Jap artillery looks down throats of Marines on Iwo
Airfield technically ours, but foe on cliff makes life hell on ‘Hollywood battlefield’
By Lisle Shoemaker, United Press staff writer
ON THE EDGE OF MOTOYAMA AIRFIELD NO. 2, Iwo (Feb. 27, delayed) – The Jap mortars and artillery guns are looking right down our throats.
They are up on a cliff beyond the field, with perfect observation and firing positions. And they are making life a hell on this field.
There is no cover for the Marines – just shell holes and American-dug foxholes – from the steady blast of mortar and flat trajectory shells which scream onto this edge.
Technically ours
Technically, the airfield is ours. We have troops on the far side to the north, but it lies directly under the Jap high ground.
The 3rd Division Marines raced through a hail of mortar and artillery to reach the north side several days ago. But they have been unable to get any farther since because of the Jap guns on the cliff.
The field was one from which the Japs staged their medium bomber raids on B-29 bases in the Marianas. Now it was a desolate no-man’s-land, almost beyond imagination. It looks like a Hollywood battlefield.
We climbed up the slope to the southern edge this morning, but a young captain asked us not to go any farther.
Warning unnecessary
“It’s too hot now,” he said.
Mortar and big artillery shells crashed into the field and the warning wasn’t necessary.
Marines were carrying back their dead buddies, tiptoeing through minefields and winding through the shambles of wrecked equipment – ours and the enemy’s.
The 3rd Marines are veteran fighters, but all agree they never saw anything like this fierce and bloody struggle.