Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)

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CINCPOA Press Release No. 34

For Immediate Release
March 15, 1945

IWO JIMA, Volcano Islands (March 14, delayed) – With the rattle of musketry to the north, where the remnants of the Japanese garrison force were being exterminated by Marines, faintly audible, the United States government today officially took possession of this desolate but strategic island on the road to Tokyo.

It did so in a proclamation issued by FADM Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas and military governor of the Volcano Islands. After the proclamation had been read, the American flag was officially raised over the island.

The ceremony, held in the shadow of Suribachi, extinct volcano at the southern tip of Iwo, and attended by high-ranking officers of the Marine Corps, Navy and Army, was marked by simplicity.

Deep-throated roars of nearby Marine field pieces drowned the voice of Marine Col D. A. Stafford, of Spokane, Washington, V Amphibious Corps personnel officer, as he read the words suspending all powers of government of the Japanese Empire on the island.

The Stars and Stripes were run up on a staff atop a strongly reinforced Japanese bunker with an anti-aircraft gun emplacement above it. The military notables formed in rank on one side of the staff. On the other, an honor guard composed of eight military policemen from each of the three divisions that participated in the seizure of the island, was drawn up.

Among the military and naval leaders who planned and executed the in­vasion were: VADM Richmond Kelly Turner, USN, Commander, Amphibious Forces, Pacific; RADM Harry Hill, USN, of Oakland, California, deputy commander of the attack force; LtGen Holland M. Smith, Commanding General of the Fleet Marine Force of the Pacific; MajGen Harry F. Schmidt, V Amphibious Corps Commander; MajGen Graves B. Erskine, of La Jolla, California, 3rd Marine Division commander, and his chief of staff, Col Robert E. Hogaboom, of Vicksburg, Mississippi; MajGen Clifton B. Cates, 4th Marine Division Commander, and his chief of stag, Col M. J. Batchelder; and MajGen Keller Rockey, 5th Marine Division Commander, and his chief of staff, Col Ray A. Robinson. The Army was represented at the ceremony by MajGen James E. Chaney.

While Marine PFC John E. Glynn (309599), 21, of 2319 Humanity Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, veteran of Guadalcanal, sounded “Colors,” Old Glory was sent fluttering in the breeze to the top of the flagstaff by Marine PFC Thomas J. Casale (411750), 20, of (no street address) Herkimer, New York, and Albert B. Bush (437298), 24, of 16712 Woodbury Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. Marine Sgt Anthony C. Yusi (285607), 25, of 68 Grove Street, Port Chester, New York, was in charge of the color detail.

The bugler and the color detail were chosen from the V Amphibious Corps Military Police Company. Their commanding officer, 1Lt Nathan R. Smith, of Whitehaven, Pennsylvania, said the men had been selected for general efficiency and military bearing. Both Yusi and Bush took part in the seizure of Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas. Moreover, Yusi was serving aboard the USS WASP (CV-7) when she was sunk by the Japs September 15, 1943.

The proclamation was the first issued by FADM Nimitz as military governor of the Volcano Islands. It was addressed, in Japanese as well as English, to the people of the islands. It read:

I, Chester William Nimitz, Fleet Admiral, United States Navy, Com­mander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, do hereby proclaim as follows:

United States Forces under my command have occupied this and other of the Volcano Islands.

All powers of government of the Japanese Empire in the islands so oc­cupied are hereby suspended.

All powers of government are vested in me as Military Governor and will be exercised by subordinate commanders under my direction.

All persons will obey promptly all orders given under my authority. Of­fenses against the Forces of Occupation will be severely punished.

Given under my hand at Iwo Jima this fourteenth day of March, 1945.

The ceremony took place as the battle for Iwo Jima entered its 24th day. The stubborn Japanese defenders had been driven northward to the end of the island.

The enemy was still defending his caves and bunkers to the death.

As the official flag was raised, the one that had flown over Suribachi since the fifth day of the battle was lowered. The Stars and Strips had been planted on the volcano by the Marines who wrested it from the Japs.

The place selected for the official flag is just off the beach in the southwestern section of the island. Selection of the site was prompted by con­venience and the height of the ground.

Several hundred dirty, bearded and weary Marines working and bivouacked in the vicinity gathered to witness the brief ceremony, which required less than 10 minutes. They, as well as the participants, came smartly to attention and saluted while the bugler was sounding colors.

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The Pittsburgh Press (March 15, 1945)

Tears fill Marine general’s eyes at official flag-raising on Iwo

Banner signifies victory on island
By William McGaffin

BULLETIN

GUAM – U.S. Marines have lost under 4,000 dead in the 25-day campaign on Iwo, Vice Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner indicated today.

“Their [Marine] death casualties are less than one-fifth of those of the defenders,” Adm. Turner said.

Jap deaths on Iwo officially were announced as 20,000, indicating American fatalities were under 4,000.

V AMPHIBIOUS CORPS HQ, Iwo Jima (March 14, delayed) – High up on Mt. Suribachi where the Stars and Stripes were raised on February 23, after capture of the 500-foot volcano, the flag came down today.

Instead, another flag went up – the official Stars and Stripes, signifying that Iwo Jima was ours after 23 days of the hardest fighting in Marine Corps history.

There were tears in the eyes of Lt. Gen. Holland Smith, commander of the Marine group, as a bugler blew the Colors and Old Glory went up on an abandoned Jap pillbox.

‘Worst battle yet’

“This is the worst battle we’ve had yet,” Gen. Smith said. Obviously, he was thinking of his boys who had fallen on this foreign shore.

The doughty 63-year-old general himself came within a few inches of stopping a Jap bullet yesterday while watching an intense firefight on the north end of the island.

His voice echoed with emotion when he said today:

It is a victory that was not accomplished by any one service but by a brotherhood of all services, formed in the holocaust of battle… Let us bow our heads in commemoration of their gallantry… Well done.

Sounds Attention

The ceremony began when John E. Glenn of New Orleans, a 21-year-old sandy-mustached bugler, sounded Attention.

As the group stood at attention the corps personnel officer, Col. D. A. Stafford of Spokane, Washington, read the proclamation from Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz “to the people of the Volcano Islands.”

U.S. forces under my command have occupied this and others of the Volcano Islands. All the powers of the government of the Japanese Empire in the islands so occupied are hereby suspended. All the powers of government are vested in me as military governor and will be exercised by subordinate commanders under my direction.

All persons will obey promptly all orders given under my authority. Offenses against the forces of occupation will be severely punished.

After the proclamation, printed in both English and Japanese, was read, the bugler sounded the Colors and Pvt. Thomas J. Casale of Herkimer, New York, sent the flag up the pole.

After the colors were hoisted, the bugler sounded “Carry On” and the men broke up to walk back along the dusty road to their various tasks.

Although Iwo is ours, enemy resistance has not ended. In the extreme northern end, there are small Jap pockets, including a strongpoint on a 900-yard ridge running south from Kitano Point. It probably will take several days before the island finally is declared “secured.”

A United Press dispatch from Guam quoted Pacific Fleet headquarters as estimating the number of Jap dead on Iwo at 20,000 through Wednesday.

There has been no announcement of U.S. casualties since March 3, when 2,050 Americans were listed as dead. An NBC broadcast from Guam said unofficial information indicated U.S. losses would be “very high.” An NBC commentator in Washington predicted they would total 17,000, including 3,000 dead.

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U.S. Navy Department (March 16, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 300

The battle of Iwo Island has been won. The United States Marines by their individual and collective courage have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat. The enemy was fully aware of the crushing attacks on his homeland which would be made possible by our capture of this island only 660 nautical miles distant, so he prepared what he thought was an impregnable defense. With certain knowledge of the cost of an objective which had to be taken, the Fleet Marine Force supported the ships of the Pacific Fleet and by Army and Navy aircraft fought the battle and won. By their victory the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the V Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully. Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

Organized resistance on Iwo Island ceased at 1800 on March 16 (East Longitude Date) when elements of the 3rd and 5th Marine Divisions drove through the enemy lines breaking them up and reached Kitano Point at the northern end of the island.

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CINCPOA Communiqué No. 301

The Marines on Iwo are continuing to mop up remnants of the enemy garrison. The central Iwo airfield was placed in operation on March 16 (East Longitude Date).

Army aircraft of the VII Fighter Command bombed and strafed targets on Chichi Jima in the Bonins on the same date.

On March 15, Army Liberators of the 7th Air Force operating under the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, bombed airfield installations on Chichi Jima.

Fighters and torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing destroyed bridges and damaged piers and other installations in the Palaus on March 15. On the following day barges were destroyed and fires were started on and around Babelthuap and Arakabesan in the same group.

Radio, airfield and harbor installations on Yap in the Western Carolines were bombed by Marine aircraft on March 15 and 16.

Neutralizing raids on enemy held bases in the Marshalls were carried out by planes of Fleet Air Wing Two and the 4th MarAirWing on March 15.

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The Pittsburgh Press (March 16, 1945)

Handful of Japs left on Iwo

GUAM (UP) – Marines of the 5th Division today squeezed the last fanatically-resisting Japs on Iwo into a pocket less than a quarter mile square on the north coast.

Only a handful of the enemy remained, but they were well organized and were fighting to the death with mortars and small arms from a maze of heavy defenses. Their backs were against a precipitous cliff and the sea.

Jap fire was still taking a toll of Marines Front dispatches indicated that American dead in the campaign would total fewer than 4,000 against more than 20,000 enemy troops killed.

Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, commander of fleet Marine forces, told United Press writer Lisle Shoemaker aboard the invasion flagship off Iwo that the Marine motto of Semper Fidelis – always faithful – never before had been challenged or tried as it was in the attack on that island.

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U.S. Navy Department (March 17, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 302

The Marines on Iwo continued mopping-up operations on March 17 (East Longitude Date). About noon a group of 150 of the enemy were observed attempting to organize in the northern part of the Island. They were dispersed by mortar fire. A few enemy troops attempted to “booby trap” installations in our rear areas.

Surface units of the Pacific Fleet bombarded Matsuwa Island in the Kurils on March 16. Our gunfire caused a large explosion and several large fires. Shore-based batteries of the enemy answered our fire but caused no damage to our ships.

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CINCPOA Press Release No. 39

For Immediate Release
March 17, 1945

For twenty‑six days on Iwo Island, the United States Marines fought under conditions which have had no parallel in the war against Japan. Our troops have now defeated the enemy despite every natural advantage of his defenses.

This accomplishment was made against concentrated fortifications which approached, as closely as it is possible to do so, impregnability against attack by mobile forces employing every useful weapon available in modern warfare.

From the opening day, when at H‑hour the pre‑invasion bombardment successfully beat down the island defenses long enough for the troops to gain a foothold which they were never to lose, our forces met and solved problems which could have been insuperable for men less resolute in mind, heart and purpose.

Volcanic ash which immobilized even tracked vehicles and made them motionless targets; artillery long since registered on every possible landing place; interlocking and mutually supporting pillboxes and strongpoints; underground labyrinths extending a total of many miles and the result of many years of military planning and construction; defenses whose depth was limited only by the coastlines of the island; a garrison which was made up of units of the enemy forces especially trained to utilize the defensive advantages of this island; a terrain that was characterized by a high volcanic cone, cliffs, deep gulleys, several commanding hills and a series of terraces rising from the beach to the prominences and plateaus which had to be taken these were the problems of Iwo Island.

That it was taken was the direct result of the fortitude of our officers and men who, by 14 March, had killed more than 21,000 of the enemy.

In achieving this victory, the forces involved lost 4,189 officers and men killed, according to reports from the frontline units at 1700 on 16 March.

The wounded, a very considerable number of whom suffered slight wounds or combat fatigue and have already been returned to action in the Iwo operation, numbered 15,308. Missing in action are 441 officers and men.

The majority of our seriously wounded have been evacuated from the island by hospital ship and by evacuation aircraft. Complete medical facilities are operating to provide the best possible care for those wounded on Iwo Island.

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The Pittsburgh Press (March 17, 1945)

U.S. casualties in Iwo battle total 19,938

But victory speeds defeat of Japan

GUAM (UP) – The conquest of Iwo in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific was hailed officially today as having brought the war against Japan much closer to the end.

Pacific Fleet headquarters said casualties in the 26-day battle totaled 19,938 – 766 a day, or one every two minutes – among three Marine divisions, normally about 45,000 men.

The toll comprised 4,189 dead, 15,308 wounded and 441 missing in action against an estimated 21,000 Japs killed.

Still more Marines and Japs may die yet. The last organized enemy resistance was smashed at 6 p.m. yesterday, but scattered, disorganized Japs still remained to snipe and kill from caves.

Speeds end of war

All officers admitted the cost was high, but Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said the conquest of the eight-square-mile island 750 miles south of Tokyo brought the war “much closer to its inevitable end.”

Adm. Nimitz said in a communiqué:

The United States Marines by their individual and collective courage have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat.

By their victory the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the V Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully.

Lt. Gen. Holland M. “Howling Mad” Smith, commanding general of Fleet Marine forces, warned that “you can’t set the cost of lives that you will pay for an island.”

Gen. Smith said:

The United States and the United Nations overall tactical plan called for the seizure and occupation of Iwo Jima. Its capture was necessary to continued. vigorous prosecution of the offensive against the Japanese.

Iwo’s second airfield, on the central plateau, was placed in operation yesterday. The southern airfield was already in operation.

To aid B-29 raids

Both airfields will be used to refuel Superfortresses and perhaps for fighters to escort the giant raiders on their forays against the Jap homeland. A third, uncompleted airfield also was captured, but there was no immediate word whether this, too, would be made ready for operation.

Marines killed in the battle of Iwo totaled 1,000 more than the 3,100 who died in the 25-day battle to secure Saipan’s 71 square miles in the Marianas last summer. Total casualties in the Saipan campaign were 16,525, 3,413 fewer than on Iwo.

The average daily casualties on Iwo – 766 – were exceeded only on Tarawa, where some 980 were killed, wounded or counted missing for each of the three days of that short-lived but costly campaign.

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U.S. Navy Department (March 18, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 303

On March 18 (East Longitude Date), a strong force of carrier aircraft of the Pacific Fleet attacked enemy aircraft bases and installations on the Island of Kyushu.

The Marines on Iwo mopped up isolated remnants of the former enemy garrison in the rugged terrain of the northern part of the island on March 18. Marine uniforms were again found on enemy soldiers, one of whom stopped one of our ambulances, shot and wounded the driver and escaped. Snipers continued to be active. Army fighters bombed and strafed barges and radio and radar facilities on Chichi Jima in the Bonins on the same date.

Army Liberators of the Strategic Air Force bombed the airfield on Chichi Jima on March 16 and 17.

Without opposition, Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force bombed Shimushiru in the Kurils on March 17. Fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed radio towers, airstrip and other targets on Yap in the Western Carolines on March 18.

On March 17 and 18, Marine aircraft attacked buildings, bridges and other facilities on Babelthuap in the Palaus. One plane was lost in the attacks.

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CINCPAC Press Release No. 743

For Immediate Release
March 18, 1945

LtGen Holland M. Smith, USMC, returns from Iwo

Reiterating that the battle for Iwo Jima was “the toughest and hardest fight in Marine Corps history,” LtGen Holland M. Smith, USMC, Commanding General of Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, has returned to his Pearl Harbor headquarters with members of his staff.

The bloody conquest of Japan’s Gibraltar of the Pacific further evidenced that the fighting will “get tougher” as we close in on the Nipponese empire, Gen Smith said.