The Battle for Iwo Jima

The Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19–March 26, 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured of Iwo Jima (lit. Iwo Island) from Japan. The battle produced some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Campaign of World War II.
The Japanese positions on the island were heavily fortified, with vast bunkers, hidden artillery, and 18 kilometres (11 miles) of underground tunnels. The battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands, and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. Of the more than 18,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner.The rest were killed or were missing and assumed dead. The U.S. invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was charged with the mission of capturing the airfields on Iwo Jima.
The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 meter (546 ft) Mount Suribachi by five Marines and one Navy Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. The picture became the iconic image of the battle and has been heavily reproduced.
The Initial Strike

The Aftermath

Iwo Jima and Mount Suribachi today