On March 6, 1945, the first P-51 Mustang touched down on Iwo Jima at Airfield no. 1 with 7th Fighter Command Brigadier General Earnest M. “Mickey” Moore in the pilot seat. Twenty-six Mustangs followed from the 47th Fighter Squadron, 15th Fighter Group, and became the first of nine P-51 equipped squadrons from three different fighter groups to be based at Iwo Jima for the VLR, or Very Long Range missions to Japan. However, at this time, the plans were still under development for the first VLR mission, which would not occur until just over one month later. While the last details of the long-range missions were still being finalized, the Mustangs immediately began combat operations on their new home. The 47th FS P-51s first started flying Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and submarine patrol missions around the island the very next day, as the other two squadrons from the 15th FG arrived in the subsequent days. On March 8, those same 47th FS Mustangs strafed and bombed Japanese held positions on Iwo Jima to assist the Marines in securing the island. With the first VLR mission still weeks away, there was another reason for the Mustangs to be stationed on Iwo Jima, and it was about to get underway.
For the P-51s on Iwo, their presence on the island put them just under 750 miles from mainland Japan. This meant they could escort the B-29s there, as well as conduct fighter strikes on key enemy airfields, installations and other targets of importance. It would be a long flight, averaging about 7 hours and 15 minutes per mission during the war, but it could be accomplished with the P-51 Mustang. Besides the VLR missions, 7th Fighter Command was also, the Japanese word that means “no people” or “uninhabited.” While many of the small islands were in fact unpopulated, people lived on Iwo, Chichi, and Haha Jima. In July 1944, the 1,000-plus living on Iwo Jima were forced to evacuate as the island would become a larger base for Japanese forces to protect the mainland. The same was true of Haha Jima, where approximately 2,000 citizens were forced to leave, as well as on Chichi Jima, where the number was close to 7,000. Before that time, there was a small Japanese military presence on each of those islands. For instance, on Chichi Jima, the island had served as a small naval and seaplane base, along with housing radio and weather stations. The island became infamous for being where future U.S. President George H. W. Bush was shot down in September of 1944. For the U.S. forces, it was imperative that these small islands not be allowed to interfere with activity from Iwo Jima or anywhere else in the area of operations. This would include simple radio transmissions of Allied ship and aircraft movement towards Japan. With that in mind, after the Allies decided to capture Iwo Jima, the primary purpose of the strikes against the Bonin Islands was to prevent the Japanese from using Susaki airfield on Chichi Jima, as well as to take out the communication possibilities for the island. In addition to these strikes, other targets would include shipping, villages, vehicles, and warehouse storage areas.
