Bravest guys in world fighting on ‘Hell Island’
By the United Press
Iwo’s too crowded for both Yanks, Japs
U.S. PACIFIC FLEET HQ, Guam (UP) – Referring to the unparalleled density of American and Jap fighting troops on tiny Iwo, an American officer remarked today: “Someone’s going to have to get off and it isn’t going to be us.”
Iwo could well be named “Hell Island” where a battle beyond comparison with anything else anywhere is raging, a correspondent said today in a pooled broadcast from Adm. Richmond K. Turner’s flagship off the island.
The correspondent said:
The situation was terrific from first one side and then the other. But the Marines are going ahead and they’re driving the Japs back.
I saw the bravest guys in the world hiding in foxholes, running forward in a crouch, leaping into Jap emplacements and then finishing off the enemy at close quarters.
You know it takes guts to fight that way.
Replacements are constantly moving forward. There are Japanese bodies everywhere, too, and that makes you feel a little better.
He said the Jap artillery and rockets and the American warship bombardment throughout the night “makes a hell if there ever was one – and that is Iwo.”
Jap mortar and artillery fire is everywhere. When reinforcements arrive, there is a “Hail, hail, the ammunition is here.” We’ve got to have ammunition.
The beach itself is littered with scores of landing craft.
There is nothing anywhere to compare with the battle of this island – the Battle of Iwo Island.