Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)

35

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.

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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

map.022445.up
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.

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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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38

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.

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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.

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The Pittsburgh Press (February 25, 1945)

MARINES CAPTURE HALF OF IWO
Invaders push to center of 2nd airfield

Offensive gains up to 600 yards

flagraise.iwo.ap
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:

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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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41

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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Pittsburgh Press (February 27, 1945)

3,568 bodies found –
Half of Japs on Iwo Island knocked out

Marines 1½ miles from north coast

GUAM (UP) – Field dispatches said today that U.S. Marines have knocked out half the Jap garrison of 20,000 in battling across both Iwo’s airfields to within a little more than a mile and a half of the north coast.

A Jap Domei dispatch said the Marines opened a “major offensive against our main positions” in Central and Northern Iwo Monday following an all-night bombardment by Nary guns. “Sanguinary battles” were said to be raging.

Marine planes were already operating from the southern airfield, captured a week ago. The northern up of the central airfield still was in Jap hands, but it was under artillery fire from a newly-captured hill dominating the area.

3,568 Japs slain

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, announced that 741 more Jap bodies had been counted on Iwo, bringing the number of known enemy dead to 3,568 for the first eight days of battle.

However, as many more enemy dead probably still remained behind enemy lines, United Press writer Mac R. Johnson, aboard the invasion flagship off Iwo, said 10,000 Japs were believed dead or seriously wounded.

Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine’s 3rd Marine Division advanced 400 yards – four times the length of a football field – at the center of the line in bloody fighting yesterday. By dusk, the Marines had seized high ground of the 342-foot-high central plateau and most of the central airfield, Motoyama No. 2.

May split Jap lines

The 4th Marine Division on the eastern flank and the 5th Division on the west also scored new gains. The 4th Division captured Hill 382 near the east coast, dominating a major portion of the remaining enemy-held territory to the north.

The 3rd Division was only a little more than a mile and a half from the north coast and was threatening to split the enemy defenses.

An advance of another half mile to the north would cut both remaining lateral roads between the east and west coasts. though both flanks still could communicate over mountain trails.

Enemy resistance was mounting as the Marines steadily compressed the territory remaining in Jap hands. The Japs stepped up their artillery and rocket fire and Adm. Nimitz reported a “very heavy volume” of small arms fire. Some of the Japs were fighting from concrete pillboxes with walls four feet thick.

The bitterness of the fighting was shown in part by the fact that only nine Jap prisoners have been taken.

Mop-up on Suribachi

Marine observation planes began operating from the southern airfield, Motoyama No. 1, yesterday while Seabees still were repairing the runways.

South of the airfield, mopping-up operations continued around Mt. Suribachi.

Little enemy fire fell on the interior of the American beachhead and supplies and equipment flowed ashore in increasing quantities as road and beach conditions improved.

Carrier planes strafed targets in and around Chichi in the Bonin Islands just north of Iwo. A small merchant vessel was sunk, two medium merchant ships were set afire, one plane on the ground was burned and oil storage facilities were destroyed.

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Iwo’s fall predicted in few more days

ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP OFF IWO JIMA (UP) – Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, commanding general of Marine forces in the Pacific, predicted today that Iwo Island will fall in a matter of days.

“We expect to take this island in a few more days,” Gen. Smith said.

He was in high spirits after making a long tour of the American-held portion of Iwo Jima.

49

General’s bills arrive on Iwo

WITH THE 5TH MARINE DIVISION, IWO JIMA (UP) – A Marine runner dashed into the tented-foxhole of Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey three times with mail just in from ships offshore.

After the third delivery, the commanding general of the 5th Marine Division admitted his “big” mail haul had netted three bills, one business letter and invitations to two parties back in the States.

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Editorial: Keep the blood coming

Blood plasma collected by the Red Cross is defeating death wherever our men are fighting. Its value is beyond price.

Now whole blood, as well as plasma, is being flown in iced containers even as far as Iwo Jima. On that bitter island our casualties are appalling, but our death rate is relatively low.

Says one surgeon on the scene:

I know five men whose lives definitely were saved by whole blood and plasma. Plasma replaces the blood fluid, but not the cells.

Tell the folks at home to keep it coming.

Please note that last sentence. The Red Cross will show you how. Just telephone GRant 1680 for an appointment. Or drop in at the Wabash Building Blood Bank without an appointment.

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Völkischer Beobachter (February 28, 1945)

Schwere US-Verluste auf Iwojima

Stockholm, 27. Februar – Admiral Nimitz, Oberbefehlshaber der amerikanischen Pazifikflotte, gab in einem Bericht zu, dass die US-Verluste auf der Insel Iwojima bis zum vorigen Mittwoch schon mehr als 5.300 Mann betrügen.

In einer zusammenfassenden Darstellung der Kriegslage im Pazifikraum stellt UP nach einer Neuyorker Meldung fest, dass noch niemals seit 150 Jahren die Marinestreitkräfte der Vereinigten Staaten derartig, große Verluste erlitten hätten, wie in den ersten drei Tagen der amerikanischen Invasion auf Iwojima. Die Härte der Kämpfe werde dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass von der 20.000 Mann starken japanischen Garnison in Iwojima bisher nur ein einziger Japaner in amerikanische Kriegsgefangenschaft geraten sei. Die amerikanische Flotte, Luftwaffe und Armee seien hier auf ihre vielleicht stärkste Probe gestellt.

U.S. Navy Department (February 28, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 282

During the night of February 26‑27 (East Longitude Date), several small-scale enemy attempts to infiltrate through our lines on Iwo Island were repulsed. In one sector a movement of tanks and troops was broken up by our artillery fire. A mortar support unit destroyed two enemy ammunition dumps during the night and gunfire from cruisers and destroyers offshore continued to harass the enemy.

Marines launched an attack on the morning of February 27 after preparation by Marine artillery, naval gunfire and carrier aircraft bombing. By nightfall limited advances had been made by the 3rd Marine Division in the center and the 4th Marine Division on the right flank. Enemy artillery and mortar fire was heavy throughout the day, some of it falling on our rear areas and on the beaches.

Carrier aircraft and naval guns continued to support the ground troops.

Seventh Army Air Force Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, bombed enemy positions on Iwo Island during the afternoon.

Improved beach conditions continued to facilitate unloading of supplies.

The extent of the enemy’s defense preparations on Iwo Island is indicated by the total of 800 pillboxes of various types which have been scouted in the Third Marine Division zone of action.

On February 25, 7th AAF Liberators, operating under StrAirPoa, bombed the airfield on Chichi Jima in the Bonins.

Fighters and torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing destroyed a bridge and other installations on Babelthuap in the Palaus and destroyed warehouses on Yap in the western Carolines on February 27.

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 283

The Marines on Iwo Island made an advance of several hundred yards in most sectors of the lines on February 28 (East Longitude Date). Driving through the center of the enemy’s main line of resistance, the 3rd Marine Division moved beyond the village of Motoyama on the island plateau. The 5th Division on the west, led by tanks and the 4th Division on the east, pushed forward several hundred yards against stiff opposition. The attack was supported by naval gunfire, Marine artillery and carrier aircraft. Some mortar fire fell on our northern beaches during the day but facilities for unloading continued to develop.

The attack was made after a night of light activity. The enemy attempted infiltration with small groups which were driven off and our mortar support units and fleet surface units maintained harassing fire and illumination fire throughout the night.

At 1800 on February 26, 4,784 enemy dead had been counted and 10 prisoners of war taken.

On February 27, carrier aircraft attacked the seaplane base on Chichi Jima in the Bonins causing an explosion.

Fighters and torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing made bombing and rocket attacks on enemy-held bases in the Palaus on February 27 and 28. Several fires were started, one bridge was destroyed, and a bridge and pier were damaged.

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The Pittsburgh Press (February 28, 1945)

Yards measure U.S. gains on Iwo

Marines straighten lines across island

GUAM (UP) – U.S. Marines straightened their lines across Iwo’s central plateau in no-quarter battles today preparatory to a general assault toward the mountainous north coast.

A Tokyo broadcast heard by the Australian Information Department listening post said the Americans “at last are showing signs of victory on Iwo.”

Gains were measured in feet and yards at high cost. A front dispatch said the Marines were coming up against such heavy defenses as two-story cement blockhouses sunk so deep that they protrude only a couple of feet above the ground.

“There are no apparent exits to these mammoth vaults,” United Press writer Lisle Shoemaker reported from Iwo. “There may be underground tunnels, but it would not be surprising if the Japs had sealed themselves in for a death stand.”

The 3rd Marine Division alone has counted 800 pillboxes of all sizes and shapes in its zone of operations at the center of the American line. Mr. Shoemaker said Iwo was the most heavily defended spot “per square inch” ever assaulted in warfare,

“Even the most optimistic won’t surmise that this assault may be concluded in under 10 days,” Mr. Shoemaker said.

Make ‘limited gains’

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced in a communique that the Marines made “limited gains” in an attack yesterday after repulsing several small-scale enemy attempts to infiltrate the American lines the previous night.

Marine artillery, naval guns and carrier aircraft supported the attack. Best gains, though still measured only in yards, were made by 3rd Division veterans of Guam and Saipan on the central plateau and by the 4th Division on the east flank.

The 5th Division on the west flank made little progress.

Unloading speeded

Enemy artillery and mortar fire continued heavy throughout yesterday, some falling on rear areas and on the beaches. The newly-captured central plateau airfield was under particularly severe fire.

Beach conditions further improved, speeding the unloading of supplies.

Army Liberators bombed enemy positions on Iwo yesterday. The four-engined bombers went at 3,500 feet and even lower for pinpoint destruction on enemy installations with 6,500-pound bombs.

Jap artillery looks down throats of Marines on Iwo

Airfield technically ours, but foe on cliff makes life hell on ‘Hollywood battlefield’
By Lisle Shoemaker, United Press staff writer

ON THE EDGE OF MOTOYAMA AIRFIELD NO. 2, Iwo (Feb. 27, delayed) – The Jap mortars and artillery guns are looking right down our throats.

They are up on a cliff beyond the field, with perfect observation and firing positions. And they are making life a hell on this field.

There is no cover for the Marines – just shell holes and American-dug foxholes – from the steady blast of mortar and flat trajectory shells which scream onto this edge.

Technically ours

Technically, the airfield is ours. We have troops on the far side to the north, but it lies directly under the Jap high ground.

The 3rd Division Marines raced through a hail of mortar and artillery to reach the north side several days ago. But they have been unable to get any farther since because of the Jap guns on the cliff.

The field was one from which the Japs staged their medium bomber raids on B-29 bases in the Marianas. Now it was a desolate no-man’s-land, almost beyond imagination. It looks like a Hollywood battlefield.

We climbed up the slope to the southern edge this morning, but a young captain asked us not to go any farther.

Warning unnecessary

“It’s too hot now,” he said.

Mortar and big artillery shells crashed into the field and the warning wasn’t necessary.

Marines were carrying back their dead buddies, tiptoeing through minefields and winding through the shambles of wrecked equipment – ours and the enemy’s.

The 3rd Marines are veteran fighters, but all agree they never saw anything like this fierce and bloody struggle.

Marines protest Hearst editorial

Delegation calls at San Francisco paper

SAN FRANCISCO – The 12th Naval District reported today that the shore patrol was called last night to the San Francisco Examiner, a Hearst newspaper, to disperse 75 to 100 Marines who had gathered in protest against a front-page editorial yesterday.

The editorial, which was printed in the various Hearst papers, claimed that the high casualties on Iwo Jima were due to poor leadership and that Gen. Douglas MacArthur should have commanded the assault.

The shore patrol found the Marines were “peaceable,” the naval district reported. They had appointed two representatives to discuss the editorial with the editor. The Marines dispersed and left “quietly,” the district reported.

The editorial was headed “MacArthur Is Our Best Strategist.” It said in part that “American casualties (on Iwo) apparently run more than 10 percent of the original invading force… There is awesome evidence… that American forces are paying heavily for the island, perhaps too heavily.”

“Fortunately,” the editorial said, “it is not the sort of thing that occurs everywhere in the Pacific.” In MacArthur’s operations, it added, “there has been neither decimation nor exhaustion of American forces.”

The San Francisco Chronicle attacked the editorial Wednesday without mentioning the Examiner.

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U.S. Navy Department (March 1, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 284

U.S. Marines on Iwo Island advanced northward on March 1 (East Longitude Date) occupying the Western end of the Island’s northern airstrip moving our lines in the Western and Central sectors forward and making smaller gains on the Eastern side of the Island. The enemy continues to offer stiff opposition.

The attack was made after intense shelling by Marine artillery and naval guns. Carrier aircraft supported the ground troops during the day.

Seventeen prisoners of war were taken by Marines in the 3rd Division zone of action.

Occasional artillery fire fell on parts of the beaches but unloading proceeded.

During early morning hours of March 1, a small group of enemy aircraft entered the Iwo area and dropped bombs which caused no damage. One bomber was shot down by ships’ anti-aircraft fire.

Harassing attacks were carried out by carrier aircraft on enemy installations on Chichi Jima in the Bonins on the night of February 28‑March 1.

During the week of February 18 to February 24, mopping up operations continued in the Marianas and Palaus. Thirty-seven of the enemy were killed and 52 captured on Saipan. On Guam 35 were killed and 11 taken prisoner. Seven of the enemy were killed and two taken prisoner on Tinian. Two prisoners were taken on Peleliu.

Fighters and torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing started fires and destroyed a bridge in the Palaus on March 1.

Corsairs of the 4th MarAirWing bombed and strafed buildings, small craft and airfields at Ponape in the Carolines on February 28.

Marine aircraft continued neutralizing raids on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls on the same date.

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The Pittsburgh Press (March 1, 1945)

Japs drive back into northern Iwo

U.S. Marines encircle largest town on isle

GUAM (UP) – Marines of the 3rd Division shoved desperately-resisting Japs back into rocky northern Iwo today in a fighting advance to within a mile and a quarter of the north coast.

The German Transocean Agency reported from Tokyo that the Marines had launched an all-out attack on Iwo and that shells from U.S. warships off shore were hitting the island at the rate of 500 an hour.

Encircle Motoyama

The Marines already had encircled and perhaps captured the village of Motoyama, Iwo’s administrative center and largest town. The Yanks were within a few yards of an uncompleted third airfield on the tiny island only 750 miles south of Tokyo.

Radio Tokyo said Jap planes made “violent attacks” today on a concentration of U.S. warships in the vicinity of Ivo and the Bonin Islands, immediately north of Iwo.

The 3rd Marine Division gained 700 to 800 yards – the biggest day’s advance since the start of the invasion 10 days ago – at the center of the American line yesterday in the initial phases of a general assault.

Airfield cleared

While the 3rd Division was wedging deeply into the center of the enemy line, the tank-led 5th Division on the western flank drove ahead several hundred yards against stiff opposition.

The 4th Division, on the eastern flank, also went over to the attack, but made only “limited gains” against Japs firmly entrenched in sharp ridges rising from the east coast.

The 3rd division’s advance removed the enemy threat to newly-captured Motoyama Airfield No. 2 – the central airfield – as well as threatrnerd Motoyama Airfield No. 3, the uncompleted northern airtstrip, Motoyama Airfield No. 1, in Southern Iwo, was already beinfg used by artillery observation planes.

Face pillboxes

Still ahead of the Marines were hundreds more concrete pillboxes, blockhouses and gun positions in the rocky ridges at the northern end of the island. Each one must be captured or neutralized in inevitably bloody fighting.

Marine casualties have not been announced beyond 5,372 for the first 58 hours of the invasion, but Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported in a communiqué that 4,784 Jap bodies had been recovered by 6 p.m. Monday.

One additional Jap soldier has been captured, he said, bringing the number of prisoners for the bitter campaign to 10.

Radio Tokyo claimed that U.S. casualties had reached 13,500, but acknowledged that fighting had reached the “decisive stage with the launching of a major assault by the Marines.”

Carrier aircraft also attacked a seaplane base on Chichi in the adjacent Bonin Islands Tuesday, touching off an explosion.

‘Iwo situation well in hand,’ President says

WASHINGTON (UP) – U. S. Marines om Iwo Jima, as they invariably do sooner or later, “have the situation well in hand.”

So said President Roosevelt today in his speech to Congress.

He said the combined British and American chiefs of staff at Malta made plans to step up the attack on Japan. Japanese warlords have already felt the force of American B-29s and carrier planes, and, he added, they have felt our naval might and “do not appear very anxious to come out and try it again.”

He added:

The Japs know what it means to hear that “the United States Marines have landed.” And we can add, having Iwo Jima in mind: “The situation is well in hand.”

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