A mammoth three-dimensional terrain model from the runup to the 1945 invasion of Iwo Jima, rendering the entire island in extraordinary detail. A dramatic and remarkable survival.

The model depicts Mount Suribachi, the island’s deeply broken volcanic terrain, cliffs and beaches, agricultural and vegetated areas, roads and tracks, buildings and settlements, and the two operating Japanese airfields that were the principal objectives of the American assault. Molded topography is supplemented by extensive hand painting, with individual roads, structures, fields and vegetation picked out against the surrounding blue sea. At 1:5,000 scale, the model was large enough to be studied communally by officers and troops preparing for the operation.

Prepared for the invasion
The model can be dated with considerable confidence to the months before the February 19, 1945 invasion. Most telling is its depiction of the airfields: both Motoyama No. 1 in the far south and Motoyama No. 2 in the center of the island retain their Japanese configurations, while Airfield No. 3 to the north is represented only in an early state of construction. The official Navy construction history records that when the Marines landed, two Japanese fields were operational and a third, 3,800-foot strip was still under construction.

As important for dating, the model shows none of the extensive reconstruction and expansion undertaken by American engineers almost immediately after the landing, particularly the enlargement of Motoyama No. 1 and No. 2. Taken together, these features point strongly to late 1944 or early 1945, in preparation for the invasion, rather than manufacture during or after the campaign.

Three-dimensional terrain maps become an important component of American operational planning during the Second World War. Prepared from aerial photography and other intelligence, they were used for invasion planning, beach studies, artillery and naval gunfire preparation, and the briefing of ground troops and aircrews. Large-scale models were particularly useful for amphibious operations in the Pacific, where assault forces repeatedly faced unfamiliar islands that could be studied in detail only through reconnaissance before the landing. Beach-study models were commonly produced at scales of 1:2,500 or 1:5,000, while smaller-scale models were used for aircrew briefing.

Production was a specialized and labor-intensive process. A terrain master was developed from aerial photographs and photo interpretation, with roads, buildings, vegetation and other details modeled onto the surface. A negative mold was then made, foam rubber cast from it, and the finished relief hand- and spray-painted. The resulting maps were light enough to transport and flexible enough for operational use, but their materials were never intended for long-term survival.

The model is not signed, but it was likely made at the Navy’s Terrain Model Workshop at Camp Bradford, Virginia, a base overseen by the Atlantic Amphibious Training Command. A surviving Iwo Jima model at the National Museum of the Pacific War, very similar to ours, is documented as having been made there. Likewise, the official Navy account of Operation DETACHMENT records that the Command produced 60 rubber Iwo Jima models at 1:10,000 for ships and units and another 40 for troops. Similarly, after Okinawa, the 1st Marine Division recorded receiving rubber and plaster relief maps at both 1:5,000 and 1:10,000 from Camp Bradford.

Terrain models in use at Iwo Jima
The terrain models seem to have been used throughout the invasion force. For example, an official photograph shows senior commanders gathered around an Iwo Jima terrain model during planning. The battleship Texas likewise carried a foam-rubber model that was shown to every man aboard, and the battleship North Carolina, now moored in Wilmington, still retains its map of the island. retained a three-dimensional Iwo Jima model for briefing and later for tracking the advance of American troops. Likewise, after-action reports of the major ground units involved explicitly record the use of the maps in planning and preparation.

Likewise, after-action reports of the major ground units involved explicitly record the use of the maps in planning and preparation. The 4th Marine Division notes for example that “for the briefing the relief map was consistently used.” The 3rd Marine Division was more critical, recommending that future relief maps reproduce exact ground configuration more accurately, particularly in rugged terrain. It also noted that bombardment had destroyed most of the vegetation and in places substantially altered the surface of the island, rapidly reducing the value of maps and photographs prepared beforehand.

Production run, survival rate, and rarity
The documentary record gives an unusually precise sense of the original production run. In its April 30, 1945 report, the V Amphibious Corps G-2 section discusses maps and photographs under the heading “Preparatory Phase” and records two kinds of relief map: rigid plastic models at 1:7,000 and foam rubber maps at 1:5,000. Of the latter, ten were furnished to each of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and one to the 1st Provisional Field Artillery Group—31 examples in all. In addition, the Navy records the separate production of 100 rubber models at 1:10,000, so contemporary sources document at least 131 rubber relief models of Iwo Jima at these two scales prepared for Operation DETACHMENT.

The survival rate of these terrain models appears to have been low indeed. The only other Iwo Jima models we have been able to document are

• A pre-invasion model at the National Museum of the Pacific War, retained by the workshop’s executive officer after new intelligence about Airfield No. 3 rendered it obsolete;
• A roughly 1:12,500 example preserved by the USS North Carolina, constructed for invasion preparation and later conserved at East Carolina University;
• A “3D rubber relief map” (scale not known) in the Museum of Flight’s Robert R. Hadley collection;
• A 1:5000 example in rough condition sold at Bonhams in 2015 for $11,250, though its current whereabouts are not known; and
• A much smaller example dated September 1945 is currently on offer by Barry Ruderman Antique Maps, with whom I own the present item.

Provenance
The map was acquired from the family of John Parmakian (1908-1994) of the Corps of Engineers. Parmakian grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts, and graduated from Watertown High School in 1926. He later earned an engineering degree from Northeastern University and joined the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1930, where his early work included projects associated with Hoover Dam.

He entered the military in 1940 and was discharged in 1946. Nothing of his early service is not known, but in the first half of 1944 he was published twice in Coast Artillery Journal, where he is identified as a lieutenant colonel in the Coast Artillery Corps.

Fortunately for us this terrain model is accompanied by Parmakian’s Bronze Star certificate “for meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy [/] Pacific Theater of Operations, 7 November 1944 – 1 May 1945,” the certificate itself dated April 9, 1953. At the time he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers, though the timing of his transfer from Coast Artillery to the Engineers is not known. His very sparse service records document only a brief “temporary” assignment aboard the attack transport USS Briscoe in January 1945; that ship was slated for the Iwo Jima operation but withdrew for repairs before reaching the objective. Some time after May 1945 he was promoted to full Colonel.

After the war Parmakian returned to Reclamation, eventually becoming Associate Chief Engineer and a leading authority on hydraulic engineering and water-hammer analysis.

References
Background on the construction and use of terrain models from the Terrain Models website and from C. S. Spooner, Jr., “Use of Aerial Photographs in the Construction of Military Terrain Models,” Photogrammetric Engineering, vol. 14, no. 4 (1948), pp. 513–521.

Offered in partnership with Barry Ruderman Antique Maps of La Jolla, California.