23 February 1945 was a day that would go down in history. This was the day Marines of the 28th Regiment managed to hoist a flag up on top of Mount Suribachi. An entire generation (and millions of people after them) recognize the picture of the Stars and Stripes going up. What many people do not realize, however, is that the famous picture does not depict the first, let alone the final flag raising.
At 0800 on February 23, a forty-man patrol from the Second Battalion, 28th Marines, Fifth Marine Division, led by 1st Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier climbed Mount Suribachi. They carried a small flag with them that measured fifty-four by twenty-eight inches and had been taken from the troop transporter USS Missoula. Schrier had been told to put the flag up if he made it to the top. As the patrol climbed up the slope, they did not meet any resistance. Around 1030, the group reached the top, where the men found a long water pipe to which they attached the flag. Sergeant Louis Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine, captured the moment.
Flag #1 has been raised
A little known fact is that although the forty men patrol is usually credited with reaching the summit of the volcano first, some Marines went there before them. Although they kept it a secret at the time, a Sergeant and a Corporal from I Company reached the top in the late afternoon of February 22.
The Marines had been receiving heavy fire from Mount Suribachi for several days, and seeing the American flag fluttering in the wind caused quite the response. All over the island men started cried and cheered, and ships blew their horns. It wasn’t until then that the Japanese reacted and came from their caves. A short fight ensued, but no Marines were hurt. Lowery slipped and slid fifty feet down the slope, but both he and his camera –the film included- were fine.
On his way back down, Lowery ran into Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, photographer Bob Campbell, and Sgt. William Genaust, a motion picture photographer. Lowery told the men they had missed the raising of the flag, but they should continue because the view from the volcano was breathtaking. Upon reaching the top, the three men saw a small group of Marines holding a second flag. It had already been decided that the first flag would make a great souvenir and that it should be replaced. Moreover, a bigger flag could be seen by more people (American and Japanese), so a communications officer provided Rene Gagnon, the E Company runner, with a with a larger, fifty-six by ninety-six inch flag. This flag actually came from LST 779, the first LST to beach the shore of Iwo Jima. Originally, the flag came from a depot in Pearl Harbor.
The moment that the second flag was raised would be captured in a picture that would speak a thousand words to an entire generation. Rosenthal realized he had a second chance to capture the flag raising on film. Bill Genaust had his 16mm camera at the ready, when he saw the first flag come down and the second flag go up.
Flag #2 goes up
He warned Rosenthal that the flag was going up. Rosenthal saw it happen from the corner of his eye, swung his camera and took the picture. Not sure whether his picture had succeeded, Rosenthal gathered the Marines on top of the volcano and had them pose for a “Gung Ho” picture, in which the men were cheering.
The "Gung Ho" picture
Rosenthal sent his film to Guam where it was developed. From there, the soon-to-be-famous flag raising photo was sent San Francisco and was then shared with newspapers around the world. Millions of people saw the image before Rosenthal did, so when people asked him whether the picture had been staged, Rosenthal thought they meant the “Gung Ho” picture and said yes. When he realized they meant the actual flag raising picture, he had a hard time convincing people that that one had been a spontaneous photograph. However, the damage had been done, and Rosenthal would face a lot of controversy until his death in 2006, even despite Bill Genaust’s film that had been shot at the same exact moment.
A third flag was raised at 0930 on 14 March to signal the capture Iwo Jima. There was a short ceremony on Hill 165 at Kitano Point, and while the flag went up the large flag on Mount Suribachi was taken down. At times the ceremony was interrupted by battle sounds for heavy fighting still went on. Iwo Jima was not officially declared secure until 16 March, and mopping up operations even continued until 26 March.
by Peter Doornekamp For more posts, check out https://patdoornekamp.wixsite.com/history/blog
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