On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most
decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II
—began.
During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered
U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese
aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the
Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy.
On May 11, 1969, Hamburger Hill became the scene of an
intense and controversial battle during the Vietnam War.
Known to military planners as Hill 937 (its height in meters),
the solitary peak is located in the dense jungles of the A
Shau Valley of Vietnam, about a mile from the border with
Laos.
Though the hill had no real tactical significance, taking the
hill was part of Operation Apache Snow, a U.S. military sweep
of the A Shau Valley.
The purpose of the operation was to cut off North Vietnamese
infiltration from Laos and enemy threats to the cities of Hue
and Da Nang.
Hamburger Hill the day after the battle, May 21, 1969.
On May 3, 1942, during World War II, the first modern naval
engagement in history, the Battle of the Coral Sea, began. A
Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the
Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s defensive perimeter.
The United States, having broken Japan’s secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby,
attempted to intercept the Japanese armada.
Four days of battles between Japanese and American aircraft
carriers resulted in 70 Japanese and 66 American warplanes
destroyed.
This confrontation, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, marked the
first air-naval battle in history, as none of the carriers fired at each
other, allowing the planes taking off from their decks to do the
battling.
Among the casualties was the American carrier Lexington; “the
Blue Ghost” (so-called because it was not camouflaged like other carriers) suffered extensive aerial damage and was scuttled by
destroyer torpedoes. Two hundred sixteen Lexington crewmen
died as a result of the Japanese aerial bombardment.
The American aircraft carrier USS Lexington explodes on 8
May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.
The west Pacific volcanic island of Iwo Jima was declared
secured by the U.S. military after weeks of fiercely fighting
its Japanese defenders.
The Americans began applying pressure to the Japanese
defense of Iwo Jima in February 1944, when B-24 and B-25
bombers raided the island for 74 days straight.
It was the longest pre-invasion bombardment of the war,
necessary because of the extent to which the Japanese–
21,000 strong–fortified the island, above and below ground,
including a network of caves.
Underwater demolition teams (“frogmen”) were dispatched
by the Americans just before the actual invasion to clear the
shores of mines and any other obstacles that could obstruct
an invading force. In fact, the Japanese mistook the frogmen
for an invasion force and killed 170 of them.
When all was done, more than 6,000 Marines died fighting for the
island, along with almost all the 21,000 Japanese soldiers trying
to defend it.
February 23, 1945: During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S.
Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th
Regiment of the 5th Division took the crest of Mount Suribachi,
the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raised
the U.S. flag.
Marine photographer Louis Lowery, who was with them, recorded
the event. Americans fighting for control of Suribachi’s slopes
cheered the raising of the flag.
Several hours later, more Marines headed up to the crest with a
larger flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated
Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the
second flag along with a Marine still photographer and a motion-
picture cameraman.
By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island,
and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were
wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders
were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo
Jima, and some 17,000 were wounded.
The second Iwo Jima flag on display in the National Museum
of the Marine Corps.
The first U.S. flag raised on Mount Suribachi.
President Harry Truman, left, is presented with a bronze
statue by sculptor Felix de Weldon, center, and Associated
Press photographer Joe Rosenthal at the White House in Washington on June 4, 1945.
Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima as it looks today.
