The USS Hendry gradually slid to a halt in the cold Pacific waters off Iwo Jima.
official US Navy photo, 1945
Aboard, the First Battalion of the 24th Marines reviewed their plan for moving from the ship to the shore, and how to proceed to the first objective. Able Company breathed a little easier - if only just - upon learning that they would not only be in Battalion reserve [Baker and Charlie companies were to land abreast, Able following behind], but that the entire regiment would be in division reserve. Hopefully, they thought, most of the hard work of establishing a beachhead would be done by the time they arrived.
This would be Able Company's fourth combat landing in slightly more than a year. Of the 223 men present for duty, less than 70 had made the first attack on Namur; a handful more had seen their first fighting on Saipan and Tinian. Baker and Charlie companies had taken similar losses in the past - perhaps half of the Marines were new to combat.
At 0640, the sky fell in on Iwo Jima as the gunners of the US Navy began their final pre-landing bombardment. They had been dogged by bad weather for the last three days, but today the skies cleared, the breeze was slight, and the visibility was unlimited. The Navy turned to and plastered the island with fire from destroyers up to battleships, raising dust, smoke, and flame on Suribachi, the airfields, and the landing beaches.
The transports and LSTs were also bustling with activity as amphibious tractors and landing craft were lowered into the water and filled with Marines. At 0745, the red-and-yellow striped signal flag dropped, and eight battalions of Marines embarked on 482 amtracs were chugging towards the beach.
Before long, it was clear even to those men anxiously waiting in reserve that things were not going quite as planned. After a quiet first hour, the landing beaches suddenly erupted with explosions as pre-registered Japanese artillery of every imaginable caliber let loose on the crowds of Americans. The fine volcanic ash that blanketed the beaches caused untold trouble - tanks and jeeps mired up to their axles, landing craft became hung up and broached in the surf, Marines sank in up to their ankles and couldn't run, and two-thirds of every shovelful they scooped out to make a foxhole slithered right back into place. Marines who held still were torn apart by shells and rockets; those who moved ran into rifle and machine gun fire from hidden emplacements. They had no choice but to attack and try to clear out some of the defenders, and slowly managed to push forward.
On the right flank, the Fourth Division was also pressing towards their objectives. The 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines had drawn the unenviable position of the extreme right flank of the invasion, an assignment that led General Cates to remark, "If I knew the name of the man on the extreme right of the right-hand squad I'd recommend him for a medal before we go in." This dubious distinction would go to I Company, 25th Marines.
3/25 landed on Beach Blue 2, and began to swing to the right, advancing on one of the prominent features of Iwo Jima - the Rock Quarry.
Map from the Marines In WW2 Commemorative Series.
Beach Blue 2, as seen during the pre-invasion bombardment. The higher ground to the right is the Rock Quarry.
Another view of Beach Blue 2.
[photographs from: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/iwojima/iwo-3w3.htm]
Lieutenant Colonel Justice Chambers, leading 3/25, reported that his troops ran into trouble almost as soon as they'd landed.
"Crossing that second terrace the fire from automatic weapons was coming from all over. You could've held up a cigarette and lit it on the stuff going by. I knew immediately we were in for one hell of a time."
Messages flashed back and forth along the communications network:
1036: (From 25th Marines) "Catching all hell from the quarry. Heavy mortar and machine gun fire!'
1039: (From 23d Marines) "Taking heavy casualties and can't move for the moment. Mortars killing us."
1042: (From 27th Marines) "All units pinned down by artillery and mortars. Casualties heavy. Need tank support fast to move anywhere."
1046: (From 28th Marines) "Taking heavy fire and forward movement stopped. Machine gun and artillery fire heaviest ever seen."
Chambers' Third Battalion was torn apart by the Japanese defenders. The high ground near the quarry overlooked their landing beach, and until 3/25 could knock out the caves and pillboxes, any reinforcements coming in on the Blue beaches would be hit as soon as they left their landing craft.
We stood on the rail of our ship and watched as the landing craft in the first waves went ashore. At first it looked as if the Japs were not going to open fire, but they waited and after the guys were landed they opened up. About 11:00 A.M. We saw Higgins boats coming out to some of the ships with wounded. It begins to look bad. One of the new guys turned to me and said, “What do you think, how long will it take to secure the island?” I lied, I said I thought we could take it in about one week.
- Al Perry, personal recollection: The Fighting Fourth.
At 1448, the First Battalion, 24th Marines, were ordered to report to the Blue Beach command vessel. It took twenty minutes to get into position, and another forty to embark the 893 men of the battalion in their landing craft. They boated to the line of departure, where they learned they'd be attached to the 25th Marines on the right flank. First Battalion jumped off from the line of departure; it took their lumbering landing craft twelve minutes to negotiate the swells and incoming fire. There was none of the singing or exuberance that had characterized the Namur landings. This time, the Marines knew what they were getting into - or thought they did.
We went down the cargo nets into the landing craft. I had all I could do to keep from falling backwards off the cargo net. I had more than 60 Lbs. of equipment on my back. After we go into the boat and started in I realized what a beautiful day it was. The sky and the water were blue the sun was out it was balmy. We were going in to kill some Japs we thought.
- Al Perry, personal recollection:
[all following quotations from Al Perry are from his website: The Fighting Fourth.]
There was chaos on the beach.
Beach Blue on the afternoon of February 19
[this and other images from http://ww2db.com/]
"USS LCT-1030 and USS LST-731 beached at Beach Blue Two"
The battalion landed haphazardly; wreckage on the beach and incoming fire drove landing craft astray, and Able Company missed their landing zone. They ran onto the beach, then slowed to a high-stepping jog as they sank up to their ankles in the ash. The new men must have viewed the entire scene with horror, and even the veterans were shaken by what they saw. The battle for the Quarry was still raging over to their right, and a constant stream of dead and wounded were being carried back to the beach where battalion surgeons set up their hospitals in shell craters.
When we hit the beach the front of our boat did not go fully down and I jumped to shore and suddenly fell a sharp pain in my back and left leg—two crushed disks—I found out years later. I had to continue on, my buddies were depending on me and nothing was going to stop me. The first things I noticed were the steep terraces of volcanic ash. As we tried to run up them our feet dug down deep and we had no traction. We would take three steps and go back one. We finally got to the top of the terraces and all I could see was dead marines. These were violent deaths, men who had their bodies cut in half, men with no legs and arms.
The Japs had all of us in their sights. They had the island laid out in quadrants. They could call down devastating fire on any of us at all times. It was like walking through a violent rain storm without getting hit by a drop. The Japs were all below the ground and we were all above the ground.
- Al Perry, personal recollection
Third Battalion, 25th Marines lost 22 officers and over 500 men before night fell, and was no longer able to hold the front line. A call came down for reinforcements from the reserve battalion; the battalion commander Major Paul Treitel sent for Able Company, but due to the missed landing zone, could not locate them in time. Baker Company was collected and sent to relieve King company along the high ground. Able, when located, was instructed to relieve Item company on the farthest right of the line along the beach.
As it began to turn dark, we were told that our company had to go forward to support another company that had been nearly wiped out. As we started up, I got separated from my company, everything was in total chaos, there was dead and wounded everywhere, and I had to be careful where I walked. I started calling out to company “A” but nobody answered. I kept going forward and finally saw a captain that I recognized and ask him had he seen company A. He told me to keep going forward and I would run into them. I found them and it was pitch dark. The Japs started throwing their big 320mm mortars at us. Never in my life have I seen such huge explosions. That explained the horrible wounds we were taking. The first night was a night in hell. Utter chaos, men screaming for corpsmen, some calling for their mothers, wounded and dead all over the place and we were waiting for the Japs to counterattack and it never came.
- Al Perry, personal recollection
The relief was completed under cover of darkness, and by 2330 Able Company had taken up its first defensive position on Iwo Jima.
Behind them, on the beach, lay the wreckage of an invasion force that had suffered 501 killed, 1,755 wounded, 47 dead of wounds, 18 missing, and 99 combat fatigue cases to take a small beachhead on a tiny island.
We were dug in just off the beach as night fell. Things were noisy in the distance as we could hear the big 320mm, 365 lb. mortars exploding. Then about 4:00 am.the Japs shifted the mortar and artillery fire to our location. This went on for about an hour and stopped. We had suffered some casualties but nothing as severely as the troops who had landed earlier. The marines and the navy’s big guns answered the Japs with tremendous fire.
As I looked around the beach area from my position all I could see were dead marines everywhere and not a dead Jap to be seen.
- Al Perry, personal recollection.
(Able Company's casualties seem to point to a disaster occurring to a single mortar team. Five of the eight battle casualties are mortarmen; with one distinct candidate for a squad leader - four-campaign veteran Ronald Bartels - two gunners (McClanahan and Schoenfelder) and two of three ammunition carriers (Pratt and Ward). It seems likely that this would be one team that was hit by a Japanese shell, though without further research this is just speculation.)
ABLE COMPANY CASUALTIES, February 19
KILLED:
Sergeant Edward John Horan. Shenandoah, PA. Age 31. Rifle squad leader.
Private Howard Ralph Pratt. Sylvania, OH. Age 19. Mortarman.
Private Oakley Brice Randoph. Hialeah, FL. Age 27. Automatic Rifleman.
WOUNDED:
PFC Ronald Bartels (Mortarman)
PFC Robert Glogowski (Automatic Rifleman)
PFC Richard McClanahan (Mortarman)
PFC Henry Schoenfelder, Jr. (Mortarman)
Pvt Charles Ward (Mortarman)
SICK:
Platoon Sergeant Wilbur Plitt (Mortar Section Leader)
PFC John Cabale (Mortarman)
Total: 11
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