Three weeks of battle as bitter as any the world has known had raged on Iwo Jima, drenching its black ash beaches, ravines and cliffs in blood. The Japanese garrison was being squeezed into an ever smaller band around the northern shore, but it was fighting with D-day savagery. Its commander, Lieut. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, was still in radio contact with Tokyo. Most of the defenders had ample food and water (although some isolated positions had been short of water in the first days of the campaign). They had only a few mortars and...
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