The Pittsburgh Press (February 19, 1945)
Foe fights fiercely from caves despite 4-day bombardment
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
New Pacific invasion was confirmed today. U.S. Marines stormed ashore on Iwo Island in the Volcanoes. U.S. Superfortresses returned to the attack on Tokyo.
ADM. NIMITZ’S HQ, Guam – Two divisions of U.S. Marines, 30,000 men, stormed Iwo Island from an 800-ship invasion armada today.
In the first two hours of bitter fighting, the Leathernecks established a 4,500-yard-long beachhead, extending inland 500 yards to the edge of Suribachi Yama airfield.
“Our casualties are moderate” and the operation is proceeding satisfactory, Pacific Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said in his fourth communique of the day.
Resistance from the trapped enemy forces was increasing as the veteran Marines pushed inland on the tiny eight-square-mile island 750 miles from Tokyo, the communiqué said.
A pooled dispatch from the invasion flagship said hidden Jap artillery and mortars were pouring a deadly crossfire in the attacking Marines and that American casualties were “considerable.”
The dispatch said, however, that the Marines slowly were rooting out the concealed enemy gunners and that the overall progress of the invasion was satisfactory.
Marine Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith said:
Our men are scattered all over hell’s acre out there. They’re after those hidden Jap guns which are mighty hard to locate. Most of those guns are in caves. They come out and fire five or six rounds and then go back into hiding.
The Marine beachhead extended northward along the southeastern coast from the 546-foot -high volcano that forms the southern tip of the. island.
Radio Tokyo said that the Americans had won footholds on the southwest, south and east coasts.
Troops of the Fourth and Fifth Marines pushed inland in an attempt to knock out the positions from which enemy garrison forces were pouring artillery and mortar fire on the beachhead.
Damage was reported only to two light units of the supporting fleet. These ships were hit during the pre-landing assault.
The enemy’s ability to fight back from his heavily entrenched and defended positions was noted by Adm. Nimitz, who said that resistance “increased markedly after the drive inland began.”
Swarms of carrier and land-based planes and the 14 and 16-inch guns of battleships were pouring thousands of bombs and shells onto the island in support of the invasion troops. But the enemy garrison was putting up a defense reminiscent of Tarawa and Peleliu.
“There is a whale of a scrap going on back there at Iwo,” said a radio correspondent who flew over the embattled island as the invasion got underway.
The invasion of Iwo came on the fourth day of a terrific naval bombardment and the 74th day of an air assault on the tiny patch of land within fighter-plane range of Tokyo.
Jap broadcasts said American warships completely ringed Iwo and fired shells into the island from virtually every point on the compass.
The first tiny assault boats from hundreds of transports hovering out to sea hit the beaches at Iwo at 9 a.m. (8 a.m. Tokyo Time and 7 p.m. Sunday ET) shortly after nearly 8,000 rockets had scorched the coastline.
Webley Edwards, who flew over the island in a Liberator bomber as a representative of the combined radio networks, said he could see the bright flare of flamethrowers as the Marines assaulted inland pillboxes.
Battle on ridge
Another battle was raging on an inland ridge, Mr. Edwards said. Troops were landing “far up and down the coast,” he said. Carrier planes roared over the Marines at treetop levels. strafing enemy strongpoints ahead.
The entire island was covered by clouds of smoke and dust, broken here and there by bursts of flame as shells and bombs found their mark. Hundreds of Japs were believed to have been killed in the preliminary bombardment, but the remainder of the garrison of 10,000 to 15,000 was expected to put up a fanatical do-or-die fight.
The immediate prize were three airstrips from which Fiving Fortresses, Liberators and even fighter planes could attach Tokyo. One Tokyo broadcast said Marines on the southeast coast already were near the Suribachi airfield.
Futatsune Beach first
Tokyo said the first invaders landed on Futatsune Beach in southwest Iwo from 100 assault craft. Soon afterward, the broadcast said, two other forces landed simultaneously on the eastern and southern coasts. Reinforcements were moving toward the last two beaches from 200 or more landing craft, Tokyo reported.
Included in the bombardment force, Adm. Nimitz’s communiqués revealed, were some of the “ghosts” of Pearl Harbor, including the old battleships USS New York, USS Texas, USS Nevada, USS Arkansas, USS Idaho and USS Tennessee.
Vice Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner had overall command of the amphibious forces, Adm. Nimitz said, with famed Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith commanding the expeditionary groups.
The invading Fifth Amphibious Corps, under command of Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt, comprised the 4th Marine Division under Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates and the 5th Marine Division under Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey.
Iwo Island is part of the Tokyo administrative district.
Tokyo finally acknowledged that the Americans had gained footholds on Iwo after trumpeting claims that four landing attempts had been smashed Saturday.
During the final stages of the preliminary bombardment, Tokyo said, some major fleet units approached as close as a half mile from the Iwo coast.
Japs claim sinkings
A Jap communiqué claimed that Jap ground batteries and aircraft had sunk or damaged 23 American ships Friday and Saturday off Iwo. Listed as sunk were a battleship, four cruisers, two minesweepers, four landing transports and three unidentified warships.
A number of Jap coastal batteries were smashed in the preliminary bombardment. A Pacific Fleet communiqué early today said three heavily-casemated coastal guns were knocked out and three others damaged by battleships on the third day of the bombardment Sunday.
Blandy heads bombardment
Rear Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, former chief of the Navy Bureau of Ordnance, had tactical command of the bombardment, the communiqué said.
Carrier aircraft of the supporting force damaged 16 small ships and barges at Chichi in the Bonin Islands, just north of Iwo. Four planes on the ground and three aircraft at a seaplane base were also damaged at Chichi.
Occupation of gourd-shaped Iwo would give the Americans three airstrips from which fighters could escort B-29 Superfortresses to Tokyo and other targets on the Jap mainland. The strips also could be enlarged to accommodate Flying Fortresses and Liberators for raids on the Jap homeland.
Built up by volcanoes
The island has been built up by two volcanoes, Suribachi Yama on the southwest and Moto Yama in the northeast. Moto Yama rises 358 feet and has a number of vents, some of which are active. Suribachi Yama, rising 546 feet, is extinct.
Iwo is the largest of the three Volcano Islands, which lie just south of the Bonin chain. They were absorbed into the Jap Empire in 1891 and their inhabitants are almost entirely pure Japanese, though somewhat taller than the inhabitants of the home islands.
The population of Iwo in 1940 was 1,151. The largest village on the island is Higashi, less than a mile inland from the northeast coast. Other principal settlements are Minami. on the east-central coast; Nishi, on the northwest, and Moto, in the north central part of the island.
Tough Iwo fight seen by Halsey
WASHINGTON (UP) – Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., commander of the Third Fleet, predicted today that fighting on Iwo Island would be “very tough.”
He doubted, however, that the Jap Fleet would come out to interfere.
Adm. Halsey came here for conferences after leading his force on a three-month series of engagements in Jap-controlled waters.
“We’re going to have to go in and dig out the Jap Fleet. They’ve got very little to fight with and what they have left 1s not in too good shape,” the Admiral said.
Asked what would bring the enemy fleet out, Adm. Halsey replied: “I can’t get myself into a rat’s frame of mind, so I don’t know.”
The Admiral’s remarks were liberally sprinkled with typical “Halseyisms.” He indicated that the presence of women prevented him from using the kind of language he felt necessary in talking about the enemy.
