Iwo Jima 23rd February 1945 US flag raised over Iwo Jima BBC ON THIS DAY | 23 | 1945: US flag raised over Iwo Jima
The photograph By Joe Rosenthal, made during the raising of the second flag, is one of the best photos of the war. It represents every Marine, as none of the faces of the men are visible
My cousin Bucky Stasny was there on Iwo as a rifleman at the time. He was badly wounded and almost died and most of his platoon was hit as well. He was damned lucky to make it out of that hell alive and he still suffers some of the effects of his wounds. They interviewed Bucky for a film some years ago but he choked up so much that only a little of his interview was usable.
Here it is in color. Joe Rosenthal took a still pic while this was being filmed. He was later accused of staging the shot, but this moving action shot cleared him of those charges. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a2/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima_(color).ogv/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima_(color).ogv.480p.webm This is the first flag raised on Mt. Suribachi. Not as breath taking as the second one made famous by Joe Rosenthal.
I remember as a little boy of 5 or so thinking they were trying to hold up the flag as it was falling down. The innocence of childhood, as I did not realize at the time how horrendous it was and that three of those boys never made it off the island alive. I had a patient years ago (1980s) that was a rifleman in an infantry company in the 4th Marine Division. He had his family bring in the company roster from the day they landed. There were some 250+ names on the list with a † and/or * by the names. The cross was for the men who died and the star was those who were wounded. Many names had several stars and then a cross and others had several stars. I saw one with 6 stars and a cross. There were only about 8 or 10 on the list without a star or cross. He teared up talking about the men and wanted me to know the price they and the other Marine divisions had paid. It was tough.
I think the island hopping strategy was only successfully accomplished through the bravery and determination of those involved against a relentless enemy and at a high cost to the mostly young men involved. Remember their deeds or history will be rewritten.
I certainly gained a much better appreciation of those battles after reading the excellent memoir by Eugene Sledge (With the Old Breed), describing his experiences on Peleliu and Okinawa. Whatever you might say about the fighting qualities of the Japanese, they extracted an enormous butchers bill in those battles and comparatively, the 12th SS were no more fanatical, maybe less.
