The seriously wounded, like Art LaPorte and Glenn Buzzard, were loaded onto jeeps for their trip to the battalion aid station (still located in the Quarry), then to a field hospital or one of the casualty clearing stations that now dotted the invasion beaches. However, the American bombardments were continuous.

LaPorte’s tormentor was determined to take Deets out too, and a hail of gunfire met the corpsman’s every movement.

The wounded man might have been a close buddy, a passing acquaintance, or just a luckless gyrene; either way, he was the last straw for Coutts, who was sick of seeing men die and decided he’d save one if he could. Though not very high, it housed a reinforced concrete communication center and served also as a strong observation post overlooking the entire southern end of the island.

Iwo Jima’s most formidable defenses were not on the beaches, atop Mount Suribachi, or in the plains leading up to the airfields. He went looking for a tank.[20]. Every time the Marines drove deep into the enemy defenses, they were made to pay dearly for it. The top of the hill, surmounted by the stark remains of a Japanese radar station, was hollowed out and rebuilt to contain field pieces and antitank weapons. [38] Buzzard in Smith, 88. The Japanese sent over a few final mortar salvos and touched off a few massive rockets which sailed harmlessly off into the sea, save the one that landed in Charlie Company’s sector, and buried several men alive. [35] LaPorte interview. With the close of battle that night, the Marines held about two-fifths of Iwo Jima and had suffered 8,000 casualties since landing. The division continued to sweep forward, driving toward the northern coast. Hill 382, Turkey Knob and the Amphitheater were also mutually supporting.

The hole was suddenly too shallow for comfort.

I looked down, and it took me a minute to realize who it was.

Hereafter, “Final Report.” As a result, the Japanese force defending Iwo was like a body fighting without its head.

“They had to go,” LaPorte said simply.

While there are sundry ridges, depressions and irregularities, most of the crevices of any moment radiate from the direction of Hill 382 to fan out like spokes generally in a southeasterly direction providing a series of cross corridors to our advance and eminently suitable for the enemy’s employment of mortars.

Evacuated

For a third time he was relieved, by Captain Robert O’Mealia.

But the fourth salvo missed, dropping in the water astern.

[29] Final Report, 127. Under covering rifle fire, demolition men crawled up to the blockhouse walls. Buzzard’s crater held a mix of both. “At 1302, Captain Swoyer was hit by an enemy rifle bullet and was evacuated. Much of his regiment’s advance that day was due to Jacobson, who received a Medal of Honor for his valor. Much later, Corporal Glenn Buzzard would remember how his finger, “torn up somehow,” earned him a daily visit with Doc Deets. Either way, Coutts evidently managed to cross most of the fifty yards back alone and under his own power, with a wound that would eventually cost him his leg. They were even struck from the rear, where they had unknowingly passed a hidden system of pillboxes. But the gallant corporal Tony Stein lost his life while helping to reduce that strongpoint. As he started toward Hill 382 again that day, he saw an American bazooka man go down. As was the case with the Meat Grinder, though, even going around obstacles like the Amphitheater and Hill 382 was an extremely difficult and bloody proposition. He served as the president of the Fourth Marine Division Association for many years before his death in early 2017. Suddenly Jack Coutts was up on his feet and dashing across the shell-torn ground. I turned around and looked, and he was gone. Guides from the 23rd appeared before dawn to lead 1/24 up to the line. In the end, however, they had no choice. While bobbing amtanks put the coastal flank under fire, carrier aircraft came screaming down through the smoke and dust to strafe and bomb. [13] This is unusual given the day’s casualty rate. Time passed. With this patched-up force, Ridlon cleaned out Hill 382’s last defenders. A touchdown was about all the Marines got on the following day, February 26. I was lucky I had not gotten it down in the hole there. The battalion’s AAR reduced their daily contribution to a single line: “Unable to move any great distance as Hill 382 and the surrounding area was under heavy mortar fire.”[11], Private Harold J. Oberheide‘s recollections were far more detailed: it was his first experience in combat.

And remember that tanks always draw fire, and every Japanese in the area is trying to take the thing out, and now you’re making yourself a very obvious target because you want the tank to do something.