Völkischer Beobachter (February 25, 1945)
Vergebliche Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets
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Der Kampf um Iwojima
Tokio, 24. Februar – Mit unerhörter Zähigkeit verteidigen die japanischen Truppen jeden Fußbreit der Insel Iwojima. Frontberichte vom Freitag unterstreichen, dass die Amerikaner seit Dienstagabend keine Fortschritte mehr gemacht haben. Die für die Verteidigung entscheidenden Punkte der Insel sind fest in japanischer Hand. Die nördlichen Gebiete sind einstweilen von den Angriffen der amerikanischen Truppen nicht berührt.
Mittelpunkt des Kampfes ist der Ort Chidor Hama, wo die Amerikaner eine Landungsbrücke erobern konnten. Auch das in der Nähe des Ortes gelegene südliche Flugfeld ist im Besitz des Feindes. Die überraschend starken amerikanischen Verbände befinden sich in diesem verhältnismäßig kleinen Raum unter dem Beschuss der japanischen Artillerie, die auch Raketengeschütze einsetzt. Dadurch werden verheerende Wirkungen in dem kleinen amerikanischen Landekopf erzielt.
Etwa 50 amerikanische Kriegsschiffe, darunter auch Schlachtschiffe, befinden sich in den Gewässern rund um Iwojima. In ihrer Begleitung sollen sich nach letzten Nachrichten etwa 180 Transporter mit 250 kleinen Landungsfahrzeugen befinden.
Noch immer wird mit der allergrößten Erbitterung in Manila gekämpft, wo die japanischen Truppen gegenüber einem zahlenmäßig weit überlegenen Gegner jeden Zoll Boden wütend verteidigen. Die japanischen Truppen gehen immer wieder zu Gegenangriffen über. Vorübergehend in die Stadt eingedrungene Amerikaner wurden von den Japanern wieder hinausgeworfen.
Auf der Inselfestung Corregidor am Eingang der Burg von Manila setzen die japanischen Verteidiger ihren Widerstand gegen die feindlichen Boden- und Luftlandetruppen auf den Höhen und im bewaldeten Teil der Insel fort. In Artillerieduellen zwischen den Küstenbatterien und feindlichen Flotteneinheiten wurden bisher zehn feindliche Kriegsschiffe in Brand geschossen.
Führer HQ (February 25, 1945)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Die Angriffsverbände des Heeres und der Waffen-SS zerschlugen trotz hartnäckiger Gegenwehr den noch verbliebenen feindlichen Brückenkopf auf dem Westufer des Gran. Im slowakischen Erzgebirge sowie im Raum von Bielitz und Ratibor blieben Aufklärungsvorstöße der Bolschewisten ohne Erfolg.
Beiderseits Zobten und am Nordrand des Katzbachgebirges kam der Feind in anhaltend harten Kämpfen nur in einzelnen Abschnitten geringfügig über seine Ausgangsstellungen hinaus. Die Durchbruchsversuche feindlicher Panzerkräfte nordwestlich Lauban brachen auch gestern blutig zusammen. Gegen Forst und Guben geführte Angriffe zerschellten in unserem Abwehrfeuer. Im schlesischen Raum wurden 67 feindliche Panzer vernichtet oder erbeutet.
Zwischen Neustettin und Könitz drückte der Gegner mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften unsere Front auf eine Sehnenstellung zurück, während in der Tucheler Heide und westlich der unteren Weichsel die Angriffe des Feindes erfolglos blieben.
In der großen Schlacht in Ostpreußen haben unsere seit sechs Wochen ununterbrochen in hartem Kampf stehenden Divisionen dem Ansturm von acht Sowjetarmeen standgehalten. Wuchtige eigene Angriffe in Samland warfen den Gegner weit nach Nordosten zurück. Seestreitkräfte griffen auch gestern mit guter Wirkung in diese Kämpfe ein.
Südöstlich Libau zeigten die Angriffe der Bolschewisten infolge der hohen Verluste nicht mehr die Geschlossenheit der Vortage. Unsere Truppen schlugen die Angreifer zurück und vernichteten 23 feindliche Panzer.
Im Westen wurde im Kampfraum um Goch ein örtlicher Einbruch des Feindes südöstlich der Stadt eingeengt, erneuten Durchbruchs versuche südlich Goch zum Stehen gebracht. Die Abwehrschlacht an der Roer tobt auf einer Breite von 60 Kilometer. Zwischen Roermond und der Bahnlinie Geilenkirchen–Erkelenz konnten die Verbände der 9. amerikanischen Armee unsere Gefechtsvorposten an einzelnen Stellen auf das Ostufer des Flusses zurückdrücken. In den Abschnitten von Linnich, beiderseits Jülichs und Düren sind heftige Kämpfe im Gange. Der Feind wurde über all in unserem Hauptkampffeld aufgefangen.
Nachtschlachtflieger bekämpften mit beobachteter Wirkung den feindlichen Nachschubverkehr.
Beiderseits Neuerburg in der Eifel dauern die Abwehrkämpfe an. An der unteren Saar verhinderten unsere Truppen die vom Feind erstrebte Ausweitung seiner örtlichen Brückenköpfe bei Ockfen und Serrig. Vorstöße der Amerikaner im Raum von Saarlautern scheiterten. Auf den Spicherer Höhen haben unsere Truppen dem Feind weitere Bunker wieder entrissen und im Abschnitt nördlich Saargemünd den angreifenden Gegner bis auf einen kleinen Einbruch im Gegenstoß zurückgeworfen.
In Mittelitalien griff ein schwacher Stoßtrupp aus eigenem Entschluss einen starken feindlichen Stützpunkt am Monte della Torrazzo an und vernichtete ihn mitsamt seiner Besatzung. Nördlich Poretta brachten unsere Truppen nach wechselvollen Kämpfen den angreifenden Feind schon vor dem Hauptkampffeld zum Stehen.
Anglo-amerikanische Terrorflieger griffen gestern Städte in West-, Nordwest- und Südostdeutschland an. Durch Bombenwürfe auf Wohngebiete und Tiefangriffe mit Bordwaffen hatte die Zivilbevölkerung Verluste. In der vergangenen Nacht warfen die Briten Bomben auf einige Orte im rheinisch-westfälischen Gebiet und auf die Reichshauptstadt. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 22 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz gebracht.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (February 25, 1945)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
251100A February
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) AIR STAFF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) SHAEF MAIN
(20) PRO, ROME
(21) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 323
Allied forces south of the Reichswald Forest, have made limited advances toward Weeze against strong enemy resistance. Strongpoints, gun and mortar positions and troop concentrations in wooded country in the areas of Kalkar, Uedem and Goch were attacked by rocket-firing fighters while medium and light bombers bombed targets at Rhede, Rheinberg and Geldern. Artillery positions near Venlo were attacked with fragmentation bombs and rockets. Our units have extended their bridgeheads across the Roer River, encountering moderate opposition from the enemy who launched several infantry and tank counterattacks, all of which were repulsed.
Northeast of Linnich, we have occupied several villages including Baal and Hompesch. Jülich has been completely cleared and our units have progressed eastward to the outskirts of Stetterkirch. In the area north of Düren, our units have cleared Oberzier and Birkesdorf and are fighting in Arnoldsweiler. Half of Düren is in our hands, and the enemy is resisting in the remaining portion from scattered strong points in houses and other buildings. Fighting is in progress in Wiederau two miles south of Düren. Fortified buildings in many towns between the Rhine and the Roer and particularly in the triangle formed by Münchengladbach, Euskirchen and Köln were struck by fighter bombers.
We have captured Waxweiler, Oberperscheid, Ringhuscheid and Neuerburg, southwest of Prüm. Our units driving from the northwest, have met our elements advancing from the south in the vicinity of Obergeckler. South of Neuerburg, we have taken Sinspelt. Our armored elements driving to the northeast beyond the town have encountered road blocks and mines. Strong points and enemy armor in the Prüm, Waxweiler and Bitburg areas were attacked by fighter bombers. In the lower Saar Valley, our units have captured Ockfen, two miles southeast of Saarburg on the east side of the river. Serrig is now completely in our hands, and we have taken high ground two and one-half miles east of the town.
Railway yards, communication centers and rail and road transport north and northeast of the Ruhr and between the Rhine and the Roer Rivers were attacked by medium, light and fighter bombers. Among the targets were the communications centers of Viersen, Rheindahlen, Blatzheim, Zülpich and Vlatten. A large number of locomotives, railway cars and motor vehicles were destroyed and railway lines were cut in many places.
Fighting continued in Forbach with resistance still stubborn in the western section of the town. Enemy artillery and mortar fire increased considerably in the area. Three counterattacks were repulsed on the high ground south of Saarbrücken with heavy losses to the enemy. Bübingen, on the east bank of the Saar River, was cleared. Farther east, the town of Bliesransbach was captured.
Allied forces in the west captured 2,330 prisoners 22 February.
The aerial offensive against the enemy’s communications also was continued elsewhere yesterday with heavy and widespread attacks by heavy, medium, and fighter-bombers. Railway bridges at Neuweid and Mayen were attacked by medium bombers while railway communications and transport in the areas of Neustadt, Homburg, Freiburg and to the south were struck at by medium and fighter-bombers. Railway yards at Bielefeld and rail targets elsewhere in northwestern Germany; oil refineries at Misburg, Hamburg and Harburg; a synthetic oil plant at Kamen and submarine building yards at Hamburg and Bremen were attacked by escorted heavy bombers in very great strength. Some of the escorting fighters flew low to strafe rail, road and canal transport. An oil refinery northeast of Hanover was hit by fighter-bombers which set fire to many storage tanks and three oil trains. Communications and rail, road and water transport in northern Holland were struck at by fighter bombers. Berlin was attacked by light bombers last night.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA4655
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/
U.S. Navy Department (February 25, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 279
After preliminary bombardment by Marine artillery and heavy units of the Pacific Fleet, troops of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions launched an attack northward on Iwo Island on February 25 (East Longitude Date). Fighting was heavy throughout the day and at nightfall our forces were in positions of the East‑West runway of the Central Iwo field and about two‑thirds of the North‑South runway.
Carrier aircraft and Seventh Army Air Force Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, supported the attack.
A total of 2,827 enemy dead had been counted by noon of February 25.
Shortly before midnight of February 24, a small group of enemy aircraft attacked our forces on and around Iwo Island causing no damage. Part of their bombs were dropped in enemy territory on the Island. One of our night fighters shot down an enemy plane over Chichi Jima in the Bonins and three others were destroyed on the ground in the Bonins by our aircraft on February 24.
Beach conditions continued to show marked improvement.
StrAirPoa Army Liberators bombed the airfield on Chichi Jima in the Bonins causing a large explosion near the runways on February 23. On the following day an attack was made on Omura Town on the same Island.
The airfield on Marcus Island was bombed by StrAirPoa Army Liberators on February 24.
Neutralizing raids were continued on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls by Navy search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two on February 24.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 25, 1945)
MARINES CAPTURE HALF OF IWO
Invaders push to center of 2nd airfield
Offensive gains up to 600 yards
Fighting Marines hoist Stars and Stripes on the highest point of Mt. Suribachi Volcano, overlooking from the south the bloody battlefield on Iwo Island. (Navy Radiotelephoto)
GUAM – Marine shock troops, advancing as much as 600 yards in a general offensive, have captured approximately half of Iwo Island.
The invaders of Japan’s doorstep island have swept to the heart of Iwo’s central airfield.
Under cover of a land, air and sea bombardment, the Marines expanded their east coast beachhead about 600 yards, drove 300 to 500 yards through the center of the strong Jap defense lines and expanded their grip on the east coast by several hundred yards.
Jap death toll rises
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s war bulletin covering fighting through 6 p.m. Saturday, reported that Jap dead has now risen to 2,799. The last report on U.S. casualties listed 5,372 as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, of whom 644 were dead.
The latest advances which Adm. Nimitz called “substantial” increased the American grip on Iwo’s coast to five miles – three on the east and two on the west – and left the Japs in about seven miles of the coast. They also gave the American possession of about four of Iwo’s eight square miles and placed them well atop the 340-foot central plateau from which the Japs had been pouring withering fire into the ranks of the Devil Dogs.
Greatest U.S. gains
Although the Marines of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions were slashing forward and scoring their greatest gains of a campaign that had been marked by yard-by-yard advances, Adm. Nimitz said:
In every zone of fighting, the enemy resisted our advance to the full extent of his armament. Weapons of the “Bazooka” type were employed against our tanks and the use of rocket bombs weighing about 500 kilograms (approximately 1,000 pounds) continued.
Testifying to the powerful defenses the remaining men of the Jap garrison of 20,000 were fighting from, Adm. Nimitz said that in a single area of approximately 200,00 square yards along the east coast, the Marines neutralized about 100 caves ranging from 30 to 40 feet deep.
Four-foot bulkheads
The Marines, rooting the Japs out of their defenses with bayonets, tommy guns and hand grenades, were encountering reinforced blockhouses and pillboxes having four-foot bulkheads.
One immediate result of the general advance was a “marked decrease of enemy artillery fire” into the rear areas of Southern Iwo won by the Americans in the opening days of the invasion which started last Monday, Adm. Nimitz said.
The bulletin issued early Sunday gave this picture of the flaming front from the east to west coasts:
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4TH MARINE DIVISION, commanded by Maj. Clifton B. Gates, opened a drive along the east coast which carried northward about 600 yards to extend the original invasion beachhead to a stretch of approximately three miles. Struck up the central plateau on the right flank of the 3rd Marine Division hitting the center of the Jap lines.
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3rd MARINE DIVISION, commanded by Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine, hammered 300 to 500 yards through a maze of interlocking pillboxes, blockhouses, fortified caves and thick minefields to burst across the center of the central or No. 2 Iwo airfield atop the central plains. This put the Yanks in the center of the island in an area where Jap military headquarters and governmental centers were located.
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5TH MARINE DIVISION, commanded by Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey, resumed its advance up the west coast after being pinned down by terrific Jap fire for 90 hours. It drove ahead several hundred yards to win a two-mile grip on the west coast.
Triple bombardment
The general attack was supported by Marine artillery, fire from heavy units of the fleet standing off the island and carrier aircraft.
Carrier planes also made an attack of Chichi Island in the Bonin Islands north of Iwo while Army Air Force Liberator bombers hammered the airfield and Omura Town of Chichi and Okamura Town on Haha Island last Thursday. On Friday, Marine fighters attacked targets in the Palau islands east of the Philippines.
Adm. Nimitz announced that on the southern tip of Iwo, Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division had reached the crater of Mt. Suribachi and were mopping up Jap strongpoints on the mountain. Incomplete reports showed they had knocked out 115 Jap gun emplacements on the dormant volcano.
He said that the condition of the beaches, which had been under heavy Jap fire, showed marked improvement and that the unloading of supplies for the drive now in progress was accelerated.
Attack began Saturday
The general assault opened shortly after dawn Saturday when the weary Marines sprang from their foxholes and captured Jap trenches. By noon, Adm. Nimitz reported in an earlier communiqué, they were making slow but steady progress and during the afternoon hammered out their first sizeable one-day gains of the campaign.
Jap planes retire
Adm. Nimitz announced that Jap planes, conspicuous by their virtual absence, approached the island on Friday but retired without attacking.
Tokyo said the Americans had established two new beachheads on the southeastern coast. Other Tokyo broadcasts claimed a total of 17,000 American casualties were inflicted by Friday night, that eight more U.S. warships, including two battleships and four cruisers. had been sunk or damaged off Iwo.
Dispatches reported that although the situation was improving, the Marines faced many days of tough fighting before they won Iwo.
The longest of the two strips, Iwo central airfield – the Yanks already hold the southern field – runs from northeast to southwest. It is 5,525 feet long. The east west field is about 4,000 feet long and crosses the other strip about one-third of the way up from its southwestern tip.
Dispatches said that beyond the central airfield lay the flat-topped dome-shaped 360-foot Mt. Moto and several subsidiary peaks which mark the northern boundary of the central plateau.
‘Breaking their backs’
A dispatch from United Press war writer Mac Johnson aboard a fleet flagship said the Japs were “breaking their backs” with counterattacks and never before in the Central Pacific had the Marines had to throw back so many as on Iwo.
Mr. Johnson reported:
They serve to slow up and sometimes stall us, but the death toll for the enemy is unprofitably high. The Japs in groups of 50 to 200 smash against our lines just before evening and through the night. These onslaughts are welcomed for it is only by killing Japs that the enemy’s backbone of resistance can be broken. This is slowly being accomplished by whittling down the Jap garrison in a battle of annihilation.
FLEET PLANES BOMB TOKYO AGAIN
Jap capital hit 3rd time within week
Mitscher’s carriers return to attack
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Angels of Bataan fly back to ‘heaven’
68 Army nurses reach U.S. in 4 big planes
By Richard W. Johnston, United Press staff writer
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Tunnels between pillboxes honeycomb bloody Iwo Isle
600 wounded evacuated to Marianas – each has tale of heroism, by someone else
By Lloyd Tupling, United Press staff writer
Saturday, February 24, 1945
SOMEWHERE IN THE MARIANAS – A shipload of more than 600 battle-worn Marines arrived today for hospitalization.
They were the first battle casualties to be evacuated from Iwo Jima.
Unloading of the wounded was delayed several hours when a hospital ship rammed an obstruction while nearing a dock. About two-thirds of the men were on stretchers.
Veterans of the Bougainville, Guadalcanal and Saipan invasions among the wounded said the Iwo battlefield was “worse than the worst of them.”
“The whole island was honeycombed with interconnected pillboxes,” one 5th Marine Division sergeant said.
The sergeant, suffering from shock and combat fatigue, said his platoon worked its way past a group of pillboxes, burning some and bypassing others without drawing Jap fire. But as soon as the Marines were past the pillboxes, the enemy emplacements opened up with machine guns, he said. The Japs, meanwhile, poured mortar fire from Mt. Suribachi into the Americans.
“When they get you like that, there’s nothing you can do but wait for the boys to move up from behind and relieve you,” he said.
One Marine corporal who operated a flamethrower during both the Saipan and Iwo landings, said the Japs on Iwo showed no signs of their previous disorganization.
“They had perfect communications as far as I could see,” the corporal said. “And they had the range of every foot of that island.
“When one platoon would move up all they had to do was order one group of artillery mortars to cut loose, and they had us.”
Heavy toll of tanks
Wounded Marines interviewed aboard ship said Jap mines took a heavy toll of tanks, halftracks and other combat vehicles.
Wreckage of shattered landing craft, vehicles and the broken bodies of men clogged the beaches.
A 4th Division Marine private said:
You could find any part of the human body there is on that beach.
I was one of the lucky ones. A mortar shell went off under my feet as we were moving up a 20-foot hill. The blast lifted me at least 20 feet.
All I had on when I hit the earth was the collar and cuffs of my combat jacket.
He said he suffered internal injuries but did not receive a scratch externally.
Bandaged Marines clad in new G.I. clothing huddled in groups on the deck of the hospital ship, some joking, some talking seriously and others sitting silently alone.
Each had a tale of heroism to tell – about somebody else, For example, there was the Browning automatic rifleman who wiped out four Japs in a cave, was wounded in the knee, ran to another cave where he was hit by four more bullets and finally had to be ordered to return to the beach with medical corpsmen.
Like aerial bombs
One veteran 5th Division Marine said the Jap mortar fire resembled “silver-colored things like aerial bombs dropping all over the sky.”
“There wasn’t much shrapnel because the sand was soft and splinters buried themselves,” said a 28th Regiment Marine.
“But it was also too soft to make good foxholes. As soon as you’d dig a hole, the sand would fall in on you.”
The Marine said he was glad to hear his regiment had finally topped Mt. Suribachi.
“We started up there twice the first day but were ordered back,” he said. “I was on the third trip when I got it in the shoulder. I don’t remember what happened.”
The Marines said Iwo was infested by hungry flies, “so greedy they left the dead alone and were chasing us.”
Stop-at-midnight curfew to silence even jukeboxes
Flow of liquor to end at midnight – only all-night restaurants to stay open
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Daring rescue by parachutists ‘great thrill’ for internees
Entire Jap garrison killed as raiders save 2,146 at Los Banos on Luzon
By the United Press
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Roosevelt’s health called ‘not too good’
Saturday, February 24, 1945
VATICAN CITY (UP) – The semi-official Vatican News Service said today that President Roosevelt was believed to have hurried home from the Crimea Conference because his health was “not too good.”
Commenting on the expected arrival of Archbishop Francis J. Spellman of New York, the service said:
It is believed here that the reason Roosevelt hurriedly returned to America was due to the fact his condition of health was not too good.