All About - History - Nero - Rome's Deadliest tyrant

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Greatest Battles On the shoreline Iwo Jima was part of an island-hopping campaign that drove US forces into the heartland of the Japanese Empire. 30,000 Marines in eight battalions landed across 1.6km of beach. The 4th Division arrived in the centre of the island flanked on the left by the 5th Division. Encircling US Navy To give the Marines the best chance of success, the six battleships from the US 5th Fleet surrounding Iwo Jima launched a three-day long continuous bombardment on the island. Unfortunately, the barrage was quite ineffective against the subterranean-based Japanese and churned up the beach, making it harder to advance. Moving inland Thevolcanicblackashwreakedhavocwith theadvance.Amphibiousvehiclesbecame bogged down and the Japanese machine guns couldeasilyfindaMarineintheircrosshairs intheexposedland.Thebeacheswerenot idealfordiggingfoxholeseithersocoverwas hard to find, and the death toll racked up. 82
Death toll Although Iwo Jima wasn’t a disastrous victory for the USA, it was still a bloody engagement. 6,821 Marines were killed with a further 18,000 wounded. The Japanese fared even worse and lost almost the entire garrison of the island. BATTLEOFIWOJIMA IWO JIMA 19 FEBRUARY – 26 MARCH 1945 Written by Jack Griffiths Kuribayashi’s strategy The Japanese knew the Americans were coming, but with an island so small, a dogged defence of Iwo Jima was the only strategic option. Snipers were dotted all over the island and the home advantage allowed the Imperial Army to conceal and entrench themselves. While Hitler was preparing his futile final offences of the war in Europe, the US Army had assaults of its own to undertake in East Asia. Located 1,220 kilometres south of Tokyo was the remote volcanic island of Iwo Jima, just 21 square kilometres in size. On it were two airfields essential to American plans for the War in the Pacific. B-29 Superfortresses had been incredibly effective in their bombing of areas under Japanese occupation, and the capture of Iwo Jima would allow fighter escorts to accompany the bombing runs, making them an even more formidable threat. The Japanese Imperial Army knew of the importance of the island and had fortified Iwo Jima with a network of subterranean tunnels and 642 pillboxes. This didn’t deter the US forces, and battle commenced on 19 February after 72 days of intense bombing on the island. At 8.59am, the 4th and 5th US Marine Divisions stormed the black-sand beaches to find the artillery barrage had not done its job. Attacks came thick and fast from machine-gun and mortar nests embedded into the island’s thick rock. The beaches soon became a mess of twisted metal and burning vehicles, and the Marines launched themselves into shallow foxholes to avoid the crossfire. 2,500 died in what would become the bloodiest day in the history of the US Marine corps, but the tide soon turned when the west coast of the island was reached by nightfall. Combat raged on the volcanic island for days as the Japanese tunnel system became the Marines’ nemesis. The Americans only took a few hundred metres of ground every day, and whenever a fortified position was taken, the Japanese soldiers usedtheundergroundcavernstoattackfrom anotherangle.Thenavywasalsokeptonitstoesby kamikaze attacks, which were so devastating that on 21 February, USS Bismarck was sunk, killing 318. Thesoutherntipoftheislandwasdominatedby MountSuribachiandtheinvadersmanagedtoclaim it on 23 February. The American flag was raised on the summit in what would become an iconic imageofthewar.Asthedayprogressed,the4thand 5thDivisionswereboostedbytheentryofthe3rd Division into the fray. Now, the total number of US Marines who had been engaged in battle numbered 70,000 as the defenders became hideously outnumbered. After weeks of ferocious fighting, by the night of 25 March, only 300 Japanese soldiersremained.Withnootheralternative,ledby Kuribayashi, they resorted to a banzai charge. The valiant yet suicidal attack was completely wiped out and the fight for Iwo Jima was over. The bloody Operation Detachment came to an official end the next day but fighters had already been making sorties from 11 March. One in three US Marines were killed or wounded but the death toll paled in comparison to the Japanese, who lost over 20,000 men. 27 Medal of Honors were awarded, and the Battle of Okinawa loomed into view, getting under way just four days later. The ferocity of the defence of Iwo Jima surprised the American generals and would later help influence the decision touseatomicweaponryonHiroshimaandNagasaki. 83
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The Nazi Olympics How Jesse Owens d
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All About - History - Nero - Rome's Deadliest tyrant

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