2,000 heavies rip western Germany
Yanks, RAF blast rail, war centers
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Pittsburgher and 60 men start across Iwo, 3 make it
Lieutenant crosses island in 90 minutes through maze of pillboxes, gun emplacements
By Sgt. Keyes Beech, USMC combat correspondent
IWO ISLAND (UP, delayed) – Out of countless tales of heroism there came today the story of a Marine lieutenant and two enlisted men who fought their way through pillboxes, bunkers, blockhouses and machine-gun nests to cross to the western shore of this island only 90 minutes after they landed on the east.
When he hit the beach at H-Hour, February 19, 2nd Lt. Frank J. Wright, 25, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had a platoon of 60 men.
By the time he had crossed the island an hour and a half later, two of the 60 remained with him and instead of being a platoon leader, Lt. Wright was a company commander.
Four of his company’s officers, including the company commander, were killed or wounded as they attempted to follow him across.
The company was part of a 5th Marine Division assault battalion which was assigned to cut directly across the island to the western shore and then pivot toward Mortar Mountain, as it is now called, to the left.
The two men with whom Lt. Wright blazed a death-strewn trail for 800 yards from shore to shore were Pvt. Lee H. Zuck, 22, of Scranton, Arkansas, and Pvt. Remo A. Bechelli, 26, of Detroit.
Lt. Wright is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wright of 2324 Primrose Street. He formerly attended Duquesne University where he played football. He was a certified accountant when he joined the Marines more than three years ago. He was commissioned in November 1943.
Lt. Wright said:
We weren’t trying to run a foot race. But our orders were to get across the island as fast as possible, and that’s what we did.
The going was almost too easy at the beach. It was still easy coming up those terraces. But when we hit the crest of the ridge, everything changed.
What happened was that the Japs had withdrawn from the beach and the terraces and taken their positions on the ridge. Some of them had gone all the way down to Suribachi [Mortar Mountain].
I would move along ahead while Bechelli and Zuck kept me covered with their BARs [Browning automatic rifles]. As soon as I could see where we were going next I’d motion to them to come on up.
That way we made pretty good time. but we never would have gotten across as soon as we did if it hadn’t been for the help the tanks gave us. We blew up some pillboxes but it was the men behind us who had to do most of the fighting.
We were leading the way.
We saw some Japs, seven or eight of them, running along a hill. I guess they must have been a mortar crew, because they didn’t seem to be armed. I think we got all of them.
At one point the three men came to an enemy 20-mm gun emplacement. There didn’t seem to be a way around it, so Pvt. Zuck leaped to the top of the emplacement and sprayed its occupants with his BAR, killing or wounding all of them.
Later in those 90 dramatic minutes, Pvt. Bechelli did virtually the same thing.
It was the first time any of the three men had been in combat.
OPA raises and lowers beef and pork point values
Quality steaks and roasts are reduced but many other items are increased
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Casualties rise 11,870 in week
WASHINGTON (UP) – U.S. combat casualties announced here today reached a total of 813,032, an increase of 11,870 during the past week.
Summarizing Army casualty figures, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson also revealed that casualties in Italy have crossed the 100,000 mark. From the time of the first landings there September 9, 1943, he said, there were 19,889 killed, 70,402 wounded and 10,499 missing, for a total of 100,790. These figures include casualties announced here through February 25.
Army casualties in all theaters as compiled here through February 21 totaled 722,695. These figures, Mr. Stimson added, reflected actual fighting through the latter part of January.
A Navy list released today showed a total of 90,337 casualties in the Navy, Coast Guard and Marines. The figure did not include losses on Iwo Island. Casualty totals include:
| Army | Navy | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | 140,366 | 34,283 | 174,649 |
| Wounded | 430,757 | 40,904 | 471,661 |
| Prisoners | 60,535 | 4,476 | 65,011 |
| Missing | 91,037 | 10,674 | 101,711 |
| Totals | 722,695 | 90,337 | 813,032 |
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Mine contract negotiations delayed by Lewis’ move
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U.S. ammunition ship sunk by Japs – all on board killed
Navy also announces loss of salvage craft, mistakenly hit by U.S. submarine
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4,215 Jap dead on Corregidor
Manila Bay opened to Allied shipping
MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Virtually complete conquest of Corregidor opened Manila’s great bay today for Allied shipping and a steady stream of supplies to U.S. troops on Luzon.
A Tokyo broadcast, recorded by FCC, said that approximately 3,000 U.S. troops landed on Palawan Island, westernmost of the Philippines, Wednesday morning, Japanese Time.
The enemy report did not indicate where the invasion was made on Palawan, which stretches from Mindoro in the Philippines to Borneo in the Dutch East Indies. The 275-mile-long island is 750 miles due east of the French Indochina.
U.S. paratroopers and infantrymen practically annihilated the entire enemy garrison on Corregidor, killing Japs at a rate of more than 30-to-1.
Find 4,215 bodies
A communiqué said 4,215 Jap bodies have already been counted and many hundreds of others were killed or buried alive in Corregidor’s tunnels or died attempting to escape from the island. The American casualties were 136 killed, 531 wounded and eight missing in the 12-day battle.
While wrecked docks and shore facilities will prevent full-scale use of Manila’s port, the communiqué said one Allied cargo ship, loaded with supplies, already had entered the harbor.
U.S. troops, in the meantime, continues to fan out east of Manila and far to the north of the capital.
Fierce fighting broke out along the Kobayashi line, east of Manila, where the 1st Cavalry Division encountered severe Jap resistance at Antipolo.
Blast Palawan port
On the northern front, 32nd Division troops pushed north along the Villa Verde trail toward Balete Pass road, leading into the Cagayan Valley.
Other U.S. forces also continued their advance beyond Carranglan, 14 miles south of Balete Pass road and 80 miles north of Manila.
The communiqué disclosed that Boston and Thunderbolt dive bombers made a strong attack Monday on Puerto Princesa, principal port on Palawan Island in the Western Philippines.
Liberator bombers again raided rail installations on Formosa and enemy shipping off shore.
Seven Jap merchant ships were sunk or damaged by U.S. bombers in sweeps from Formosa to French Indochina.
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By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Hope, pain and patience are heritage of wounded
Shot through throat, jaw by Jap on Iwo, Keith Wheeler writes from Saipan hospital
By Keith Wheeler, North American Newspaper Alliance
Keith Wheeler, severely wounded on Iwo, is now writing from the base hospital on Saipan. This is the first of a series.
AT AN ARMY STATION HOSPITAL, Saipan (Feb. 25, delayed) – It is now five days since I was wounded by a Jap bullet on the beach at Iwo Jima.
When I was first hit, I thought I was killed and I accepted my death without much inner protest. Sometime late in the first hour, I began to hope that I would survive. The hope has progressed gradually, until now I am convinced my eventful recovery is a reasonable certainty.
In these 120 hours since the bullet smashed through my throat and jaw, I have run the usual course of experiences of those wounded in battle. Twice men of great courage who were strangers to me saved my life at great risk of their own.
Becomes pincushion
My wounds have been dressed and probed and x-rayed and I have become a pincushion for needles carrying morphine, Novocain, penicillin, whole human blood, plasma, and probably several other specifics I did not feel at the time.
Now, at the end of five days, my crushed lower jaw has been hemstitched to the upper in a rigid embroidery of stainless-steel wire and rubber bands. The enormous swelling that once had my neck and head a great shapeless, julpy balloon has gone down by half. The surgeon’s next job is to dig some stray bone splinters out of my flesh and to force one triangular chunk of bone into an approximate plumb with what used to be my jawline.
Thereafter I will settle down to a minimum of two months of eating only such liquids as I can suck through by clenched teeth and restraining my conversation to grunts. It may need much longer than that.
Because I am still relieved to be alive, because I still am physically strong and mentally interested and because I am not yet as hungry as I expect to become, I approach this prospect still with a certain cheerfulness. But I doubt if it lasts long.
I am truly and humbly convinced that the fact and circumstances of my wound are important to very few people. As they are the experiences of an individual, they are worth far less than I intend to write about them.
There were 600 wounded on my hospital ship alone. There were thousands more on others nearby. Every hour on the beach adds to the harvest of pain and disfigurement. There are far too many of us for any one of us to unique.
‘Some of us die’
Some of us lose arms or legs or eyes and some of us die. Some are paralyzed and some few are crazy when it’s over. Some of us may return to duty in a few days. Some of us never will be whole again. But the road to health is long and dark through pain.
Each of us is different, but all of us are alike. We are the wounded. If I write overmuch about the wounded me, it is because I know most about my own wound. When I write about me, I am in some sense writing about us all. About the fear and courage, stink and misery, discouragement and hope and disappointment, pain and patience that are the heritage of all of us who are the wounded.