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Schematic plan · World War II (Okinawa)

Iwo Jima - Suribachi

All battlesBattle of Iwo Jima: engagement 2 of 3The event in the chronicleWikipedia
A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rugged, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmour0200 m400 mN

One of the 3 engagements of the Battle of Iwo Jima recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 2 in date order). USA (US 28th Mar Rgt, 3,200 men under Col Liversedge) attacked Japan (Jap 2nd Ind Mixed Bde(-)(+), 1,600 men under Gen Kuribayashi) in Japan. The CAA Database of Battles records 96 hours of fighting on a front of 0.8 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 510 (16%), Japan 1,231 (77%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

USA

Col Liversedge

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry625
USA centreInfantry834
USA right wingInfantry625
USA reserveInfantry521
USA artillery (330 guns)Artillery480
USA armour (23 tanks)Armour115
Col LiversedgeCommander—
In this plan3,200

Japan

Gen Kuribayashi

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry326
Japan centreInfantry435
Japan right wingInfantry326
Japan reserveInfantry272
Japan artillery (30 guns)Artillery240
Gen KuribayashiCommander—
In this plan1,599

What the sources report

USAJapan
Strength, this plan3,2001,600
Losses, this plan5101,231

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 519, “Iwo Jima - Suribachi”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
96 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
0.8 km (attacker), 0.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker3,2005100330Frontal attack; Breakthrough
Japandefender1,6001,231030Defensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages logistics +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +1 · air superiority +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.