Never in Doubt
: Remembering Iwo Jima

Author: Lynn Kessler (Editor), Edmond B. Bart (Contributor), Lawrence F. Snowden
Hardcover
248 pages (May 1999)
United States Naval Inst.
ISBN: 1557504636 ;
Dimensions (in inches): 0.89 x 9.32 x 6.26

Customers who bought this book also bought:

• Battle for Iwo Jima, 1945 by Derrick Wright
• Iwo Jima : Legacy of Valor by Bill D. Ross
• Bloody Tarawa by John E. Lane, Eric M. Hammel
• Fragments of War : A Marine's Personal Journey by Bertram A. Yaffe

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist May 15, 1999
This gripping oral history offers military students a new perspective on an epic battle of the Pacific war. Not only infantrymen report their experiences; those who manned tanks and artillery, rescued the wounded, cleared the airfields, steered landing craft on and off the beaches, and eventually came in to replace the marines when some Japanese were still alive and fighting after the island was declared "secured" also testify. Individual informants vary from a Heisman Trophy winner and a career marine who eventually retired with three stars to many who returned to civilian life with relief and no desire to ever do anything like this again. The men point out, among other things, the physical demands made by the peculiar volcanic ash that covers most of the island, the various stenches, the absence of safety at their rear, and how most of the fighting after the first few days was a muddled mess of winkling the Japanese out of one underground complex after another. A very welcome addition to the Pacific war literature. Roland Green

Book Description
Survivors of one of the fiercest battles of the war in the Pacific tell their dramatic stories in this collection of oral histories. Veterans from all the services--Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard, Army, and Army Air Corps--are represented, everyone from infantrymen, machine gunners, and engineers to medics, airmen, and coxswains. Their vivid firsthand accounts of personal experiences explore the great variety of actions that made up the campaign to win Iwo Jima from the Japanese. Their descriptions of events add new dimensions to the history of the monumental battle. Ordinary young Americans thrown into extraordinary situations, they recall the details of battle as if it happened yesterday. Their recollections not only provide insight into military operations but reveal the effect that battle had on the course of their lives and the meaning it holds for them today.
Interviews with forty-five Iwo veterans were selected for this book, among them Angelo Bertelli, the 1943 Heisman Trophy winner, and Charles Lindberg, the last survivor of the first flag raising on Mt. Suribachi. Most accounts were recorded face to face, while others were sent to Kessler on tape or were handwritten. Their compelling stories about the reality of the battle honor the sacrifice of the 6,821 Marines, sailors, soldiers, and airmen who died at Iwo Jima. An informative introduction helps set the scene.

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Reviewed Br Edward M. COFFMAN

Hell was a small volcanic island in the Pacific for five weeks in early 1945 during World War 11. There had been other hells for those who fought with such viciousness, and in the remaining months of the war, there would be others, but this 7!~-square-mile island with the steaming volcanic sand looked the part. Almost 27,000 men died there, and those who survived would never forget Iwo Jima. In The  Battle for Iwo jima 1945, Derrick Wright provides a brief but comprehensive history of that epic battle, while Lynn S. Kessler and Edmond B. Bart, in Never in Doubt: Remembering Iwo Jima furnish accounts from Americans who fought there.

"The Godforsaken Dot”

Wright deftly sets the scene. After the Americans captured Saipan their new B-29s could attack mainland Japan, but the round-trip of more than 2400 miles was a perilous stretch. The godforsaken dot of Iwo Jima was roughly halfway and, if the Americans seized it, could provide a haven for damaged bombers. The Japanese realized this, reinforced the garrison, and began fortifying Iwo.

In May 1944, a month before the Americans captured Saipan, Prime Minister Tojo gave the commander of the emperor's guard, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the mission of preparing Iwo for the inevitable battle. Kuribayashi studied the other island campaigns and designed an in-depth defense that depended on the natural caves, supplemented with elaborate fortifications and tunnels. Wright s use of this outstanding officer's letters, as well as testimony from several of the Japanese survivors, gives the reader substantial coverage of the defenders.

On February 19, a beautiful day, assault waves of Marines hit the beach. The American commanders veterans of other island battles, assumed that victory was inevitable. The only questions were how many lives it would cost and how long it would take. Based on their experience, it seemed likely that, although the fight might be bloody, it would be over within ten days. The massive preparatory naval bombardment and the strength of the three divisions they could bring to bear were certainly formidable. But the Marines soon learned that the bombardment did little damage to the Japanese fortification and that, despite their great strength--more than 70,000 men in all--only so many could get into position to tight the enemy, which numbered 21,000.

Wright describes and explains the lighting day to day, as the Marines slowly pushed back the enemy. Although a detail of Marines was able to rose a flag on the highest point of the island, Mount Suribachi, on D plus 4, this meant only that they had secured one small part of Iwo.

Kudbayashi had prepared well indeed, and, once the battle was joined, he and his troops showed skill equal to the Marines,' making them pay dearly for every yard they advanced. The Japanese assumed that they would not get out alive; thus, their aims were to hold as long as they could and to kill as many Marines as possible in the process.

Kessler and Ban get across the intensity, the visceral fear, and the horror of this battle in the oral histories they collected from 15 veterans. These include infantrymen, artillerymen, junior officers, tankers, engineers, sailors, replacements, and medics (including a Navy nurse), who give a broad perspective to the American side of the story.

All who made it through the bouncing ride in the assault boats to shore found it difficult to walk in the black sand that seemed to pull one down. Bodies were strewn on the beach and then later, as the battle progressed, stacked in rows. The stench of death permeated the atmosphere

The Enemy unseen

One rarely saw the enemy 'they were too well dug in and hidden, but they made their presence felt with accurate, deadly artillery and machine gun lire. Fifty years later, veterans carry memories of seeing men blown apart, of friends killed as they stood next to them. Casualties were so heavy that one might find a private first class commanding a company.

Those who did live wore their clothes for weeks and tried to get what sleep they could in steaming hot foxholes, in which a moment's lapse in alertness could mean death at the hands of enemy soldiers who infiltrated the lines. Night could mean Hand to hand combat, when bone-tired men fought for their lives. When the tanks came in with their flame-throwers, the Marines gained the advantage, burning and burying the Japanese in their hideouts. When it finally ended, the B-29s had their way station.

One of the veterans Kessler and Bart located was Angelo Bertelli, who had won the Heisman Trophy as Notre Dame's quarterback in 1943. He landed at Iwo as a liaison officer but soon found himself in command of a half-strength platoon that he led throughout the rest of the battle. Bertelli died shortly after this book was published. But his contribution reminds us of the importance of oral history, and these two books enable us to appreciate what really happened at Iwo Jima.

DERRICK WRIGHT is the author of Tarawa: A Hell of a Way to Die

LYNN S. KESSLER is the author of Honor and Glory and writes frequently for domestic and foreign publications. EDMOND B. BART is a U.S. Marine Corps aviator whose father fought with the 2d Marine Division in the Central Pacific.