The Battle of Iwo Jima Timeline

The battle of Iwo Jima was fought during February and March between the U.S. and Japan in the year 1945, during WWII. As a result of this battle, U.S. captured Iwo Jima from Japan and this battle was famous for raising American flag by the Unites States Marines. The United States invasion was known as operation detachment. Nowadays survey team examines Iwo Jima battle site to get the background checks and remains of the lost troops.

Timeline of Iwo Jima Battle

2/19:	At 2 A.M. the guns of battleship signaled the commencement of D-Day. Soon the island was attacked by 100 bombers and bombs from carrier based planes.
	At 8:59 A.M. 30,000 U.S. Marines of 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th marine division landed on Iwo Jima and about 40,000 more followed.
	Adm. R.A. Spruance was the commander of the overall operation and Joint Expeditionary Force Commander was Vice Adm. R.K. Turner.
	The first aim of the U.S. Marines was to capture Mt. Suribachi because the Japanese were able to fire on any marines from this position.
	Mt. Suribachi was also used by the U.S. support unit and Seabees that had high casualties in the early part of battle
	By the end of the day, 30,000 troops started moving in land.
	Mt. Suribachi was cut off and isolated and some part of first airfield was also captured.
2/20:	U.S. Marines started advancing south of Mt. Suribachi and north of airfield.
	Satchel charges and flame throwers took out the entrenched Japanese soldiers from the mountain.
	Cruisers and destroyers were used to closely bombard the Japanese defenses.
	Ravines were set fire with gasoline to force out Japanese.
2/21:	U.S. Marines continued its advancement towards the south and north part of the island.
	Japanese started Kamikaze attacks over U.S. invading ships.
	The carrier Saratoga and Bismark Sea was damaged and sunk.
2/22:	Finally the U.S. Marines surrounded Mt. Suribachi and started moving towards the face of the mountain.
2/23:	After bitter fighting, first units of U.S. Marines were at the top of the mountain.
	At 10.20 A.M. patrol headed by Lt. Harold Schreir raised a small flag on top of the mountain.
	Later, Landing Ship Tank of U.S. bought the larger flag and raised it over the mountain. The famous photograph, raising the flag was taken by the photographer Joe Rosenthal.
	U.S. Marines advanced towards the second airfield, which was located in the center of Iwo Jima.
2/24:	After 76 minutes of naval bombardment, the 4^th and 5^th marine division of U.S. started attacking Japanese with the help of tanks.
	The Japanese were able to stop tanks by using mines and anti-tank guns
	The 5^th division gained 500 yards at the end of the day.
2/25:	At 9.30 A.M. the third marine division started its attack. The Japanese line was the strongest point for Japanese defenses.
	U.S. bought flame throwing tanks to burn the defenders of Japan in their pillboxes.
	Because of high casualties, the movement of U.S. marines was very slow.
2/27:	Second airfield and Hills Peter was taken by U.S. third marine division.
2/28:	Finally the third airfield was occupied by U.S. Marines.
	But, the hills around the airfield were still occupied by the Japanese.
2/31:	U.S. marines started attacking hills 362A and 382.
	Intense fighting was fought by U.S. to capture 382.
	Both the hills were smaller in size when compared with Mt. Suribachi and also they had concealed artillery, pillboxes, and antitank guns.
3/1:	U.S. marine took over the control of 382 and started its attack to capture 362A.
3/2:	Night attack was carried out by U.S. marines over the hill 362A.
	Japanese intense fighting and hard terrain delayed the capture of 362A until march 8^th.
3/4:	Fighting continued in the island and the damaged B29 landed in the island.
3/6:	To support U.S. marines in the air, the first P-51 started arriving on the island.
	Task Force58 was relieved to prepare for Okinawa on 4/1.
3/8:	The Japanese attempted a counter attack over marine regiments 23^rd and 24^th.
	The attack was stopped by the U.S. marine artillery.
	650 Japanese men were lost in this attack.
3/15:	Japanese resistance continued in the island.
	Japanese started penetrating in the U.S. lines to attack headquarters and cut off communication.
3/20:	147^th Infantry regiment of U.S. army arrived for garrison duty.
3/25:	Final resistance of Japanese was secured at Kitano point.
	That night, under Japanese commander Gen. Kurbayashi , 200 Japanese infiltrated U.S. Lines
3/26:	250 Japanese men laid dead near the U.S. lines.
	At 8.00 A.M. the island was declared secure and capture part of the battle was declared complete.
4/7:	100 P-51’s landed on the island and escorted B-29 to raid on Japan.

Casualties

From the U.S. side 19,189 were wounded and 6821 were dead. From the Japanese side 20,000 were believed to be dead and Prisoner of War (POW) was 1,083.