Some great Iwo Jima shots

[fishmeok]

This link comes via the FL:really eye openig shots of what the USAAF did to Iwo

http://picasaweb.google.com/7thfighter/ ... 0448181842
Cheers
Mark

 

[TankBuster]

Great link!

 

[rich]

Absolutely fantastic Mark.

 

[Roughwear]

Superb collection of iconic pics-P51s gallore!

 

[Peter Graham]

Stunning shots. Many thanks.

 

[stubbyeighth]

Amazing collection.

Just a guess, but I think that photo's 58 thru 66--the pictures of the shot up US tents and dead Japanese soldiers--have to do with "banzai" attacks aimed specifically at the AAF fighter pilots who landed on Iwo while ground operations were still going on. I've read about one attack in particular that was pretty deadly, but I couldn't find much about it on the web. Here's one blurb that came up on Google:

"It begins with a quote from Lt. Bob Merklin, a P-51 pilot on Iwo in 1945. 'I was right in the middle of that banzai attack. For whatever reason, when we landed there on the 22nd, they had put up tents to the northwest.
Why they put us up there, toward the area where the majority of the fighting was going on, I don’t know. But anyway, on the 26th at 5:00 in the morning, these 300 Japs came out of the caves and hit our tent area.' The Japanese, armed with automatic weapons, bayonets, swords, and hand grenades, had made their way underground from the northern part of the island and attacked the tent area.
The Army Air Force units in the tent area did not have observation or listening posts out so they were obviously not prepared for combat, being above ground in tents. The Japanese came into that area and killed 42 pilots in their sleep with swords and bayonets. 88 were wounded."

____________________

stubbyeighth

 

[NickG]

That's exactly what those pictures represent... USAAF tents peppered with bullet holes...