POST #22-34
Day Twenty-Four...Iwo Jima Battle Narrative, 15 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...
Day Fifteen...Stand By |
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On this day, 15 March 1945... The day on Iwo
brought the anticipated orders for BLT 1-24... Stand by to move out.
Major Webster’s info of the previous day turned out to be wrong.
The battalion would not be relieving Battalion 2-24...instead, they would
assume control of a larger sector. Able Company was to relieve and occupy the
lines of Battalion 1-23, which had three companies on the line. Baker Company was
to relieve Battalion 3-23.” The company commanders repeated their
reconnaissance missions of the previous day, learning the route to the front
lines and talking with the commanders in the 23rd Marines.
Major Schechter knew he had a tall order to fill, even though the
Japanese were cornered. He had about one hundred men, half a company, under his
command.
However, Schechter was a master of the motivating pep talk. Schechter passed the word he was going into
the area first thing in the morning with a patrol for an overnight stay, and
fight it out if necessary, and needed a group of volunteers to come along.
One last effort, one gutsy patrol, led by a combat veteran who
wanted only the most motivated guys in the battalion for help. It wasn’t quite
what the operations order demanded, but it did the trick. When the time came
and Schechter took the lead, every man fell in behind him.
The
1-24 consisting of Dads Baker Composite Company and Able Composite Company had three Marines killed for the days of 11 March to 15 March day and none wounded, with a Battalion strength of 845.
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