maj. gen. graves b. erskine commanded the 3rd marine division to win the battle of iwo jima ww2.
maj. gen. graves b. erskine commanded the 3rd marine division to win the battle of iwo jima ww2.
who commanded the 3rd marine division to win the battle of iwo jima ww2?
maj. gen. graves b. erskine
the flag flew on mount suribachi until it was taken down on march 14, when an american flag was officially raised at kitano point at the northern end of the island by orders of the commander of all the troops on iwo jima, lt. gen. holland smith, who witnessed the event with maj. gen. graves b. erskine, the commander of the third marine division, and troops of the division.









































section::::northern iwo jima.
battle of iwo jima
once assigned to the division the battalion had each company detached and "tasked" to a different component of the 23rd marines. after that the men received their shore party training. the battalion's shore party assignment was to provide the beach support required by the forward lines of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th marines. the division shipped out for island "x" on 31 december with v amphibious corps or vac as t.u. 56.2.2 baker landing group. it was commanded by major general c.b cates usmc of the fourth marine division. when they were a few days out the men learned they were heading to a place they had never heard of called iwo jima. the assault for iwo was based upon tinian where the 2nd and 4th marine divisions assault was "reinforced" by marine engineering regiments that included the 18th and 121st cbs. on d-plus 3 the jap airfield was secured and the seabees had it operational in a few hours.(the iwo jima landing map is notated that the marine corps planned to have control of iwo jima in 3 days also) for iwo the 4th and 5th marine divisions were "reinforced" by the 133rd and 31st ncbs. marine corps landing maps indicate that for o1 (objective day 1) motoyama airfield no. 1 would be secured and 133 was assigned to get it operational. however, on d plus 5 that assignment was given to the 31st cb due to the losses 133 had suffered. the next day 62 cb landed with the 3rd marine division and was designated the lead battalion for airfield no. 1. the 31st was assigned airfield no. 2 and the 133rd was given airfield no. 3. in just seven days the heavy equipment of the 3 combined battalions had airfield no. 1 operational.
naval mobile construction battalion 133