‘Uncommon Valor’: Heroics of the Battle of Iwo Jima

Eighty-one years ago, roughly 70,000 U.S. Marines landed on a volcanic island roughly 750 miles south of Tokyo. What they thought would take five days lasted 36, producing some of the fiercest combat in American military history and more Medals of Honor than any single battle before or since.

The Battle of Iwo Jima began Feb. 19, 1945, when the first waves of Marines hit the beaches at 9 a.m. under Operation Detachment. Their mission was to capture the island's three airfields, eliminate a Japanese early warning station that was tipping off mainland defenses to incoming B-29 raids, and establish an emergency landing site for bombers returning from strikes on Japan.

What they found was a killing field. Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi had spent nearly a year turning the eight-square-mile island into a fortress, threading 11 miles of tunnels through the volcanic rock and positioning hundreds of concealed artillery, mortar and machine gun emplacements so that every inch of Iwo Jima fell within overlapping fields of fire. Marines who waded ashore sank ankle-deep in volcanic ash. Vehicles bogged down. And for the first critical minutes, the beaches were eerily quiet. Kuribayashi had ordered his 21,000 defenders to hold fire until the beaches were packed.

Then the island erupted.

The carnage was staggering. Marines measured their daily advances in yards. Strongpoints earned grim nicknames like "The Meat Grinder" and "Bloody Gorge." Historians later described the fighting as throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete.

Read More: 'Bring Our Boys Home': The Daring Raid That Rescued 500 POWs From Behind Japanese Lines

But the battle also produced extraordinary acts of individual courage. Pvt. Jack Lucas, who had lied about his age to enlist at 14 and stowed away on a troop ship to reach the fight, threw himself on two grenades the day after landing to shield his platoon. He survived and received the Medal of Honor at 17, the youngest recipient of the war. Cpl. Hershel "Woody" Williams fought alone for four hours with a flamethrower, destroying one reinforced pillbox after another while every rifleman covering him was killed or wounded. Of more than 300 flamethrower operators on the island, fewer than 20 survived. Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, already a Medal of Honor recipient from Guadalcanal, led his machine gun section ashore on D-Day, personally knocked out a Japanese blockhouse and guided a tank through a minefield before a mortar round killed him.

Four days into the battle, on Feb. 23, Marines fought their way to the summit of Mount Suribachi and raised an American flag. A second, larger flag went up later that day, and Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the moment in what became one of the most reproduced photographs in history. Three of the six men in that image were killed on Iwo Jima within weeks.

By the time the island was declared secure March 26, 6,821 Americans were dead and nearly 20,000 wounded. The Japanese garrison was virtually annihilated, with roughly 200 of 21,000 defenders taken alive. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded for actions during the battle, almost half of them posthumously. Admiral Chester Nimitz, surveying the cost, offered a summation that endures: "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."

Sources: National WWII Museum, "75th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima," "Battle of Iwo Jima"; National Museum of the Marine Corps, "Battle of Iwo Jima"; Congressional Medal of Honor Society, "WWII Battle of Iwo Jima Recipients"; National Museum of the Pacific War, "The Battle of Iwo Jima."

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