Product Description

Iwo Jima was the United States Marine Corps' toughest ever battle and a turning point in the Pacific War. In February 1945, three Marine Divisions stormed the island's shores in what was supposed to be a ten-day battle, but they had reckoned without General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the enemy commander. 'Do not plan for my return,' wrote Kuribayashi in one of his many letters to his wife, Yoshii. He knew that he and his garrison could not defeat the Marines, but he was determined to exact a fearful toll in American casualties. In the 36-day battle for Iwo Jima, which eclipsed all that had gone before, the Marines lost nearly 6,000 men and the Japanese garrison was virtually wiped out.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #366162 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

About the Author
DERRICK WRIGHT'S interest in the Second World War was stimulated by the many Luftwaffe bombing raids on his native Teesside. He is the author of Tarawa: A Hell of a Way to Die (Windrow & Greene, 1997). Married, with four daughters, he lives on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors.

Customer Reviews

Very good account of the battle for Iwo Jima - just needed some maps
It's a thorough, well researched and skilfully conveyed story of the utter carnage that was Iwo Jima. It covers all aspects and issues comprehensively: the strategic importance of the island, the direct effect the cost in lives that the Japanese exacted had upon the decision to use the atomic bomb (the argument being that it saved lives given the alternative scenario), and of course it covers the day to day planning and execution of the battle from the top down to the front lines. The appendices are very good, listing in some detail every one of the Medals of Honour won during the battle, detailing the order of battle of both sides and telling the story surrounding the iconic flag raising.

It is difficult to conceive of a more savage and daunting prospect which faced the US Marines on Iwo Jima: take a pulverised hellish moonscape of jagged volcanic rock and sulphurous black ash in which it is impossible to find or create cover; at one end add a steep, 500-foot mountain giving total coverage of the invaders' only route of approach; to the labyrinth of natural caves, crevaces and outcrops add reinforced pillboxes and blockhouses and join them all via a vast network of subterranean tunnels; pack these defenses with an infamously fanatical enemy with no prospect of retreat or reinforcement for whom surrender or capture were the ultimate dishonour; give the Japanese time to install interlocking mortars and artillery, camouflaged and zeroed to perfection and finally give them a canny commanding officer determined to sell every inch of the island at staggering cost.

It is little wonder that it took the Marines over a month of the most desperate and savage close quarter fighting to finally conquer the island with flamethrower, grenade and K-bar, ridge by ridge, spider-hole by spider-hole, yard-by-yard. It is little wonder almost 6,000 Marines lost their lives, and that, of all of the Medals of Honour bestowed to Marines throughout WWII, fully a third were earned at Iwo Jima. Although Derrick Wright does a very solid job of conveying the horror of the battle as well as the daily progess, his narrative could really have been helped with a few maps. There is a single map of Iwo Jima in the book (two others depict Iwo Jima's relative position the Pacific Islands and the Japanese mainland) which is a fairly basic pre-battle pen drawing showing only minimal topographic and other features. The book is roughly divided into time periods ('D+1 - D+2', 'D+20 - D+26' etc.) but I found it crying out for a map to accompany each of the chapters showing lines of advance and locations of the opposing forces (Wright has also written accounts of the battles for Tarawa and Peleliu and the latter includes really useful maps, updated throughout). In the absence of these maps you had to do a lot of work in your mind's eye using the only map provided and, consequently, I don't think you maintain as good an overall feel of how the battle progressed. But that is a small ommission in what is otherwise a very accomplished record of the battle.