[chuckfourth]

Hi Narwan
Well I agree that the Japs are in a "no surrender" class of there own. If I were to rank the various nations/OOBs in order of "no surrender" I would have thought it might go something like Japs, SS/NKVD, eastern front wermacht/Marines I think its a bit odd that the marines get the -same- no surrender bonus as the japs and better than SS. Looking at the Marine campaigns/landings it seems that in common with the dodgy political SS units they actually had very little chance to surrender anyway, hence the surrender record, ie
(and without trying to belittle the efforts of the Marines)
The Marines did have enormous material advantages over the Japs. ie complete air control and so thorough pre-landing reconassience, Artillery support was phenominal, in the pre-landing bombardment Io Jima got 1950 rounds of 16", 1500 14", 400 12", 1700 8", 2000 6", 31000 5" plus air, plus rockets. So the Marines were never going to fail. Best I can find using memory here didnt bookmark it, is a Marine Battalion did get to about 60% casualties before being pulled out of the line and replaced by a fresh unit. The Marines had excellent supply, hospital ships etc etc, the Japs were usualy completely isolated and often hungry, their minute artillery was quickly located and smashed. So the few Japanese counter-attacks (excluding banzai suicide charges) they actually made (This is where the Marines get the chance to surrender) were basically unsupported and hence failed especially in the face of the massive artillery that must have been directed at any japanese troop concentration.
Considering this Im not sure the marines deserve the in-game "no surrender" bonus. If the "no surrender" bonus is because they 'thought' the Japs would butcher them the same applies to the SS I would think.
Best Regards Chuck.