The Battle of Iwo Jima | Animated History

hi I'm Griffin Johnson the armchair historian today's video the Battle of Iwo Jima before we begin I want to thank our sponsor Nord VPN for making this video possible more on that later an f4u Corsair sewers overhead at 400 miles an hour prompting a young marine to glance up from his LCVP everywhere around him hundreds of landing craft plow through the waves toward a black sand beach to his left be 554 foot mount suribachi towers over the desolate island which for the past three days has been subjected to an intense bombardment one of the many battleships behind him fires a salvo as the brilliant pyrotechnics display continues the marine wonders if anything can survive the firepower of that magnitude and fears anything that might [Music] by 1944 American forces had penetrated Japan's outer line of defense in the Pacific and were working their way towards the inner line following the capture of the Marianas in August the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided that the next target would be the island of Iwo Jima capturing it would give the American b-29 fleet bombing Japan emergency landing strips but even more importantly the island could be used as a staging area for the anticipated invasion of Japan in March of 1944 even before the loss of the Marianas the Japanese had begun fortifying yo Jima the commander of the islands garrison Lieutenant General Ted Ameche Kuribayashi was similarly aware that an American victory at Iwo Jima was inevitable nonetheless he resolved to make their victory as costly as possible defiantly proclaiming we are here to defend this island to the limit of our strength if our positions are overrun we will take bombs and grenades and throw ourselves under the tanks to destroy them long live the Emperor [Music] knowing the vulnerability of conventional Shore fortifications Cory bye ashie prepared a layered defense consisting of strong mutually supporting positions additionally he ordered the construction of a complex system of caves bunkers and tunnels these subterranean installations ranged in size from small dugouts intended to accommodate a squad of men to huge caverns capable of holding a battalion and were virtually impervious to any form of bombardment the Japanese were vastly outnumbered and outgunned and this required them to be especially resourceful in their usage of heavy weapons namely their 23 type 95 tanks and 70 anti-tank guns which they placed in well fortified positions after almost a year of preparation the Japanese garrison had grown to 21,000 men and more than 19,000 yards of tunnel had been excavated during the planning of his defense Kuribayashi had also developed an innovative battle plan which would allow the Americans to land unopposed when they had advanced about 550 yards inland the Japanese would deliver concentrated fire from automatic weapons and artillery positions across the island unlike curry by ahsha's tactics the American invasion plan was conventional and straightforward overseen by Fleet Admiral Chester W Nimitz capturing the island was the responsibility of the 80,000 strong v amphibious Corps commanded by Major General Harry Schmidt and consisting of the third fourth and fifth Marine divisions the fourth and fifth divisions would land side-by-side on the eastern beaches with the fourth on the right and the fifth on the left then they would pivot right in advance toward the northern end of U wajima simultaneously a regiment from the 5th Marines would capture Mount Suribachi meanwhile the third would stay in reserve to soften up the island general Schmidt requested a 10-day naval bombardment however he only received three if all went well for the Americans they would capture the island quickly but as the old adage goes no plan survives contact with the enemy and especially not this enemy at 859 a.m. on February 19th 1945 the first wave of Marines waded ashore in accordance with Kuribayashi plan the Japanese held their fire leading submarines to mistakenly think that the bombardment had destroyed them over the next hour more men and materiel landed on the beach until it was crowded shortly after 10:00 a.m. the island exploded into fire and chaos Derek Wright author of Iwo Jima 1945 states that everything from machine guns and mortars to heavy artillery opened up on the beach quickly transforming it into a nightmarish bloodbath pinned down by this murderous fire the Marines frantically entrench themselves in the soft volcanic ash which provided rudimentary cover the ash was slippery and difficult to traverse and so they can only inch their way forward until the Seabees also known as the naval construction battalions bulldozed makeshift roads through the sand even after reaching the Japanese defenses the task of securing them was complicated by quarry by 'she's tunnel network which allowed the garrison to reoccupy their positions even after the Marines had cleared them by 11:30 a.m. a contingent had reached airfield number one in the interior of iwo jima while another group of Marines cut across the narrowest part of the island reaching the opposite shore however the 25th Marine Regiment of the 4th Marine Division encountered heavy opposition on the right flank near a strong point dubbed the quarry right notes that of the nine hundred men that landed in the morning only a hundred and fifty were left in fighting condition by nightfall a staggering eighty-three point three percent casualty rate the land battle was not even a day old and already it was becoming an exceptionally vicious fight nonetheless some thirty thousand Marines managed to land by dark and thousands more would eventually be committed to battle over the next week they slowly advanced inland capturing one of the islands airfields and establishing a foothold on the other since firearms were not very useful at flushing out fortified enemy positions the Marines resorted to using flamethrowers and grenades to replace units that had sustained high casualties elements of the third Marine Division were pulled from the rear and thrown into the fight [Music] general Kuribayashi had expressly forbidden any Banzai charges deeming them futile instead the Japanese employed guerrilla and infiltration tactics in order to chip away at the Americans and prevent them from operating safely because of this more passive approach Japanese casualties remained relatively low and morale remained relatively high First Lieutenant Sugihara kenryu kept a meticulous diary during the early stages of the battle and on February 22nd he wrote this is a winning battle be persistent we must definitely build the foundation of victory for this Greater East Asia war by February 23rd the Marines had isolated mouths Suribachi and small groups of men began making their way toward the summit although the mountain was still largely occupied by the Japanese most chose to stay in the tunnel network where they were eventually killed as a result resistance was relatively light during the ascent after reaching the summit they planted an American flag the first to fly on Japanese soil observing from a ship offshore marine Alvin øresund recounted that the top brass told us it would be all over in 72 hours sure enough at 10:35 a.m. on the 23rd we saw Old Glory being raised on the highest point now Suribachi that's it we thought we've done it in spite of this triumphant sentiment the fighting was far from over there were still thousands of Japanese soldiers entrenched on the northern half of the island none of whom were likely to surrender between February 25th and March 10th the Marines fought their way through fierce resistance taking nearly 12,000 casualties in the process on the left flank the 5th division attacked a series of ridges and Hills concurrently the third advanced in the center and on the right flank the fourth stormed a part of the island they called the meat-grinder with the Americans closing in one japanese commander launched a final Banzai attack on the evening of March 8th 800 Japanese soldiers charged the American lines although it was deemed to futility the Japanese still managed to inflict 347 casualties at the cost of 784 dead as the battle entered mid-march the Marines closed in on the North and southeast corners of the island however before the island could be completely secured about 300 Japanese soldiers scattered around the islands many tunnels gathered near airfield number two and launched a sneak attack on the night of March 25th allegedly led by curry by Oishi himself they surprised the Americans camping in the area bayoneting some of them in their sleep hand-to-hand fighting lasted for 90 minutes before they were finally wiped out after 36 days of fighting the island was declared secure on the morning of March 26 but victory and iwo jima came at a steep price the United States sustained more than 28,000 casualties which accounted for a third of all suffered by the Marines in the Second World War the Japanese on the other hand lost essentially their entire 21,000 man garrison the battle over this small seemingly insignificant island was one of the costliest in American history and consequently has generated a large and enduring controversy over its strategic value if you're like me and spend a huge chunk of your time on the internet then you know that protecting your data is crucial that's why we use Nord VPN with over 5,200 servers in 62 countries military-grade encryption super fast servers recommended by speed test and unlimited bandwidth Nord VPN provides the ultimate VPN protection rated number one buy VPN mentor Nord VPN is the only VPN to get green checks across the board on PC Mag what's more it's the best VPN for both iOS and Android so you can enjoy Internet Security and stay anonymous on the go for the low price of only $2.99 a month Nord VPN will keep your online data secure on up to six devices simultaneously this exclusive offer will end so sign up using the link in the description below 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Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 1,295,335

Rating: 4.9341516 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of Iwo Jima, Letters from Iwo Jima, D-Day, The Pacific War, World War Two, Second World War, Banzai Charge, Marines, Okinawa, The Pacific, Asian History, Japanese History, American History

Id: 3fghJ1c02KQ

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2019