The Terrible Battle of Iwo Jima " The Battle was Finally Declared Secured On March 26, 1945".

 Iwo Jima was finally declared secured on March 26, 1945. When the battle concluded, nearly 7,000 Marines had lost their lives and another 20,000 were wounded.

 The strategic importance of the island, and the enduring image of Marines raising the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi, cemented the Battle of Iwo Jima as one of the great victories in the history of the Marine Corps. 

The Secretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, who watched the flag-raising from the beach, famously remarked “the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.”

U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Harry Linn Martin of Bucyrus, Ohio was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on Iwo Jima on March 26, 1945.  

A few minutes before dawn on the morning of March 26, the day the Iwo campaign officially closed, the Japanese launched a concentrated attack and penetrated the Marine lines in the area where 1st Lt Martin's platoon was bivouacked. 

He immediately organized a firing line among the men in the foxholes closest to his own, and temporarily stopped the headlong rush of the enemy. Several of his men were lying wounded in positions overrun by the enemy and the lieutenant was determined to rescue them. In the action which followed, he was severely wounded twice but continued to resist the enemy until he fell mortally wounded by a grenade.

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