 FACT: During the initial bombardment of Iwo Jima by the U.S. Naval  Fleet, the distinctive shape of several Iowa Class battleships is  shown (their bows had a unique curvature when seen in profile).  While several of these ships were at Iwo, they were miles off shore  being assigned to protect the Fleet Carrier forces. One scene showed  Japanese return fire scoring a direct hit just below the super  structure on one of these Battleships. In fact, none of these ships  were hit during the battle, mainly because they were well out of  range of the Japanese guns on the island.