In February 1945, carrier aircraft of Task Force 58 struck Tokyo and surrounding airfields in the first American assault on the Japanese home islands since the Doolittle Raid nearly three years earlier. On February 16–17, more than a thousand Navy planes hit airfields, factories, and port installations around the Japanese capital, suppressing the air defenses that would otherwise threaten the assault force. Three days later, on February 19, the Marines of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Divisions landed on Iwo Jima, beginning one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Pacific War on an island less than 700 miles from Tokyo. The All Hands Bulletin for March 1945 reported on both operations, linking the carrier offensive against Japan’s air power directly to the amphibious assault on the strategic island.
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