Trevor McIntyre - Historian - Fannin County Veterans Center

GUEST EDITORIAL

Hi friends,

I'm pleased to announce that we have a new exhibit at the Fannin County Veterans Center to commemorate one of the most epic battles in American history.

75 years ago today on February 19, 1945, the Battle of Iwo Jima began when the first wave of Marines landed on the Pacific island's black beaches at 9:02 a.m. Stretching across the horizon was a colossal invasion force of 495 ships and over 100,000 men, including more than 70,000 Marines, the largest force of Marines ever assembled for a single battle.

Prior to the invasion, intelligence had estimated that no more than 13,000 Japanese troops were on Iwo Jima. After three days of Navy shelling to soften up the defenses, preceded by 72 consecutive days of bombing by the Army Air Forces, some were optimistic that the 8-square-mile volcanic island would be secured in only a matter of days.

What the intelligence officers couldn't see in their reconnaissance photos was what was hidden beneath the surface of the island.

Under the direction of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander of the island and a direct descendant of Samurai, Iwo Jima had been transformed into the most heavily fortified island in the world.

Kuribayashi knew that he ultimately could not win the coming battle, but his plan was to continue fighting for as long as possible to deny the Americans the use of Iwo Jima's airfields, and to inflict the greatest number of casualties in the hopes that the American public would falter in its support for an invasion of Japan and lead to a negotiated peace.

Under Kuribayashi's defense in depth strategy, designed to inflict the maximum amount of casualties upon the Americans, the island was honeycombed with fighting positions and over 1,500 underground rooms that were connected by 16 miles of tunnels carved out of the rock. This would allow his men to fight the Marines from the protection of bunkers, caves and spider holes and wage a long battle of attrition that would maximize casualties.

The pre-invasion bombardment of Iwo Jima had turned the surface of the island into a wasteland, but in reality, the island's defenses had only grown stronger. Despite a reconnaissance photo showing 5,000 bomb craters within one square mile alone on the island, 22,000 Japanese soldiers were alive and waiting underground in their fortified positions when the Marines landed.

The brutal fighting that followed over the next 35 days would become the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history.

On this 75th anniversary of the battle, I'm pleased to announced that we will have a special Iwo Jima exhibit at the Fannin County Veterans Center for the next 7 weeks.

When I started planning this exhibit a few months ago, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to create a display that would convey the magnitude of Iwo Jima and its cost in American lives. I ultimately decided to take a minimalist approach and use only a handful of small but very powerful artifacts connected to the battle.

The centerpiece of the exhibit features an American flag that was presented to the parents of Private First Class David R. Thomas, who served on Iwo Jima with the 5th Marine Division. On the third day of the battle, Thomas was Killed In Action while attacking a Japanese fortification with a flamethrower.

Thomas was 21 years old when he died.

This flag was given to Thomas' parents to drape over his casket during his funeral just before his remains were returned home to Chicago after the war ended. When Thomas arrived home, his casket was already draped with an American flag, so his parents gave this flag to their other son. The flag remained in his brother's closet for decades until he passed away. I acquired the flag in 2014 from Thomas' nephew.

The flag has remained in its original box since World War II and has never been removed or unfolded.

To the left of the flag is a photo of Thomas that his nephew sent me, and the Veterans Administration brochure that was issued with the flag. These brochures were included with every flag given to the families of fallen service members during the war and contain instructions for the flag's use during the funeral and its subsequent care.

To give you a sense of the human cost of the war and the expected casualties as the fighting continued, 100,000 of these brochures were printed in 1944 alone.

The flag also tells us another tragic story about World War II. The standard Government issue internment flag measures 5'x9'5", but this is a smaller 3'6"x6'8"' flag. During the war, so many American servicemen were dying that it caused a shortage of internment flags. To keep up with the demand, the Government began issuing smaller flags that could be made faster and used less materials than the larger flags.

Also notice the grommets on the flag. Before the war, brass grommets were always used on these flags, but since brass was in such high demand for munitions needed for the war effort, they switched to zinc-plated steel grommets instead.

To the right of the flag is a container of sand from the beaches of Iwo Jima. This specific sand came from Red Beach, which is where the 5th Marine Division came ashore during the invasion, and was collected by a Marine who visited Iwo Jima in 2006.

The sand is technically considered to be a "volcanic ash" and is very coarse, like a small gravel. I've never seen anything quite like it before.

During the invasion, wave after wave of Marines and their equipment, including tanks and amtracs (tracked landing vehicles), quickly became bogged down in this sand as they came ashore. Trying to dig a proper foxhole in the sand was like "digging a hole in a barrel of wheat," the Marines said, and was next to impossible.

General Kuribayashi knew the Marines would become bogged down on the beaches and planned his strategy accordingly. An hour after the first wave landed, more than 6,000 Marines were crowed on the beaches. The Marines had met very little resistance as they came ashore, but that was all part of Kuribayashi's plan. He was waiting for the beaches to fill up before he attacked.

When Kuribayashi finally gave the order to open fire, Iwo Jima suddenly came alive. From mortars and machine guns to heavy artillery, all firing from concealed and heavily fortified positions, the Japanese unleashed everything they had on the Marines stuck on the beach.

There was no place to hide.

By the end of the first day, 30,000 Marines were ashore and slowly pushing their way inland, but the price was horrific: 2,321 Americans lay dead or wounded. All in just the first day.

With such a high price paid on those beaches, sand from Iwo Jima is considered by many to be sacred ground. We are honored to have this sand for display at the veterans center, and I hope that you will all have an opportunity to see it for yourself in person.

At the bottom of the display case are three photographs of Iwo Jima. On the left shows the first wave of the invasion about to come ashore, and on the right shows a Marine machine gun position during the fighting. The photograph in the middle shows one of the Marine cemeteries on the island with white crosses almost as far as the eye can see.

Behind the photos is a large vintage photograph of the Marine Corps War Memorial, which features a massive bronze statue of the Marines raising the American flag over Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. This photo was recently donated to us by Nick Wimberley and belonged to his father who served on Iwo Jima with the 3rd Marine Division. Thanks Nick!

Rounding out the exhibit, above the display case is a beautiful reproduction of the famous World War II 7th War Loan poster depicting the flag raising on Iwo Jima. This poster, and the Marine Corps War Memorial, were inspired by the iconic photo that Associated Press Photographer Joe Rosenthal captured on the 5th day of the battle. His photo of six Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima caused a sensation when it was published would go on to become the most reproduced photo in history.

The Iwo Jima exhibit will be at the veterans center until April, so please be sure to check it out during one of the upcoming veterans organization meetings.

A special thanks to Mike Crowe from the North Georgia Military Museum for loaning us the display case for this important exhibit. Thanks Mike!

The Battle of Iwo Jima finally came to an end on March 26, 1945, after a final attack led by General Kuribayashi himself.

The 35 days of brutal fighting cost the lives of 6,821 Americans and left over 19,000 wounded.

More Marines earned the Medal of Honor for actions on Iwo Jima, 22 in all, than any other battle in American history.

Of all the words that have been written about Iwo Jima over the last 75 years, I have found none more compelling than those that were read aloud by Major General Graves B. Erskine on March 14, 1945, during the dedication of the Third Marine Division cemetery on Iwo Jima.

I'm going to include General Erskine's words below.

As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the battle today, let us never forget all of those brave Americans who gave their lives on Iwo Jima.

"There is nothing I can say which is wholly adequate to this occasion. Only the accumulated praise of time will pay proper tribute to our valiant dead. Long after those who lament their immediate loss are themselves dead, these men will be mourned by the nation. They are the nation's loss.

"There is talk of great history, of the greatest fight in our history, of unheard of sacrifice and unheard of courage. These phrases are correct, but they are prematurely employed. The evidence has not sufficiently been examined. Even the words and phrases used by historians to describe the fight for Iwo Jima, when the piecemeal story of our dead comes to light, will still be inadequate.

"Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was...What was in doubt, in all our minds, was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate our cemetery at the end, or whether the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gun and gunner.

"Let the world count our crosses. Let them count them over and over...Let us do away with names, with ranks and rates and unit designations, here. Do away with the terms regular, reserve, veteran, boot, oldtimer, replacement. They are empty, categorizing words which belong only in the adjutant's dull vocabulary.

"Here lie only Marines."

~Major General Graves B. Erskine, 13 March 1945, Iwo Jima.

Sincerely,

~Trevor McIntyre

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