From February 19th to March 26th the Marine Corps and Navy assaulted the island of Iwo Jima as part of the island hopping campaign to bring US forces closer to Japan.
The fighting was brutal. It’s not an exaggeration to say that progress was measured in inches. The soft volcanic soil hindered progress, the Japanese were well entrenched and they had a network of tunnels to fight inside of.
On February 23rd, the Marines had raised the first flag on Mount Suribachi. But Secretary Forrestal wanted a bigger flag that was more visible. So the second flag went up and the raising was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal.
Even with the capture of Suribachi, the battle was far from over and the Japanese fought on. The final charge of the Japanese was the night of the 25th and the island was declared secure on the morning of the 26th.
On a personal note, I was at the Iwo Jima Memorial towards the end of my time in the Corps for a ceremony. There were veterans of that battle present that day They were escorted to the front row of seats and I saw Colonels and Generals stand at attention when they passed by.
