The Pittsburgh Press (March 12, 1945)
Final battle rages along Iwo coast
Collapse of Jap resistance imminent
GUAM (UP) – Complete conquest of Iwo appeared at hand today.
Weary Marines were driving the last Jap defenders into the sea in a final battle along the north coast.
Pacific Fleet headquarters was expected to announce the collapse of organized resistance momentarily as the bloodiest campaign of the Pacific war entered its fourth week on Japan’s front doorstep.
Whittles pocket
A communiqué this morning said the 5th Marine Division had whittled down the enemy’s last sizeable pocket to half a square mile along the north coast by 6 p.m. yesterday in heavy fighting. The Marines were making slow but steady progress with support of heavy artillery and the big guns of warships offshore.
The 3rd and 4th Divisions crashed through the last Jap lines in Eastern Iwo over the weekend and captured most of the rock-ledged east coast, the communiqué said. One small enemy pocket was bypassed for later annihilation.
Advance slow
The advance along the north coast was a slow and tedious business. The last few thousand Jap survivors of a garrison originally totaling 20,000 crack troops were fighting to the death from pillboxes, blockhouses and caves.
Army fighters bombed Chichi airfield and harbor installations and strafed targets on Haha in the Bonin Islands, just north of Iwo. Army Liberators also bombed Chichi airfield.