Last Part of the Battle of Iwo Jima Begins

Iwo Jima, Saturday, 10 March 1945

The last part of the battle began. Marines found and sealed Japanese caves one by one with explosives and bulldozers. Resistance was dying out, and more units reached the ocean. Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 25, however, was in for five more days of fierce battle. What RCT 25 faced was the last stand of the Japanese on the eastern side of the island.

The Japanese stayed in their tunnels during American artil­lery fire. Afterward, they would come out firing with everything they had while the Marines advanced. When Marine casualties rose to the point that the advance stopped, the Japanese would return to the tunnels and come out elsewhere to do the same thing.

 

One Marine in Hudson’s platoon was hit by a sniper and another by a US Navy shell. Very few of the original men were left; almost everyone was a replacement.

Excerpts are from Fighting the Unbeatable Foe: Iwo Jima and Los Alamos, now republished as a 75th anniversary edition in paperback and Kindle.