POST #22-32 

 Day Twenty-Two...Iwo Jima Battle Narrative, 13 March, 1945.. 

Mikey's Dads 100th Birthday Was on 2-22-2022...

 We continue the day-by-day story of the First Battalion, 24th Marines, Baker company in the bloody battle of IWO JIMA...

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Day Thirteen...Dispositions...

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On 2-22-2022) Mikey's Dad, Willard W. Wemple would have been 100 years old.  We are following Dad's time in the First Battalion, 24th Marines, Baker company, from February 19th to March 17th, 1945, in....Operation Detachment.

What we post here on the Blog Post about the B-1-24 will be minimal. But we will add links leading to a very good, detailed website...1st Battallion-24th Marines that will give way more information than we can deliver ourselves. We must warn you that some of the information will be graphic and upsetting, but will give you some idea about what Dad and the other Marines experienced.  If you see a mention of Baker Company, that is the unit Dad was assigned to.

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On this day, 13 March 1945...Once again, the 1-24 enjoyed a quiet night without disturbance from artillery or infiltrators. The First Battalion was ordered out of Corps Reserve as of 0800 and returned to regimental control, but this had little impact on the daily activities of the men in the foxholes. Combat patrols resumed their sweeps and the policing details continued cleaning up the area.

Without live enemy to fight, attention turned to dead ones. Burial details picked through old fighting positions, hauling out decomposed remains. Japanese bodies were searched for intelligence materials, and in the 1-24 sector many enemy documents were found, which were immediately sent to Regimental Intelligence. Once relieved of anything of military value, or of personal interest to the souvenir hunters, the Japanese bodies were buried as quickly as possible. Many were left in the ruins of their bunkers, filled with rock and black sand. Others were sealed in caves by demolition squads. None received a cemetery burial, or were identified by name.

Whenever a Marine body was found, the remains were gathered in a poncho and carried to a cemetery.  They would gather up dog tags from Marines that were killed.  Some of the fallen were a long time dead, and a handful of them could not be identified, but they were laid down in long rows just the same.   

A bulldozer scooped out a long trench, followed by men who regularly spaced out the bodies. When a row was complete, the bulldozer made another pass and filled in the trench. They had a form the size of a coffin turned upside down to make a raised mound and then a cross was placed by it. The plan was to bring the bodies home… it was going to be a real job identifying all of them.

During the time First Battalion, 24th Marines spent in reserve, the Fourth Marine Division Cemetery passed 1,700 burials. And still the bodies kept coming.

Read the full narrative below...     

  

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TODAYS FULL NARRATIVE

Todays narrative is DAY TWENTY-TWO on Iwo Jima, 13 March, 1945...It will be called Dispositions...

Click or tap HERE to go to the full narrative...It's very interesting 

https://1-24thmarines.com/the-battles/iwo-jima/reserve/#dispositions

Over the next posts and next days we will continue posting daily updates that will follow 1-24-B in the battle through logs and stories of the battle as told by a Military Historian and battle participants on the 1st Battallion-24th Marines Website...

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Until Next Time!!