Flags of our fathers
Fair use - specifically for educators to use if need be.
PLEASE take a look at some of my drone footage. I have indeed filmed the USS Texas - She was at this engagement!
-Though six battleships (Arkansas, New York, Texas, Nevada, Idaho and Tennessee), five cruisers (Pensacola, Salt Lake City, Chester, Tuscaloosa and Vicksburg) and many destroyers were present and shooting, at the end of the day results were modest, at best.
Visibility, and bombardment effectiveness, greatly improved during the following two days. The task was assisted by occasional Japanese efforts to return fire, which pointed out the location of previously concealed pillboxes and other defenses. Ships worked closer to shore, enhancing accuracy, and more targets became apparent as their cover was blasted away. However, at least 700 fortified positions had been identified, and all could not be dealt with in the remaining time. On 18 February fire was therefore concentrated on the landing beach areas and the adjacent heights.
On the morning of "D-Day", 19 February, the bombardment intensified. Two more battleships (North Carolina and Washington -- a third, West Virginia, arrived later in the day) added sixteen inch shells to the fourteen and twelve inch types of the battleships already on station. Three additional cruisers (Indianapolis, Santa Fe and Biloxi) brought more eight and six inch guns to the battle. Heavy ships stood off Iwo Jima's southeastern and southwestern coasts, many of them placed to inflict a close-in battering on the enemy. Rates of fire were increased, with periodic lulls to allow carrier-based airplanes to add their bombs, rockets and machine gun bullets to the attack. The lower half of the island appeared to be receiving an overwhelming rain of fire.
