POST #22-35
Day Twenty-Five...Iwo Jima Battle Narrative, 16 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 Twenty-Five...Gladiators... |
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On this day, 16 March 1945...The Marines knew the end of the
battle was close, but the thought brought them little comfort.
They knew it was going to be one hell of a fight when the Japanese
decided to make their last suicide charge. They were going to come out screaming
"banzai," waving their weapons and planned to kill until they were
dead. They had seen it happen before, and they were not looking forward to it.
Major Schechter led his men out of their rest area at 0600, headed
for the positions of Battalion 1-23, which spanned a 300 yard front. Thirty minutes
later, Major Milton G. Cokin led his composite Baker Company on a similar
mission, to relieve Battalion 3-23 in positions to the east of the Motoyama
Airfield. Both companies were on station by 0700. The exhausted men of the 23rd
Marines slowly moved to the rear, policing up their path. They were ultimately
bound for the beaches, the boats, and the ships that would take them away from
Iwo Jima for good.
Able Company found themselves once again in Iwo’s inhospitable
terrain. The Japanese had been pushed back into a small corner of the
island maybe the size of a city block with lots of boulders and cave mouths. The
frightening process of investigating open caves, crevices, and suspicious
looking holes soon took a deadly turn. Japanese
rifle fire and hand grenades opened
up...Nobody wanted to be the battle’s last casualty, and the company held up
while weighing its options.
Mopping up continued throughout the day. Able Company sealed
numerous caves in their sector and suffered a handful of wounded. Baker Company
patrolled its own area, but had no enemy encounters worth reporting. With their
zones of operation secured, both companies started preparing their nighttime
positions.
The Marines managed to get to the high ground without incident.
From their new positions, the terrain dropped steeply away into a jumble of
rocks, with only a single path providing a possible approach for the Japanese. As darkness closed in the Marines prayed for
an easy night. Nobody wants to die close to the end of the battle. They did not
know it, but this night would be the last they had to spend in combat. But one
more man would crack, and one more man would die before it was through.
The
1-24 consisting of Dads Baker Composite Company and Able Composite Company had one
Marines killed this day and six wounded, with a Battalion strength of 481.
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