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Battle Story
Battle Story: Iwo Jima 1945
The full story of one of the bloodiest battles of the war in the Pacific
Operation Detachment, the invasion of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, was the first campaign on Japanese soil and resulted in some of the fiercest fighting of the Pacific campaign. U. S. Marines supported by the Navy and Air Force fought the Japanese both over and underground on the island of volcanic ash, in a battle which was immortalized by the raising of the Stars and Stripes above Mount Suribachi. It was a battle that the Japanese could not win but they were determined to die trying; of the 18,000-strong garrison, only 200 were taken prisoner. Americans lost more in the 35 day battle, but at the end had possession of three airfields in range of the Japanese mainland. This book gives a clear, concise account of those dramatic days in 1945, supported by a timeline of events and orders of battle.
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 21, 2020
This is likely the last of this series I’ll read. They’re not written well, and poor on presentation and graphics. After reading “Battle Story: Kohima” I thought I’d give this one a shot. It simply didn’t measure up. Neither story did.
There are so many better books out there that leave this series in the dust. Hell, Wikipedia is better. Don’t waste your time.
There are so many better books out there that leave this series in the dust. Hell, Wikipedia is better. Don’t waste your time.
May 8, 2022
It would be difficult to make a dull book out of the story of the US Marine Corps' bloodiest campaign, the appalling month-long battle of attrition to capture a tiny volcanic island from its fanatical Japanese defenders, but Andrew Rawson comes very close in this book.
One of the "stitch together extracts from unit war diaries and call it a work of history" brigade who seem to have become depressingly common, he provides his own words only in the brief introduction and afterword. And they're not worth the price of admission. The rest of the book is just cut-and-paste passages from the war diaries of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th US Marine Divisions. This creates, I'm sure, an important resource for other historians. But as a book for the general reader, it's dire. Because the diaries were never intended as anything more, they are just a repetitious shopping-list of objectives and progress of specific units, written in the dullest possible style. And because the battle involved the 21st, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th Marine Regiments (among others), fighting small-unit actions on a small battlefront, the story quickly becomes impenetrable even with the help of the (very good) maps. Here's a typical paragraph:
"While RCT-9 passed through RCT-21, a battleship and two cruisers targeted the Japanese positions facing 3rd Division. Then the corps artillery shelled the area north of Airfield 2 followed by airstrikes. Even so, 1st Battalion suffered many casualties as it crossed Airfield 2's runway and the high ground beyond. 2nd Battalion could not advance along the low ridge on the west side of the airfield and 9 of the 26 tanks supporting its action were knocked out. Colonel Howard N. Kenyon had to take the ridge to safeguard 1st Battalion's position so 3rd Battalion was released from reserve to help 2nd Battalion. It too became pinned down and fell back in confusion after two company commanders were killed. It took until nightfall to stabilise the situation but 2nd Battalion was finally established on the all-important ridge." Phew. Got that ? Good. Because there's another tortuous paragraph coming up about another very similarly-named unit on the next page.
And the book has absolutely no analysis of the overall value of the campaign to victory in the Pacific War. Given that controversy raged before, and especially since, the campaign about the sacrifice of nearly 7000 young Marines to gain an airstrip which was of dubious importance (and in the event scarcely used), this is a serious indictment of this book as a work of history.
The photographs and the maps are excellent. But the writing is terrible.
One of the "stitch together extracts from unit war diaries and call it a work of history" brigade who seem to have become depressingly common, he provides his own words only in the brief introduction and afterword. And they're not worth the price of admission. The rest of the book is just cut-and-paste passages from the war diaries of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th US Marine Divisions. This creates, I'm sure, an important resource for other historians. But as a book for the general reader, it's dire. Because the diaries were never intended as anything more, they are just a repetitious shopping-list of objectives and progress of specific units, written in the dullest possible style. And because the battle involved the 21st, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th Marine Regiments (among others), fighting small-unit actions on a small battlefront, the story quickly becomes impenetrable even with the help of the (very good) maps. Here's a typical paragraph:
"While RCT-9 passed through RCT-21, a battleship and two cruisers targeted the Japanese positions facing 3rd Division. Then the corps artillery shelled the area north of Airfield 2 followed by airstrikes. Even so, 1st Battalion suffered many casualties as it crossed Airfield 2's runway and the high ground beyond. 2nd Battalion could not advance along the low ridge on the west side of the airfield and 9 of the 26 tanks supporting its action were knocked out. Colonel Howard N. Kenyon had to take the ridge to safeguard 1st Battalion's position so 3rd Battalion was released from reserve to help 2nd Battalion. It too became pinned down and fell back in confusion after two company commanders were killed. It took until nightfall to stabilise the situation but 2nd Battalion was finally established on the all-important ridge." Phew. Got that ? Good. Because there's another tortuous paragraph coming up about another very similarly-named unit on the next page.
And the book has absolutely no analysis of the overall value of the campaign to victory in the Pacific War. Given that controversy raged before, and especially since, the campaign about the sacrifice of nearly 7000 young Marines to gain an airstrip which was of dubious importance (and in the event scarcely used), this is a serious indictment of this book as a work of history.
The photographs and the maps are excellent. But the writing is terrible.
November 13, 2013
Good, concise book on this important WWII battle. So many stories of bravery.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews