Day 18 of the Battle of Iwo Jima: March 9, 1945

Per Scriptum E. Wesley - Mackinac Center Intern

Tomorrow marks the 19th day of fighting on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, where US marines finally succeeded in dividing the Japanese forces in half. Read the excerpt below from here and watch the video:

"Finally, the breakthrough came on D+18 when a 28-man patrol led by Lt Paul Connally reached the northeast coast. The men stood and stared, hardly believing that they had finally split the Japanese into two. Connally filled his canteen with seawater and sent it to his CO, Colonel Withers who passed it onto General Erskine. The cost to get this far for the 3rd Marine Division had been enormous - over 3,500 casualties. That night, the first major firebombing raid by B29 Superfortresses from the Marianas took place over Tokyo. Around a quarter of Tokyo's buildings were destroyed, just over 1 million people were left homeless, over 83,000 people were killed and almost 41,000 wounded."