U.S. Marine Corps

4th Marine Division

The 4th Marine Division went from activation to combat in seven months and never stopped. Four major amphibious assaults in thirteen months - Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima - a pace of violence unmatched by any division in Marine Corps history. Today the 4th Marine Division serves as the ground combat element of the Marine Forces Reserve, keeping the Fighting Fourth alive with citizen Marines ready to answer the call.

THE FIGHTING FOURTH Est. 1943

4TH MARINE DIVISION

FIGHTING FOURTH

EST. AUGUST 14, 1943

4TH MARINE DIVISION

The Fighting Fourth - Marine Forces Reserve

ASSAULTS IN 13 MOS

STATUS SINCE 1945

The 4th Marine Division was activated at Camp Pendleton on August 14, 1943 and was in combat by February 1944 - one of the fastest activations to first-combat timelines in military history. What followed was thirteen months of sustained amphibious warfare across the Central Pacific that no other Marine division has matched. Four major opposed landings, each one a bloodbath. After the war, the division was deactivated, then reactivated in 1966 as a Reserve division. Today's 4th Marine Division is headquartered in New Orleans with battalions spread across the country - civilian Marines who drill on weekends and stand ready for mobilization. The Fighting Fourth's active-duty service lasted barely two years. In those two years, it fought four of the most savage battles of the Pacific War. Read more

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DIVISION STRUCTURE - THE REGIMENTS

23RD MARINE REGIMENT

23RD MARINE REGIMENT

Roi Island in Hours

MARIANA ISLANDS

VOLCANO ISLANDS

The 23rd Marines took Roi Island in their first combat action, then fought at Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. Today the regiment serves as a Reserve infantry regiment with battalions across the United States, maintaining the lineage of a regiment that fought four contested beaches in thirteen months. Read more

24TH MARINE REGIMENT

24TH MARINE REGIMENT

Namur Island - The Explosion

AMMUNITION BLAST

THE MEAT GRINDER

The 24th Marines stormed Namur Island where a catastrophic ammunition dump explosion killed and wounded over a hundred Marines in seconds. The regiment went on to fight at Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. At Iwo Jima the 24th Marines fought through the Meat Grinder complex alongside the 25th Marines, taking devastating casualties in the fortified volcanic terrain. Read more

25TH MARINE REGIMENT

25TH MARINE REGIMENT

The Hardest Hit - Four Beaches, Highest Casualties

COMBAT INEFFECTIVE

BATTALIONS MERGED

The 25th Marines took the heaviest casualties of any regiment in the 4th Marine Division. At Saipan, the regiment absorbed the brunt of the massive banzai charge. At Iwo Jima, the 25th Marines were ground down in the Meat Grinder until battalions had to be consolidated - there were not enough Marines left to maintain unit integrity. The regiment's sacrifice at Iwo Jima is one of the most costly in Marine Corps history. Read more

14TH MARINE REGIMENT

14TH MARINE REGIMENT

Division Artillery

The 14th Marines provided artillery fire support across all four of the division's amphibious campaigns. At Iwo Jima, the regiment's pack howitzers fired from positions on the black volcanic sand, supporting the infantry's agonizing advance through Kuribayashi's defense in depth. Today the 14th Marines serve as the Reserve artillery regiment, maintaining proficiency with M777 howitzers across batteries nationwide. Read more

MARSHALL ISLANDS January - February 1944

KWAJALEIN ATOLL

FEBRUARY 1-2, 1944

First Blood - Lessons from Tarawa Applied

MARINES REGIMENT

MARINES REGIMENT

LESSONS APPLIED

The 4th Marine Division's first combat came at Roi-Namur in the Kwajalein Atoll - twin islands connected by a causeway. The 23rd Marines took Roi, the 24th Marines took Namur. The division applied every lesson from Tarawa's disaster three months earlier - better naval gunfire coordination, amphibious tractors that could cross the reef, and underwater demolition teams clearing obstacles. Roi fell in hours. Namur was harder - a massive explosion from a Japanese ammunition dump killed twenty Marines and wounded a hundred more in a single blast. But Roi-Namur was secured in two days. The contrast with Tarawa was deliberate. The 2nd Marine Division had paid for the lessons in blood. The 4th Marine Division made sure those lessons were not wasted. Read more

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MARIANA ISLANDS June - August 1944

MARIANA ISLANDS

JUNE 15 - JULY 9, 1944

Side by Side with the 2nd Marine Division

MARINES - HEAVY LOSSES

On Saipan the 4th Marine Division landed alongside the 2nd Marine Division on June 15, 1944 and fought through twenty-five days of organized Japanese defense across rugged volcanic terrain. The 25th Marines took particularly heavy casualties. On July 7, the Japanese launched the largest banzai charge of the Pacific War - roughly 4,000 soldiers overwhelming American positions in a human wave. The 4th Marine Division's lines bent but held. Saipan was four months after Roi-Namur. The division had barely recovered before being thrown into the next island. This was the tempo of the Central Pacific drive - one contested beach after another with no time to absorb the losses between them. Read more

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MARIANA ISLANDS

JULY 24 - AUGUST 1, 1944

Textbook Assault - Feint and Strike

DECEPTION LANDING

AIRFIELD CAPTURED

ASSAULT IN 5 MONTHS

Two weeks after Saipan - two weeks - the 4th Marine Division hit the beach at Tinian alongside the 2nd Marine Division. A brilliant feint drew Japanese defenders to the wrong coast while Marines stormed narrow beaches on the opposite side. Tinian was secured in nine days - a tactical masterpiece. It was the 4th Marine Division's third major assault in five months. The captured airfield at North Field would later launch the Enola Gay to Hiroshima. The men who took that airfield had no idea what it would be used for. Read more

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IWO JIMA February - March 1945

VOLCANO ISLANDS

FEBRUARY 19 - MARCH 26, 1945

The Meat Grinder - Turkey Knob, The Amphitheater, Hill 382

ASSAULT - RIGHT FLANK

TURKEY KNOB COMPLEX

Iwo Jima was the 4th Marine Division's fourth major assault in thirteen months - and the worst. The division landed on the right flank on D-Day, February 19, 1945, and drew the assignment of reducing the fortified complex Marines called the Meat Grinder - a cluster of mutually supporting positions around Turkey Knob, the Amphitheater, and Hill 382. The Japanese had spent months turning this volcanic terrain into an interlocking fortress of tunnels, bunkers, and camouflaged positions. The 4th Marine Division battered itself against the Meat Grinder for weeks. Companies that went in at full strength came out with a handful of Marines. The 25th Marines were so depleted that battalions were consolidated. By the time Iwo Jima was secured, the 4th Marine Division had suffered casualties so severe that it was combat-ineffective. The division never fought again. It sailed back to Maui, and when the war ended, it went home. Four assaults. Thirteen months. Done. Read more

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RESERVE DIVISION 1966 - Present

REACTIVATED 1966

MARINE FORCES RESERVE

Citizen Marines - The Fourth Division Lives On

The 4th Marine Division was reactivated in 1966 as the ground combat element of the Marine Forces Reserve. Today its battalions are spread across the country - Reserve Marines who maintain civilian careers while training to deploy on short notice. During the Global War on Terror, Reserve battalions from the 4th Marine Division were mobilized and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, proving that citizen Marines can fight alongside their active-duty counterparts. The Fighting Fourth's reserve status does not diminish its lineage. Every Marine in the 4th Marine Division carries Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima on the division's battle streamers. Read more

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4

AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULTS

13

MONTHS OF COMBAT

6,821

U.S. KIA - IWO JIMA

Reserve

CURRENT STATUS