At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had a military base of nearly 3,800 men and a naval base of 1,400 men on Guam. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 INFO is stationed with seaplanes, radio stations, weather stations, submarine hunters, minelayers and other ships. There is an airfield on Iwo Jima, where 20 fighters and 1500 naval forces are stationed. In February 23, when the U.S. forces occupied the Marshall Islands, the Japanese strengthened the military force on Iwo Jima, and the military force on Iwo Jima reached 5,000 men, 13 artillery pieces, 200 light and heavy machine guns, 4,552 rifles, 12 anti-aircraft guns, 30 25 mm caliber 2 anti-aircraft machine guns, in addition to 120 mm caliber artillery. Iwo Jima and the Ogasawara Islands became the last line of defense against U.S. air raids on the Japanese mainland. Because at that time, Japan had already lost sea and air supremacy.

In April of the 24th year of the first year, there were still 80 fighter planes stationed on Iwo Jima, but by July there were only 4 left, and the U.S. Navy came within sight of Iwo Jima and carried out a full-scale bombardment, blowing up all the buildings and the only four remaining planes on Iwo Jima. However, the U.S. military has not yet launched an attack on Iwo Jima, which has lost naval and air support, and Japan has only ground forces left to use.

At the beginning of October, the staff officers of the US Pacific Fleet Command worked out a plan for attacking Iwo Jima, and the ground forces participating in the operation were the 5th Amphibious Corps, under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, with a total of about 60,000 men. Lieutenant General Smith commanded; landing formations and support formations, commanded by Lieutenant General Kelly Turner; Task Force 58, commanded by Vice Admiral Mitchell, was responsible for air and sea cover; All participating landing ships were about 500 ships, about 400 warships, and about 2,000 aircraft, under the unified command of Admiral Spruance, commander of the Fifth Fleet.

Since a considerable part of the troops participating in the battle were supporting the landing operation on Michelan, the Battle of Iwo Jima had to wait until January 25, after the end of the Battle of Michelon, and because of the slow progress of the Battle of Michelon, the date of the end was postponed from the planned date of December 20, 23 to January 9, 24, and Nimitz postponed the operation on Iwo Jima until mid-February 24.

Twenty-three years ago, the Japanese only used Iwo Jima as an air relay base in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, and deployed only 1,500 naval garrisons and 20 aircraft. After the loss of the Mariana Islands in the 23rd year of the Taichu Dynasty, the importance of Iwo Jima became more and more obvious, and the Japanese army began to vigorously strengthen its defense forces, and more than 4,000 army units were sent to the island in late March of the 23rd year of the Taichu Dynasty; In May, the army units on Iwo Jima were reorganized into the 109th Division, with Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi as the division commander, and equipped with 120 and 155 mm shore guns, 100 mm anti-aircraft guns, and twin 25-mm anti-aircraft guns. In July, the 27th Air Force of the Navy was also transferred to the island. As of February of the 24th year of the beginning of Taichu, the Japanese army had about 15,000 troops and more than 7,000 navy troops on the island, a total of about 23,000 people, and more than 30 aircraft, which were under the unified command of Kuribayashi. The Japanese army built an airfield in the central highlands and Wonsan area of the island, called the Kurdo airfield and the Wonsan airfield respectively, also called the No. 1 airfield and the No. 2 airfield, and built a third airfield north of the No. 2 airfield. Because the US military quickly captured the Mariana Islands, the personnel, equipment, and materials originally planned to be transported to the Mariana Islands were diverted to the nearest Iwo Jima, and although the US military organized planes and submarines to attack with all their might in an attempt to cut off the reinforcements and supplies of Iwo Jima, the Japanese army used Chichijima as a transit point and adopted the method of small boat barge, so the blockade effect of the US military was not ideal.

However, because the main force of the Japanese navy and air force had been devastating in the previous battles, it was no longer able to provide sea and air support for Iwo Jima, and the anti-landing operation on Iwo Jima had to be carried out with almost no sea and air support. Kuribayashi, an outstanding professional soldier who served as commander of the Emperor's Guard, realized that it would be difficult to achieve a beachhead operation in the face of the absolute superiority of the American army in the sea and air, and advocated a defense in depth by relying on strong fortifications in the favorable terrain of the mountains of Oribayama and Motoyama. However, the naval garrison still insisted on annihilating the enemy at the beachhead, and finally Kuribayashi made a compromise plan, focusing on in-depth defense, supplemented by beachhead defense, and the naval garrison building permanent launch points and solid support points along the beach for forward defense; The main force of the army was concentrated in the area of Oribasan and Wonsan, and the defense in depth was carried out.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi was determined to build Iwo Jima into a strong fortress, with Mt. Oriba as the core position, two airfields as the main defense area, and a defensive position with permanent launch points and solid support points as the backbone on the east and west beaches suitable for landing. Most of the artillery positions were also built semi-underground, which, despite the sacrifice of the firing range, greatly improved the ability to survive heavy bombardment. The artillery and communication networks were well protected, and the mountain was almost hollowed out, with nine layers of tunnels built! In view of the operational characteristics of the US military, Kuribayashi has laid a large number of mines in the front line of the beach, and machine guns, mortars, and anti-tank guns form a dense network of firepower. Here, a batch of non-governmental trade materials of the Standard Machinery Group were quietly sent to the island by Chinese merchant ships, and the American submarine was helpless in the face of the Chinese merchant ships flying the flag of the Eight Desolations Hongyu. Using probe drilling rigs and small mine boring machines, the tunnel fortifications built in the Wonsan area are 28 kilometers long, and the four-story 35-kilometer combat readiness fortifications and more than 170 fire launch points have been built in Zhebo Mountain. Moreover, the Chinese merchant ships also brought more than 400 tons of mine professional explosives and detonation equipment very unexpectedly, except for more than 100 tons used to build fortifications, the rest were arranged by Lieutenant General Kuribayashi Tadamichi under the command of sappers on many fortifications, even if the Americans can come in, they will be buried together, and if the Americans use flamethrowers or chemical weapons, the defenders can quickly blow up a section of the tunnel to resist, so as not to be ended. Later, the reason why the US troops suffered heavy losses was not unrelated to the fact that many Japanese firepower points were rekindled, and the Japanese troops who suddenly came out of the ground with explosive tubes wrapped around their bodies were no less powerful than a 155-mm howitzer shell, which caused many US officers and men to suffer from high spirits after the war.

Kuribayashi changed the Japanese army's desperate tactics in the early days of the war, stipulating tactics such as close-range shooting, mobile defense by dividing troops, and ambushing, and strictly forbade suicide charges, calling on every soldier to kill at least ten American soldiers. Kuribayashi's painstaking management did cause great difficulties for the US military, making the Battle of Iwo Jima the most brutal and arduous amphibious landing campaign in the Pacific.

From August 10, the 23rd year of the Taichu Dynasty, the U.S. air forces stationed on Saipan began to carry out air raids on the Ogasawara Islands, focusing on the airfield of Iwo Jima and the port facilities of Chichijima, a transit area for the replenishment of Iwo Jima. From August to October, there were 48 bombings, about 4,000 tons of bombs, but with little success.

On November 24, the 23rd year of the Taichu Dynasty, the US military on Saipan dispatched B-29 Super Fortress bombers to bomb the Japanese mainland for the first time, which aroused great fear among the Japanese troops, and they immediately reacted, and three days later, on November 27, the 23rd year of the Taichu Dynasty, the Japanese troops on Iwo Jima dispatched two planes to attack the US B-29 air base on Saipan, destroying one B-29 and damaging 11 planes. In the days that followed, the Japanese forces on Iwo Jima repeatedly organized air raids on the US air base on Saipan, and by 2 January 24, the first year of the Taichu Dynasty, a total of six B-29 planes had been destroyed, seriously threatening the safety of the US B-29 air base. In order to suppress the attack and harassment of Japanese planes on Iwo Jima, the US military organized a coordinated naval and air assault on 8 February 24, Taichu Province, and dispatched 192 sorties, including 62 sorties by B-29 heavy bombers, 102 sorties by B-24 medium bombers, 3 heavy cruisers, and 7 destroyers, dropping a total of 814 tons of bombs and firing 1,500 rounds of 203-mm shells and 5,334 rounds of 127-mm shells. Since this coordinated naval and air assault, the US military has organized four similar joint naval and air assaults in February 23.

Beginning on 9 February 24, the B-24 bombers of the Seventh Air Force commanded by Major General Hale went out to bomb Iwo Jima almost every day as long as the weather permitted, and the B-29 bombers on Saipan also joined the bombing of Iwo Jima from time to time, and by the beginning of February 24 of the 24th year of Taichu, the US military had dispatched a total of 1,269 sorties of carrier-based aircraft, 1,479 sorties of shore-based air forces, and 64 warships, dropping a total of more than 6,800 tons of bombs and firing more than 20,000 rounds of large-caliber naval artillery shells, including 203 rounds of 406-mm shells. 203 rounds of 203-mm shells, 127-mm rounds of 15251 rounds. The Japanese army was able to repair the two airfields on the island completely after the air raid because the Japanese fortifications were extremely strong and the effect was very limited, and the Japanese army was always able to repair them quickly after the air raids, and the Japanese army initially appreciated the firepower of the American army, and devoted all its efforts to building fortifications with tunnels as the backbone, and Kuribayashi Tadamichi's tactics were also widely recognized by the Japanese troops defending the island.

On January 26, the 24th year of the Taichu Dynasty, the Third Fleet, which had completed the mission of supporting the landing on Luzon Island, returned to the Ulisi base for rest. Admiral Halsey, commander of the Third Fleet, handed over command to Spruance, and the Third Fleet was immediately renamed the Fifth Fleet, which was a new measure implemented by the US military since the autumn of the 23rd year of the Taichu Dynasty, and equipped the Pacific Fleet with two sets of command and staff officers, under the command of Halsey, it was called the Third Fleet; When commanded by Spruance, it was called the Fifth Fleet, and one person generally commanded the battle at the front while the other planned the next operation in the rear, so as to make full use of forces and confuse the Japanese. In any case, Iwo Jima, the support point of the Japanese army's absolute defense circle, has been obscured by the smoke of gunpowder, and the Japanese and American armies will begin an unusually fierce and seemingly indefinite hand-to-hand battle on this small island.