knew they’d just come from Tokyo.”
[Illustration: