POST #22-36
Day Twenty-Six...Iwo Jima Battle Narrative, 17 March, 1945..
Almost Done!
Mikey's Dads 100th Birthday Was on 2-22-2022...
We begin to wind up 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 26...The End... |
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On this day, 17 March 1945...At daylight, the sweeps began once
more. One last time, Battalion 1-24 climbed out of foxholes. One last time they
moved out, carefully searching through the caves, searching for the enemy.
But instead of facing northeast as they had done for nearly thirty days, their
line of advance moved southwest. Back to the landing beaches! Soon to be the departing beaches!
They moved slowly through the terrain. Discarded weapons were
collected. Dropped gear was salvaged. Caves were blasted shut. Dead men were hauled
out and sent for burial...in a cemetery if American, on the spot if Japanese.
It took hours to cover the few hundred yards back to Hill 382. They crossed
their own old battlefields and those of hundreds of other men. Every step held
memories, and every step got them closer to the end.
When Dad and the other Marines caught sight of the beach they must
have been amazed at the change since they came ashore nearly a month earlier. There
were thousands of men and lots of equipment. There were pilots and mechanics,
cooks, bakers, hospitals, and bulldozers making runways.
But no one was interested in sightseeing...they wanted to get
aboard one of the ships and sail as far away from Iwo as possible. For a time,
the rumor had it that they would board the ship that evening, but this didn’t
happen. Instead, they dug in one more time on the slopes of Hill 382...overlooking
the Meat Grinder, the Turkey Knob and the Amphitheater... the spots that they
had battled for, and where their buddies had died. They waited for an attack
and waited for the morning and the orders that would finally get them out of the
living hell they had experienced...Tomorrow...
The
1-24 consisting of Dads Baker Composite Company and Able Composite Company had one
last Marine killed this day and no wounded, with a Battalion strength of 480.
For
the entire campaign of the 1034 men of the 1-24 that landed on Iwo, 146 were
killed, 482 were wounded and 11 became sick.
According
to official records, the 36-day assault of Iwo Jima resulted in more than
26,000 total American casualties, including 6,800 dead. Japanese combat deaths
numbered over three times as many. The Medal of Honor was awarded to 27 U.S.
Marines and U.S. sailors (14 posthumously).
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