Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 20, 1945)

MAIN IWO AIRFIELD SEIZED
Marines occupy third of island

U.S. invaders open attack led by tanks and flamethrowers
By William Tyree, United Press staff writer

Wednesday, February 21, 1945 (JST)

What Iwo means

Iwo Jima – literally Sulphur Island – is pronounced Ee-Woh-Jee-Mah.

Driving across Iwo to the west coast, Marine invaders cut off Japs in the Mt. Suribachi area and seized the island’s largest airfield.

ADM. NIMITZ HQ, Guam (UP) – U.S. Marines have occupied approximately one-third of Iwo and captured the main airfield on the island.

The U.S. invaders have also opened a powerful attack led by tanks and flamethrowers against fanatically resisting Japs, it was disclosed today.

In bloody fighting, the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions established a straight east-west line across the island north of the airfield. Then, with a spearhead of tanks estimated by Tokyo to number 300, the Leathernecks charged forward against the entrenched enemy, aerial observers reported.

Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced capture of the airfield, the richest single prize on the eight-square-mile island 750 miles south of Tokyo.

A headquarters spokesman later said the fighting continued as bitter as that in any of the battles across the Pacific – from Guadalcanal, to Tarawa, to Saipan.

After capturing the airfield, the Marines drove across the narrow neck of Iwo and reached the western shore. Consolidating their lines, the Marines pivoted on their right flank for the offensive. Automatic riflemen moved ahead with the tanks and flamethrowers in the vanguard of the attack against the enemy’s interlocking pillboxes and concrete bunkers.

Japs split in two

The Jap defenders have been split into two pockets by the drive which slashed across the southern end of the island. Marines stormed the forbidding flank of towering Suribachi Volcano, from the crater of which the enemy was raining shells on the Americans.

A Jap Domei News Agency dispatch broadcast by Tokyo radio said 300 American tanks have been landed at the Marine beachhead. Tokyo reported that in one sector alone, held by 10,000 Marines, there were 150 tanks. The enemy claimed 30 had been “blasted.”

Storm into heavy fire

From their girdle across the southern tip of Iwo, units of the two invasion divisions stormed into heavy Jap gunfire from the northern rim of the key airfield this morning.

Adm. Nimitz’s communiqué some hours later reported that the Marine gains overran the air base within fighter range of Tokyo and scaled a flank of Suribachi.

The Japs counterattacked down the main runway of the southern airfield at 2:30 a.m. The 27th Regiment of Marines broke up the thrust, and the invasion push continued.

Shells rain on beaches

All night bursts of artillery and mortar fire fell on the invasion beaches. But the American grip was secure and broad enough to permit the unloading of supplies.

U.S. battleships, cruisers and destroyers hurled shells into the Jap positions all night.

U.S. night raiders drove off several Jap planes which tried to raid the island. So firm was the aerial screen over the invasion forces that the enemy never reached Iwo.

Radio Tokyo said a second American assault group stormed ashore at an unspecified point on the rocky coast north of the 2½-mile-long original beachhead.

The troops went ashore at a point where the cliffs were 30 to 45 feet high and very bad for landing operations, Tokyo said. Jap garrison forces intercepted the invaders at the water’s edge and “furious fighting is at present in progress,” the broadcast said.

Adm. Nimitz’s communiqué reported that the northern sector of the original beachhead was extended 250 yards inland yesterday despite intense mortar and artillery fire.

Heavy enemy fire

Observers who flew over Iwo today reported that the Japs were pouring heavy artillery and mortar fire into the Marines.

They said the fanatical Japs fought from protective positions along the ridges of the volcanic island and from a maze of foxholes.

The defenders of the northern end of the main airfield were solidly entrenched, and the Americans paid for every inch they gained.

Battleships, cruisers and destroyers blasted the Jap strongholds incessantly, while carrier planes swarmed over the island in gunning and rocket attacks.

Predictions borne out

It was evident that predictions of bitter and bloody fighting were being borne out.

On the north flank, the resistance was especially bitter.

Although Suribachi was cut off by the plunge across the island, the Japs on the crater were still able to lay down a deadly fire on the Americans.

Casualties in the south were light. But on the open slopes east of the airfield, bitter fighting was underway and casualties were “more numerous,” Adm. Nimitz’s early communiqué said.

The Marines were fighting from seven invasion beaches with flamethrowers, tommy-guns, grenades and bayonets, in what front dispatches said was one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war.

Artillery has been brought ashore and will be thrown into the battle today to aid the Marine invaders, a dispatch from Vice Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner’s flagship said.

Yanks reinforced

Radio Tokyo claimed that 1,500 of the invaders had been “wiped out,” another 2,000 wounded and 30 tanks “blasted.” But the same broadcast conceded that 20,000 Marines already had landed and noted that there were 150 tanks ashore in one sector alone.

The enemy broadcast said:

Despite heavy damages, the enemy is constantly bringing up reinforcements. Our garrison units are violently intercepting them from both sides, the east and the west, as well as on the direct front.

The 4th and 5th Marine Divisions reached Motoyama Airfield No. 1 – also called Suribachi Airfield – after fighting up steep terraces onto a mountain plateau against steadily-increasing Jap resistance. The airfield has three airstrips, the longest totaling 5,025 feet.

Jap artillery, mortars and machine guns were emplaced in the crater of 546-foot-high Mt. Suribachi.

Murderous crossfire

The Jap garrison of perhaps 15,000 was sweeping the invasion beaches and beachhead area with murderous crossfire from caves, pillboxes and other long-prepared defenses.

Adm. Turner, commander of the amphibious assault, told United Press writer Mac R. Johnson on the invasion flagship that Iwo was “as well a defended fixed position as exists in the world today.”

[NormanStewart]

Yanks will land in Japan, Radio Tokyo warns people

Creation of home guard in enemy homeland urged to meet American attack

WASHINGTON (UP) – Radio Tokyo told the Jap people today that they must expect an American invasion of their homeland.

The warning came as the Jap High Command formally acknowledged that U.S. troops were ashore on Iwo Island, 750 miles south of Tokyo, and the capital itself smoldered from the largest B-29 raid yet on Japan.

Landing possible

“We must now realize that it is not impossible for the enemy to attempt a landing on the homeland,” a Tokyo domestic broadcast said, quoting an editorial in the influential newspaper Mainichi.

The broadcast said:

In the fourth year since the outbreak of the war, the battlefront has gradually narrowed down from the gigantic and elastic defense structure that was won at the outset of the war until now the homeland has indeed become a fighting front. The intention of the enemy to take Iwo Jima is bitterly strong.

Enemy at gates

A German DNB dispatch from Tokyo said the people had come to realize that “the enemy is at the gates.” Jap newspapers, the dispatch said, were urgently demanding the establishment of a Jap home guard similar to the Nazi Volkssturm “in order to be able successfully to meet the United States attack against Japan herself.”

“The Japanese are fully aware that the recent air raids will be repeated on an even larger scale,” DNB said.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Halsey’s warning

The Battle of Iwo Island will be very tough, but not as bad as Tarawa because we have learned a lot since then. That is the judgment of Adm. Halsey, just back in Washington after his spectacular series of victories in the Far Pacific. Few, if any, can speak with greater authority in that field.

In addition to his comment on the big battle now raging over the key air bases within 750 miles of Tokyo, the naval hero had a great deal to say about the Pacific war in general and the nature of the Japs in particular. Apart from the swearing, name-calling fireworks with which he decorates his interviews – a blustering technique unlike the sober effectiveness with which he fights and wins his battles – he has much wisdom to give us.

According to Adm. Halsey, the Japs are going to attempt peace feelers to save themselves this time and prepare for another war. They will try to undermine our determination for complete victory and unconditional surrender. That will be the point of greatest danger. This is how he figures it:

The industrialists in Japan undoubtedly see that their empire, which has taken them a great many years to build up, is rapidly getting in position where it is going to crumble absolutely. When they can get the upper hand… they will take over, and begin to put out very attractive peace feelers… They will appeal to mothers of men who are out there now.

Naturally, the mother wants her son saved, and may not think that by doing that she is sending her grandson and his grandson to death. If we negotiate peace and don’t demand unconditional surrender, we will be committing the greatest crime in our history.

He added that “we had better keep our fleet after victory.”

The peace feelers, predicted by the Admiral, have already begun. Only last week, Tokyo said the Foreign Minister would not “reject any hand offering peace.”

So far, there is no disposition in this country to fall into a negotiated peace trap. But Adm. Halsey’s warning won’t hurt us. We cannot be too alert in a war for survival.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. Navy Department (February 21, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 269

The Fifth Amphibious Corps, having secured the southern Iwo airfield made a general advance toward the island’s central airdrome on February 21 (East Longitude Date). Advance elements of the 5th Marine Division on the western side of the island bypassed the southern ends of the airstrip’s runways while the 4th Marine Division was pushing toward the center of the field directly from the south at noon. Gains were made along the whole line and were generally about 500 to 1,000 yards in extent.

In the meantime, Marines at the south end of the island were pressing slowly forward up the slopes of Mount Suribachi and during the forenoon of the third day of the assault. They made gains averaging more than 100 yards against this enemy citadel.

In both the northern and southern actions, the Marines are moving forward yard by yard against heavy machine gun mortar, small arms, and rocket fire. The numerous small strongpoints which confront our forces in all areas thus far penetrated are being reduced by individual troop action.

Casualties at 0800 local time on February 21 were estimated at a total of 150 officers and 3,500 men wounded, missing and killed. Of these, our forces had evacuated 3,063 of the wounded.

During the night of February 20‑21, little activity by the enemy was noted. Attempts at infiltration of our line were frustrated and a local counter­attack on the left flank where the enemy used several tanks supported by artillery fire was repulsed.

Ship’s guns supported the ground troops throughout the night with shell fire and illumination and continued heavy fire support through the morning. Carrier aircraft made heavy bombing and strafing attacks on February 21.

Supplies and rations were unloaded on the beaches throughout the night of February 20‑21.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 21, 1945)

IWO BATTLE ‘HELL ON EARTH’
Marines gain yard by yard

U.S. casualties 3,650 in third day – invaders advance half a mile
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer

They met the Japs on Iwo, these two U.S. Marines, whose bodies sprawl on the shell-blasted beach of the Pacific island. The bodies are mute evidence of the ferocity of the battle for the tiny Jap stronghold. The picture was sent from Guam to San Francisco by U.S. Navy radio-telephoto.

ADM. NIMITZ HQ, Guam – U.S. Marines advanced an average of half a mile today as they stormed Iwo’s second airfield.

The invaders of Japan’s “doorway island” bypassed the southern tip of the airfield and drove toward its heart from the south against a withering Jap barrage.

The battle was one of the most costly and savage of the Pacific war – a hell on earth, eyewitnesses said.

Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced on the third day of the invasion of Iwo that the two Marine divisions had suffered 3,650 casualties – killed, wounded or missing – up to 8 a.m. today. The casualties included 150 officers and the rest enlisted men.

A communiqué on the Iwo battle, the toughest in the long history of the Marine Corps, said the two divisions were slugging forward yard-by-yard against heavy machine gun, mortar, small-arms and rocket fire.

Hammer up coast

Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey’s 5th Marine Division hammered up the west coast beyond the lower end of the runways of the last airfield remaining in Jap hands. The first and main field was firmly in American hands.

At the same time, Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates’ 4th Marine Division launched a frontal assault against the field from the south and by noon was “pushing toward the center of the field,” Adm. Nimitz’s communiqué said.

“The Fifth Amphibious Corps, having secured the southern Iwo airfield, made a general advance toward the island’s central airdrome today,” the communiqué said.

Along whole line

“Gains were made along the whole line, and generally were about 500 to 1,000 yards in extent.”

At the south end of Iwo, where part of the Jap garrison was cut off by the Marine drive across the island, U.S. forces were driving slowly up the Slopes of Mt. Suribachi, volcano peak from which the enemy was plastering the Marines.

This morning, the forces pushing up Mt. Suribachi gained more than 100 yards in the face of a murderous fire sweeping the slopes.

3,063 casualties evacuated

Adm. Nimitz said that of the 3,650 casualties by 8 a.m. today, 3,063 of the wounded had been evacuated.

In the dry language of the communiqué, “the numerous strongpoints which confront our forces in all areas thus for penetrated are being reduced by individual troop action.”

That meant that the Marines were charging the Jap strongpoints and dugouts with flamethrowers, small arms and bayonets, in bloody hand-to-hand struggles.

The Japs were relatively quiet last night. A local counterattack on the American left flank, supported by several tanks and artillery fire, was beaten off, and attempts at infiltration were thwarted.

Warships rock foe

Warship guns supported the Marines throughout the night, rocking the Jap-held part of Iwo with a ceaseless barrage which continued today.

Carrier-borne planes swarmed back into the battle with bombing and strafing attacks.

Making it plain that the Marines had come to stay, the unloading of supplies and rations on the beaches went on all last night.

“The Japs are resisting desperately, and the fighting is fierce in some parts of the combat area,” United Press writer Mac R. Johnson reported from a warship off Iwo.

One group kills 100

He said the Japs were resorting to their night infiltration tactics which became standard practice with them. One U.S. battalion alone reported that more than 100 Japs were killed in these attempts.

The going was the toughest in the center of the line at the No. 2 Motoyama Airfield, Mr. Johnson said. The Japs appeared to be throwing everything they had into the defense of this base, the second most important objective on the island. The No. 1 field, already captured, was the first.

Radio Tokyo said the Americans were “continuously” landing fresh reinforcements with the number of troops ashore passing the 20,000-mark yesterday noon. More than 7,000 Americans have been killed or wounded and at least 100 tanks disabled, the broadcast said.

The 27th Regiment of Marines beat off the fanatical first Jap counterattack on Motoyama Airfield No. 1 early yesterday.

Last-man stand

Though cut off from the remainder of Iwo by an American smash to the west coast, Jap troops on Suribachi were fighting literally to the last man from well-fortified caves and gun emplacements studding the side of the 554-foot mountain.

Col. Harry B. Liversedge of Pine Grove, California, commander of the Marine regiment which cut off Suribachi, said his men found pillboxes every 10 feet and less at the base of the volcano.

Jap guns and mortars on Suribachi were firing almost point blank at Marines attempting to clamber up the sides of the extinct volcano. The Japs were also pouring shells into the rear of other forces farther north.

Fiercest on north

Front reports said the fiercest resistance was being met on the northern end of the beachhead. There the Japs were supplementing their artillery and mortar barrages for the first time in the Pacific war with anti-personnel rockets.

Magnetic and “yardstick” mines were also being encountered.

[NormanStewart]

Iwo losses larger than at Tarawa

WASHINGTON (UP) – The battle for Iwo has already cost more casualties than the bloody capture of Tarawa in 1943.

The Tarawa losses, however, were proportionately heavier than those thus far reported from Iwo.

At Soissons, France, in the last war, the Marines suffered 1,400 casualties in 60 minutes.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz estimated today, the third day of the Iwo battle, that casualties had reached 3,650. In the 76-hour Tarawa battle, casualties totaled 3,151.

The great proportion of Iwo casualties were wounded, as indicated by Adm. Nimitz’s report that 3,063 of the total had been evacuated. On Tarawa, the ratio was 988 men killed to 2,163 wounded.

Only one Marine division participated in the assault on Tarawa. Two divisions are in action on Iwo.

[dan.harnden]

When you see the dual actions of Iwo Jima and Manilla hit you in the newspaper, it is hard to see how anyone would complain about the upcoming bombings as anything but just desserts. Attitudes at this point were so hardened that people would accept anything to feel the war was closer to over.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. Navy Department (February 22, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 270

During the afternoon of February 21 (East Longitude Date), the attack on Iwo Island was continued in both the northern and southern sectors against increasingly heavy resistance. Intense mortar artillery and small arms fire is being encountered by our troops and in some areas extensive enemy minefields are slowing the advance. During the afternoon, there was no appreciable change in our lines.

Elements of the 3rd Marine Division began landing on the island in support of the 4th and 5th Divisions on February 21. The 3rd Division is under command of Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine.

In the south, flamethrowers and tanks are being used against well-entrenched enemy troops in the Mount Suribachi area. A counterattack launched by the enemy east of Mount Suribachi, shortly after noon, was thrown back. Numerous landmines have been encountered in this vicinity where four of our tanks were knocked out of action.

In the northern sector, bitter resistance was met south of the central Iwo airfield although minor gains were made by the Marines.

It is estimated that approximately 20,000 enemy troops were present on Iwo Island on D‑Day. Our forces have counted more than 850 enemy dead but information as to enemy casualties is incomplete.

During the afternoon, battleships, heavy cruisers and carrier aircraft continued to give close support to our troops with shelling and bombing.

Unloading of supplies over the beaches continues. The volume of mortar fire on the beaches is diminishing. Movement of equipment across the beaches is handicapped by very loose volcanic ash which in some sectors prevents the passage of wheeled vehicles.

---

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 271

During the night of February 21‑22, the northern lines of the U.S. Marines on Iwo Island successfully resisted the pressure of several heavy counterattacks accompanied by continuous enemy attempts to infiltrate into our positions.

The Marines launched an attack northward on February 22 toward the Central Iwo Airfield encountering heavy fire from small arms, mortars, and automatic weapons. At noon the troops were advancing slowly through hard rain and had knocked out numerous enemy gun positions and generally weakened the airdromes defenses. There was little change in the position of the front lines.

Coordinating their attack with the action in the northern sector our forces facing Mount Suribachi resumed the offensive. By noon they were beginning an assault on the face of the cliff under most difficult combat con­ditions.

Heavy naval gunfire continues on enemy‑held positions throughout the northern area of the island. In spite of the rain and adverse weather conditions, Fleet aircraft are supporting ground forces with heavy bombing, strafing and rocket attacks.

At sunset on February 21, a force of enemy bombers and fighters at­tacked our surface units in the area of Iwo Island causing some damage to fleet units. Seven planes were shot down by air patrols and anti-aircraft fire.

Total casualties on shore by 1745 on February 21 were estimated at 385 killed, and 4,168 wounded.

Unloading of supplies is continuing on the beaches under difficulties caused by the loose compositions of the volcano and shoreline.

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CINCPOA Communiqué No. 272

The U.S. Marines on Iwo Island attacked stubbornly‑held enemy positions south of the Central Iwo airfield throughout the afternoon of February 22 making only slight gains. The attacking units continued to meet heavy rifle and mortar fire and during the later afternoon the enemy organized strong counterattacks on both flanks. Our artillery and naval guns brought these concentrations under heavy fire immediately. At about 1800 our troops appeared to have repulsed the assault on the left but no reports were available on the action on the right.

Progress was made in the assault on Mount Suribachi. By nightfall the Marines had surrounded the mountain at the southern end of the island and strong patrols were moving up the cliffs under attack by the enemy who was using hand grenades and demolition charges. Elimination of strongpoints was proceeding in this sector.

Fighting on February 22 was hampered by heavy rains.

Naval gunfire continued to support the ground troops with bombardment of enemy‑held areas of the island and carrier aircraft continued to attack.

A small group of enemy planes unsuccessfully attacked our surface forces in the area of Iwo Island and two other small groups approached it. Our fighters and anti-aircraft fire shot down six enemy planes.

Conditions on the beaches were generally improved during the day and a substantial quantity of supplies were unloaded.

At 1800 as of February 21, our casualties on Iwo Island were estimated at 644 killed, 4,168 wounded and 560 missing. A total of 1,222 enemy dead have been counted.

On February 18 (East Longitude Date), surface units of the U.S. Pacific Fleet bombarded Kurabu Saki, the southern end of Paramushiru in the Kurils.

On the following day, Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force attacked the same target. Five enemy fighters met our bombers which damaged four of the attackers. Navy search Venturas carried out rocket attacks on Minami Saki off Paramushiru on the same date damaging buildings.

Army Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, bombed the airfield on Chichi Jima and Okimura Town on Haha Jima in the Bonins on February 20.

Marcus Island was attacked with unobserved results by Army Liberators of the Strategic Air Force on the same date.

Fighters and torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked targets on Babelthuap in the Palaus and on Yap in the Western Carolines on February 21.

Airstrip buildings on Pagan in the Marianas were strafed by Army fighters on February 22.

Neutralizing raids were continued by Navy search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two in the Marshalls on February 21.

Operations against remnants of the Japanese garrisons on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam in the Marianas and on Peleliu in the Palaus were continued dur­ing the week ending February 17. Routine patrols mopped up 94 enemy killed and 15 captured. In addition, elements of the 24th Regiment of Army Infantry on Saipan attacked a concentration of about 350 of the enemy in a mountainous portion of the Island killing or capturing 131 Japanese on February 15, 16 and 17. Our casualties in these operations in the Marianas were seven killed and three wounded.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 22, 1945)

Iwo casualties hit 4,553

Reinforced Marines begin new push after stopping Jap attacks
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer

Pledged to take Iwo at any cost, U.S. Marines today launched a new drive toward the No. 2 or central airfield on Iwo after hurling back Jap counterattacks. Other Marines were attacking the Japs on Mt. Suribachi.

ADM. NIMITZ HQ, Guam – U.S. Marines, thinned by 4,553 casualties and then reinforced with a new division, fought in the rain today toward the key airport in the center of Iwo Island.

A communiqué announced that the Marines had launched a new rush toward the Iwo airfield after a stonewall stand against several heavy counterattacks during the night.

**At midday, the Leathernecks were slugging slowly forward through hard rain. They knocked out several Jap gun positions and “generally weakened the airdrome’s defenses,” Guam headquarters announced.

“There was little change in positions of the front line,” Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported, revealing that counterblows last night had checked the Marine push northward on the island.

With arrival of elements of a third division on Iwo, the biggest Marine force ever thrown into one operation – some 40,000 – was slugging it out toe to toe with the fanatical Jap defenders.

Adm. Nimitz’s communiqué revealed that by 5:45 p.m. yesterday Guam Time (3:45 a.m. yesterday ET), the Marine casualties ashore on Iwo had mounted to an estimated 385 killed and 4,168 wounded.

As of 8 a.m. yesterday, 3,650 Marines were killed, wounded or missing.

The figures indicated more than 900 casualties in one day.

Today, the Marines at the center of the Iwo line attacked northward toward the airport in the center of the island. They breasted heavy fire from small arms, mortars and automatic weapons.

Coupled with repeated counterattacks during the night were incessant Jap attempts to infiltrate the American positions. Adm. Nimitz said that on the line across the island the Marines “successfully resisted the pressure” of the counterattacks.

On the southern end of the island, Marine forces at noon began an assault on the face of Mt. Suribachi, from the heights of which the Japs were shelling the American-held strip across Iwo.

U.S. warships standing off Iwo maintained a steady bombardment of the Jap positions. Naval planes defied rain and other unfavorable weather conditions to support the Marines with heavy bombing, strafing and rocket attacks.

A force of Jap bombers and fighters attacked the ships off the island at sunset yesterday. Adm. Nimitz said they caused “some damage.” Seven Jap planes were shot down by air patrols and anti-aircraft gunners.

“Unloading of supplies is continuing on the beaches under difficulties caused by the loose composition of the volcanic ash shoreline,” the communiqué reported.

Tough, battle-wise Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, commander of the expeditionary force, threw elements of a third division into the battle yesterday. Never before in the Marines’ 168-year history have so many divisions fought together in a single operation.

The invasion, entering its fourth day, was proving the toughest of the Pacific campaign. Only a single Jap prisoner has been captured, but more than 850 Jap bodies have been counted. Hundreds more probably were taken away by the enemy.

Tokyo broadcasts set U.S. casualties at 12,000 men killed or wounded up to last night and asserted that a third division had to be brought in because the original two divisions suffered 50 percent losses. The reinforcements were said to have landed from 30 large transports.

Tokyo said:

All units of our garrison force on Iwo Jima simultaneously carried out suicidal attacks beginning at midnight February 20 and all artillery likewise went into action, concentrating cross fire on the massed enemy line and inflicting still greater losses on the enemy.

200 yards from field

Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates’ 4th Marine Division fought uphill with tommy guns, bayonets and grenades to within 200 yards of the plateau-top Motoyama Airfield No. 2 in a frontal assault yesterday.

The Marines advanced in the face of almost point-blank machine-gun, mortar and rifle fire poured down on them from Jap positions on commanding heights. Casualties rose steadily, but the advance continued.

The Japs were resisting from steel-shielded foxholes, concrete and steel pillboxes and recessed caves. Many had to be rooted out with bayonets.

Elements of the 5th Marine Division under Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey skirted the southern end, of the airfield from the west for a flank attack.

4 tanks knocked out

At the southern end of the beachhead area, other Marines were assaulting the isolated Suribachi volcano with flamethrowers and tanks. Numerous land mines were slowing the advance, and a communiqué conceded that four U.S. tanks had been knocked out in that sector.

The Japs counterattacked east of Suribachi shortly after noon yesterday, but were thrown back. The volcano was studded with gun emplacements, most of which were still in action despite a week of ceaseless air and naval bombardment.

3rd Division in battle

The latest Marine unit to be thrown into battle was the 3rd Marine Division under Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine, former chief of staff of Fleet Marine Forces in the Pacific. It received its baptism of fire November 1, 1943, on Bougainville and also spearheaded the liberation of Guam.

A Tokyo broadcast said the “Kamikaze Special Attack Corps” sank two U.S. aircraft carriers and a battleship Monday night off Iwo. Two other warships were said to have been set afire.

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‘A very tough proposition’ –
Whatever the cost, Yanks will take Iwo, Marine leader says

Gen. Smith calls battle ‘most difficult problem’ for Leathernecks in 168 years
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer

ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP OFF IWO JIMA – Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, commander of the Fleet Marine Force of the Pacific, said today the Americans will capture Iwo Jima no matter what the cost.

Gen. Smith said the battle now taking place is “the most difficult problem with which the Marine Corps has been confronted in 168 years.”

“We expect to take this island and while it will be at a severe cost, it is our assigned mission,” he said.

The island is so small, he said, that it is almost impossible to maneuver ground forces. Therefore, frontal attacks on strongly fortified Jap positions are necessary.

Gen. Smith was deadly serious. His lips were set in a firm line and when he talked to correspondents, his voice was low-pitched.

He said:

We are up against a very tough proposition. We anticipated a severe battle and we are making slow progress. The beaches caused us some very serious difficulties due to its character.

There is a large amount of wreckage on the beach due to the destruction of our boats in landing operations. In spite of these difficulties, however, there have been sufficient water rations and ammunition to carry on the battle.

The casualties have not been any greater than I anticipated. It is my considered opinion that naval gunfire and air support since D-Day have been all that we could expect.

Gen. Smith said the Japs had been living in underground tunnels and caves.

“It must not be forgotten that the Japs consider Iwo Jima as the homeland,” he said. “There is every indication that our fanatical enemy will fight to the bitter end.”

He said that he believed that when the beaches are better organized and roads improved, the Americans will progress faster.

[NormanStewart]

Two miles of Iwo beach filled with wreckage – all ours

Japs aimed weapons at shore long before Yanks landed – and they didn’t miss
By Sgt. David Dempsey, USMC combat correspondent

IWO JIMA – The invasion beach of this island, stormed four days ago by Marines in the face of blistering Jap mortar and artillery fire, today is a scene of indescribable wreckage – all of it ours.

For two miles extending from Mt. Suribachi at the southern tip of the island is a thick layer of debris. Wrecked hulls of scores of boats testify to the price we paid to get our troops ashore on this vital island.

For two continuous days and nights, Jap artillery, rockets and heavy mortars laid a curtain of fire along the shore. Their weapons had been aimed at the beach long before we landed. They couldn’t miss and they didn’t.

Volcanic sand on this beach is so soft that many of our vehicles were mired down before they had gone 10 feet. In addition, a terrace a few yards from the water hampered their movements so that they became an easy prey for Jap gunners.

Only a few trucks got ashore and for two days practically all supplies moved by hand to the front. Even the unconquerable jeep was stuck.

One can see amphibian tractors turned upside down like pancakes on a griddle; derricks brought ashore to unload cargo are tilted at insane angles where shells blasted them; anti-tank guns were smashed before they had a chance to fire a shot. Even some bulldozers landed too early to clear a path for following vehicles. Artillery could not be landed for 24 hours.

Packs, clothing, gas masks and toilet articles, many of them ripped, by shrapnel, are scattered across the sand for five miles. Rifles are blown in half. Even letters are strewn among the debris as though the war insisted on prying into a man’s personal life.

Scattered amid the wreckage is death. Perhaps the real heroes of this battle for Iwo Jima are the boys who sweated out the invasion. They are the coxswains who steered the landing boats through a gauntlet of fire and who didn’t get back. They are the unloading parties who for one entire day unloaded hardly a boat because few boats made it.

Instead, they hugged the beach while shells hit into the sand all around them.

On D-Day, beach parties suffered heavy casualties in killed and wounded.

And there were the aid and evacuation stations which couldn’t move up to the comparative safety of the forward area. Our battalion aid station lost 11 of its 26 corpsmen in the first two days.

Death is not a pretty sight, but it has taken possession of our beach. An officer in charge of a tank landing boat received a direct shell hit while trying to free his boat from the sand. He was blown in half. A life preserver supports the trunk of his body in the water.

Marines killed on the beach were buried under the sand as the tide came in.

On the third day, we began to get vehicles and supplies ashore in quantity. Wire matting made the beach passable and naval gunfire knocked out most of the Jap artillery.

The miracle was that we were able to supply our troops at all during the two days of increasing shelling on this beach.

The boys who did it, as the saying goes, deserve a medal, but a lot of them won’t be around when the medals are passed out.

[NormanStewart]

Bravest guys in world fighting on ‘Hell Island’

By the United Press

Iwo’s too crowded for both Yanks, Japs

U.S. PACIFIC FLEET HQ, Guam (UP) – Referring to the unparalleled density of American and Jap fighting troops on tiny Iwo, an American officer remarked today: “Someone’s going to have to get off and it isn’t going to be us.”

Iwo could well be named “Hell Island” where a battle beyond comparison with anything else anywhere is raging, a correspondent said today in a pooled broadcast from Adm. Richmond K. Turner’s flagship off the island.

The correspondent said:

The situation was terrific from first one side and then the other. But the Marines are going ahead and they’re driving the Japs back.

I saw the bravest guys in the world hiding in foxholes, running forward in a crouch, leaping into Jap emplacements and then finishing off the enemy at close quarters.

You know it takes guts to fight that way.

Replacements are constantly moving forward. There are Japanese bodies everywhere, too, and that makes you feel a little better.

He said the Jap artillery and rockets and the American warship bombardment throughout the night “makes a hell if there ever was one – and that is Iwo.”

Jap mortar and artillery fire is everywhere. When reinforcements arrive, there is a “Hail, hail, the ammunition is here.” We’ve got to have ammunition.

The beach itself is littered with scores of landing craft.

There is nothing anywhere to compare with the battle of this island – the Battle of Iwo Island.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: The glorious Marines

Our losses on Iwo Island will sober those who had concluded, from the Luzon victories and the unchallenged sweep of our fleets into Tokyo waters, that the Japs were weakening. American military men never had that idea. But even they, apparently, are somewhat surprised by the ferocity of this battle.

Adm. Halsey predicted that it would not be as tough as Tarawa. Now the Marine command says it is the worst in the Corps’ 168 years, which is the most extreme description an American can think of.

No immediate letup is in sight. There is no front line or rear in the usual sense; that is, there is no spot on the five-mile island where our troops are safe from enemy fire. The Japs have the heights overlooking all of our hard-won positions, and are making use of that advantage.

All of which makes the American advance more remarkable. The Marines not only have lived up to their heroic history, but have written a grim new chapter of valor. Without cover of any kind, they have climbed the treacherous rocks under enemy fire from all sides and kept going. They took the main airfield 30 hours ahead of schedule, cut the island in two, and are now flanking the second field.

Every possible aid is being given our ground troops by the supporting services. Surface ships, ringing the island, keep up a steady bombardment of enemy positions. Carrier planes follow the ground forces like protective hawks, regardless of foul weather. So far, the sea and air patrol has been so complete that not a single Jap ship or plane has broken through.

And not least important, virtually all American casualties on the island are being removed at once to safety and care.

Nobody will question the strategic necessity of this battle. To the Japs, Iwo is a base which must be held at all cost; to Americans, it must be taken at all cost. That is why the fighting is so bloody. Iwo and the Bonins, 100 miles north, are the last fixed sea defenses before Tokyo itself – only about 700 miles away.

Iwo, when captured, will protect the flanks of our fleet operating in Jap home waters. Iwo will give us air bases from which even medium bombers can blast Japan, and from which fighter planes can escort Superfortresses. The fall of Iwo will shake the enemy as nothing before.

It’s a job that must be done. It’s a job the Marines are doing with great glory.

[jacktyunmen]

Is there supposed to be pictures in this post? Sorry for asking but it shows a little red and white icon and I’m a little confused.

[NormanStewart]

No, that’s a separator I got from the archived Pittsburgh Post-Gazette site in 2001. If I were to post a picture but for whatever reason it’s unavailable, I use “” as a placeholder.

[jacktyunmen]

Ahhhhhhhhh, that makes sense.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (February 23, 1945)

Zwei Flugzeugträger versenkt

Tokio, 22. Februar – Zwei Flugzeugträger und ein Kriegsschiff unbekannten Typs versenkt, zwei weitere Kriegsschiffe unbekannten Typs schwer beschädigt und auf Grund gesetzt, lautet der Inhalt des vom Kaiserlichen Hauptquartier am Donnerstag herausgegebenen Kommuniqués, welches weiter meldet, dass diese Erfolge von starken Einheiten der japanischen Marinesonderfliegerwaffe am Nachmittag des 21. Februar in den Gewässern der Iwojima-Inseln gegen dort operierende alliierte Kriegsschiffe erzielt werden konnten.

Das Kommuniqué betont weiter, dass Einheiten der japanischen Luftwaffe am zweiten Tage einen schweren alliierten Kreuzer in der Mindanaosee auf den Philippinen versenken konnten.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. Navy Department (February 23, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 273

The 28th Regiment of United States Marines was observed raising the United States Flag on the summit of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Island at 1035 today (East Longitude Date).

[NormanStewart]

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 274

The 28th Regiment of Marines on Iwo Island achieved the rim of Mount Suribachi on the Northern, Eastern and Western sides of the crater by 1200 today (East Longitude Date). Below on the steep slopes of the Volcano assault teams equipped with flamethrowers were still attacking numerous enemy strongpoints which had been bypassed. The drive which carried our forces to the summit was supported effectively by Marine artillery.

After a night in which their lines remained stable the troops in the northern sector made a frontal attack on enemy strongpoints and moved slowly toward the Central Iwo airfield. The enemy employing heavy artillery and mortar fire was offering stiff resistance.

By 1200 small gains had been made in the center of the lines south of the field.

Naval gunfire supported the troops throughout the night and morning. Heavy carrier aircraft attacks were made on enemy defenses during the morning. Meanwhile, carrier aircraft destroyed three planes and damaged three others on Chichi Jima in the Bonins.

Unloading continued on the beaches throughout the day. Several roads have now been constructed over the volcanic ash terraces and the movement of supplies to the front lines is improved.

Part of the northern beaches were subjected to mortar and sniper fire during the day.

During the night of February 22‑23, a group of enemy swimmers landed on the western coast of the island to attack in the rear of our lines. The Marines mopped them up after dawn.

[NormanStewart]

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 275

The V Amphibious Corps attacking northward on Iwo Island made limited gains against elaborate enemy defenses by 1800 on February 23 (East Longitude Date). On the right flank the 4th Marine Division advanced a maximum of 300 yards. In the center elements of the 3rd Marine Division occupied the southern tip of the Central Iwo airfield. There was no appreciable change in the positions of the 5th Marine Division on the left flank. In all sectors the enemy is resisting our advance from concrete pillboxes, entrenchments and caves.

In the area of Mount Suribachi, mopping-up operations are being carried out against blockhouses, and pillboxes on the slopes of the volcano. Similar defenses have been reported inside the crater. A total of 717 enemy dead have been counted in the Suribachi sector.

Throughout the day, our troops continued to receive close support from carrier aircraft and naval gunfire. Mortar fire directed at our positions from Kangoku Rock, west of Iwo, was eliminated by one of our destroyers. Several landing craft at the Rock were also destroyed.

The unloading of supplies is continuing and their rate of movement across the beaches is considerably improved in spite of the surf created by the recent southeasterly weather. The enemy continued to bring the northern beaches under fire during the afternoon of February 23.

Carrier aircraft conducted an offensive sweep over Chichi Jima in the Bonins on February 23.

Fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing accompanied by torpedo planes struck bivouac areas, destroyed a bridge and set a lumber yard afire in the Palaus on February 22. Fighter attacks were also carried out on Yap in the Western Carolines and on Sonsoral Island.

Army fighters strafed targets on Pagan in the Marianas on February 23.

Neutralizing attacks were made on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls by Navy search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 23, 1945)

MARINES MOP UP IWO PEAK
Yanks seize summit of Mt. Suribachi

Casualties 5,372, 3 every 2 minutes

Why the going is tough on Iwo

The Navy reconnaissance photo of Iwo, taken at daringly low level, gives a good idea of the forbidding ground over which U.S. Marines are battling. Large areas of the terrain were heavily dotted with pillboxes, sniper pits, and mines. Enlarged section shows some of the Jap installations.

GUAM (UP) – U.S. Marines captured Mt. Suribachi, volcanic peak commanding the bloody island of Iwo, and edged northward today in a new frontal drive against the central airfield.

Assault teams with flamethrowers were hunting out Japs hidden in several bypassed strongpoints on the slopes of the volcano.

A Navy communiqué raised the casualties for the first 58 hours of the Battle of Iwo, the toughest in the history of the Marine Corps, to 5,372. It estimated the American dead at 644, the wounded at 4,168, and missing at 560. The majority of the missing probably were dead.

Jap swimmers wiped out

A group of Japs swam around the western end of the Marine line across Iwo under cover of darkness last night and landed in the American rear. The Marines mopped them up after dawn.

Marines of the 28th Regiment scored the biggest tactical victory of the invasion when they scaled 554-foot Mt. Suribachi, at the southern tip of Iwo, and swarmed over the northern, eastern and western sides of the crater at noon.

From the summit of Suribachi, the Marines looked down on the entire island. Guns were being rushed to the peak to turn the tables on the Japs who from its heights had been plastering the Marines since H-Hour.

Last Japs on Mt. Suribachi were being mopped up today by U.S. Marines who had seized the summit of that highest Iwo Island peak. Marine spearheads battling toward the central or No. 2 airfield on Iwo made small gains.

‘Small gains’ reported

A communiqué reported “small gains” in the renewed drive on Iwo’s central or No. 2 airfield. The Marines, storming the fortifications before it, chopped their way slowly northward. They were advancing through heavy artillery and mortar fire.

For the fourth straight night, U.S. warships off Iwo shelled Jap positions. By daylight, U.S. planes from carriers joined in the bombardment.

The ships ringing the island were also pouring in a steady flow of supplies and equipment for the three Marine divisions fighting the hardest battle of the war in the Pacific.

Roads constructed

Engineers and construction crews had constructed several roads over the treacherous volcanic ash terraces, and the movement of supplies to the fighting zones was improving.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reviewed the situation on Iwo in his third communiqué of the day.

Three Americans fell dead or wounded every two minutes during the first 58 hours of battle on Iwo, Adm. Nimitz announced, but the Marines were killing two Japs for every American killed.

He said 1,222 Jap dead had been counted.

In the entire 76-hour battle on Tarawa, previously the bloodiest, 3,151 Marines were killed or wounded.

Some lose 25 percent

Front dispatches said 25 percent of one battalion in the first assault waves ashore on Iwo was killed or wounded in the first two hours after H-Hour. Twenty percent of a second battalion was felled.

The communiqué indicated that U.S. casualties had increased from 76 an hour for the first 48 hours of the invasion to 172 an hour – three a minute – during the next 10 hours, but it was more likely that a number of those reported in the late bulletin had actually been hit during the earlier

The 28th Marine Regiment reached the top of Mt. Suribachi 16 hours after surrounding the volcano. From its crest, the Americans for the first time can observe Jap movements around the central airfield atop a plateau.

Some Japs on peak

Many gun emplacements on Mt. Suribachi remained in Jap hands, however, and these will have to be stormed one by one. Tunnels and caves honeycomb the peak.

Jap troops counterattacked late yesterday against both flanks of the Marine spearhead pointed toward the central airdrome. Newly-landed artillery, backed up by the big guns of warships, appeared to have repulsed the assault from the left by 6 p.m., but no reports were available on the action on the right.

At last reports the Marines were still 200 yards from the airfield, though some units had bypassed its southern tip from the west.

Heavy rains also hampered the Marines.

A small group of Jap planes made a second attempt to attack U.S. warships off Iwo. But the raid was unsuccessful and fighters and anti-aircraft batteries shot down six planes.

In the first attempt at sunset Wednesday, some American fleet units were damaged, Adm. Nimitz said yesterday.

All sources agreed that the battle on Iwo was the toughest and bloodiest of the entire Pacific war. Vice Adm. John H. Hoover, commander of forward areas in the Central Pacific, said Saipan was “easy” by comparison.

Natural barriers

Besides being the heaviest fortified island yet encountered, Iwo possesses “tremendous natural barriers that also must be overcome,” he said in a broadcast on his return from the scene.

He said it might take two weeks “or even longer” to secure the island, depending on whether the Japs hole up to fight to the last or expend their forces in a suicidal banzai charge.

“Regardless of what tactics the Japs use,” he said, “we have the necessary manpower and equipment to insure an American victory.”

Once secured, Iwo immediately will be put into operation as an air base for attacks on Tokyo and other targets on the Jap homeland.

“You must remember that we can do in months what it takes the Japs years to accomplish.”

Beachhead imperiled

Adm. Hoover disclosed that the American beachhead on Iwo appeared doomed for a time on D-Day Monday. The Marines encountered little fire going ashore because the Japs thought the landing on the southeast beach was a feint, he said, but three hours later they swung mortars and howitzers into place.

Shells began knocking out U.S. tanks and causing casualties among the troops, he said.

He said:

It was a serious moment and for a while our invasion beach appeared doomed, but later that same day we discovered an area far to the south where we could penetrate to the southern airfield out of range of their heaviest gunfire.