Why Didn't the Naval Barrage Work on Iwo Jima?



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US Marines storm the beaches of Iwo Jima after a short naval barrage, predicting a simple victory. When the Marines come ashore, Lt. General Kuribayashi unleashes his pre-sighted artillery firepower on the beach. Here we look at why was the naval barrage so ineffective at neutralising the Japanese artillery.

Bibliography
Alexander, Joseph H. Closing in: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima. Glasgow, UK: Good Press, 2019.
Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. Flags of Our Fathers. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2016.
Kakehashi, Kumiko. So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2007.
King, Dan, and Linda Ryan. A Tomb Called Iwo Jima: Firsthand Accounts from Japanese Survivors. Rockwall, TX: Dan King, 2020.
Leckie, Robert, and Ted Burwell. The Battle for Iwo Jima. New York, NY: Random House, 1967.

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23 thoughts on “Why Didn't the Naval Barrage Work on Iwo Jima?”

  1. All the pre assult bombartment. Heavy bombers, Aircraft, rockets, all calibre ship bombartment. And those defenses still stood. A complete guess but given the ground and size of the tunnels I'm guessing most were hand dug. And survived all that. It's definitely impressive.

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  2. A huge change in future fights of this order would be close air support. Such as attack helicopters and harriers. A big part of bringing heavy ordinance to crack hardened bunkers like this with assault carriers from then on.

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  3. With the benefit of hindsight, I do sometimes wonder if Iwo Jima would’ve been America’s first nuclear target after seeing the sheer level of carnage the assaults brought (if little boy & fat man were ready by D Day that is)

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  4. I would ask the question after the airfiled was knocked out as the main objective through heavy bombing why they cant surround this island without natural resouces and hunger its inhabitans into surrender?

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