Summary of the Two battles Of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
By February 1945, the United States had turned back the Japanese advance in the Pacific and had re-taken a sweeping arc of islands that surrounded the enemy nation. For all these gains, however, two small islands remained crucial to an invasion of Japan: Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Located to the southeast and south of Japan, they were only 750 miles from major military and political targets. Their capture would bring even the city of Tokyo within the range of American B-29 bombers.
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forcesfought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields, to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base. It was of limited use to the Army Air Forces only for emergency landings, and there were other, smaller islands that could have been used for that purpose.
Battle of Okinawa
he Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg,was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in thePacific War of World War II.The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army and two Marine Divisions fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.