The Pittsburgh Press (March 17, 1945)
U.S. casualties in Iwo battle total 19,938
But victory speeds defeat of Japan
GUAM (UP) – The conquest of Iwo in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific was hailed officially today as having brought the war against Japan much closer to the end.
Pacific Fleet headquarters said casualties in the 26-day battle totaled 19,938 – 766 a day, or one every two minutes – among three Marine divisions, normally about 45,000 men.
The toll comprised 4,189 dead, 15,308 wounded and 441 missing in action against an estimated 21,000 Japs killed.
Still more Marines and Japs may die yet. The last organized enemy resistance was smashed at 6 p.m. yesterday, but scattered, disorganized Japs still remained to snipe and kill from caves.
Speeds end of war
All officers admitted the cost was high, but Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said the conquest of the eight-square-mile island 750 miles south of Tokyo brought the war “much closer to its inevitable end.”
Adm. Nimitz said in a communiqué:
The United States Marines by their individual and collective courage have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat.
By their victory the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the V Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully.
Lt. Gen. Holland M. “Howling Mad” Smith, commanding general of Fleet Marine forces, warned that “you can’t set the cost of lives that you will pay for an island.”
Gen. Smith said:
The United States and the United Nations overall tactical plan called for the seizure and occupation of Iwo Jima. Its capture was necessary to continued. vigorous prosecution of the offensive against the Japanese.
Iwo’s second airfield, on the central plateau, was placed in operation yesterday. The southern airfield was already in operation.
To aid B-29 raids
Both airfields will be used to refuel Superfortresses and perhaps for fighters to escort the giant raiders on their forays against the Jap homeland. A third, uncompleted airfield also was captured, but there was no immediate word whether this, too, would be made ready for operation.
Marines killed in the battle of Iwo totaled 1,000 more than the 3,100 who died in the 25-day battle to secure Saipan’s 71 square miles in the Marianas last summer. Total casualties in the Saipan campaign were 16,525, 3,413 fewer than on Iwo.
The average daily casualties on Iwo – 766 – were exceeded only on Tarawa, where some 980 were killed, wounded or counted missing for each of the three days of that short-lived but costly campaign.