Campaign in Hell: Conquering Iwo Jima

From February 19 to March 26, 1945, the U.S. military launched the Battle of Iwo Jima to greatly improve the effectiveness of strategic bombing raids against mainland Japan by B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers flying from airfields in the Mariana Islands, while reducing their persistently high losses. The aim was to capture this strategic location between the Mariana Islands and Japan, use its airfields to launch P-51 fighters to escort B-29s on bombing missions from the Mariana Islands, and provide a stopover where damaged B-29s could make emergency landings. The United States deployed three main assault divisions along with other supporting units, totaling more than 110,000 troops. After over a month of extraordinarily brutal fighting, they annihilated the roughly 21,000 Japanese defenders, at the devastating cost of more than 28,000 casualties. This was the only island battle in the Pacific War in which the attacking U.S. forces suffered a higher casualty rate than the Japanese defenders. Based on extensive historical sources from both the United States and Japan, this book vividly recounts the twists and turns of the brutal battle for Iwo Jima in detail.