During the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, February 25, 1945, American soldiers advance low through the cutting Japanese machine guns as the body of a Japanese soldier, killed in an attack an hour earlier, lies on the ground.

   During the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, Japanese machine gun bullets cut through trees above the heads of American soldiers during the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 25, 1945. Through them, American soldiers advanced low, carrying rifles. An hour earlier, the body of a Japanese soldier, killed and mortally wounded in an attack by advancing U.S. Marines, lay on the ground on Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima was the most heavily defended by the Japanese in the Pacific War, with some 20,000 soldiers, both American and Japanese, falling dead or wounded.

  On the same day, February 25, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, U.S. Marine combat engineer soldiers fired artillery shells that blasted Japanese defensive positions on Iwo Jima. Many Japanese defensive positions had Japanese soldiers returning to their trenches to fire on the flanks of the U.S. Marines.

    The U.S. 3rd Marines landed on February 24 and invaded the relatively flat center of the northern Iwo Jima plateau. The sandstone of Iwo Jima's plateau had been destroyed by wind, rain, and volcanic upheaval, and at about 9:30 a.m. on February 25, the Marines began their attack, striking the main Japanese defensive line. Marine artillery shells were fired. Flame-throwing tanks incinerated Japanese soldiers in bulletproof tunnels. Continuous attacks finally cracked the Japanese lines: on February 26, they attacked the Japanese defensive position at 382 Highland, a field artillery and anti-tank position north of Mount Suribachi; on the night of February 27, they seized the twin hills north of Airfield 2; on the afternoon of February 28, they overran the ruins of Motoyama Village, the hill dominating Airfield 3; and on March 1, they captured the hill dominating Airfield 2. and on March 1, they recaptured the 382nd high ground in a desperate struggle.

　The casualties of the Battle of Iwo Jima were approximately 21,000 American casualties, one escort carrier sunk, 30 ships wrecked, and about 168 fighter planes damaged. On the Japanese side, about 23,000 men of the entire garrison were annihilated and crushed to ashes.