Invasion of Iwo Jima

Submitted by: Lawrence Herde

These are my thoughts and experiences that took place in the invasion of Iwo Jima. I was in the 5th Amphibious Fleet , on USS LCT 866, a landing craft of 117 feet long, When we left the states the craft was in three sections, mounted on top of an LST ,in excess of three hundred feet long. There was two sections of another LCT mounted on the top deck of the same LST. It was done this way to transport more of the craft overseas in a shorter period of time. One and two thirds LCTs on one LST.
We left New Orleans in March of 1944 to Guantonimo Bay in Cuba,through the Panama Canal up to San Diego and then to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After arriving at Pearl Harbor, two huge cranes lifted our LCT one section at a time and placed them in the water. Some small boats then pushed them to an isolated area of the harbor, where it was our job to put the LCT together. This was done by pumping water into ballast tanks and lining up the sections, placing gaskets between them and bolting them together, with huge bolts and nuts. It seemed like hundreds of them. Some erector set, hey?
After the assembly we stayed in Hawaii, practicing maneuvers and invasions until January 1945. At that time the same two cranes lifyed our LCT out of the water and placed it on the ways that had been built on the top deck of the LST. We were then on our way to the invasion.
On board the LST were part of the 4th Marine Division. Their officers held meetings every day on the tank deck of our LCT. [mounted on the ways of the LST ]. They had a paper machet model of Iwo which showed some gun emplacements but they didn't know about the network of caves that the Japanese had armed.The marines had aerial photos and photos were taken by submarines of the island.They had pages of names of every Jap soldier on the island and some civilians.
We arrived at Iwo on February 19, 1945. It was a bright sunny day The kind that reminded you of a Sunday morning on the way to church. The Airr Force had bombed the island for thirty days and armada of navy shipssurrounding it, battlewagons, cruisers, destroyers, rocket ships had shelled it for four days. Little did we know that the Japs were safely underground in their caves.
The order came over the loudspeakers for the marines to load the amtracks and the bow doors of the LST were opened and the ramp lowered. One by one the amtracks traversed into the water to their rendezvous point and then continued to circle until all the invasion force was ready. The first wave went in at 9 am.
The Japs were sniping at us. You could see the bullets splash in the water as they hit. I think they were gauging the distance between them and us. At that time the ballast tanks on one side of the LST were filled with water to put a 30 degree list on the ship. The blocks that were holding the LCT were chopped out and the LCT went sliding down the ways [they were greased] just as a ship in a shipyard. There were heavy lines tied to the LCT so that it wouldn't get away and float off, uncontrollable. A cargo net was thrown over the port side of the LST and we climbed down that onto our ship. The motor machs started the three grey marine diesels and I, as an electrician, started the generators. The captain [an ensign], got orders over the radio, to proceed to a merchant ship to unload its cargo. We had problems with the water pumps on the diesels so we couldn't do that. After we repaired them it was dark so we didn't take on cargo until the next day. After taking on munitions, oil drums and loads of other supplies, we headed for the beach. The sand was black and the island smelled like rotten eggs. What a god forsaken place. We were ready to unload but started to taking mortar fire, so we had to make a fast retreat out to sea again, There was an abandoned rusty hulk of an old ship on the beach and the Japs had a squad in there radio directing fire at the beachhead. The marines spotted them and cleaned them out.
We then continued to ferry supplies from the merchant ships to the marines on the island.
The invasion was supposed to last seven days. What a miscalculation that was!!! The island wasn't declared secure until the latter part of April !
The most memorable thing that I remember was when the marines captured Mt. Suribachi. We were on the beach, when we heard cheers from all over the island. And when I looked at Suribachi the marines had the flag up and were kneeling down, along side of the flagpole. It reminded me of a Saturday afternoon, when the high school you were rooting for, made a touchdown. That was a deadly score! Another thing that brought you to your senses was the smell of rotting flesh, mixed with yhe smell of gunfire. this was notieable every time you hit the beach.
The U.S. Marines did one heck of a job in securing that island and they deserve all the praise and respect of every citizen in this country and the free
world.

L. F. Herde EM 3/C
U.S.S. LCT 866

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