Fight for Iwo moving near mop-up stage
1,000 Japs remain in shrinking pocket
GUAM (UP) – The 23-day battle of Iwo neared the mop-up stage today.
Marines of the 5th Marine Division were gradually crushing the last organized resistance in a shrinking pocket along the north coast of the tiny island only 750 miles south of Tokyo.
Probably fewer than 1,000 of the original garrison of 20,000 remained in the pocket, but they were fighting to the death against Marines armed with flamethrowers, tanks and guns. Their backs to the sea, they faced only death or capture – and few prisoners were being taken.
The campaign along the northeast and east coasts was already in the mop-up phase. The 3rd and 4th Marine Divisions were rounding up scattered enemy snipers in the rock-ribbed area. Only a single enemy pocket of resistance remained by 6 p.m. yesterday.
Army fighters bombed and strafed targets on Chichi in the Bonin Islands north of Iwo Jima in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire yesterday.
Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force bombed installations at Suribachi on Paramushiru and Kataoka on Shumushu in the Northern Kuril Islands north of Japan Sunday.