Just over four miles long and two miles wide, Iwo Jima is a speck on the map. But in early 1945 this tiny volcanic island was the scene of some of the most savage fighting of the Second World War.
By late 1944, the war in the Far East had turned decisively against the Japanese. The British had forced them back in Burma while in the Pacific the Americans were steadily closing in on the Japanese home islands, capturing strategically important islands in a series of amphibious operations.
The capture of the Mariana Islands in late 1944 had given the US a base from which to launch long-range bombing raids on Japan, but its fighter planes, which couldn’t carry so much fuel, were unable to accompany the bombers on what was a 3,000-mile round trip. But as Iwo Jima was just 650 miles from Japan, it was thought that it offered an ideal base for US fighter planes. A task force was assembled to capture it and a two-month bombing campaign was mounted to soften it up.
