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Ordinary Marines, extraordinary valor THE 'FIGHTING FOURTH' IWO JIMA FIGHTING EXACTED DEADLY TOLL
4th Marines, heroes in the Pacific in World War II, gather in Fredericksburg
Date published: 9/6/2008
By RUSTY DENNEN
They're old men now, in their early 80s. But in those fateful months of 1945, they were young Americans fighting for their lives on a barren Pacific atoll called Iwo Jima.
Photographer Joe Rosenthal immortalized the battle in his iconic image of Marines raising the American flag on the island's Mount Suribachi.
Members of the 4th Marine Division--the "Fighting Fourth"--remember the campaign as ordinary soldiers doing an extraordinary job.
About 125 of them gathered this week in Fredericksburg for their annual reunion--a time to reminisce, to remember moments frozen in time and, above all, honor the ones who never made it home.
Vern Brintzenhofe had just turned 17 when the war broke out, and he joined up.
Within three years, the county boy born in Massillon, Ohio, and his buddies would witness some of the most horrific fighting of the war.
He still vividly remembers sights and sounds after he went ashore at Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Division, one of three waves of Marines.
"Our ships were shelling above our heads and the Japanese were throwing shells at us," he said. "We were trying to make a hole in the sand."
Loose volcanic soil, he said, made it hard to walk, much less bring equipment and vehicles ashore.
"It was very hard. The Japanese had tunnels underground."
On his third day ashore, a mortar round landed in the foxhole he was sharing with other Marines. He was wounded; three others next to him were killed.
"I never remember leaving" he said. The next thing he knew, he was recuperating in a hospital at Pearl Harbor.
When he got well, it was back to the 4th Marines to train for an invasion of Japan, but the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made that invasion unnecessary. It was his ticket home.
This week, Brintzenhofe, who now lives in Hagerstown, Md., saw Edgar Cyr for the first time since the war.
Brintzenhofe smiled, "We were bunk partners on Maui" where they trained prior to shipping out to Iwo Jima.
'BOYS OF IWO'
Norman Baker, 82, of Delaplane in northern Fauquier County was one of the "Boys of Iwo" with the 4th Marines.
The battle for Iwo Jima, an atoll 2 1/2 miles by about 5 miles in the Pacific, lasted from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945.
Marines faced heavily dug-in and determined Japanese defenders. 3,298 Marines died in four assaults on the atoll.
The Allies suffered 27,909 casualties, with 6,825 killed in action. That was more than the total Allied casualties, about 10,000, on D-Day.
All but about 1,000 of the 21,000 Japanese defenders were killed. Just over 200 were taken prisoner.
--Rusty Dennen
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| The 4th Marine Division was activated Aug. 14, 1943, under the command of Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt. It shipped out on its first mission on Jan. 3, 1944, to capture the island of Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands. After that, it sailed to Maui, Hawaii, for combat training. Then followed Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. During a 13-month period, the "Fighting 4th" made four major amphibious assaults, all bitterly opposed.
12 received the Medal of Honor, the top award for valor.
14,736 received the Purple Heart for combat injuries.
111 received the Navy Cross.
4 received the Distinguished Service Medal. |
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"The thing that stands out in my mind mostly, I had three good buddies to get killed. I still think of them once a month, maybe more."
--B.G. Garrison, Madison, Miss.
"The track on our tank was blown off halfway to the airport [The explosion] was supposed to have gotten the tank and everyone in it."
--Charles H. Saulmon, Kingwood, Texas
"The day the first B-29 landed on Iwo was the day I got hit knocking out a machine-gun nest. The next day Watson got hit. My lieutenant and I tried to stop the bleeding in a very bad wound inside his right thigh."
--Bronislaw Wrona
"Rumors were that Iwo would be a 48-hour operation; then we would pull out and go to Okinawa. I was in a landing craft with four or five others and a small bulldozer. Our job was to get the beach ready for the guns. We lost the boat and 'dozer. It was three to four days before we had guns to fire to replace the ones we lost at landing."
--Jerome DeLaughter, Jackson, Miss.
Norman Baker gathered these quotes.
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Date published: 9/6/2008
Most recent reader comments:
Point of Clarification
(posted by
dadster3
, Sep. 6, 2008 8:54 am)
The "4th Marines" is the 4th Marine Regiment. If you mean The 4th Marine Division you have to say so.
Heartfelt thanks!
(posted by
MtMav
, Sep. 6, 2008 6:14 am)
I extend a respectful, heartfelt thanks to all veterans of this horrific battle including my father (and all WW II vets). After "enjoying" a government sponsored "vacation" on Saipan, dad landed on Iwo where he received the "million dollar wound." He died many years later (of unrelated causes) with metal still in his back courtesy of a Japanese mortar squad. He enjoyed infrequently setting off metal detectors. His story is far from aberrational. Fellas, enjoy your well deserved reunion.
To the Iwo Vets
(posted by
CncrndCitzen
, Sep. 6, 2008 1:17 am)
"Uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Semper Fi, Marines!
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