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.