File:Beyond Heroism- Hospital Corpsmen And The Battle For Iwo Jima (IA beyondheroismhospitalcorpsmenandthebattleforiwojima).pdf

At 0900 on February 19^th, 1945, the first assault waves from the 4^th and 5^th Marine Divisions hit the beaches of Iwo Jima.<a href="https://navymedicine.navylive.dodlive.mil/archives/13023#_edn1" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;list-style:none;border:0px none;color:rgb(86,86,61);" rel="nofollow">[i]</a>  Embedded within these units were corpsmen like Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class Stanley Dabrowski, of New Britain, Conn., who remembered, the tremendous noise, concussion of small arms fire, explosions of artillery and sounds of shells. “As we were coming into the beach we were under a rolling barrage of 16-inch guns of the battleships.  You could just feel those shells going over your head.”

The beach was unlike anything U.S. forces encountered in previous campaigns.  What was called “sand” was volcanic ash that one corpsman later compared to walking in a “bin of buckwheat.”   Directly behind the beach the wind and waves shaped this soft terrain into a 15-foot terrace that slowed the progress of vehicles and men into the fight.  It was not long before the beaches were clogged with the invading force.  Although the initial landings did not face heavy counterattack, once the beaches were full of men, vehicles and equipment the island’s defenders unleased the full fury of artillery, mortar and rockets.  In this chaos, casualties mounted quickly and calls for “Corpsman!” were ever-present.