Pacific War Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces to attack targets throughout the Philippines and the South China Sea. The Battle of Iwo Jima ("Operation Detachment") in February 1945 was one of the bloodiest battles fought by the Americans in the Pacific War. Iwo Jima is an 8 sq mile (21 km) island situated halfway between Tokyo and the Mariana Islands. Holland Smith, the commander of the invasion force, aimed to capture the island and prevent its use as an early-warning station against air raids on the Japanese Home Islands, and to use it as an emergency landing field. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II on the American perimeter. The Japanese continued to underestimate the number of American forces on the island, assuming that were that only 2,000 marines were on the island. However, the actual number was closer to 20,000, subsequently attacks launched by the Japanese on two successive nights on September 12–14, failed. Meanwhile, the Japanese did better in the struggle for control of the waters around Guadalcanal. On September 15, the submarine sank the carrier , leaving only a single American carrier, the , active in the Pacific at the time. However, as the Japanese possessed up to six operational carriers during