Vienna railyards hit by 15th Air Force
…
By Henry J. Taylor
…
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance
…
Our losses on Iwo Island will sober those who had concluded, from the Luzon victories and the unchallenged sweep of our fleets into Tokyo waters, that the Japs were weakening. American military men never had that idea. But even they, apparently, are somewhat surprised by the ferocity of this battle.
Adm. Halsey predicted that it would not be as tough as Tarawa. Now the Marine command says it is the worst in the Corps’ 168 years, which is the most extreme description an American can think of.
No immediate letup is in sight. There is no front line or rear in the usual sense; that is, there is no spot on the five-mile island where our troops are safe from enemy fire. The Japs have the heights overlooking all of our hard-won positions, and are making use of that advantage.
All of which makes the American advance more remarkable. The Marines not only have lived up to their heroic history, but have written a grim new chapter of valor. Without cover of any kind, they have climbed the treacherous rocks under enemy fire from all sides and kept going. They took the main airfield 30 hours ahead of schedule, cut the island in two, and are now flanking the second field.
Every possible aid is being given our ground troops by the supporting services. Surface ships, ringing the island, keep up a steady bombardment of enemy positions. Carrier planes follow the ground forces like protective hawks, regardless of foul weather. So far, the sea and air patrol has been so complete that not a single Jap ship or plane has broken through.
And not least important, virtually all American casualties on the island are being removed at once to safety and care.
Nobody will question the strategic necessity of this battle. To the Japs, Iwo is a base which must be held at all cost; to Americans, it must be taken at all cost. That is why the fighting is so bloody. Iwo and the Bonins, 100 miles north, are the last fixed sea defenses before Tokyo itself – only about 700 miles away.
Iwo, when captured, will protect the flanks of our fleet operating in Jap home waters. Iwo will give us air bases from which even medium bombers can blast Japan, and from which fighter planes can escort Superfortresses. The fall of Iwo will shake the enemy as nothing before.
It’s a job that must be done. It’s a job the Marines are doing with great glory.
Training program sponsor cites advice
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
Bridegroom’s family protests so he turns property over to it
…
By Ernie Pyle
IN THE MARIANAS ISLANDS (delayed) – You may wonder why we have American troops at all here in the Marianas Islands, since we are 1,500 miles away from the Philippines, China, or Japan itself.
Well, it’s because in this Pacific war of vast water distances, we have to make gigantic bases of each group of islands we take, in order to build up supplies and preparations for future invasions farther on.
The Marianas happen to be a sort of crossroads in the Western Pacific. Stuff can go either west or north from here. Whoever sits in the Marianas can have his finger on the whole web of the war.
Thus the Marianas are becoming a heart of the Pacific war. Our naval and military leaders make no bones about it, for the Japs know it anyhow, but they’re too far away to do anything about it.
The Marianas are both thrilling and engaging right now. Scores of thousands of troops of all kinds are here. Furious building is going on. Planes arrive on schedule from all directions as though this were Chicago Airport – only they’ve come thousands of miles over water. Convoys unload unbelievable tonnages.
No more placidity
These islands will hum throughout the war and they will never return to their former placid life, for we are building on almost every inch of useable land. Supplies in staggering quantities are being stacked up here for future use. You can take your pick of K-rations or lumber or bombs, and you’d find enough of either to feed a city, build one, or blow it up.
Fleets can base here between engagements. Combat troops train here. Other troops come back to rest. Great hospitals are set up for our future wounded. Pipelines criss-cross the islands. Trucks bumper to bumper dash forward as though they were on the Western Front. Ox-cart trails turn almost overnight into four-lane macadam highways for military traffic.
No blackout
There is no blackout in the islands. If raiders come the lights are turned off, but they seldom come anymore. The Marianas are a pretty safe place now.
Great long macadam airstrips are in operation and others are being laid. The Marianas are the seat of some of our B-29 bomber fleets which will grow and grow and grow.
Thousands of square tents, thousands of curved steel Quonset huts, thousands of huge, permanent warehouses and office buildings dot the islands. Lights burn all night and the roar of planes, the clank of bulldozers, and the clatter of hammers is constant. It is a strange contrast to the stillness that dwelt amidst this greenery for so many centuries.
There are 15 islands in this chain, running due north and south. They string out a total distance of more than 400 miles. We are on the southern end.
Hold three islands
We only hold three islands, but they are the biggest and the only three that count. The other islands are completely “neutralized” by our occupancy of these three.
There are a few Japs living on some of the others, but there’s nothing they can do to harm us. The islands we haven’t bothered with are small and worthless. Most of them have no inhabitants at all.
The islands we took are Guam, Tinian and Saipan. Guam had been ours for many years before Japan took it away from just after Pearl Harbor. Tinian and Saipan had been Japanese since the last war. We took the whole batch last summer.
Guam is the biggest and southernmost. Tinian and Saipan are right together, 120 miles north of Guam. You can fly up there in less than an hour, and our transport planes shuttle back and forth several times daily on regular schedule. They have to make a “dog-leg” around the island of Rota, about halfway up for there are still Japs on it with 50-caliber machine guns, and they’ll shoot at you.
Monotonous paradise
I’ve been on all three of our islands, and I must admit two things – that I like it here, and that you can’t help but be thrilled by what the Americans are doing.
And from all I’ve picked up so far, I think it can be said that most Americans like the Marianas Islands, assuming they have to be away from home at all.
The savage heat and the dread diseases and the awful jungles of the more southern Pacific Islands do not exist here. The climate is good, the islands are pretty, and the native Chamorros are nice people.
Health conditions among our men are excellent. They work in shorts or without shirts and are deeply tanned. The mosquito and fly problem has been licked. There is almost no venereal disease. Food is good. The weather is always warm but not cruelly hot. Almost always a breeze is blowing. Anywhere you look, you have a pretty view.
Yes, the islands are a paradise and life here is fine – except it’s empty and there is no diversion and the monotony eventually gnaws at you.