Don, no idea; but the US ARMY AIR FORCES IN WW2, VOL 5 has some stuff about the preliminary bombardments on Iwo:
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/V/AAF-V-19.html
Summarized:
While B-29s did take part in the initial bombardment of Iwo starting December 1944; they were quickly replaced by B-24s in the neutralization role, and B-24s took direct part in the fighting (excerpts below):
Accordingly, long-range fighters as well as Seventh Air Force B-24's were to participate in the assault phase of DETACHMENT and control was vested in Harmon when he became commander of the Strategic Air Force, POA (Task Force 93) on 6 December.
..
D-day, 19 February, dawned clear. Task Force 58, its Tokyo strikes completed, had come on for the assault and two of its battleships and thirteen cruisers joined in the neutralization fire as Marines shifted from transports into the landing craft. Between H minus 1 and H-hour (0800 to 0900), while the amphibious tractors maneuvered into position, the warships laid down a barrage, and aircraft from the escorts and Mitscher's fast carriers swept in. A strike by 44 B-24's had been scheduled, but when over half of them aborted, only 15 arrived to drop 19 tons of 100-pound GP's on the island's eastern defenses.
...
On three occasions small formations of B-24's were called up from the Marianas to bomb defensive positions, but the Seventh's most important contribution to the ground fighting was through its fighters.
Re: Iwo Jima
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