of francis scott key's son by daniel sickles and the trial and newspaper coverage that followed. at 4:00 p.m. eastern, on real america -- reel america, we take you back in time to experience residential inaugurations and events and traditions surrounding them. prof. depue: it is a pleasure to be here to talk about this. i did a presentation about a year ago on d-day and it went over very well, i think, but i got several comments, hey, how come you never talk about the pacific theater? i got that comment from submarines, and a couple -- from some marines, and a couple are here tonight. it is not by accident that we are doing this presentation on the 13th of august. on the 14th of august was the official surrender of the

japanese, and so the war ended and all those celebrations back in the u.s. were then. september 2 was the official signing ceremony of the uss -- on the uss missouri. that's the reason for the timing of the presentation. iwo jima, one of the costliest battles of the war, and because of a picture we will be talking about in a little bit, it captured people's imagination like nothing else did in the pacific theater. and there's something that's very iconic now in terms of people's identity with that flag, with that picture, and with the battle of iwo jima itself. there will be a couple times we weave that into the process as we go along here, but we have to start with strategy. the first few slides, it is an overview.

july of 1944, what is going on in the pacific theater at that time? well, we will see if this works. in the central pacific, you have, basically, a navy force -- see. i was warned about that. driving through the central pacific, and, bloody victories. there is one of the real bloody victories. and seizures of islands. here are the marianas islands. that is as far as the navy and marines got by june of 1944. how about the army, coming up from the south? that is primary led by -- primarily led by douglas macarthur.

macau, new guinea. they skipped some places. june 19 and 21 of 1944, you have the battle of the philippine sea. in that case, you have the u.s. fifth fleet, 15 aircraft carriers. imagine that. 15 aircraft carriers against nine japanese aircraft carriers, and come in the process, the japanese lose three carriers, two to submarines, so that's a setback for them. in the same timeframe, you have the great marion us took her shoot -- the great marianas turkey shoot. it is decimated after that. a lot of their best pilots died in that process. that is where we are at in july.

july, 1944, then, you have franklin roosevelt who goes out to pearl harbor and sits down with macarthur and nimitz and king and others. admiral lahey, essentially the joint chiefs of staff, although that was not the official title. there was quite the debate. these gentlemen, some of them had very big egos. almost all of them dead. had serious disagreements about what to do. macarthur. he wanted to return to the philippines. he strategic -- he had a strategic argument for that, but essentially the argument was the emotional deal, the promise he made to the filipino people that i shall return. and he certainly wanted to do exactly that, to return to the philippines. and, as you recall. the united states had guaranteed the filipino people their freedom in 19 six -- 1936,

before the war. americans thought that was an obligation -- as far as americans were concerned, that was an obligation to the filipino people. nimitz had a different proposal. they wanted to go to formosa. that would make sense because they are coming from the central pacific all the way over to formosa. why did they recommend formosa? most of the things that the japanese military and the japanese homeland needed was out here in the dutch indies, rubber and especially oil and some other key supplies that they needed for their war machine, and if you are sitting in formosa, you basically cut that off. so that was the argument the navy was proposing. well, franklin roosevelt is a politician and he finds a

compromise, but the compromise essentially ends up favoring macarthur's plan in large part, and allowed macarthur now to continue his attack, his invasion of the philippines, waiting first -- landing first on one island and later on another. the navy will have to think about an adjustment to their strategy, because they are not allowed to go all the way to formosa. they said their eyes on iwo jima -- they set their eyes on iwo jima. that seems to be the next logical step for them. one more battle i wanted to talk about while we are on this slide. it is four separate engagements. these are naval battles. four separate engagements all around the philippine sea. and what you have got is the bulk of the imperial japanese navy first versus the u.s. --

navy versus the u.s. third fleet. six japanese carriers versus 34 carriers. a lot of smaller carriers, but 34. the japanese lost four of their aircraft carriers. and they don't have the ability to replace those like the united states was doing at the time. the u.s. lost three aircraft carriers, but the advantage now is clearly on the allied side, the u.s. side. after that, the japanese navy is not going to present a major threat to the u.s. as they move forward. one other comment here. the air force, their equation. we will talk about more than this. they have two choices in terms of getting their aircraft to japan. just like in europe, where the goal of the strategic bombing was to bomb germany and especially berlin and some of

the main manufacturing areas, their goal was tokyo and other major cities in japan. they could either do that from china, supplying these airbases in china by flying over the burma railroad, which is torturous to begin with, was quite a logistical nightmare. 4 -- and that's -- that's why the marianas islands be important. it looks like the mariana islands or the place to go. -- are the place to go. let's look at logistics. i have hinted at them a couple times. it is all about logistics. this is logistics on a massive scale. you have got 6200 miles between okinawa and the west coast -- i should say in between iwo jima and the west coast of the united

states. that is six days on the water. if you are talking about from pearl harbor, ok, now it is not 6200 miles. it is only 4000 miles and 17 days. this is a major hurdle. now you have to figure out -- you cannot just sail this huge fleet of hundreds of ships from pearl harbor to the west coast, to iwo jima. you have to have a staging area. the atoll is the place to do that. this is about 1000 miles south and west of the marianas islands. it is often the middle of nowhere. -- off in the middle of nowhere. here's the scale. look how small these islands are. it is basically just a coral reef with a few islands peeking through. when you get inside this coral reef, as you can see right here, hundreds and hundreds of ships, and that's where they had the

major staging area. that's where they were able to do some major reconstruction and repair work on these ships. and huge supply depots. it is 1000 miles from okinawa and it would. the third, the fifth, the second fleet are there. the seventh was supporting macarthur. you are shipping everything across the ocean there, everything from bulldozers to q-tips. can you imagine the amount of oil they had to ship? for the tons and tons of ammunition you had to ship? for aviation fuel? -- or aviation fuel? and cigarettes. that's about the only thing you didn't want to ever run out of, cigarettes. the military ran on cigarettes at the time. you had to supply hundreds of thousands of soldiers, airmen, marines. and not only that.

the war in europe is still going on. so they are still heading to europe, and on top of that, the russians and the chinese are screaming for more lend lease supplies and we are accommodating them with thousands of tons of lend lease supplies, which includes a fair amount of the food both those countries are getting at the time. because of this miracle of american production, both in factories and on farms going on at the time. that is something that i don't think you want to overlook it all. ok. now for my air force friends. the b-29. the b-29 was the most expensive project the united states did during world war ii. a lot of people think wasn't that the atomic bomb? the b-29 cost $3 billion. atomic bomb development cost $2

billion. both of them are almost unimaginable to try to figure out the scale of these things, but here's some comparisons. it is close to being -- i think it is -- the largest aircraft during world war two. the b 24, another foraging bomber -- another four engine bomber, has a hundred 10 foot wingspan. the b-29 has a 141 foot wingspan. the be-20 four maximum takeoff weight is 64,000 pounds. the b-29 over twice that, 133,000 pounds. it has a longer range by quite a distance. it has a range, now, that reaches all the way to japan. nothing else we had would be able to do that and get back. june -- excuse me, january 20, 1945, curtis lemay -- a lot of

you can recognize that name from world war ii all the way through vietnam -- committed the 24th bomber command. he started the war as a major. i will tell you, there were some fast breaks being made in the air force during world war ii, because the air force was about that big at the beginning of the war and massive at the end. lemay switched the main bomber force in the pacific from china to the marianas islands, and he also made an important change as well. before that time, what the air force was doing was daylight bombing and, because of the enemy defenses, they ended up pushing those aircraft much higher. part of the reason for the b-29's success is it had pressurized cabins as well as some very new logistics and new

procedures as well. anyway, you can put these aircraft much higher. when you are flying the heightened daylight -- that high in daylight, the accuracy was dismal. lemay says let's switch from that tonight bombing at low -- to night bombing at low altitudes. and, by the way, switch to incendiary bombs, burning out japanese cities one after the other. that is what they ended up doing. if any of you are familiar of the results from tokyo -- the worst firebombing results were not interested or -- were not in dresden, but tokyo. at the end of the work, they had

to make a decision as to what cities not to bomb so they had something left over to use the atomic bomb. march 9 and 10 is the bombing of tokyo. that is in the midst of the combat at iwo jima. it is very much part of the story. from the island, tokyo is 1400 77 miles one way. from you at jima -- from iwo jima, which is pretty much right in the middle, it is 760 miles. instead of flying from the atoll and making a dogleg around iwo jima, now you can capture it and use it as an intermediate base in case aircraft get in trouble maintenance wise or are damaged somehow. they can land on their way back on iwo jima.

that is the strategic reason for iwo jima as far as the air force is concerned. there it is. a mammoth aircraft. you can see in the bottom left of that picture the size of the crew. a little bit about the japanese command at iwo jima the n. i will not try to pronounce some of these first names. a general takes command at iwo jima. that's him at the bottom right. may, 1944, and quickly realizes he needs to make serious changes. primarily, he will focus his attention on building defenses. he was a samurai in tradition. the boushey to warrior -- bushido tradition. way of the warrior is what it

stood for. the simple -- the principles of honor, courage, loyalty. loyalty to your master above all else. that was the code in which they lived. he was one of those, but also a pragmatic man. part of his pragmatism came because he spent a lot of time in the united states. in 19 28, he was in washington, d.c. he would travel across the u.s., seeing all kinds of different things going on at that time. i believe later on, he came back and was also based in canada for a bit. he even spent some time at harvard diversity. here was his comment he made at

the time he was there in the united states. "the united states is the last country in the world that japan should fight." he knew, but he is now the commander at iwo jima during a time when japanese fortunes are on the way down. general senda had a more traditional view of things. his concept -- he also believed in bushido, but where the gentlemen disagreed was how the tactics were changing for the japanese soldier at the time. before this time, especially at places like guam, saipan, you would often have the major defense of japanese right on the beach, stop the americans right on the beach, try to repel them.

if that did not work, oftentimes they would be accompanied by major bonsai attacks. the japanese would just charge into american machine guns and artillery. he thought that was lunacy. he wanted nothing to do with that. his approach was to dig in, allow the enemy to land on the beaches, wait until they get on the beaches, and then unleash everything, but layer defenses. caves, tunnel systems, bunkers that were built. again, he had close to nine months to do that for iwo jima. senda was more of a traditional soldier. he was still holding onto the bushido code, the honor of dying in a bonsai charge. the last thing you want to do is to surrender because there is

great shame in surrender. the japanese had about 21,600 defenders in total. there was the hundred ninth -- 109th aerial japanese army division, a sizable naval guard force. you will notice i have the word kamikaze up there. we are talking about naval airships attacking american ships. they are used to a certain extent here on iwo jima. it will be much more prevalent when you get to open our -- two ok now -- to okinawa. i want to mention a colorful character. he commanded the 26th tank regiment on the island. he was a noted equestrian. he purchased a horse when he went to italy because the

japanese were embarrassed in the 1928 olympics. i am almost embarrassed to say the name of the horse. the name of the horse he purchased was uranus. he entered that horse in the 1932 olympics in los angeles and actually won a gold medal in equestrian show jumping. and that is the one and only equestrian medal the japanese have ever won. he was something of a man about town. he had a convertible. met with people like charlie chaplin, mary pickford, celebrities. he was popular. he ended up in iwo jima. he was popular in the united states. a lot of the old guard, the japanese army, looked down their nose at that and figured this

might be a good place for him to end his career, but he would walk around and inspect the defensive work being done with his riding crop in one hand and his calvary boots he was wearing. a colorful gentleman. let's take a harder look, then, at iwo jima itself. ok. the geography of the place. it is a volcanic island. it looks very much like a pork chop. it is 8.11 square miles. the name of the island is iwo jima because that is essentially, in japanese, sulfur island. that is what it smelled like. the volcanic sand that you had there. one author that i read described iwo jima as a cinder clog. so a tiny piece of land.

the mountain, which we all know about, but dormant volcano -- a dormant volcano 554 feet. that was the elevation. from there, you can see the entire island and probably the entire u.s. fleet east of the island itself. the way the japanese looked at this is their defeat was inevitable. he went in with the notion that every single soldier there, all 21,000 plus soldiers, naval personnel serving there on the island, were going to die in the defense of the island. that was just a given. he told his wife when he got posted that is the way it would work out. i already talked a little bit about the evolution of the tactics and the new tactics were to where the americans down, to

bleed them -- to wear the americans down, to bleed them white. i thought it might be illustrative to read what the general's orders were to his troops. "we shall defend this island with all of her strength to the end. we shall fling ourselves against the enemy tanks, clutching explosives to destroy them. we shall slaughter the enemy. everyone of our shots shall be a target and kill the enemy. we shall not die until we have killed 10 of the enemy. we shall continue to harass the enemy with guerrilla tactics even if only one of us remain alive." those were his orders. can you imagine american soldiers getting those kinds of orders, and the expectation that they will be staying there until they die when we are the other? -- one way or the other? he forbade bonsai attacks, so

the opposite of what senda wanted to do. to dig in deep. that is his goal. they have nine months to do that. and i believe -- here's a small map of some of the tunnels. they were honey coming the mountain -- they were honeycombing the mountain, but the entire island as well. that's what they were facing. most of the japanese were deep underground. ok. let's look at the american command. admiral nimitz, a texan -- no, a plainsman. so typical for the american navy to have people from places like kansas and the planes end up in the navy. he was commander-in-chief of the pacific. enable jargon -- in naval

jargon, he is cicpac. fdr elevated him after he fired admiral kimmell, the commander at pearl harbor the day it was attacked. kimmell is sacked. nimitz comes in. spruance, a 1906 naval academy graduate. he let a task force at midway. -- lead a task force at midway. that's his claim to fame. a last-minute elevation because i believe halsey was sick at the time. midway was an incredible victory, the turning point of the pacific war. he is commander of the fifth fleet. here's one of the curiosities. halsey is in the pacific theater as well, and when halsey commands that same fleet, those

same ships, it is the third fleet. when spruance is there, it is the fifth. i do not understand the way the navy figures those things out. lieutenant general smith commanded 70,000 troops during this campaign. he went by the nickname howling mad smith. there's a great name for a marine, i think. howling mad. he is remembered as the father of modern incendiary -- amphibious warfare. he was revered for training his marines how to do that, land and contest the beaches and survived the process. -- survive the process. i have a hard time trying to sort through this. i don't know if i want to call him a figurehead, but he is not as directly involved in the combat as the next gentleman, major general harry schmidt, who

committed the fifth amphibious corps. it included the third, fourth and fifth marine divisions. a lot of these divisions, a couple, this is the first major combat they are going to see, but they had plenty of veteran soldiers, marines in their ranks who had been transferred around. there is plenty of experience in these units. they also had cd's there. you want to get the airstrips fit to have these b-29s land. you had three black companies on the logistics and support side, but they will play an important role. ok. the plan of attack. operation detachment. that's what they called it.

a curious name, i think. they anticipated that this would be a 10 day campaign. did not know for sure how many japanese were there. some estimates for in the neighborhood of 10,000. so they were off on that number as well. udt teams are going to go in and recon. a couple days before. that will be crucial. their job is to find out what -- was to find out what the condition of the beaches were, what kind of soil or sand they would encounter when they get there. the fifth marines will land on the left at green and red beach. the 20th regiment is right here. their job is to take the mountain. to do it as quickly as possible, because, again, you can see the entire island from it. if you have artillery, you can

harass and shelby entire landing force. -- shall the entire landing force. -- shell the entire landing force. the fourth marines. i did it again. the toughest not they had to crack -- nut they had to crack the first day. the third marine arun reserve. -- are in reserve. we will get to that and little bit. ok. beforehand, you want to have a major bombardment, and the bombardment started once before. -- months before. june, 1944 was some of the earliest. you are talking about from the air force assets that they had

or even naval aviation assets that they had at that time. going into the battle itself, though, general schmidt, the fifth amphibious corps commander, asked for a 10 day naval prep. the naval commanders at the time said, 10 days? we don't have that kind of ammunition to use. that is almost impossible. we cannot do it. they argued back and forth and finally agreed to three days. because the weather and a couple other factors, those three days were largely ineffective. only in the last day or so did aircraft from aircraft carriers join in. it is much more of a pinpoint kind of operation when you are talking about naval air coming in. again, how long had the japanese had to prepare? how'd deep did they -- how deep

did they dig into the island itself? d-day, february 19, 1945. ok. there's the naval bombardment. that begins. and a little bit more on the naval bombardment. some of you might recall that i interviewed charles nagy. he was on the uss nevada on pearl harbor day. he was high up on the mast. imagine watching pearl harbor happen high up on the mast of the uss nevada. the nevada got sunk that day, but they raised it, refurbished it in washington. by iwo jima, it is offshore providing support. just on monday, i opened

letter from charles -- open a letter from charles, who is now 97. and he amazes me. "the uss nevada was the flagship of the you would gmail u.s. inflation -- of the u.s. invasion fleet. a battleships, 12 aircraft carriers, 19 cruisers, before destroyers, and 130 troop transport vessels. on february 16, d-day minus three, the nevada's main 14 inch guns provided gunfire. the position stood ready to repel any incoming enemy aircraft missed by the five inch antiaircraft batteries. as the nevada closed to within 5000 yards, she fired white phosphorous shells onto the

beaches, creating a dense, acrid smoke to obscure observation, with an added painful application of burns on exposed skin. the underwater demolition teams would enter into landing craft then into rubber boats, which took them toward the beaches. an after action report by the swimmers included the presence of mines, antitank traps, obstacles, black sand, temperature, direction, and surf height and strength." prof. depue: that is a 97-year-old writing memories of those day -- of that day. it ends with the description of going to the beaches to find more about that sand. the marines got there. i am sure, when you went to marine corps basic training, you heard lots about the stand at

iwo jima -- the sands eddie would you. -- sands at iwo jima. i know people that have containers of sand from that beach, not necessarily because they were there, but that's the meaning of has. we will learn more about that, why it is so important to marines in just a minute here. because next up is the landing itself. d-day, the 19th of february, clear and sunny. a break in that respect. it is 6:45. naval bombardment begins. the amtrak's are being loaded up. you can see the landing craft is, in wave after wave, heading towards the beach. at 0700, the landing craft are two miles out.

the navy stops firing at 8:00 and carrier aircraft hit the targets with bombs and napalm. by 8:30, the first wave of the lvt's, landing vehicle tracks, follows in. the first wave lands at 8:59. the official designated time they were to land is 9:00. they were off by only one minute. that is the precision they had gotten to by this time of the war. they encountered no significant enemy fire. one japanese general was delivered to hold off major fire at that time. he wanted to have the forces start landing in wave after wave until they were really crammed in. once the troops -- what the troops immediately found was a significant trellis they had overcome, about 15 feet in a lot

of cases, in soft volcanic sand, that dark black volcanic sand. you step in it and you sink to your ankles. you have 100 pounds of equipment on your back. try to run in that. it was almost impossible. they had plenty of vehicles landing about the same time as well, but the tracked vehicles had the same problem of getting bogged down in that sand. it was really only in subsequent waves when they got the bulldozers there that they were able to get through some of these trellises into firmer ground. so the bulldozers are going to be important. they landed at 8:59. roughly 10:00 a.m. is when the japanese opened up, when things were really congregating on those beaches.

by 10:35, you have elements of the 28th that are far enough that they have reached the other side of the island. they are pretty much on track. things farther up the beach are really bogging down. it was not too much after that that the 27th regiment, i believe -- yeah, the 27th regiment of the fifth division got to airfield number one. the toughest resistance, as they anticipated, was around the quarry on the right flank. a couple commanders figure those poor souls, to be the rightmost man on the rightmost unit on the rightmost regiment on that side. you can only pity them and figure what their chances are going to be. here is what john lardner said,

a new yorker reporter, about the marines who landed on red beach. let me advance this one slide were so. there they are heading to the beach. you can see the volcano on the front left. there they are once they actually got to the sand. look how much -- you can tell how soft that sand was that they are trying to navigate. here's what john lardner said about the marines at red beach. "look around. i had the leisure for the first time to think what a miserable piece of real estate iwo jima is. no water, few birds, no butterflies, no discernible animal life. nothing but sand and clay. stunted trees, grass in which mites who crawl with typhus live, and a steady, dry, and

dusty wind." that is what greeted them at iwo jima when they land. the uss lubbock. >> for breakfast, we had steak and eggs. we rendezvoused around the mothership. at a certain time, we took off on the departure line, which is where we all lined up for the leading beaches. -- landing beaches. the first waves that landed hit the beach in an hour and a half without any resistance of any kind. i landed in the 13th at 9:00. i missed it by a minute or two. right on schedule.

at that time, the best way to describe it is all hell broke loose. the japanese had all the mortars, shells, artillery zeroed in on the beaches and were giving us all they had. at the beach, we all ran out and hit the deck, so to speak. my first impression when i hit the beach on the island, i could reach out and touch a dead marine with my left hand. that is when the shock hit me. i was there in the midst of the real thing. i started to raise up and, as i started to raise up, a machine gun knocked volcanic sand in my face about six inches above my head. i ducked down, looked to my right, and another lcv was coming in down the beach where i

had come in. i quickly decided the beach was no place to be and took off running from shell hole to shell hole. to me, it is still a mystery how myself and my 18 men all arrived at the right place and the right time, the designated spot. prof. depue: the lieutenant was a co-intelligence officer from one of the battalions in -- was an intelligence offer from one of the battalions in the 28th regiment. by the time it was over, his regiment suffered 70% deaths, which was pretty typical for the fighting troops at iwo jima. the main targets for his regiment were on the volcano, commanded by a colonel. he had 2000 japanese soldiers defending it, filled with

wardens and caves and bunkers and all tillery -- with warrens and caves and bunkers and artillery positions. by d-day, they had already isolated the volcano from the rest of the island. the battle is bloodied. the marines are fighting their way up the hill. by d plus three, they had fought their way to the top. right at the end, there was a patrol that reached the top. there was not much resistance they had by that time. and report they were able to make it to the top. the decision was made, well, let's move, on the next day, a more determined portion to the top slope to secure it

permanently. about that same time, a force of about 300 japanese decide the jig is up on the volcano. it is time for us to move north because we will not be able to survive this. so a group of 300 japanese head north. only 20 of them were able to make their way through the american line to reach japanese forces. they are met by navy captain itowe, one of the senior naval officers of the japanese naval force there. and captain inowe was outraged. this is not what japanese soldiers are supposed to do. they are supposed to die in place. here's what he screamed out at these 20 who survived, especially this lieutenant, the senior member of that group. "you trader.

why did you come here? don't you know what shame is? you are a coward and a deserter. i shall condescend to behead you myself." being a good samurai, he takes his sword out and he is about ready to decapitate this young lieutenant when his junior officers got a hold of him and grabbed the sword. he did not actually do it. what's his response to that? he is reduced to tears, and all he can say, over and over again is fallen, fallen, fallen, while crying. so one of the more dramatic moments in a battle with lots of dramatic moments. on d+4, then, you have got the volcano isolated. you have a small group that

they goes forth with a flag. the first flag raising occurs that day. this is a picture taken by a marine photographer of the first flag raising. solemn, unpretentious, but that's the flag that the marines around the airstrip and the ships bombarding and supporting the landing. everybody sees this flag go up. everybody realize there is a flag on top of mount suribachi. everybody is crying. the ships start to blast their horns. it is about that time that you have the secretary of the navy, james forestall, with general smith. they have landed in the vicinity

of the airstrip. hand, of course -- and, of course, the navy secretary looks up and said i would sure like to have that flag. you can imagine what the commander of the troops that got it up there in the first place thought about the brass that wanted to latch onto that flag. lt. col. chandler johnson says we will secure that first flag. i will have my men take another flag to replace it and give the flag to the four star. they get a larger flag, the big ones -- a larger flag from one of the big ones. they take it up to the crest of

the hill. that is around 1200 hours, noon. it is that second flag. you have a civilian photographer, joe rosenthal, take that picture. that is the famous picture. here is what the navy secretary says to smith. he says, haaland, the raising of that flag means a marine corps for the next 500 years. he knew the significance of that symbol they had. a lot of people probably think that was the end of the fighting on he would. -- on iwo jima. no. the fighting is getting started on d+4. now we have a situation that

looks like this. they have the rest of the island -- let's see. it is about right here at that point in time. they have the rest of the island to secure afterwards, and a very determined enemy to prevent them from doing just that. so combat -- here's how i would explain this. combat on iwo jima -- i spent a lot of time studying civil war battles where you see this regiment moved here, that brigade moved there. there's none of this. it is all individual, small unit actions, a squad, maybe a platoon. somebody would have to step forth, take initiative. i was reading about one company that went through six company commanders in a single day. six. and often times, you would have a squad or platoon commanded by

a corporal or a private first class or something like that, somebody willing to step forward and take the initiative. the japanese had carefully set their bunkers and pillboxes so there would be overlapping fire. it was a slog they had. when american artillery and mortar and airstrike cayman -- came in, the japanese would simply withdraw in their caves and then move forward again. they fought in place. they stayed in place. they willingly died in place. here's what general smith -- i will talk about him again. here is what he said about the volcano's japanese defenses. -- the commanders japanese defenses. "it was superior. then we went in and reduced each

division with flamethrowers, grenades, and demolition charges. some of his mortar and rocket launches -- we learned about them the hard way, through sickeningly heavy casualties. every cave, every pillbox, every bunker was an individual battle where marines and japanese fought hand-to-hand to the death. -- the death." i am reading these quotes because that is the only way i can think of to convey what the combat was like. here is one officer, how he described it. one of the crucial weapons was the flamethrower. "the flamethrower was the most practical weapon for clearing the enemy from caves and bunkers. horrific in effect, it saved the lives of countless marines, who would have otherwise had

to pry the enemy out." i cannot think of a more gruesome way to die than being engulfed by a flamethrower. one of the people who played a role was a gentleman i had the honor of interviewing last year, herschel "woody" williams, one of 27 combatants on iwo jima who ended up receiving the medal of honor. he was in the third division. that was the reserve division, but it landed on d+1, and very quickly was in the heat of the battle. and here's what he said about being selected now for a crucial mission. n. >> we had no protection, so we lost most of our people.

a statistic -- when we hit the beach, we had 275 people in our company. on march 5, we were down to 17. as we were trying to break through the pillboxes, they had all the protection because they were in a confined area. we were in an open area, jumping up, trying to run forward. of course, they would just mow us down. my commanding officer had lost all of his officers except two, and all of his platoon leaders and gun resurgence and sergeants -- and gunnery sergeants and sergeants and squad leaders were gone. we were trying to break through the line built to protect deerfield. that is when he called for a meeting of the nco's left in the company. we gathered in a great big shell crater that had been blown out.

we could get belowground in that shell crater, so that we at least would not be shot at with facing fire, and he was looking for ideas, trying to figure out what are we going to do from here. because there's not many of us left. that is when he asked me if i could use a flamethrower to eliminate some of the pillboxes. when i hit the beach, i and six individuals in my little unit, a special unit, were flamethrower operators. by that day, the 23rd -- we had only been there three days -- they were gone. i was the only flamethrower demolition guy in the company. he asked me if i thought i could do something about the pillboxes with flamethrower. that was my job. i had no idea what i said

response to him. some of the other guys said later that my response was, well, i will try. so, he gave me four marines to support me, protect me. and one just said come with me. i put him in position to shoot at the pillbox while i am trying to get to the pillbox. prof. depue: herschel was too modest to recount the event itself where he earned medal of honor. i would like to read the citation. "quick to volunteer his services while our tanks were maneuvering vainly to open a lane for the infantry through the network of reinforced concrete pillboxes, buried mines and black volcanic sand, the corporal went forward alone daringly to attempt --

covered only by four riflemen, he fought desperately for hours, and repeatedly returned to his own lines to repair charges and obtain flamethrowers, struggling back frequently to the rear of hostile emplacements to wipe out one position after another. on one occasion, he daringly mounted a pillbox to insert the mouth of his flamethrower through the air vent, kill the occupants, and silence the gun. on another, he charged an enemy riflemen who attempted to stop him with bayonets, and destroy them with a burst of flamethrower from his weapon. his unyielding determination and extraordinary heroism were instrumental to neutralizing one of the most fanatically defended japanese strong points

encountered by his regiment." that is the essence of his medal of honor citation. those four riflemen who were guiding him. all four were casualties and two were killed. that tells you about the ferocity. it is a small miracle that he survived only to be injured at the very end of the iwo jima campaign. with all these casualties that we have been talking about, you can imagine the field hospitals being built up very -- being filled up very quickly. i want to read this quote as well because i think it is indicative of the attitude, the spirit the marines had at that time. this is a comment a surgeon, lieutenant graham evans, wrote to his wife in a letter. "i have seen all the surgery i want for a while. they come in with wounds that make you sick to look at, and you tell them they must be evaluated, and they cried --

cry." think about that. it is for that reason that amaral nimitz said, among americans who served on you would you, uncommon valor -- who served on iwo jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue. this will be replicated on o kinawa, but this is what resonates about the battle of iwo jima i think. d+4, the volcano is seized. increasingly, the challenges to support the marines on the shore. and you can see in the background on the beaches themselves. these are tanks, were courses in both -- were courses --

work horses in both theaters. this is where you can see the congestion you have on the beaches. this is where the black marines into -- and an army company were performing their duties, crucial duties to make sure supplies are moving forward. all the while, occasionally, -- february 21,, causey -- kamakazi attacks start. the japanese know where they are at. they 27, airfield number two is seized. airfield number three by march 3. the date was february 19.

general schmitz said this is going to last 10 days. we still have a long way to go. march 4, the first b-29 land on airfield number one. there it is. the dynamite, that was the name of this ship. it had to land there in an emergency, they were able to fix the fuel gauge, fill it up, and get it off the island, the first of hundreds that are going to land there, saving thousands of lives in the process. that was one of the main reasons that they thought iwo jima was worth the fight. japanese counterattack. on march 8, the japanese pose a significant night attack, 1500

japanese soldiers, a mixture of troops and naval personnel, and who is in charge of this? remember, kuribayashi said there are not going to be any charges and that is what they are going to be doing. it is general senda and captain inouye, who was ready to behead that lieutenant. these other two men who dissented -- who decided they are going to do an attack with 1500 japanese. their objective was to get back to raise the japanese flag on top of the mountain as a symbolic gesture. the opposite of what kuribayashi wanted. why did they do it? because they believed in that samurai code. put yourself in the role of the average japanese soldier.

what way would you prefer to die? i don't know if this is a factor but in my mind -- i will go to the bonsai charge rather than hold up in a bunker waiting for someone to burn me out with a flamethrower. they attacked at 2400 hrs with small arms, grenades, swords, bamboo spears. they were at limited by flares being fired by artillery and mortars so it was not too much of a surprise for the americans. cut them down in mass as much as the americans could. by the time it was over, 800 japanese had died in that attack. not until there was hand-to-hand combat and touch and go experiences, i'm sure for the americans it was a terrifying experience. so now we are starting to make

progress as we move farther north. a series of dates, by march 9, the third division patrols reach the northeast coast. close to katana point. here is where kuribayashi is in this area, and his headquarters, deep in a bunker. by march 11, the last escort carries, they are moving on to other targets that are going on. close air support is the responsibility for the army, who can land on these airstrips that they now control. on the 14th, marine units begin to load for departure. the war department, tired of explaining to those worried parents back home of the bloodletting going on with iwo jima, they declare that the island is largely secured. march 16, the last japanese

resistance is crushed and that is where we think berenice dies, his body is never found. he is the calvary officer who had his own horse. general senda held out but his body is never found, don't know what happened to him. only the northwest corner of the island is still in japanese hands. march 20, the fifth division destroys the last japanese pocket of resistance, and the u.s. army resides -- arrives for cavalry duty. the evening of march 23, kuribayashi sends out one last message to the japanese homeland and he simply says this -- "goodbye from iwo."

march 25 and 26, there are 300 survivors, they launch a desperate attack, they slip through the fifth marines, they attack with knives, grenades, pistols, rifles, often attacking them in their sleep, so that ends up being a bloody melee as well. nearby marines, including some african-american troops, come to the rescue and blunt that attack. american casualties that night are 53 dead and 119 wounded. the japanese lose 262, and a rare occasion, 18 japanese are captured. march 26, at 0800, the battle is declared completed. kuribayashi's body is also never

found. it is thought that he committed suicide or died in an attack somehow and he directed his soldiers to bury him deep so that he would never be found again. the battle lasted not 10 days, but 36, from february 19 through march 26. so that just leaves this. as the marines died at iwo jima, they had nothing else you could do but bury them there. 6821 dead. a lot of the nature of the wounds, they kept diane, so that was the eventual death toll. 19,217 wounded. over 26,000 casualties in this one battle. against 21,000 losses for the japanese.

that is the highest percentage total of american casualties the japanese anywhere in the war. it speaks to the ferocity of the battle. those who have been to iwo jima can verify this. those grades are no longer there. iwo jima is japanese land, it was the first japanese territory that the allied forces reached during world war ii, and it is american policy that we will not allow american soldiers, marines, navy personnel, air force to be buried on enemy land. most of those have been brought back to hawaii. it is kind of an awe-inspiring sight, looking at those graves, perfectly aligned. 216 pows, and this is a curiosity, 3000 japanese hiding. a lot of those would have been people that were never found

because they were burned out, they were destroyed, they committed suicide in these caves , but that number of 216 pows continued to grow over the next few months as some of these japanese would come out of their holes and surrender, even i believe after the war officially ended. so, what is the next step? the navy brass meets in september of 1944, several months before the iwo jima battle itself, but they are trying to sort out, what we do after we get iwo jima? you got the same kind of discussion. admiral king still favors formosa down here. and most of the other brass, nimitz and mccarthy, but nimitz is more of a factor, say we go to okinawa, that is the logical

place next to go. okinawa is much closer than formosa, it is easier logistically, and that is the decision that is made. the codename for okinawa is iceberg. they initiate this a month or so after the fight and iwo jima ends. i will end with this, the most famous picture of all of world war ii, the flag raising at iwo jima, the three gentlemen who were part of the seventh bomb drive across the united states. the story about the gentleman and the debate about who was actually part of that a six man crew that raised the flag is a mystery that has only recently been resolved.

i've got the next presentation on thursday, september 3. i hope you check that out as well. here are the three that went around the united states. some of you are country-western fans, the song that johnny cash wrote about ira hayes, a native american. here were the names of the people initially, at the time of the fundraising drive, that they thought were actually in that picture. hansen and strank died in the battle, and bradley was wounded. that tells you something. of the six in this picture, which happened at d+4, three were dead and one more was

wounded. but here is the curiosity. now, in 2019, those are the names that we attach. he is no longer in the picture at all. john bradley. it is his son, james bradley, that road flags of our father, and when he wrote it, he thought his dad was part of the flag raising, although his dad was always evasive, did not want to talk about it, would get calls around memorial day from some journalist or someone who wanted to interview him for a piece in the newspaper and the family was instructed, tell them that my father is at his cottage fishing. that is what they would tell them. james bradley finally did it

reach that his father was not part of the flag raising. was there, but not part of the six. there were not just these pictures, there was a motion picture film as well, and if you look here, this is tough to see, harold keller here, all you can see is the hand. in this picture -- they have other ones. i think they determined it was not bradley in the picture because i think he was not wearing a ring and the individual in the picture was. that is the level of detail. the marine corps did studies try to sort this out. ira hayes insisted all along that this was not -- if i go back a slide -- that was not henry hansen. ira hayes insisted that that was

harold block and i believe it is harold block's mother who looked at the picture initially and was insistent, that is my son, i know my son, i changed his diapers, i watched them grow up, i know that -- now, for her, it was not funny, it was an emotional thing, which he identified with that, and to know that your son was in the most important picture of world war ii, that is some comfort, i guess. anything else? thank you all. >> if you noticed a few heads here and there in the camera shots, we had a small audience of some family and close friends , giving him encouragement. for those of us in the room, let's give mark a round of applause. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you are watching american history tv, every weekend on c-span, explore our past. american history tv on c-span3, created by america's cable television companies. we are brought to you by these companies, who provide american history tv to viewers as a public service. ♪ >> american history tv, on c-span3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. today at 6:00 on american artifacts, a smithsonian generator shares some of the museum's artifacts that tell the story of aviation at 8:00 on the presidency, a look back to january 16, 1991, as president george h w bush are the bombing of iraq and the start of the

persian gulf war followed by his state of the union address. exploring the american story. watch american history tv today on c-span3. >> next, on history bookshelf, chris derose talks about his book, star-spangled scandal. he recalls the murder of francis scott key's son by u.s. representative from the york, daniel sickles, and the trial and coverage that followed. tammy: so, a little bit about our speaker, who we are really excited to have today, chris derose. chris, actually, was in, i believe, sweden -- was it sweden? -- last week. we just got the call last week that he was coming, so we are just thrilled that he took time away to reach out to us and to confirm his appearance.