Guadacanal, Iwo Jima, and D-Day.

Iwo Jima was to late In the war to be concidered a "tunring point". Alot of people died, yes, but victory over Japan had already been solidified.

did it, go back in time and make the Marines lose Iwo Jima, lets see what happens, if all those men had died for nothing.


Yes i do have a time machine, and anyone who wants to can rent it for the incredibly low price of $1000 a month.

The the decision to use the Atomic bomb comes quicker now that we no an assault on Japan would surely cause us mass casualties. We were never In a position to "lose" Iwo Jima, the numbers were just so heavily for us.

there was supposed to be a 3rd wave of Marines launched on Iwo Jima, but the general in charge of the operation held back the 3rd wave, who the hell knows why. he could have saved many Marine lives, but instead he held back the 3rd wave.

on the iwo jima issue: i must interject something important here that people arent considering when looking at it as a turning point: Iwo Became the life boat for the crippled B-29 bombers that were coming out of japan, and were too heavily damaged to make it back to tinnian, or china.

The B-29 raids are what knocked japan down; not for the long count, but at least enough to turn the industrial flow of of materials off to its forces. At that time, it was critical to at least try to rescue the B-29 crews, if not the planes, for every one of them were needed for the long haul, especially the crews. The american aircrew members did not wish to be captured and landed in japan: it is well documented on the fate of one such crew in of all places a hospital, where they were visasected and then put to death except for the pilot. if not that, then it was the mines and almost certain work related death. It just wasnt a good place to be captured at.

The capture of Iwo Changed the outlook of the crews: closer to japan, they had a fighting chance to make it to the island if damaged. The capture of use of Iwo Jima probly was the greatest morale raiser in the 20th Air Force that could have ever been done. My hats off to the Marines that made it so..they saved my breathren from certain death.

Jason..why dont you dig around, and find out why a marine general really stopped that 3rd wave. If you go to the marine corp history site, you will find out why. they dont make any bones about mistakes, or victories.

I am by no way trying to diminish the importance of Iwo Jima and the sacrifice our men made, but to say It is a "turning point" is farfetched because of the situation at the time. The Japanese Fleet was all but liquidated, their Air Force the same, and their Army left to fight rear guard suicide actions. Ad the fact that you said Mark, that the B-29s had taken out their industrial capacity, the Japanese were In their "collapsing stage"

Originally Posted by Jason Bourne

Guadacanal, Iwo Jima, and D-Day.

Notice something about these? Their all USA victories with the exception of D-Day being USA+UK. You wouldn't happen to be somewhat biased in favor of the USA would you?

Sad truth is, the Soviets has already turned the tide in Europe and would have won with or without us landing in France. D-day just shortened the war, it did nothing to change the outcome.

Have to agree with Guy on Iwo Jima, not much of a turning point. More like a mopping up opperation where we met incredibly tough resistence.

Guadal Canal may be a tad of a stretch. The momentum of the Pacific War was on the US side at that time.

well yea i am kind of biased, i apologize for loving my country, you can feel free to execute me if you wish.

Godofthunder the above was a joke.

Sad truth is, the Soviets has already turned the tide in Europe and would have won with or without us landing in France. D-day just shortened the war, it did nothing to change the outcome.

Perhaps, but how long could Zhukov and his forces continued to bash upon the door of Germany without exhausting the manpower and supply of the Red Army? Ive heard that Stalin himself was getting tired of the fight, and he may have looked for an alternative (I do not see this as Stalin-esqu mind you) You still have to account for great numbers of divisions In France and Italy that could have been used to slow the Russians, If not stop them. Do not forget that after Citdel, that Hitler moved a number of Panzer forces to Italy (Was the 1st SS panzer not among them?) after Mussolini got the boot. The point is that in such a volitile period of the worlds history, victory, as we knew It In the sense after WW2, was not for certain.