Marines Probe Identity Of Iwo Jima Serviceman

The US Marine Corps is investigating whether it mistakenly identified one of the men shown raising the US flag at Iwo Jima in one of the iconic images of World War Two.

The inquiry was launched after two amateur history enthusiasts - Eric Krelle, of Omaha, and Stephen Foley, of Wexford, Ireland - raised doubts about the identity of one of the men in 2014.

Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal shot the photograph on 23 February, 1945, on Mount Suribachi, amid an intense battle with the Japanese.

He did not get the names of the men, but President Franklin Roosevelt told the military to identify them.

After some confusion, the Marines identified them as John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Harlon Block, Michael Strank and Franklin Sousley. They were all Marines except Bradley, who was a Navy corpsman.

Block, Strank and Sousley were killed in the fighting at Iwo Jima before the photo was distributed in the US.

In a statement on Monday, the Marines said: "The Marine Corps is examining information provided by a private organisation related (to) Joe Rosenthal's Associated Press photograph of the second flag raising on Iwo Jima.

"Rosenthal's photo captured a single moment in the 36-day battle during which more than 6,500 US servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation and it is representative of the more than 70,000 US Marines, sailors, soldiers and coast guardsmen that took part in the battle.

"We are humbled by the service and sacrifice of all who fought on Iwo Jima."

The tiny island of Iwo Jima - 660 miles south of Tokyo - was the scene of an intense 36-day battle which began on 19 February, 1945, between around 70,000 Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers.

Capturing Iwo Jima had been deemed essential to the US war effort because Japanese fighter planes were taking off from the island and intercepting US bomber aircraft.

The identification of the six servicemen had been accepted for decades, but in November 2014 the Omaha World-Herald published claims by Mr Krelle and Mr Foley that Bradley had been wrongly identified.

After examining the image along with other pictures taken that day of the men, they concluded that the sixth member in the image was actually Harold Henry Schultz, a private first class from Detroit. Schultz died in 1995.

Bradley's son, James Bradley, wrote a best-selling book about the flag raisers - Flags Of Our Fathers - which was later made into a Hollywood film directed by Clint Eastwood.

He told Associated Press: "This is unbelievable. I'm interested in facts and truths, so that's fine, but I don't know what's happening."