26 mars 1945 - End of the Battle of Iwo Jima

Description:

After a little more than a month of fighting, American Marines had finally captured the island, losing 6,800 out of the original 60,000 marines in the process. Although the Japanese had very strong defenses, they were proven useless by flamethrowers.
This battle is significant, because it put the U.S. within bombing distance of Japan. Unlike the Dolittle raid, this was in range of much more destructive bombs.