Sammy Bernstein
War Strategy Revealed: Iwo Jima
The battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between the U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. Located 750 miles off the coast of Japan, the island of Iwo Jima had three airfields that could serve as a staging facility for a potential invasion of mainland Japan. American forces invaded the island, and the ensuing Battle of Iwo Jima lasted five weeks. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it's believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. But once the fighting was over, the strategic value of Iwo Jima was called into question.
Apple TV
In the Shadow of Suribachi: Sammy's Story
Sammy Bernstein, an enlisted United States Marine, was one of the seventy-thousand men who stormed ashore Iwo Jima’s volcanic ash. The island would become a tomb for almost all of the twenty-two thousand Japanese defending it. If surviving thirty-six days of hell can be considered lucky, then Sammy was one of the lucky ones. He came home. Sammy’s Story is a coming-of-age story—from his surprise enlistment in the Marine Corps as a naive, young boy to his transition into a battle-ready Marine on the black sands of Iwo Jima.
Apple TV
Apple iTunes