Marines bunched up at Iwo Jima and casualties
Marines bunched up at Iwo Jima and casualties
Watching some recent docus on War in the Pacific (there is a new one by Smithsonian on the past few weeks) and notice as before Marines bunched up on the shoreline or just inland at Iwo Jima. I realize the soft volcanic soil will probably absorb contact explosive projectiles. Did the Japanese have timed fuse/air burst type of artillery/mortars in place? With the island so small and visibility from Suribachi allowing for viewing the entire beach I do not see how they could not create many casualties among those lying prone on the beaches if they had time fuses.(I presume they had preregistered likely landing areas) Is there an approximate breakdown of cause of casualties for Iwo Jima? How many artillery, small arms, etc.?
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Re: Marines bunched up at Iwo Jima and casualties
There were some analysis of the medical records, but those are probably not what you are looking for. They were imprecise in the context of your question, and differentiate between fragment, bullet, burn, ect... but not always, and they do not usually identify if the fragment or bullet came from a mortar, cannon, machine gun, or rifle. Neither do they give more than a vague indication of where the wound occurred. To identify that you'd have to cross reference the time and unit of the casualty to descriptions of the units action/location.