Napalm didn't come into use in bombs until 1944.

It was heavily used by the Navy & Marines on Iwo Jima & especially Okinawa.

It was an excellent area denial weapon as a bomb had to enter a narrow cave with overhang, or gun slit - whereas Napalm would burn the area out - and even if the flames didn't enter, the consumption of oxygen in caves often left Japanese troops unburned yet stone dead.



US Marine Pilots were experts at using their Corsairs to provide close air support for Marines, including Napalm.

The Marines found Napalm so useful they upgraded a number of Sherman medium tanks into Flame Tanks to attach fortified enemy strongpoints while giving protection against small arms fire.





Bigger_Hammer

by the time they got to Okinawa US services were tired of the whole thing of caves. They backed aviation fuel trucks up to any entrance they could find empty them down the cave/tunnel. Toss in a couple of grenades and shoot anything that popped up from other holes.

HCN might've.  Or phosgene.

IIRC, there was some debate to using chemical weapons on targets like Betio:  isolated, practically zero civilians, and heavily fortified.  Plus the benefit that the IJA was unlikely to be able to return the favor...

Covering the island in WP or napalm works too, I guess.  Though looking back, jeez, just skip it and take Kwaj instead.

My father was there, when I was a kid I remember him never eating shellfish when I asked why he told me about crabs and lobsters on Marine bodies who had fallen in the surf.

God I miss him.

May he rest in peace.

"Lady Marines"

The narration makes the film.

My Dad was temporarily assigned to Hawkins' platoon and trained up for the invasion of Tarawa (Betio). Right before they hit the island, the Marine that my Dad was replacing came back off his medical profile, so they put my Dad back in the commo platoon. Probably pretty lucky for him.  Dad made it through Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa prior to occupying Nagasaki shortly after Fat Man dropped.  He lived to be 87.