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.
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Ahhhhhhhhh, that makes sense.
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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.
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).
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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.
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.
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.
U.S. Navy Department (February 24, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 276
The battle for the airfield in the central area of Iwo Island continued on February 24 (East Longitude Date) with no marked changes in the lines at noon. The Marines holding a line on the Southwestern end of the airdrome and south of the center of the field launched an attack supported by tanks in the morning after our artillery aircraft and fleet surface units had subjected the enemy to heavy bombardment. By noon, our forces were reported to be gaining ground slowly. Enemy resistance is heavy.
Marine patrols entered Suribachi Crater during the day and continued to mop up remnants of the garrison of that strongpoint.
Two enemy aircraft approached the island on February 23 but retired without attacking.
Conditions on the beaches are generally improved and the unloading of general cargo is proceeding.
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 277
Elements of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions made substantial advances along the whole northern sector on Iwo Island on February 24 (East Longitude Date). Their attack was made in the face of intense fire from heavy weapons and rockets but it carried northward generally about 308 to 500 yards through a maze of interlocking, or mutually supporting concrete pillboxes, blockhouses and fortified caves. All areas crossed were heavily mined. By 1800, our units had reached the middle area of the central Iwo airfield, had pushed forward several hundred yards on the west and had begun a drive which expanded our beachhead northward along the east coast about 600 yards.
In every zone of the fighting, the enemy resisted our advance to the full extent of his armament. Weapons of the “bazooka” type were employed against our tanks and the use of rocket bombs, weighing about 500 kilograms, continued. Enemy positions in the area through which our units advanced were generally reinforced blockhouses and pillboxes with four‑foot bulkheads. In a single area of about 400 by 600 yards on the east coast, our forces neutralized about 100 caves between thirty and forty feet deep.
An immediate result of the advance was apparent in a marked decrease of enemy artillery fire into the interior of the area under our control.
The attack was supported by marine artillery and by fire from heavy units of the fleet standing off Iwo Island. Carrier aircraft continued their close support of the troops and also made an attack on Chichi Jima in the Bonins.
In the south, Marines continued their mop-up of enemy strongpoints in and around Mount Suribachi. Incomplete reports indicate that 115 enemy emplacements have been destroyed in that sector.
A total of 2,799 enemy dead have been counted on Iwo Island.
The condition of the beaches showed marked improvement and unloading of supplies was accelerated.
Seventh Army Air Force bombers of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Oceans Areas, bombed the airfield and Omura town on Chichi Jima and Okimura town on Haha Jima in the Bonins on February 22.
On February 23, Marine fighters attacked targets in the Palaus.
Army Thunderbolts strafed enemy positions on Pagan in the Marianas on the same date.
Fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing set a fuel dump afire and struck motor transport equipment in the Palaus on February 24.
Navy search Venturas of Fleet Air Wing One bombed the enemy airstrip on Puluwat in the Carolines on February 24.
Neutralizing raids were continued by search aircraft of FlAirWing Two on enemy‑held bases in the Marshalls on February 23.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 24, 1945)
Marines led by tanks renew attack against central Iwo airfield
Drive launched after artillery, warships, planes plaster Japanese positions
Closeness to heart of Jap homeland of the U.S. Pacific offensive since the invasion of Iwo is graphically shown by these maps.
GUAM (UP) – Tank-led U.S. Marines renewed the assault on Iwo’s central airfield from a springboard on its lower edge today and at noon were hammering out slow gains against violent resistance.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced that the Marines charged Jap positions on the Iwo airfield from a line on the southwestern rim of the base and south of its center.
With tank support the Marines struck this morning after U.S. planes, artillery and warships had plastered the field with a great weight of explosives.
“By noon our forces were reported to be gaining ground slowly,” Adm. Nimitz said in a communiqué. “Enemy resistance is heavy.”
On the southern tip of Iwo, patrols entered the crater of the extinct Suribachi volcano, atop which the Stars and Stripes flew, and were mopping-up remnants of the Jap forces defending the natural fortress.
“Conditions on the beaches are generally improved, and the unloading of general cargo is proceeding,” the communiqué reported.
A BBC broadcast quoted Radio Tokyo as saying that the Americans have established two new beachheads on the southeast coast of Iwo.
Casualties mount
Casualties mounted steadily on both sides in the bloodiest fighting of the Pacific war. While American losses have not been announced beyond 5,372 casualties for the first 58 hours of the six-day battle, the finding of another 717 Jap bodies jumped the number of enemy dead to at least 1,939.
A Jap broadcast claimed that American losses on Iwo were “well over 17,000” up to Friday night. Eight more U.S. warships, including two battleships, have been sunk or damaged off the island, Tokyo said.
Elements of the 3rd Marine Division fought onto the 300-foot-high central plateau yesterday and had advanced 50 yards along the southern tip of the southwest-northeast runway of Motoyama Airfield No. 2 by dusk.
Japs fire rockets
The 4th and 5th Marine Divisions were still attempting to clamber up the slopes of the plateau from the east and west under almost point-blank artillery, machine-gun and rocket fire from an intricate system of pillboxes, blockhouses and fortified caves.
The 5th Marine Division on the western slopes had made virtually no progress for 66 hours through noon Friday, but the 4th Marine Division on the east pushed ahead 300 yards to within 350 yards of the east-west runway of the central airfield.
Mop up at Suribachi
Some 2½ miles to the southwest, other Marine units were exterminating the Japs in bypassed caves and pillboxes on the slopes of captured Mt. Suribachi, an extinct 554-foot volcano.
Similar defenses have been reported inside the crater and must also be reduced. A total of 717 enemy dead have been counted in the Suribachi sector, Adm. Nimitz reported.
Tough as the present fighting has been, even more difficult tasks appeared to lie ahead before Iwo and its airfields 750 miles south of Tokyo are securely in American hands.
Has active volcano
Beyond the central airfield and an uncompleted northern airstrip lie flat-topped, dome-shaped, 360-foot Mt. Yama, an active volcano, and a cluster of satellite peaks.
This devil’s playground is honeycombed with long-prepared cave and tunnel defenses, while the peaks themselves are dotted with vents and fissures which emit steam and sulfurous fumes.
Navy pounds Japs
Carrier aircraft and the big guns of the Fifth Fleet continued to support the ground forces. A destroyer moved close in shore yesterday and knocked out an enemy mortar position on Kangoku Rock a mile northwest of Iwo. Several landing craft on the rock were also destroyed.
The northern perimeter of the American line ran from a point about halfway up the west coast inland 1,500 yards to a slight northern bulge, then diagonally southeast across the central airfield to the northern end of the invasion beach on the east coast.
Carrier aircraft made an offensive sweep over Chichi in the neighboring Bonin Islands yesterday.
Japs on Iwo firing half-ton rockets
ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP OFF IWO JIMA (UP) – The Japs on Iwo are using half-ton rocket-mortar shells for the first time in the Pacific war.
Marines believed they were launched by rocket-mortar propulsion from platforms on northern Iwo.
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Völkischer Beobachter (February 25, 1945)
Der Kampf um Iwojima
Tokio, 24. Februar – Mit unerhörter Zähigkeit verteidigen die japanischen Truppen jeden Fußbreit der Insel Iwojima. Frontberichte vom Freitag unterstreichen, dass die Amerikaner seit Dienstagabend keine Fortschritte mehr gemacht haben. Die für die Verteidigung entscheidenden Punkte der Insel sind fest in japanischer Hand. Die nördlichen Gebiete sind einstweilen von den Angriffen der amerikanischen Truppen nicht berührt.
Mittelpunkt des Kampfes ist der Ort Chidor Hama, wo die Amerikaner eine Landungsbrücke erobern konnten. Auch das in der Nähe des Ortes gelegene südliche Flugfeld ist im Besitz des Feindes. Die überraschend starken amerikanischen Verbände befinden sich in diesem verhältnismäßig kleinen Raum unter dem Beschuss der japanischen Artillerie, die auch Raketengeschütze einsetzt. Dadurch werden verheerende Wirkungen in dem kleinen amerikanischen Landekopf erzielt.
Etwa 50 amerikanische Kriegsschiffe, darunter auch Schlachtschiffe, befinden sich in den Gewässern rund um Iwojima. In ihrer Begleitung sollen sich nach letzten Nachrichten etwa 180 Transporter mit 250 kleinen Landungsfahrzeugen befinden.
Noch immer wird mit der allergrößten Erbitterung in Manila gekämpft, wo die japanischen Truppen gegenüber einem zahlenmäßig weit überlegenen Gegner jeden Zoll Boden wütend verteidigen. Die japanischen Truppen gehen immer wieder zu Gegenangriffen über. Vorübergehend in die Stadt eingedrungene Amerikaner wurden von den Japanern wieder hinausgeworfen.
Auf der Inselfestung Corregidor am Eingang der Burg von Manila setzen die japanischen Verteidiger ihren Widerstand gegen die feindlichen Boden- und Luftlandetruppen auf den Höhen und im bewaldeten Teil der Insel fort. In Artillerieduellen zwischen den Küstenbatterien und feindlichen Flotteneinheiten wurden bisher zehn feindliche Kriegsschiffe in Brand geschossen.
U.S. Navy Department (February 25, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 279
After preliminary bombardment by Marine artillery and heavy units of the Pacific Fleet, troops of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions launched an attack northward on Iwo Island on February 25 (East Longitude Date). Fighting was heavy throughout the day and at nightfall our forces were in positions of the East‑West runway of the Central Iwo field and about two‑thirds of the North‑South runway.
Carrier aircraft and Seventh Army Air Force Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, supported the attack.
A total of 2,827 enemy dead had been counted by noon of February 25.
Shortly before midnight of February 24, a small group of enemy aircraft attacked our forces on and around Iwo Island causing no damage. Part of their bombs were dropped in enemy territory on the Island. One of our night fighters shot down an enemy plane over Chichi Jima in the Bonins and three others were destroyed on the ground in the Bonins by our aircraft on February 24.
Beach conditions continued to show marked improvement.
StrAirPoa Army Liberators bombed the airfield on Chichi Jima in the Bonins causing a large explosion near the runways on February 23. On the following day an attack was made on Omura Town on the same Island.
The airfield on Marcus Island was bombed by StrAirPoa Army Liberators on February 24.
Neutralizing raids were continued on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls by Navy search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two on February 24.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 25, 1945)
MARINES CAPTURE HALF OF IWO
Invaders push to center of 2nd airfield
Offensive gains up to 600 yards
Fighting Marines hoist Stars and Stripes on the highest point of Mt. Suribachi Volcano, overlooking from the south the bloody battlefield on Iwo Island. (Navy Radiotelephoto)
GUAM – Marine shock troops, advancing as much as 600 yards in a general offensive, have captured approximately half of Iwo Island.
The invaders of Japan’s doorstep island have swept to the heart of Iwo’s central airfield.
Under cover of a land, air and sea bombardment, the Marines expanded their east coast beachhead about 600 yards, drove 300 to 500 yards through the center of the strong Jap defense lines and expanded their grip on the east coast by several hundred yards.
Jap death toll rises
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s war bulletin covering fighting through 6 p.m. Saturday, reported that Jap dead has now risen to 2,799. The last report on U.S. casualties listed 5,372 as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, of whom 644 were dead.
The latest advances which Adm. Nimitz called “substantial” increased the American grip on Iwo’s coast to five miles – three on the east and two on the west – and left the Japs in about seven miles of the coast. They also gave the American possession of about four of Iwo’s eight square miles and placed them well atop the 340-foot central plateau from which the Japs had been pouring withering fire into the ranks of the Devil Dogs.
Greatest U.S. gains
Although the Marines of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions were slashing forward and scoring their greatest gains of a campaign that had been marked by yard-by-yard advances, Adm. Nimitz said:
In every zone of fighting, the enemy resisted our advance to the full extent of his armament. Weapons of the “Bazooka” type were employed against our tanks and the use of rocket bombs weighing about 500 kilograms (approximately 1,000 pounds) continued.
Testifying to the powerful defenses the remaining men of the Jap garrison of 20,000 were fighting from, Adm. Nimitz said that in a single area of approximately 200,00 square yards along the east coast, the Marines neutralized about 100 caves ranging from 30 to 40 feet deep.
Four-foot bulkheads
The Marines, rooting the Japs out of their defenses with bayonets, tommy guns and hand grenades, were encountering reinforced blockhouses and pillboxes having four-foot bulkheads.
One immediate result of the general advance was a “marked decrease of enemy artillery fire” into the rear areas of Southern Iwo won by the Americans in the opening days of the invasion which started last Monday, Adm. Nimitz said.
The bulletin issued early Sunday gave this picture of the flaming front from the east to west coasts:
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4TH MARINE DIVISION, commanded by Maj. Clifton B. Gates, opened a drive along the east coast which carried northward about 600 yards to extend the original invasion beachhead to a stretch of approximately three miles. Struck up the central plateau on the right flank of the 3rd Marine Division hitting the center of the Jap lines.
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3rd MARINE DIVISION, commanded by Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine, hammered 300 to 500 yards through a maze of interlocking pillboxes, blockhouses, fortified caves and thick minefields to burst across the center of the central or No. 2 Iwo airfield atop the central plains. This put the Yanks in the center of the island in an area where Jap military headquarters and governmental centers were located.
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5TH MARINE DIVISION, commanded by Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey, resumed its advance up the west coast after being pinned down by terrific Jap fire for 90 hours. It drove ahead several hundred yards to win a two-mile grip on the west coast.
Triple bombardment
The general attack was supported by Marine artillery, fire from heavy units of the fleet standing off the island and carrier aircraft.
Carrier planes also made an attack of Chichi Island in the Bonin Islands north of Iwo while Army Air Force Liberator bombers hammered the airfield and Omura Town of Chichi and Okamura Town on Haha Island last Thursday. On Friday, Marine fighters attacked targets in the Palau islands east of the Philippines.
Adm. Nimitz announced that on the southern tip of Iwo, Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division had reached the crater of Mt. Suribachi and were mopping up Jap strongpoints on the mountain. Incomplete reports showed they had knocked out 115 Jap gun emplacements on the dormant volcano.
He said that the condition of the beaches, which had been under heavy Jap fire, showed marked improvement and that the unloading of supplies for the drive now in progress was accelerated.
Attack began Saturday
The general assault opened shortly after dawn Saturday when the weary Marines sprang from their foxholes and captured Jap trenches. By noon, Adm. Nimitz reported in an earlier communiqué, they were making slow but steady progress and during the afternoon hammered out their first sizeable one-day gains of the campaign.
Jap planes retire
Adm. Nimitz announced that Jap planes, conspicuous by their virtual absence, approached the island on Friday but retired without attacking.
Tokyo said the Americans had established two new beachheads on the southeastern coast. Other Tokyo broadcasts claimed a total of 17,000 American casualties were inflicted by Friday night, that eight more U.S. warships, including two battleships and four cruisers. had been sunk or damaged off Iwo.
Dispatches reported that although the situation was improving, the Marines faced many days of tough fighting before they won Iwo.
The longest of the two strips, Iwo central airfield – the Yanks already hold the southern field – runs from northeast to southwest. It is 5,525 feet long. The east west field is about 4,000 feet long and crosses the other strip about one-third of the way up from its southwestern tip.
Dispatches said that beyond the central airfield lay the flat-topped dome-shaped 360-foot Mt. Moto and several subsidiary peaks which mark the northern boundary of the central plateau.
‘Breaking their backs’
A dispatch from United Press war writer Mac Johnson aboard a fleet flagship said the Japs were “breaking their backs” with counterattacks and never before in the Central Pacific had the Marines had to throw back so many as on Iwo.
Mr. Johnson reported:
They serve to slow up and sometimes stall us, but the death toll for the enemy is unprofitably high. The Japs in groups of 50 to 200 smash against our lines just before evening and through the night. These onslaughts are welcomed for it is only by killing Japs that the enemy’s backbone of resistance can be broken. This is slowly being accomplished by whittling down the Jap garrison in a battle of annihilation.
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Tunnels between pillboxes honeycomb bloody Iwo Isle
600 wounded evacuated to Marianas – each has tale of heroism, by someone else
By Lloyd Tupling, United Press staff writer
Saturday, February 24, 1945
SOMEWHERE IN THE MARIANAS – A shipload of more than 600 battle-worn Marines arrived today for hospitalization.
They were the first battle casualties to be evacuated from Iwo Jima.
Unloading of the wounded was delayed several hours when a hospital ship rammed an obstruction while nearing a dock. About two-thirds of the men were on stretchers.
Veterans of the Bougainville, Guadalcanal and Saipan invasions among the wounded said the Iwo battlefield was “worse than the worst of them.”
“The whole island was honeycombed with interconnected pillboxes,” one 5th Marine Division sergeant said.
The sergeant, suffering from shock and combat fatigue, said his platoon worked its way past a group of pillboxes, burning some and bypassing others without drawing Jap fire. But as soon as the Marines were past the pillboxes, the enemy emplacements opened up with machine guns, he said. The Japs, meanwhile, poured mortar fire from Mt. Suribachi into the Americans.
“When they get you like that, there’s nothing you can do but wait for the boys to move up from behind and relieve you,” he said.
One Marine corporal who operated a flamethrower during both the Saipan and Iwo landings, said the Japs on Iwo showed no signs of their previous disorganization.
“They had perfect communications as far as I could see,” the corporal said. “And they had the range of every foot of that island.
“When one platoon would move up all they had to do was order one group of artillery mortars to cut loose, and they had us.”
Heavy toll of tanks
Wounded Marines interviewed aboard ship said Jap mines took a heavy toll of tanks, halftracks and other combat vehicles.
Wreckage of shattered landing craft, vehicles and the broken bodies of men clogged the beaches.
A 4th Division Marine private said:
You could find any part of the human body there is on that beach.
I was one of the lucky ones. A mortar shell went off under my feet as we were moving up a 20-foot hill. The blast lifted me at least 20 feet.
All I had on when I hit the earth was the collar and cuffs of my combat jacket.
He said he suffered internal injuries but did not receive a scratch externally.
Bandaged Marines clad in new G.I. clothing huddled in groups on the deck of the hospital ship, some joking, some talking seriously and others sitting silently alone.
Each had a tale of heroism to tell – about somebody else, For example, there was the Browning automatic rifleman who wiped out four Japs in a cave, was wounded in the knee, ran to another cave where he was hit by four more bullets and finally had to be ordered to return to the beach with medical corpsmen.
Like aerial bombs
One veteran 5th Division Marine said the Jap mortar fire resembled “silver-colored things like aerial bombs dropping all over the sky.”
“There wasn’t much shrapnel because the sand was soft and splinters buried themselves,” said a 28th Regiment Marine.
“But it was also too soft to make good foxholes. As soon as you’d dig a hole, the sand would fall in on you.”
The Marine said he was glad to hear his regiment had finally topped Mt. Suribachi.
“We started up there twice the first day but were ordered back,” he said. “I was on the third trip when I got it in the shoulder. I don’t remember what happened.”
The Marines said Iwo was infested by hungry flies, “so greedy they left the dead alone and were chasing us.”
Editorial: The summit of Suribachi
Capture of Mt. Suribachi by U.S. Marines should cut the American casualty rate in the Battle of Iwo Island – the highest so far in the history of the Pacific warfare. That mountain dominates the five-mile island. Its guns accounted for many of the American killed and wounded.
Now that Suribachi is in our hands, our artillery can pour it on the Japs below. Already their casualties are estimated at double our own.
This improved position on Iwo does not mean, of course, that victory will be easy. The second airfield, and virtually all of the central and northern parts of the island, are still mostly held by the enemy although we have a toehold on the airstrip. Literally every foot of the rocky advance will be contested from well-prepared defenses. There will be few prisoners.
But we at home, who wait and pray, can be thankful that American heroism in the first part of the battle has turned the tide. Because of this, and the foresight of the high command, our forces now apparently have numerical superiority ashore, as well as control of the sea and air. The result is not in doubt.
U.S. Navy Department (February 26, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 280
Elements of the 3rd Marine Division constituting the center of our lines on Iwo Island advanced about 400 yards through extremely heavy enemy defenses on February 26 (East Longitude Date) seized the high ground of the central plateau and by nightfall brought most of the island’s second airfield into our possession. Fighting along the entire line was very heavy with enemy resistance mounting before our attack throughout the day. Our troops were subjected to artillery and rocket fire and a very heavy volume of small arms fire during the advance. The 4th Marine Division on the east and the 5th Marine Division on the west advanced during the day, the 4th Division capturing a commanding hill near the east coast. The attack by our forces was supported by Marine artillery, naval gunfire, and carrier aircraft.
Mopping-up operations continued in the south, around Mount Suribachi. Little enemy fire fell on the interior of our beachhead during the day.
On February 26, our forces counted 3,568 enemy dead and 9 enemy prisoners in eight days of fighting on Iwo Island.
Marine observation planes, the first U.S. aircraft to land, began operating on the southern Iwo airstrip during the morning while restoration of the runways to operational condition continued.
Supplies and equipment were landed in increasing quantities as road and beach conditions continued to improve.
Carrier aircraft strafed targets in and around Chichi Jima in the Bonins burning one plane on the ground, sinking a small merchant vessel and burning two medium merchant ships. Oil storage facilities were destroyed.
Planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing set a building supply dump and fuel storage area afire on Urukthapel in the Palaus on February 25.
Marine aircraft attacked targets on Yap in the western Carolines on the same date.
Army Thunderbolts strafed buildings and defenses on Pagan in the Marianas on February 26, starting two fires.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 26, 1945)
Marines clearing Iwo’s 2nd airfield
Savage fighting continues on island
GUAM (UP) – Shock troops of three Marine divisions were clearing the last few yards of Iwo’s central airfield today.
The battle-weary Marines seized all of the east-west runway and all but one third of the north-south runway of Motoyama Airfield No. 2 atop the central plateau yesterday.
Tanks and flamethrowers were again spearheading the attack, backed up by swarms of carrier planes and big Army Liberators. Fighting was savage, with many hand-to-hand combats reported.
Far from over
With the capture of Motoyama Airfield No. 2, the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Division will have all Iwo’s airstrips – within fighter-plane range of Tokyo – in their hands. Motoyama Airfield No. 1, farther south, fell to the Marines last week.
But the battle of Iwo was far from over. The Japs still hold Mt. Moto, a volcano dominating Northern Iwo, and a cluster of other peaks, all honeycombed with gun emplacements and defense tunnels from which they were raining shells and rockets on the American-held portion of the island.
May take weeks
U.S. Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal, who visited the beachhead four days after D-Day, told newsmen aboard Vice Adm. Richmond K. Turner’s flagship off the island that the cleanup would take many weeks.
Tokyo radio claimed today that Jap defenders on Mt. Suribachi counterattacked the Marines there and recaptured the summit.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported in a communiqué yesterday that the number of Jap bodies counted had reached 2,827 by Sunday noon. Since the Japs usually recover most of their dead, the number of Japs killed actually may be nearer 6,000.
Japs killed 4 to 1
Mr. Forrestal said the Marines were killing four Japs for every American killed.
A Tokyo broadcast said U.S. casualties on Iwo had reached 22,000 – “three Marines a minute.” Tokyo also claimed that Jap planes had sunk an American submarine off Iwo.
A few Jap planes attacked U.S. forces on and around Iwo just before midnight Saturday, but caused no damage. Some of the raiders dropped their bombs on the Jap-held portion of Iwo.
Beach conditions on Iwo showed a “marked improvement,” Adm. Nimitz said, with supplies and reinforcements flowing ashore in a steady flood.
Army Liberators winged north of Iwo to bomb Chichi in the Bonin group Friday and Saturday.
War news costs lives on Iwo Island
Envelope of dispatch bloodstained
GUAM (UP) – The battle to get the war news back from bloody Iwo Island is a tough one too.
The hardships of civilian war correspondents, Marine combat correspondents, Navy, Marine and Army public relations personnel on Iwo were disclosed in a letter from United Press writer Mac Johnson, aboard an expeditionary flagship off Iwo.
The letter, dated February 23, said that the first story from Lisle Shoemaker, United Press writer on Iwo, arrived aboard ship “in a blood-saturated envelope.”
Holes in message
Mr. Johnson said:
It must have been the messenger that got it because there were holes in Lisle’s copy.
Press boats [to deliver copy from the beach to the flagship for transmission] have been wrecked, shot up and disabled. Sometimes when the press boat was available to go to the beach, the beachmaster wouldn’t let it in because of priority on ammunition, food and equipment in boats waiting to unload.
‘A rough campaign’
Many public relations officers, public relations helpers, and combat correspondents were wounded or killed.
Due to circumstances, there were no central gathering points for copy and the boats couldn’t make pickup schedules and many times they were able to meet schedules.
This has been a rough campaign.
Arms to save lives requested
Forrestal describes fighting on Iwo
GUAM (UP) – Secretary of the Navy James E. Forrestal appealed to the American people at home today for more and more munitions to save the lives of their men fighting on the far-flung battlefronts of the world.
Just back from a tour of the American beachhead on bloody Iwo, where he saw the Stars and Stripes raised triumphantly, Mr. Forrestal made his appeal in a radio broadcast from Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s Advanced Pacific Fleet Headquarters.
The Marines are fighting valiantly on Iwo and have exacted a four-to-one toll in death from the Japs, he said, but they need an increasing flow of munitions to maintain their fighting edge.
Bombed for 70 days
Mr. Forrestal explained how the tiny island, only 750 miles from Tokyo, was bombed for 70 successive days, shelled for three straight days by battleships, cruisers and destroyers, and hit intermittently by carrier planes.
The Secretary said:
Let me stress here that the tremendous storm of metal thrown on Iwo Jima sharpens again the necessity for the continued output of munitions in our plants at home.
Only because of that rain of metal could the island be reduced at all. Because of it, our ratio of losses is far less than it otherwise would have been.
As Fleet Adm. Nimitz has said, it is our policy in the Pacific to have an unstoppable edge of power in these attacks. A steamroller, as he puts it. That steamroller saves us many lives.
It will take the output, however, of many factories and hard work by all hands in these factories for months to come, if we are to keep that edge of power.
Describes scene
Mr. Forrestal said he was halfway to shore with Lt. Gen. Holland Smith when the Marines reached the top of Mt. Suribachi – a volcano with sides so precipitous they seemed almost vertical.