America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

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U.S. Navy Department (March 6, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 290

After the most intense artillery bombardment of enemy positions since the operation on Iwo Island began, elements of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions resumed the attack on the morning of March 6 (East Longitude Date). Fighting was heavy throughout the day with the enemy offering very stiff resistance and subjecting our forces to a heavy volume of small arms and mortar fire. By 1730 on March 6, the Marines had made small local gains on the left flank and in the center of the lines. Carrier aircraft supported the attack and naval guns were in action throughout the day.

The Marines had counted 14,456 enemy dead at 1800 on March 5.

Army fighters are using the southern Iwo airfield and air evacuation of wounded by transport plane continues. Unloading conditions continue to be favorable.

Army Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, bombed the airfield on Chichi Jima in the Bonins on March 5.

On the same date fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed and set afire an oil dump, a supply dump and a house in the Palaus. Marine Corsair and Avenger torpedo planes attacked targets in the Palaus and on Yap in the Western Carolines on March 6.

Marine fighters strafed targets on Rota in the Marianas on March 6.

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The Pittsburgh Press (March 6, 1945)

Patton breaks through – Cologne falls to Yanks

Third Army plunges 25 miles eastward toward the Rhine

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Churchill: ‘One good strong heave’ can beat Nazis

Premier visits Germany, tells troops ‘decency, fair play’ will rule after war
By Leon Kay, United Press staff writer

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Showdown drive imminent on Iwo

Leathernecks mass to annihilate Japs

GUAM (UP) – U.S. Marines were massing strength today for an all-out assault to split and annihilate the last thousands of Japs in Northern Iwo.

How many Japs remained to oppose the American push was not known definitely. A total of 12,864 enemy dead had been counted by 6 p.m. Saturday, but field dispatches estimated that at least three-quarters of the original garrison of 20,000 had been wiped out.

2,050 Yanks killed

American dead for the first 13 days – through Saturday – of the bloodiest campaign of the Pacific war totaled 2,050 (A Jap communiqué claimed “about” 20,000 Marines had been killed or wounded and 250 American tanks “either stranded or set afire” in the battle of Iwo).

The fighting front has remained virtually unchanged for more than 48 hours while the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions brought up munitions and supplies for the attack. The 3rd Division, in the center, has only a quarter mile to go to the northeast coast to split the decimated enemy garrison.

Japs attack

The Japs tried time and again to infiltrate the American lines Sunday night and early Monday, only to be broken up and thrown back. Hundreds of the enemy were killed, but the infiltration parties did bring the Marines under “substantial” artillery and small arms fire.

Army Liberators bombed Chichi, in the Bonin Islands just north of Iwo, Sunday.

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$11,000 gift from Canada –
First Lady gets mink coat (sleeves 3 inches short)

Second is donated to fundraising committee but Mrs. Roosevelt says she’ll keep hers
By Florence Feiler, North American Newspaper Alliance

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Cincinnati to get 70-foot flood

Cloudburst hits Wheeling, West Virginia
By the United Press

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Negotiators study 3 UMW demands

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I DARE SAY —
Bringing in the sheaves

By Florence Fisher Parry

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Senators laud world council voting plan

Results called best obtainable

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In Washington –
Congressmen laud Vinson as loan chief

Wallace and Jones also praise him
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

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Dewey will sign New York bill

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Spires of undamaged cathedral guide Yanks to heart of Cologne

Smoke rises from ruins around church
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer

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Yank hate for Germans extends even to civilians

Officer apologizes for chasing them, ‘but after you’ve seen what we’ve seen…’
By Ann Stringer, United Press staff writer

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Plane hits hangar – 9 die, 14 hurt

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Frank Sinatra put back in 4-F

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Allies advance 800 yards in Italy

More peaks reported taken near Bologna

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100,000 Japs wiped out in Luzon battle

Yanks ring remnants in three pockets

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Forrestal: Iwo battle points to long Jap war

Enemy force totals five million men

WASHINGTON (UP) – Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal, just back from a three-week tour of the Pacific, has dimmed any budding hopes of an early end to the war with Japan.

He told a press conference late yesterday that the battle on Iwo Island demonstrated clearly the stiffening resistance that the Japs will put up as the war nears their homeland. Up to last Saturday, he said, American dead on Iwo numbered 2,050 Marines – more than twice the number killed on Tarawa.

Despite “severe and costly casualties,” Mr. Forrestal said, overall results of the battle have been highly successful. And once the island is conquered, the United States can send fighter-escorted bomber fleets over the Jap homeland.

The lean, 53-year-old Navy Secretary drove home these facts about Japan:

That despite the enemy’s heavy losses, he still has an estimated five million men under arms in his far-flung conquests, while the Americans have never had more than 12 divisions – about 180,000 men – in action at any one time.

That “the task still ahead of us is obviously immense.”

That Allied forces must be prepared to deal with the Japanese “in whatever theater the final death struggle of Japanese militarism occurs.”

“Japan is still a formidable and fanatical foe,” Mr. Forrestal concluded.

116,875 words sent from Iwo

ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP OFF IWO ISLAND (UP) – Correspondents covering the Iwo Island operation have been given the best press and radio transmission facilities of any amphibious campaign in the Central Pacific.

From the day of landing February 18 through March 1, the flagship communications office transmitted 116,875 words from wire service and special correspondents, exclusive of stories broadcast from the flagship by pool network correspondents.

United Press writers filed 154,092 words of this total.

Three censors worked aboard the flagship and stories were expedited to the United States via Guam and Honolulu.

Capt. Charles F. Horne of New York City, communications officer for Vice Adm. Richmond Kelley Turner, was credited with providing the excellent facilities.

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Superfortresses stab at Jap homeland

China coast port also hit, enemy says

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Government’s clothing plan called failure

Consumers’ group submits protests

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Editorial: The San Francisco setup

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Editorial: American regional alliance

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