#37, Battle of Iwo Jima: 36 Days of Volcanic Hell for 8 Square Miles
The Battle of Iwo Jima from February 19 to March 26, 1945, killed 26,040 combatants on an island of just eight square miles, 6,821 Americans dead and 19,217 wounded, plus nearly all 21,000 Japanese defenders killed. Only 216 Japanese soldiers were captured alive. The casualty rate was so extreme that Iwo Jima was the only Pacific battle where total American casualties exceeded Japanese casualties.
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi had spent months constructing 11 miles of interconnected tunnels, 1,500 underground rooms, and hundreds of concealed bunkers in the volcanic rock. There was no preliminary bombardment that could reach them. Marines advanced into interlocking fields of fire from positions they couldn't see, clearing each bunker with flamethrowers, satchel charges, and grenades. Mount Suribachi fell on day five, producing Joe Rosenthal's famous flag-raising photograph, but the real fight for the island's northern plateau dragged on for another month. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded at Iwo Jima, the most for any single operation in Marine Corps history. The island's airfields ultimately served as emergency landing strips for 2,251 B-29 bombers that might otherwise have been lost.
