An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary, this Technicolor production unfold with graphic energy the nearly month long battle for Iwo Jima, a volcanic island lying 700 miles southeast of Japan, in which 20'000 Japanese and nearly 7000 American fighting men were killed. A struggle immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of Marines and a Navy corpsman raising a giant U.S. flag atop 550 foot high Mt. Suribachi, captured here in this well-edited effort. With all footage compiled by combat photographers from the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, we watch as the defending positions are softened by an extensive aerial and Naval bombardment, followed by ten waves of landing craft occupied by men selected from 110'000 (and 880 ships!) who had to fight for every inch of black sandy soil. As only 200 Japanese surrendered, many being fused by flamethrowers, shown in dispiriting detail during the course of this work which was released only two months after the brutal engagement and months before the atomic bombing attacks upon the Japanese mainland.