The Battle of Iwo Jima (February to March 1945) was the bloodiest battle of WWII's Pacific War. A 72-day bombing campaign pounded the island before 110,000 US Marines landed on the beaches. The Japanese defenders had dug themselves a bewildering maze of bunkers, tunnels, and pillboxes, which made clearing the island a deadly business. The US forces won the battle after 36 days of intense fighting but suffered over 27,000 casualties. From the Japanese garrison of 21,000, only 216 men survived the battle. The prize of victory was a strategically important island that could now be used to launch fighter planes to escort the heavy bombers already flying from the Mariana Islands and hitting the main Japanese islands.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2982/battle-of-iwo-jima/.
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