On March 7, the 24th year of the beginning of the Taichu Dynasty, the U.S. Army launched a general offensive, and the 3rd Marine Division, which was responsible for the central breakthrough, was overwhelmed, and made rapid progress, and tried to bypass the insurmountable Japanese position, and continued to advance, although it left a lot of "nails" for the follow-up 4th and 5th Marine Divisions, but the 3rd Division broke through the Japanese defense line, and attacked the west coast two days later, occupying a section of about 800 meters of coast, dividing the Japanese army into two parts. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The 1st Battalion of the 21st Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division was the first to reach the west coast, and as evidence of the victory, the battalion commander filled a military kettle with seawater and pasted it: "Only for testing, not for drinking." ", sent someone to the division commander, Major General Ekins.

On March 9, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the U.S. military occupied the unfinished No. 3 airfield. When Lieutenant General Kuribayashi learned that the U.S. troops had broken through the defensive line and divided the Japanese army in two, he immediately organized his troops to counterattack. He ordered his troops to penetrate as far as possible through the U.S. defense line and infiltrate the rear of the U.S. military to reopen the two flanks. The U.S. troops discovered the actions of the Japanese troops, and the flares fired illuminated the night as if it were day, and many Japanese troops crossed the forward defense line of the U.S. troops, and some even penetrated a distance of up to 1,600 meters, but the U.S. reserves and rear service personnel, relying on the fortifications to resist stubbornly, gave the Japanese counterattack heavy casualties, and at dawn, the Japanese counterattack was completely crushed, with at least 1,000 casualties, in vain, but lost a large number of vital forces, which brought an extremely adverse impact on future operations.

On March 10, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, after the 3rd Marine Division cut the Japanese defense line into two sections, it immediately began to expand the results on both sides, with the 9th Regiment to the east and the 21st Regiment to the west, respectively to respond to the attacks of the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions. Although the defensive posture of the Japanese army was already quite unfavorable, the Japanese army still relied on the four-story mountain fortifications that had been penetrated to fight to the death, especially the 5th Marine Division faced the troops under the direct command of Kuribayashi, and the resistance was even more fierce, the casualties of the 5th Marine Division exceeded 75%, many combat units lost their combat effectiveness, and the clerks, drivers, and even cooks and other miscellaneous personnel of the division headquarters were thrown into the battle. The casualties of the 3rd and 4th Divisions were also heavy, and out of this situation, the commander of the 4th Marine Division, Clifton. Major General Kaze sent a letter of surrender to Okeda Daisa, the commander of the 145th Wing, the most combat-ready of the Japanese forces in Surin and Iwo Jima, in which he first expressed his respect for their fearlessness and bravery, then explained the situation of invincibility, and finally asked them to command their troops to stop resisting and that the U.S. forces would ensure that surrendered Japanese troops would be treated humanely in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. But the letter of persuasion was like a stone sinking into the sea, and there was no response.

On March 16, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, more than 800 Japanese troops in the northeast were annihilated, and the U.S. army announced the occupation of Iwo Jima at 18 o'clock on the same day, but the battle continued, and the remnants of the Surin command were still resisting, and sometimes the battle was quite fierce. Major General Ekins, commander of the 3rd Marine Division, found two Japanese prisoners of war, gave them plenty of dry rations, and equipped them with a state-of-the-art walkie-talkie, and asked them to bring letters of surrender to Kuribayashi and Ikeda. The two prisoners of war managed to deliver the letter of surrender to Ikeda's heralds, but the Japanese did not surrender by the time limit, and the two prisoners of war were moved by the humanitarian treatment of the American troops, so they stayed in the Japanese defense line and guided the American artillery fire through the intercom until the 18th.

On March 21, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the Emperor promoted Kuribayashi to the rank of Shogun in recognition of his bravery in battle. After a week of fierce fighting after the U.S. military announced the occupation of Iwo Jima on the 16th, the U.S. military compressed the remnants of the Japanese army into a narrow area of about 2,100 square meters in the northern part of the island on the 27th. Kuribayashi burned the flag that night, sent a final farewell telegram, and then destroyed the code, preparing for a final decisive counterattack. On March 27, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, Kuribayashi sent men to try to inform everyone on the island to assemble at night in the mountains near Airport No. 3 with weapons.

In the early morning of March 28, the 24th year of Taichu, Kuribayashi Tadamichi personally led about 350 Japanese troops to launch a final counterattack on the American troops at the No. 2 airfield, many American troops were killed in their sleep, after dawn, the American army organized a sweep, chased and killed the remnants of the Japanese army everywhere, fought fiercely for three hours, and annihilated most of the Japanese army, the Japanese army only left 250 corpses in front of the American position, Kuribayashi was wounded and committed suicide by caesarean section on the island, and the American army suffered 172 casualties. The U.S. forces declared the Battle of Iwo Jima over at 8 o'clock that day, but the remnants of the Japanese fighting continued in the tunnels until the end of April.

While the Japanese forces on Iwo Jima were putting up desperate resistance, the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet was unable to organize a rescue due to the loss of its main surface ships in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. The only ones that can send reinforcements are the shore-based air force and the submarine force, but the first and second air fleets of the shore-based air force have basically lost their combat effectiveness, and the third air fleet is still in training and is preparing to be used in the defense of the homeland.

On February 19, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the Japanese army set up the "Second Royal Shield Special Attack Team" with suicide planes as the main body at the Katori base, which was specially tasked with a special attack mission. On February 21, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, this special attack team moved to Hachijo Island, refueled at noon, and attacked in batches. At about 17 o'clock, six suicide planes of the first attack wave flew over the aircraft carrier "Craven," which was about to carry out a night air patrol mission 35 nautical miles northwest of Iwo Jima. At 18:50 a.m., as soon as the sailors of the "Kraven" extinguished the fire on the ship, five suicide planes of the second attack wave of the Japanese army came one after another, the first four were all shot down, and although the fifth plane was damaged, it still crashed headlong into the "Kraven" and rolled on the deck of the aircraft carrier and fell into the sea, causing many wounds to the mother ship, destroying 42 planes, killing 123 crew members and wounding 192 others. It was only because of the ship's damage management personnel who were able to repair it that they were spared from sinking, and they were finally ordered to withdraw from the battlefield because of their injuries, and then returned to China for overhaul and failed to participate in the war until the end of the war.

At the same time, the Japanese kamikaze suicide planes also attacked the US ships east of Iwo Jima, and a Japanese plane crashed into the rear elevator of the escort aircraft carrier "Bismarck Sea" and exploded in the hangar, immediately detonating the planes in the hangar, and the fire spread rapidly, soon affecting the ammunition compartment, causing a large explosion, and the captain saw that it was irretrievable, so he had to order the ship to be abandoned. The ship burned for a full three hours before sinking into the sea. The ship's sailors suffered about 350 casualties. Also damaged by Japanese suicide planes were the escort aircraft carrier "Cape Longa", the tank landing ships No. 477 and No. 809, and the transport ship "Kiekak".

In addition to organizing suicide plane attacks, the Japanese army also carried out special attack operations with submarines. On February 19, the 24th year of the beginning of the first century, the Japanese invaders carried five, five, and four man-operated torpedoes, respectively, with I-368, I-370, and I-44, to form a special attack team codenamed "Chigusa", and on February 20, 21, and 22, respectively, set out from the Otsushima submarine base in the Seto Inland Sea to attack the US fleet in the waters of Iwo Jima.

On 23 February, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty ordered the submarine Lu-43, which had been scheduled to sail from Kure Harbor on the 16th to Amami Islands, to attack the US ships on Iwo Jima.

On 26 February, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the I-368 and Lu-43, which had arrived in the waters off Iwo Jima, were sunk by US carrier-based aircraft, and the I-370 was sunk by US destroyers. The I-44 approached the US ships on several occasions, but was forcefully suppressed by the US anti-submarine ships, and was unable to occupy the starting position of the man-operated torpedoes, so it had to return to Japan.

On 28 February, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the Japanese army formed a special attack team codenamed "Shenmu" with the I-58 and I-36 submarines each carrying four man-operated torpedoes, and set out from Kure Harbor on 1 and 2 March respectively, but on 6 March 24, the Japanese high command saw that the general trend of Iwo Jima had gone, so it ordered all the submarines operating in the waters of Iwo Jima to withdraw.

At the end of the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese garrison suffered 22,305 casualties and 1,083 prisoners, for a total of 23,388 people. Other losses of the Japanese army were more than 90 planes and three submarines. From February 19, the 24th year of the beginning of the first year to March 26, the 24th year of the beginning of the United States, the United States killed 6,821 people (including 5,324 Marine casualties), 21,865 wounded, and a total of 28,686 casualties. The U.S. and Japanese casualty ratio was 1.23:1. This was also the first time since Pearl Harbor that the United States suffered greater casualties than Japan in a campaign, with the casualties of the US landing force accounting for 30 percent of the total number, the casualties of the combat units of the Third Marine Division being 60 percent, and the casualties of the combat units of the Fourth and Fifth Marine Divisions being as high as 75 percent, and the Fifth Amphibious Army almost losing its combat effectiveness. After the battle, Nimitz praised the Marines who had participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima: "The extraordinary bravery of the Americans who fought on Iwo Jima was their common characteristic!" "Another escort aircraft carrier of the US military was sunk, and two aircraft carriers, landing transport ships, fast transport ships, medium landing ships, minesweepers, transport ships, and tank landing ships were damaged.

The U.S. military paid more casualties than the Japanese army in order to capture Iwo Jima, and this was the only case in the Pacific War in which the casualties of the landing side exceeded those of the anti-landing side, and the Japanese army lost sea and air support and had no reinforcements and supplies, and with the ground troops relying on strong and concealed fortifications, adopted correct tactics, and carried out stubborn resistance, so that the small island that the U.S. troops originally planned to capture in five days fought for 36 days and paid heavy casualties. The only shining point of the US military in this operation was that the naval artillery support was relatively effective, firing more than 300,000 artillery shells of various calibers, totaling 14,000 tons, and achieving relatively good results and effectively supporting the operation of the landing force.

However, the huge price of the US military was soon rewarded, when the US troops landed, the engineering unit went to the island to repair and expand the airport, and by April 20, the 24th year of Taichu, the engineering troops on the island had 7,600 people, and the runway of the No. 1 airport was expanded to 3,000 meters, and the runway of the No. 2 airport was expanded to 2,100 meters. After the US fighter unit was stationed on Iwo Jima, its combat radius covered the Japanese mainland, which could effectively cover the bombers' strategic bombing of the Japanese mainland, making the bombing of Japan more frequent and intense, and more than doubling the bombing effect, greatly accelerating Japan's collapse. From the end of the war to the end of the war, a total of 24,000 B-29s were injured or ran out of fuel made emergency landings there, thus saving 27,000 aircrew members on these planes.