The Airfields and the Center: The 3d Marine Division at Iwo Jima

Shortly after 1000 on 24 February 1945, the sixth day on Iwo Jima, Companies I and K of the 3d Battalion, 21st Marines, started across Airfield No. 2 and lost both their commanders within minutes. They kept going. Twice they were driven off a ridge beyond the runway and twice they went back, fighting Col. Masuo Ikeda’s men “with rocks, rifle butts, bayonets, knives, pistols, and shovels” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 566). By 1415 they held the high ground across the east-west runway (p. 567). At 1530 Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine opened the 3d Marine Division’s command post ashore (Bartley, p. 97), and at 0700 the next morning his division took over the center of the island (p. 99). This chapter follows the fight for the middle of Iwo Jima, from Airfield No. 1 on 20 February to Motoyama village and the third airfield in early March. For the whole battle, see the Battle of Iwo Jima hub.

Why it mattered

Iwo Jima was invaded for its airfields. Two were in Japanese use in February 1945 and a third was under construction north of Motoyama (Bartley, pp. 6, 9), all of them across the middle of the island. Kuribayashi’s main line of resistance was “a belt of mutually supporting positions organized in depth,” running from the cliffs above the western beaches across Airfield No. 2 and east through Minami village to the coast above the eastern beaches (Bartley, p. 11). In the center, any drive north had to go straight across the second airfield.

The center also tied the two flanks together. Schmidt “planned to attack the Japanese positions in the north with three divisions abreast,” and he considered “the 3d Division attack in the center to be his main effort” (Alexander, “The Drive North”). The 3d Marine Division had been in floating reserve. These two weeks put it into the line.

Terrain and objectives

North of the landing beaches, the ground climbs onto the Motoyama Plateau. Airfield No. 1, which the Japanese called Chidori, sat on the first rise above the beaches; it had been built by 1943 (Bartley, p. 6). Farther north, Airfield No. 2 lay across the plateau; its runways met at a junction near the middle of the field, and the longest ran east and west (Bartley, pp. 95–96). Beyond it was Motoyama, one of the island’s four civilian settlements; before the war its 1,091 residents, Bartley notes, worked “a small sugar mill and a sulphur refinery” (Bartley, p. 3). North of the village, Airfield No. 3 was still largely unfinished (Garand and Strobridge, p. 574).

Bartley says the 3d Division’s ground “might well be used as an illustration for Dante’s Inferno”: volcanic sandstone in crevices and outcrops, with minefields, tank ditches and fighting positions on every rise (p. 99). Charlie-Dog Ridge ran along the southeast edge of the east-west runway (p. 96). North of the airfield, Hill Peter and, 225 yards to its northwest, Hill 199-Oboe “formed the most important obstacles to the advance” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 576). Ikeda’s 145th Infantry Regiment held the second airfield, and its 47mm antitank guns “were sited to fire straight down the runways” (pp. 561–562).

Airfield No. 1 and the first push, 20–21 February

The first airfield falls

On D+1, 20 February, both assault divisions turned north. In the 4th Marine Division’s zone, mines and heavy mortar and artillery fire slowed the attack, but “the capture of Airfield Number 1 was completed during the day, and the division front had advanced from 200 to 500 yards” (Bartley, p. 82). A friendly air strike hit Company B, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, near the Quarry, killing five men and wounding six (Garand and Strobridge, pp. 549–551).

Schmidt meant to land his corps reserve, the 21st Marines of the 3d Division, that day, but congestion, wind and surf forced him to order “RCT 21 to reembark and be prepared to boat on order” (Bartley, p. 83). (A regimental combat team, or RCT, was an infantry regiment with its supporting units.) Battery C, 2d 155mm Howitzer Battalion, came ashore over Red Beach 1 from LST-779 and was in position by 1840, the only corps artillery ashore that day (p. 83).

Two Medals of Honor in one company

On the corps’ left, two men of Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Division, earned the Medal of Honor in these first two days. One of them, Pfc. Jacklyn H. Lucas, had turned 17 at sea six days before (Marine Corps History Division).

Medal of Honor

Pfc. Jacklyn H. Lucas, Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division

On 20 February 1945, D+1, Lucas and three other Marines were ambushed in a ravine near the front line. When two grenades landed in front of them, he threw himself over one and pulled the other beneath him. His body took both blasts, and his comrades were able to rout the Japanese patrol. The citation credits his “exceptionally courageous initiative and loyalty.” Born in Plymouth, North Carolina, on 14 February 1928, he received the medal from President Truman on 5 October 1945.

Citation →

Medal of Honor

Capt. Robert H. Dunlap, Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division

On 20 and 21 February 1945, Dunlap’s company was stopped below steep cliffs by fire from caves high on their face. He crawled about 200 yards ahead of his lines, to within about 50 yards of the Japanese at the base of the cliff, located their guns, and returned with the information for the supporting artillery and naval gunfire. He then took an exposed position and, for two days and two nights, directed a heavy bombardment against what the citation calls “almost impregnable Japanese positions.” Truman presented his medal on 18 December 1945.

Citation →

21 February: into the main belt

On D+2 the 5th Division pushed nearly 1,000 yards, but the 4th, attacking into the belt covering Airfield No. 2, did far less: about half as much in Bartley, an average of only 100 yards in Garand and Strobridge. Lt. Col. Hollis U. Mustain, commanding the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, was killed at about 1000 (Bartley, p. 85). The 4th Division’s combat efficiency “had been reduced to 68 percent” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 556).

Two more Medals of Honor came from the 4th Division’s line that day. Offshore, kamikazes struck the fleet: Saratoga lost 123 killed and 192 wounded, and the escort carrier Bismarck Sea was sunk with 318 lost (NHHC, H-Gram 042).

Medal of Honor · Posthumous

Sgt. Ross F. Gray, Company A, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division

On 21 February 1945, grenades stopped Gray’s platoon as it moved toward high ground northeast of Airfield No. 1. He pulled his men back out of range, went forward alone, found a dense minefield in front of a system of connected positions, and cleared a path through it under fire. Then, “alone and unarmed but carrying a huge satchel charge,” he sealed one entrance after another. In repeated trips he destroyed six positions and killed more than 25 Japanese. Gray was killed on Iwo Jima on 27 February 1945.

Citation →

Medal of Honor

Capt. Joseph J. McCarthy, Company G, 2d Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division

On 21 February 1945, near Airfield No. 2, McCarthy’s company was stopped by rifle, machine-gun and 47mm fire. “Determined to break through the enemy’s cross-island defenses,” he formed a demolition and flamethrower team, led it with a picked rifle squad across 75 yards of open ground, and destroyed a fortified pillbox. He then breached a second emplacement with explosives, tackled and killed a Japanese soldier about to fire on a Marine, and led his company through the gap until the ridge was taken. Truman presented his medal on 5 October 1945.

Citation →

The 21st Marines come ashore

The 21st Marines landed on D+2. Bartley has all three battalions ashore near the edge of Airfield No. 1 by 1720 (p. 86); Garand and Strobridge give 1800 (p. 556). Schmidt “placed RCT 21 at General Cates’ disposal,” attaching it to the 4th Division (Bartley, p. 86).

Rain, relief and a stalled line, 22–23 February

The relief of the 23d Marines

The 21st Marines began relieving the 23d at 0500 on 22 February and finished about 1130 (Bartley, p. 88), attacking into “an intricate network of mutually supporting pillboxes emplaced on high ground between Airfields 1 and 2.” With “the rain falling in torrents,” visibility fell nearly to nothing, aircraft were grounded and tanks were of little use (pp. 88–89).

The sources give the day’s gains differently. Bartley says the morning “netted only 50-75 yards” (p. 89); Garand and Strobridge give 250 yards in places for the 2d Battalion (pp. 556–559); Alexander says the newcomers “fought hard all day to scratch and claw an advance of 200 net yards” (Alexander, “Suribachi”). The 1st Battalion lost its commander, Lt. Col. Marlowe C. Williams, and then its executive officer (Bartley, p. 89, n. 14). On the corps left, Lt. Col. Tom M. Trotti of the 3d Battalion, 26th Marines, and his operations officer were killed at about 0940 (p. 88).

With the beaches choked, LST 807 “volunteered to remain on the beach under fire to act as a hospital ship”; of slightly over 200 casualties treated aboard, “only two of this number died” (Bartley, p. 91).

23 February: the edge of the second airfield

On D+4 the 21st Marines attacked Airfield No. 2 again, after the battleship Idaho had fired 162 rounds of 14-inch and the cruiser Pensacola 390 rounds of 8-inch (Garand and Strobridge, p. 563). They could not cross, because of “heavy enemy fire, loss of communications, and late arrival of supporting tanks,” and at 1327 the 2d Battalion’s assault company “was forced back off the edge of the airfield” (Bartley, p. 92). At 1020 that morning, at the other end of the island, the first flag went up on Mount Suribachi.

About 2,500 rounds of “sorely needed” 81mm ammunition came ashore that day, and LST 646 landed 25 tanks of the 3d Tank Battalion (Bartley, p. 92). That night Rear Adm. Toshinosuke Ichimaru cabled Tokyo: “Real battles are to come from now on” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 564).

The fighting at the airfield’s edge on 23 February also produced the best-known Medal of Honor of the center, earned by Cpl. Hershel W. “Woody” Williams of the 1st Battalion, 21st Marines.

Medal of Honor

Cpl. Hershel W. Williams, 1st Battalion, 21st Marines, 3d Marine Division

On 23 February 1945, serving as a demolition sergeant, Williams “fought desperately for 4 hours under terrific enemy small-arms fire,” covered by only four riflemen. He went back to his own lines repeatedly for fresh flamethrowers. At one point he climbed onto a pillbox and put the nozzle of his flamethrower through its air vent, killing the men inside and silencing the gun. When Japanese riflemen tried to stop him with bayonets, he charged them. Truman presented his medal on 5 October 1945.

Citation →

Across Airfield No. 2, 24 February

The plan and the preparation

Alexander writes that “the drive north officially began on D+5, the day after the capture of Suribachi” (Alexander, “The Drive North”). On 24 February the corps attacked with the 26th Marines on the left, the 21st again in the center and the 24th on the right. Naval gunfire began at 0800, howitzers joined at 0845 and escort-carrier aircraft followed at 0900 (Garand and Strobridge, p. 565). Only 25 of the 146 bombs dropped were 500-pounders; the rest were 100-pounders (Bartley, p. 94, n. 20). Bartley puts K-Hour at 0915 (p. 94); Garand and Strobridge say the corps “opened its attack at 0910” (p. 565).

The tank battle at the airfield’s edge

Tanks from all three divisions were placed “under the overall control of Lieutenant Colonel Collins,” Lt. Col. William R. Collins, the 5th Division’s tank officer (Garand and Strobridge, pp. 564–565). The western taxiway was abandoned after the losses described above; the eastern one was mined too, and in the end “about 12 tanks reached the field” (Bartley, p. 94). The opposition the sources describe that day is mines and antitank guns, not Japanese tanks. Since D-Day, Garand and Strobridge count, the Japanese had destroyed 32 Marine tanks (p. 569).

Rocks, rifle butts and bayonets

Companies I and K led the 21st Marines across. Shortly after 1000 “both Companies I and K lost their commanding officers” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 566). Bartley describes rifles, grenades, picks and entrenching tools in the hand-to-hand fighting that followed (pp. 94–95). After a second preparation at 1330, “by 1415, Companies I and K of 3/21 had occupied the high ground across the east-west runway” (pp. 566–567), and Bartley credits the battalion with “nearly 800 yards” (p. 95). From 1515 to 1545 all the artillery on the island was massed in support of the armor (p. 96).

Late in the day most of the 21st Marines pulled back to the south edge of the runway while I and K held on the far side. Schmidt reported gains of 200 to 1,000 yards (Garand and Strobridge, pp. 567–569).

Charlie-Dog Ridge

On the right, the 24th Marines attacked toward Charlie-Dog Ridge and were stopped at first by fire from the ridge and the Amphitheater beyond it. The two main sources end the day differently. Bartley says that by 1700 the regiment’s left had advanced about 500 yards “to overrun Charlie-Dog Ridge” (pp. 96–97). Garand and Strobridge say that “shortly after 1600” a “tremendous mortar barrage” drove the 2d and 3d Battalions off the ridge, and that a shell in the 3d Battalion’s command post wounded its commander, Lt. Col. Alexander A. Vandegrift Jr., son of the Commandant (p. 568). The ground beyond, Hill 382 and the Amphitheater, became the 4th Division’s fight in The Meat Grinder.

Erskine comes ashore

Meanwhile the rest of the 3d Marine Division began landing over Black Beach, the northern half of Red 2 and the southern half of Yellow 1. Erskine opened his command post at 1530, and by dark Col. Howard N. Kenyon’s 9th Marines had three battalions ready to attack the next day (Bartley, p. 97). The division’s third regiment, the 3d Marines, stayed afloat in reserve (p. 107). Erskine was 47, “one of the youngest major generals in the Corps” (Alexander, “The Assault Commanders at Iwo Jima”). He argued, in Alexander’s words, that the main effort “should clearly receive the main fire” (Alexander, “The Drive North”).

Timeline

The center, D+1 to D+13

1. 20 FebThe 4th Division completes the capture of Airfield No. 1.
2. 21 FebThe 21st Marines land and are attached to the 4th Division.
3. 22 Feb, 0500The 21st Marines begin relieving the 23d Marines in torrential rain. The relief is complete about 1130.
4. 23 Feb, 1327The 2d Battalion, 21st Marines, is forced back off the edge of Airfield No. 2. Cpl. Hershel W. Williams fights the pillbox belt with a flamethrower.
5. 24 Feb, 0910 or 0915The corps attacks with three regiments abreast. About 12 tanks reach the airfield.
6. 24 Feb, 1415Companies I and K, 3/21, hold the high ground across the east-west runway.
7. 24 Feb, 1530Erskine opens the 3d Division command post ashore.
8. 25 Feb, 0700The 3d Division takes over the center. The 9th Marines attack at 0930; nine tanks are knocked out.
9. 27 Feb, 1250After a 10-minute preparation, 1/9 overruns Hill Peter and reaches the crest of Hill 199-Oboe.
10. 28 Feb, 1300After a second preparation, 3/21 sweeps through Motoyama village to the high ground over Airfield No. 3.
11. 4 Mar, about 0300About 200 Japanese try to infiltrate at the east end of Airfield No. 3 and are driven off. At 1624 corps orders a pause for 5 March.

Hills Peter and 199-Oboe, 25–27 February

25 February: nine tanks

“At 0700, 25 February, the 3d Division assumed the task of clearing the critical central portion of the Motoyama Plateau” (Bartley, p. 99). The 9th Marines passed through the 21st at 0930 after a 1,200-round corps artillery preparation, fire from a battleship and two cruisers, and an air strike (Bartley, p. 100; Garand and Strobridge, p. 574).

Lt. Col. Robert E. Cushman Jr.’s 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, got “the 26 available tanks from Companies A and B, 3d Tank Battalion,” which went across the airfield ahead of the infantry (Bartley, p. 100). “Almost immediately, the three leading tanks were hit by enemy antitank fire,” and by evening “nine tanks were knocked out before some of the enemy installations could be destroyed” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 574). Alexander, without giving the day, writes that “Cushman mounted his troops on the surviving tanks and roared across the field” (Alexander, “The Drive North”).

On the right, Lt. Col. Carey A. Randall’s 1st Battalion faced Hill Peter and gained 100 yards in five hours (Garand and Strobridge, pp. 574–575). Lt. Col. Harold C. Boehm’s 3d Battalion passed through the 2d at 1510, and both of its assault company commanders were killed. By 1915 the line had settled (Bartley, pp. 101–102). With the division’s own artillery still afloat, battalions of the 4th and 5th Divisions’ artillery regiments fired for it (p. 103).

26 February: the flame tank and Private Watson

On 26 February the 9th Marines attacked again at 0800 after a 45-minute preparation, with eight fighters and eight torpedo bombers on station each day for all three divisions (Garand and Strobridge, pp. 575–576). A flame tank of Company C “burned out a tunnel from which enemy troops were emerging” on the reverse side of Hill Peter, but “by nightfall there had been no significant gains” (Bartley, p. 103).

In the 2d Battalion’s zone, Pvt. Wilson D. Watson of Company G earned the Medal of Honor over 26 and 27 February. His citation does not name the hill he held.

Medal of Honor

Pvt. Wilson D. Watson, Company G, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division

On 26 and 27 February 1945, Watson, an automatic rifleman, charged a pillbox that had pinned down his squad, kept its defenders down alone until he could throw a grenade inside, then killed the Japanese trying to escape from the rear. Later, stopped at the base of a small hill, he climbed it under mortar and machine-gun fire with his assistant and, “firing from his hip,” held the crest alone for 15 minutes against grenade and knee-mortar attacks. The citation credits him with killing 60 Japanese before his ammunition ran out and his platoon reached him. Truman presented his medal on 5 October 1945.

Citation →

27 February: the hills fall

For 27 February corps gave the 3d Division half of all corps artillery fire (Garand and Strobridge, p. 576; Bartley, p. 103). Gains were small all morning, and 11 tanks were knocked out (Garand and Strobridge, p. 576). At 1250, after a ten-minute preparation, the 1st Battalion “overran Hill PETER” and reached the crest of 199-Oboe (Bartley, p. 103). By evening all of Airfield No. 2 and the high ground north of it were held. The 9th Marines reported gains of 800 to 1,200 yards and counted 77 large pillboxes in the 2d Battalion’s zone (Garand and Strobridge, p. 577). Alexander’s verdict: the two small hills “took the 3d Marine Division three more days of intensely bitter fighting” (Alexander, “The Drive North”).

In their words

Features of this action were the skill, determination, and aggressiveness displayed by our own troops; the unprecedented tenacity and defensive resourcefulness displayed by the enemy . . . the decisive aid rendered infantry troops by tanks; and finally, the excellent coordination of all supporting units with infantry maneuvers.

Motoyama and Airfield No. 3, 28 February–1 March

Through the village

On 28 February the 21st Marines passed through the 9th behind a rolling barrage that lifted 100 yards every seven minutes, and the 3d Battalion went 400 yards by 0930 (Bartley, p. 104). In its zone “Company I was confronted with tanks rising from the earth.” Capt. Edward V. Stephenson rallied the company; three tanks were destroyed on the ground and aircraft caught two more. “Now there were only three tanks left out of the 22 which Colonel Nishi had been able to obtain the previous December” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 578).

After a five-minute preparation at 1300, the 3d Battalion “swept through the cluster of rocks and pillboxes that had once been Motoyama Village” and took the high ground overlooking Airfield No. 3 (Bartley, pp. 104–105). The same day three planes of the 9th Troop Carrier Squadron dropped 9,215 pounds of supplies on the western beaches (p. 113).

1 March: the third airfield in view

By 1 March corps artillery was dividing its fire equally among the three divisions, and all of the 12th Marines were ashore (Bartley, p. 105; Garand and Strobridge, p. 579). The lines gained about 500 yards in the morning. In the afternoon corps shortened the 3d Division’s front, and Erskine split his zone between the 21st Marines on the left and the 9th on the right. A late attack at 1645 stalled, and the division dug in about 600 yards east of Motoyama with Airfield No. 3 in view (Bartley, pp. 105–107; Garand and Strobridge, p. 580).

Toward Hill 362C, 2–5 March

Past the airfields, the division was into the broken high ground of the northern plateau. On 2 March Boehm’s battalion drove a 700-yard salient toward Hill 362B, but a second attack at 1530 behind eight artillery battalions failed, and Lt. Col. Lowell E. English of the 2d Battalion, 21st Marines, was wounded (Garand and Strobridge, p. 582; Bartley, pp. 107–108). On 3 March the 5th Division took over Hill 362B, the 2d Battalion, 21st, took Hill 357, and the 1st Battalion gained about 250 yards toward Hill 362C before halting (Bartley, pp. 108–110). “The enemy was making a last organized stand, and doing it well” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 584).

At about 0300 on 4 March some 200 Japanese tried to infiltrate the east end of Airfield No. 3 and were driven back with 166 casualties (Garand and Strobridge, p. 585). That day’s attack made about 100 yards before stalling at Hill 362C (Bartley, p. 110). By evening “all of the assault battalions of the 3d Marine Division were tied in with each other, as well as with 5th Division units on the left and the 4th Division on the right” (Garand and Strobridge, p. 585): the corps’ three-division line. At 1624 corps ordered a halt for 5 March (p. 586). That day the 3d Marines were “sent back to Guam on 5 March without having set foot on Iwo Jima” (Bartley, p. 116).

Guns, shells and weather

Alexander notes that Schmidt’s “Corps artillery was too light; he needed twice as many battalions and bigger guns” (Alexander, “The Drive North”). The 2d 155mm Howitzer Battalion came in a battery at a time, on 20, 22 and 24 February (Bartley, pp. 83, 96). On 24 February corps artillery fired 11 group and 40 battalion missions (p. 96). The corps’ split of fire followed the main effort: half to the 3d Division for 27 February and an equal three-way split from 1 March. Schmidt also had the flank divisions allocate half of their own regimental fire support to the center (Alexander, “The Drive North”; Bartley, pp. 103, 105).

Weather governed what came over the beaches. Surf kept the 21st Marines afloat on 20 February, rain grounded aircraft and immobilized tanks on 22 February, and Admiral Hill twice had to close the beaches because of high surf (Bartley, p. 89; Alexander, “Suribachi”). Mortar ammunition stayed “a critical item” until 2,500 rounds landed on 23 February (Bartley, p. 92).

People

Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine pressed corps for the fire his main effort needed, and in the next phase ordered the predawn attack on Hill 362C described later in this collection (Garand and Strobridge, p. 588). Col. Hartnoll J. Withers led the 21st Marines across both airfields, and Col. Howard N. Kenyon the 9th Marines at Hills Peter and 199-Oboe. Lt. Col. Robert E. Cushman Jr., of the 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, later became Commandant of the Marine Corps (Alexander, “The Drive North”).

Two of the center’s Medal of Honor recipients lived long lives after the war. Jacklyn Lucas enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on 6 August 1942 at 14, with his mother’s consent, giving his age as 17. On 10 January 1945 he walked out of camp, was listed as a deserter, and stowed away on the transport Deuel, which was carrying 5th Division units to Iwo Jima. He turned himself in on 8 February and was allowed to stay (Marine Corps History Division). He died in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on 5 June 2008. The Navy commissioned the destroyer USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) at Tampa on 7 October 2023 (navy.mil). Woody Williams of Fairmont, West Virginia, had fought on Guam before Iwo Jima and was wounded on 6 March. He died on 29 June 2022, at 98, at the veterans’ medical center that bears his name, and lay in honor in the U.S. Capitol on 14 July 2022. He was known as the last surviving World War II veteran to have received the Medal of Honor (WSAZ, 13 July 2022).

On the Japanese side, Col. Masuo Ikeda’s 145th Infantry Regiment held the airfield belt that the 21st Marines broke into on 24 February (Garand and Strobridge, pp. 561–566). Baron Takeichi Nishi commanded the 26th Tank Regiment (Garand and Strobridge, p. 590). Bartley notes dug-in tanks among the defenses of the plateau (p. 108), and Nishi’s few remaining mobile tanks met Company I on 28 February. Nishi had won the individual show-jumping gold medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics riding Uranus. He died on Iwo Jima in March 1945 and was posthumously promoted to colonel. Olympedia gives the date as 22 March; accounts of the circumstances differ (Olympedia; Garand and Strobridge, p. 578). Garand and Strobridge record that by early March “65 percent of the officers had been killed” and that Kuribayashi estimated he had 3,500 effective men left (p. 586).

Civilians. Bartley gives the island’s 1943 population as 1,091, “all of whom were of Japanese descent,” living in Motoyama, Nishi, Kita and Minami (p. 3). The Marine records of the fighting in the center mention no civilians; by 28 February Motoyama was rubble and pillboxes (Bartley, pp. 104–105).

Losses and uncertainty

For D+1 through D+5 (20–24 February), corps-wide, Bartley gives 773 killed in action, 261 died of wounds, 3,741 wounded, 5 missing and 558 combat fatigue (p. 98). The table prints the total as 5,388, but its figures add to 5,338, which is also the increase his text gives; with D-Day’s 2,420 it makes his 7,758 for the end of D+5, so 5,388 is a misprint.

By the numbers

Corps casualties, D+1 to D+5

V Amphibious Corps, all divisions, 20–24 February 1945. Total 5,338.

Wounded in action3,741

Killed in action773

Combat fatigue558

Died of wounds261

Missing in action5

For the 3d Marine Division’s own drive through the center, 25 February to 9 March, Bartley gives 627 killed in action, 200 died of wounds, 2,241 wounded, 4 missing and 491 combat fatigue, a total of 3,563 (p. 122). That period runs four days past this chapter and includes Hill 362C. The 21st Marines’ losses from 21 to 24 February, while attached to the 4th Division, fall in the corps table above.

By the numbers

3d Marine Division casualties, 25 February to 9 March

The division’s “14-day drive up the island,” D+6 to D+19. Total 3,563.

Wounded in action2,241

Killed in action627

Combat fatigue491

Died of wounds200

Missing in action4

Tank losses can be counted only roughly. Garand and Strobridge put the Marine tanks destroyed from D-Day through 24 February at 32 (p. 569). Nine tanks were knocked out supporting the 9th Marines on 25 February and eleven in the attack of 27 February (pp. 574, 576). These daily counts may include tanks later recovered and repaired, so they should not be added together as permanent losses. Japanese losses in the center were not separately counted; the 166 casualties of 4 March are an American count, and Kuribayashi’s 3,500 effectives his own estimate. Times and yardages also differ between sources, as noted above; where they disagree, this chapter gives both.

Questions readers ask

Was Jacklyn Lucas really the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor?

Official Marine Corps and Navy sources say so. The Marine Corps History Division calls him “the youngest Marine ever to receive the nation’s highest military decoration,” and the Navy’s 2023 commissioning release calls him the youngest service member of World War II to receive it. Born on 14 February 1928, he was 17 years and 6 days old on 20 February 1945. The two official sources differ on his middle name: the Congressional Medal of Honor Society gives Harold, and the History Division gives Harrell.

Why did the 3d Marine Division fight in the center rather than on a flank?

Because it arrived last. The 4th and 5th Divisions had landed abreast on D-Day and held the right and left, so when the 3d Division came ashore on 24 February, Schmidt put it between them, across the airfields, and made it his main effort (Alexander, “The Drive North”).

Was there a tank battle at Airfield No. 2?

Not in the sense of tanks fighting tanks. In the sources, the fighting of 24 and 25 February pits Marine Shermans against mines, buried explosives and antitank guns sited down the runways. The clearest encounter with Japanese tanks in the center came on 28 February near Motoyama, when Company I, 21st Marines, met tanks “rising from the earth”; three were destroyed on the ground and aircraft caught two more (Garand and Strobridge, p. 578).

How many Medals of Honor came out of these two weeks?

Six are told in this chapter, out of 27 awarded for Iwo Jima (22 to Marines and 5 to Navy men). Four were earned on the first two days of the drive north, 20 and 21 February: Lucas and Dunlap of the same rifle company in the 5th Division, and Gray and McCarthy in the 4th. Williams earned his on 23 February with the 21st Marines, and Watson his on 26 and 27 February with the 9th Marines. Only Gray’s was posthumous; he was killed on 27 February (CMOHS citations).

How it connects

The center attack started while the 28th Marines were still finishing on the other end of the island; the flags went up on 23 February, as told in the previous chapter, Mount Suribachi. The 4th Division, on the 3d’s right, was turning toward Hill 382, Turkey Knob and the Amphitheater, a fight covered in the next chapter, The Meat Grinder. The 3d Division’s push from Hill 362C to the northeast coast continues later in the collection. For the whole battle, the island atlas and the full timeline, see the Battle of Iwo Jima hub, and for the wider war, the World War II hub.

What happened afterward

The airfields were in use before the center was clear. On 4 March, with the 3d Division held up beyond Motoyama, the first B-29 landed on Airfield No. 1, and air evacuation of the wounded to the Marianas had begun the day before; 2,449 patients eventually went out by air (Bartley, photographs, pp. 113, 115). The 3d Division attacked again on 6 March and took Hill 362C on 7 March. On 9 March one of its patrols reached the northeast coast and sent back a canteen of seawater marked “For inspection, not consumption” (Bartley, pp. 121–122).

Walking the ground today

Iwo Jima, officially Iwo To, is a Japan Self-Defense Forces base and is closed to the public; the plateau where the airfields and Motoyama stood is seen only by the few who go out for occasions such as the annual Reunion of Honor, attended by American and Japanese veterans, families and officials. In the United States, the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, are the places to remember the battle. In North Carolina, Jacklyn Lucas was born in Plymouth, in Washington County, and his medal is held at High Point University’s Smith Library (CMOHS).

Sources and further reading

• Lt. Col. Whitman S. Bartley, Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic (USMC Historical Branch, 1954), ch. I, “Background,” pp. 3–11: HyperWar text.
• Bartley, ch. V, “Into the Main Defenses (D+1–D+5),” pp. 79–98, including notes 5, 14, 20 and 31: HyperWar text.
• Bartley, ch. VI, “Through the Center (D+6–D+19),” pp. 99–122, including Col. Kenyon’s summary (p. 103) and the 3d Division casualty table (p. 122): HyperWar text.
• George W. Garand and Truman R. Strobridge, Western Pacific Operations (History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II, vol. IV, 1971), Part VI, ch. 6, “Drive to the North,” pp. 549–570: HyperWar text.
• Garand and Strobridge, Part VI, ch. 7, “3d Marine Division Operations on Iwo Jima,” pp. 573–590: HyperWar text.
• Col. Joseph H. Alexander, Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima (Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, USMC History and Museums Division, 1994), sections “Suribachi,” “The Drive North” and the sidebar “The Assault Commanders at Iwo Jima”: Project Gutenberg edition; HyperWar text.
• Naval History and Heritage Command, H-Gram 042, “Iwo Jima” (kamikaze losses of 21 February 1945): history.navy.mil.
• Congressional Medal of Honor Society, citations for Pfc. Jacklyn H. Lucas, Capt. Robert H. Dunlap, Sgt. Ross F. Gray, Capt. Joseph J. McCarthy, Cpl. Hershel W. Williams and Pvt. Wilson D. Watson.
• Marine Corps History Division biographies: PFC Jacklyn Harrell Lucas; Cpl Hershel Woodrow Williams.
• Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 103913, Cpl. Hershel W. Williams, with citation text: history.navy.mil; “We are Iwo: Medal of Honor recipient Cpl. Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams,” 21 February 2020: marines.mil.
• “Woody Williams to lie in honor at U.S. Capitol Thursday,” WSAZ, 13 July 2022: wsaz.com.
• “USS Jack H. Lucas commissions in the Sun State at Port Tampa Bay,” U.S. Navy, October 2023: navy.mil.
• Olympedia, “Takeichi Nishi”: olympedia.org.
• Naval History and Heritage Command photographs of Jacklyn Lucas, NH 103869–103872: Online Library (HyperWar mirror).

Photographs: U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, via the National Archives, the Naval History and Heritage Command and the photographs reproduced in Bartley’s 1954 monograph; all public domain.