General Graves Erskine

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Named to Col. Erskine  and dated 1940 tan tailored 4 pocket service coat 

General Graves Erskine commander of the 3d Marine Division joined the fighting on Iwo Jima on the fifth day of the battle.  His Marines immediately began the mission of securing the center sector of the island.  Lieutenant General Tadamishi Kuribayashi, commander of the Japanese ground forces on Iwo Jima, concentrated his energies and his forces in the central and northern sections of the island.  Miles of interlocking caves, concrete blockhouses and pillboxes proved to be some of the most impenetrable defenses encountered by the Marines in the Pacific. 

The 3d Marine Division encountered the most heavily fortified portion of the island in their move to take Airfield No. 2.  As with most of the fighting on Iwo Jima, frontal assault was the method used to gain each inch of ground.  By nightfall on 9 March, the 3d Marine Division reached the island’s northeastern beach, cutting the enemy defenses in two.

Operations entered the final phases 11 March.  Enemy resistance was no longer centralized and individual pockets of resistance were taken one by one.  Finally on 26 March, following a banzai attack against troops and air corps personnel near the beaches, the island was declared secure.  The Battle for Iwo Jima encompassed the largest body of Marines committed in combat to any one operation during World War II.