![]() On 3rd October 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a directive to Admiral Nimitz to take Iwo Jima. The island would also be useful as a refuge for damaged aircraft returning from raids, as a base for air-sea rescue flying boats and for P-51 long-range fighters to escort the B-29 bombers. The Air Force needed to eliminate the fighter threat to their bombers and neutralise the radar station there. The only obstacle to this was the strategically important island of Iwo Jima that housed two airfields, with a third under construction, as well as a radar station that could give up to two hours warning of an impeding raid. The US Navy and Marine Corps under Admiral Chester Nimitz had continued their 'island hopping' campaign that had begun at Guadalcanal in 1942 and continued through Tarawa (1943), the Mariana Islands (1944), Peleliu (1944) and was to reach its climax at Okinawa (1945).Īfter the capture of the Mariana Islands, the US 20th Air Force could mount a large-scale campaign against the industrial centres of Japan. General Douglas MacArthur had advanced across the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and had invaded Leyte in the Philippines in October. In Burma, the British 14th Army had advanced across the Burma-Indian border and was pushing the Japanese Army down the Irrawaddy River, while the American advance across the Pacific had brought it to the inner ring of Japanese defences before the mainland. Towards the end of 1944, the Allied forces were successfully pushing the Japanese back from their earlier conquests. ![]() Major General Graves B Erskine, Commander, 3rd Marine Division What was in doubt in all our minds was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate our cemetery at the end." ![]() Historical Note: The picture of the Stars and Stripes ![]()
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