The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 4

POUR THE FAXTAGR.1P1T. AUGUST 1 19. Iwo Jima Won Okinawa Opens Door To Japanese Mainland In 26 Day Fight tinct volcano to the south, and Motoyama heights in the north. MASS JAP SURRENDERS Marines Take 'Hottest Rock1 In Gory Fight Moving In. But they stayed in.

And they Japs Yield Key Island Stubbornly moved on. reaching the crest cf the beach, one regiment beatir.g its BEGIN ON OKINAWA way across the narrow neck cf the BY HAMILTON FA RON. Island to turn north, another swinging south to attack Sun-bachi with its hundreds of caves. The Third Marine division, in BY VERN HAUGLAND AND MORRIE LANDSBERG. Nrwf Mturw.

"We ought to set aside a special day to commenorate the taking of tended as a reserve force, was American capture of Okinawa Iwo Jima. We are going to ashore within three days to back on this operation as one of laid Maj. Gen. Holland 1L Smith's midway In 1945 hastened Japan's CSt NewsfewUirea. One of the early indications of a drop in Japanese war morale came on Okinawa when for the first time troops surrendered in large groups.

More than 10,000 prisoners were taken on the island, a figure indicative of the effectiveness of United States surrender leaflets which were dropped behind enemy lines. As the campaign progressed and more Japanese learned they would receive food and medical care if they surrendered, the prisoner chart curved sharply -upward. In some cases prisoners volunteered to persuade their comrades to give up the fight. After the Okinawa conquest America intensified the propaganda campaign against the home islands. Leaflets urging the enemy to choose early surrender were dropped by the milD ion by Superfortresses.

Fourth and Fifth Marine divisions ultimata defeat perhaps more di which made the initial landings. rectly than any other island cam tremendous importance in tne joo of defeating Japan. These words were spoken by Rear Adm. Harry Hill, commander of seaborne attack forces, while Hide and Seek. On the beaches, in every ravir.

paiga in the war. But in men. ships, ammunition and time, it on every side there were dug-ia was one of the costliest opera Japanese firing from caves, pillboxes, giant concrete fortif-cations tions. The enemy, invaded on his marines were fighting the toughest battle in corps history for the tiny island in the Volcano group only 750 miles from Tokyo. Even before the island was con very doorstep, fought back sav agely ashore and at sea in de fense of the 65 mile long key base all camouflaged perfectly, indistinguishable at a distance cf a few yards.

But it was mortar fire and artillery fire in Cat trajectory point of the Ryukyus. queredthe fight took 26 bloody days his prediction proved true. Committed to suicidal tactics, Daring Raids Freed Prisoners on Luzon clank range at advancing marines The military worth of the ugly little island became rapidly apparent. Mustang fighter planes began operations from its airfields. They struck at southern Japan with rockets, bombs and strafing ma that accounted for most of the 19,933 American casualties, including 4.1 89 dead.

Many of those men died or wera wounded In the four day fight for SuribachL honeycomed with natural caves and man-made positions. Japan sent hundreds of planes against the" huge 1,200 ship invasion force headed by veteran Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner. The desperate Japanese kept up their bombing, torpedoing, piloted Baka bomb and Kamikaze suicide attacks throughout the long campaign. U.

S. army, navy and marine Mac Arthur landed on Luzon, a chine guns. They provided fighter protection for growing numbers of hand picked Ranger battalion sneaked 25 miles behind enemy Picked Rangers Liberated 513 At Cabanatuan Superfortresses raiding Japanese Only by approaching over a nar industrial centers from the Mari lines to storm Cabanatuan, where 513 Americans, including survi row plain strewn with volcanic rocks and exposed to fire from all IT -if iWi D'flf -B'nTn-mitfrfaWn- I TlH Hi til0" Ift'ii Jt'" A anas. Part of Pattern. casualties exceeded 40,000.

Nearly 100 American vessels were sunk or damaged. And nearly 82 Iwo Jima made possible a speed DUCKS BEACHED AT IWO JDIA Beach parties work to free Iwo "ducks," battered by combers and filling with water on the black sands of Iw Jima following the invasion landings. vors of the infamous "March of Death," were held. Manila was next. Striking at the heart of the Philippine capi sides could the sharp cliffs of the volcano be reached.

Then began the tortuous job of wiping out enemy nests on the fight to its summit a fight climaxed by the (By Associated Preii.) days of fighting went by on the ing up of the aerial campaign against Japan. But the marines rocky, malaria ridden island be Even before they retook Manila, who went ashore there on the tal on the night of Feb. 3, the First Cavalry division fought room by the liberating Yanks in the Philip PRESS CLUB LOCATED IN FOXHOLES fore Fleet Adm. Chester W. Ni-mitz could announce, "Okinawa black sand beaches that Feb.

19 history making flag raising on the lip of Suribachi's crater. pines freed more than 7,500 Allied civilians and soldiers from Hie in room through huge Santo Tomas, a university the Japanese turned weren't thinking about the future use of Iwo. They were cursing the loose volcanic sands in which they sank ankle deep, slipping and slid into a concentration camp, to re lease 3,700 prisoners. famous Japanese prison camps in one of the most dramatic chapters of the Pacific war. I iV j.

i is ours." Enemy Losses Greater. The Japanese lost far more. A total of 107,000 Imperial troops died; 10,000 more were taken prisoner. Planes of Vice Admiral Mctory or Death. There was no quarter In the battle.

The Japanese, fanatical as always, didn't surrender. Original estimates flxed'the Japanese forca on Iwo Jima at the final The Yanks pushed 10 blocks ing as they sought to climb the beach. They were cursing, too, the One prison, Los Bancs, was seized by paratroopers who sur south the following day, grabbing filtihy Bilibid penitentiary, and freeing 1,350 more Allies. Then Feb. 23, while the battle for Marc A.

Mitschefs fast carrier heavy Japanese mortar and artillery fire which pounded onto the beaches killing or wounding thou prised the enemy garrison at dawn calisthenics and brought count of enemy dead totaled There were 1,0323 prisoner! task force, of U. S. Jeep carriers, freedom to 2,146 internees, Manila was in its last stage, para of the British Pacific fleet (in its sands of their comrades. The Americans first struck at combat debut), of marine and troopers, joined by guerrillas who All up and down the southeast Cabanatuan camp. On Jan.

30, slipped for two days through the ern landing beaches men dived army fighter units destroyed approximately 4,000 aircraft. Jap taken. Iwo ten't big only five rr.i!es long by a mile and a half wide. But it's unforgettable to men who fought there unforgettable because of its dirt and its blood. 1945, less than a month after I jungles, took Los Bancs.

to shellholes frequently beside anese shipping suffered heavily. dead Japanese to escape murder ous crossfire from SuribachL ex- The United States acquired the largest of the 116 islands of the Ryukyuan chain curving down from within a few miles of British Make Odd Kyushu, and the site of a mighty Guadalcanal First Amphibious Attack air-naval base only 325 miles from the enemy's bomb marked homeland. Comeback in Burma Stubbornly and bloodily, the Japanese yielded the gateway to American supply ships ran AP XewtfeatarM. i The United States took the first the East China Sea and free com gauntlet and frequently got caught munications with the China coast amphibious step to Tokyo with the road began to worry the by Japanese surface ships and submarines. Few Americans at home knew how critical the sit They saw their "impregnable' invasion of tiny Guadalcanal, in BY JAMES D.

WHITE. Burma, one Important key to archorages in the Inland sea turned into a graveyard of ship the Solomon islands, on Aug. 7, 1942. uation actually was. Japs Launch Drive.

So the Japanese launched an victory in the Pacific, was a good Few Americans had ever heard ping. They quickly felt the con Hold on Doggedly. sized war in itself. of this mosquito infested, malaria cussion from raids by hundreds ambitious campaign, northwestward into the little state of Mini- But despite growing enemy Burma's war was different. of Okinawa based aircraft join counterattacks the Yanks held Burma's climate and terrain and pur on the edge of India.

There. ridden pin point. Yet for five months America's immediate Pacific fate dangled in the island's on "Imphal bloody plain." they Allied ingenuity saw to that. doggedly. Japanese attempts to land on Guadalcanal were broken up repeatedly, mainly by the ing with B-29s.

Beachhead Won Easily. The force that made this pos Early in 1942 the British left learned that the British lion can lash back. In a terrific battle they Rangoon in a hurry, and the Jap small but superior air force that lost an estimated 40,000 men. stifling, almost impenetrable jungles and in the shark infested waters surrounding it. The Guadalcanal invasion was spearheaded by Marines led by had been assembled on Hender British and American strate aible the new Tenth Army commanded by Lt.

Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner who was killed with victory in sight landed on anese overran the country with relative ease. In 1945 the British came back into Rangoon so fast son. gists, meanwhile, had cooked up In October, however, the Jap anese landed in daylight on Guad that they actually ran down a Maj. Gen.

Alexander A. Vander-grift. It was designed primarily to protect U. shipping lanes to alcanal only 15 miles from the Japanese traffic cop with a tank. something new.

Native Chindits and other aerial task forces were dropped deep in the Jungle behind the enemy's front lines. the west coast of Okinawa Easter Sunday, April 1. What could have been a beachhead "bloodier than American lines. Heavy artillery But in 1942 the picture was Australia, where Allied power was moved ashore and by No dark. The Japanese were su I wo" turned into a rout.

They wrought havoc with sup slowly was being built, and to guard New Caledonia from air vember Nipponese land, sea and air forces had been massed to preme in the oil fields of southeast Asia and the springboard to ply and communications, already push the Yanks back into the sea. paralyzed by bombing and straf COVERING THE WAR. Holes scooped In volcanic ash sene as news and photo headquarters for the men covering the desperate battle for Iwo Jima. attacks. Japanese Surprised.

India But America matched the If India fell, the Japanese might stakes. Many warships damaged in the early months of war again make a junction with the Ger mans in the middle east. Japan had invaded the Solomons six weeks after Pearl Harbor, and when a marine division hit the beaches in self propelled steel barges, under protecting sea Enemy Errors Play Big Part were ready to fight; new army and marine troops were rushed In to reinforce the weary original Hell' in Burma. claim we took a hell of i rorce. beating." said Gen.

Joseph T. Stil and air cover, the enemy was sur prised. Soldiers of the 24th army corps and marines of the Third! amphibious corps went across the rough, potentially formidable terrain standing up. Within less than three hours they had captured Yontan and Kadena airfields. It was easy going surprisingly so until the army drove southward and hit the Japanese defense line.

For a while, naval losses outran land casualties. Suicide pilots even singled out an American hospital ship, the USS Comfort, which was hit April 28, causing 63 casualties. Civilians Docile. ing. Later, the Japanese repeatedly found themselves cut off by such jungle "air-heads.

The 10-i American Air force and the Royal Air force supplied advanced troops With supplies and re.n-forcements and evacuated t-v. wounded. The Tide Torn. The Chinese fought westward out of Yunnan and formed a junction with StUwell's Chinesa to complete the cut-eff supply men out of Hollandia to the north he could. That same convoy could Decisive Sea Battle, well as he walked out of the Jun ave carried sumcient reiniorce- to rciniorce wewa.

intn tnriia in thn dark riin BY MURUN SPENCER AP Nwfeture. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's New On Nov. 13 the decisive battle ments to have made victory cer for Guadalcanal was fought at The Leathernecks quickly gained a beachhead, captured the almost complete Henderson airfield, and seized the smaller adjacent islands of Tulagi, Gavutu tain for the Japanese. sea.

In three days, in the Sealark Guinea campaign lasted more than fare died. In a bold, courageous iT maneuver MacArthur by-passed ough, he said, but the only Wewak. He took Hollandia and thing to do was to go back in and channel north of the Henderson two years. It was in that lush Mistake at Tort Moresby. The Japanese made another fiflH thA Tiav eanV 9ft nearby Aitaoe almost without a v'e Japanese out.

shins and ri amazed 10 more. The green hell on earth needed by and Tanombogo. On Gavutu and Tulagi, not one of the foe sur road to China. St-lweU had bees U. S.

lost eieht shins. Meanwhile the Allies for a drive back to the fight in April of 1944. In Assam. Sulweil trained ana mistake in the fall of 1942. They pushed a comparative handful oi rendered 1,800 of them, the efti recalled by this time, but they He broke the foe back at Hoi- equipped the Chinese army wmcn Australians back to within 32 the Leathernecks wiped out 750 Philippines that Japan made Japanese moving in against the many of the mistakes that' cost named the road in his hcr-cr.

landia. Their troops at Wewak had retreated with him. He start- miles of Port Moresby. And when struggled northward and hurled ed back from the Himalayan ham The British fought southward little stood between them and the airneld from the ungle and sent ner an empire. an equal number scurrying back In the late summer of 1942, the some authorities to be hostile and ing tQUgh Qn the' nightKof themselves" at the Americans at let of Ledo, back down through dusty hills of that key base, only Aitane.

the leech and malaria infested to the undarbrush. Japanese landed at Milne Bay on lanaucaiiy piu --pue, wu Aug a Japanese cruder force out to be uniformly docile. Icautrht Allied naval natrol nfT a few miles from Australia's Although after that the skilled Now Guinea's tip. But Foe Came to MacArthur. jungle.

1 nr 1 7 northern tip, they pulled back lIiei)lllir5C YVOIICU umui ffiTaH on mnV fAiir oni care That was what MacArthur I The British, meanwhile, started Japanese jungle warriors re- when the enemy found the Allies instead of sonding in enough men 6 before staging their first major trnm nnrthn co. mained constantly bothersome, stronger at Milne Bay than he wanted the Japanese to come to working back down the Arakan him. His Americans killed them coast on the west, headed back out of Manipur and down from the cut-off. They landed ia farca on the Arakan coast. Storied Mandalay fell after a spectacular armored dash from the coast.

The British then negotiated the 403 miles to Rangoca in three weeks, their racir.g columns constantly supplied by a.r. The war in Burma was abc-l to do the job. air attack a "knockout" blow mons and Rabaul then began to they were never again a major expected he sent in a convoy of threat. vdestroyers to take off what troops For the first time the Japanese mai cost a more man ii appear daily to rip the beachhead by the thousands. They struggled, toward Rangoon, Burma's capital not the Allies were using too pianes- too, at and Wakdc but they and chief port.

little, too late, rever again did Next day they sent down a were merely death struggles. I Stilwell aimed at completing a MacArthur now needed to se- cut-off road to China which his they take the offensive in New naval task force a weak one, WHERE JAPS HELD ALLIED PRISONERS Guinea without air cover to "finish up cure his left flank and he seized American engineers were build over. China had a road once agaia When Americans and Austra the iob." U. S. carrier planes Morotai in the Halmaheras.

Jng. Early in 1944 the threatened to the sea. lians won Buna and Sanananda, caught the warships soutnwest 01 Kyushu. They sank Japan's larg slaughtering the Japanese garri MANCHURIA! rr KAMCHATKA sons almost to the last man, they est surviving battleship, the ATTU-. KtSKA stopped the Japanese and secured 000 ton Yamato, along with two VrJ I II 1 I new airfields for MacArthur's air cruisers and three destroyers.

Gen. Buckner gave the Japa chief, Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney.

rrom that time on the Japanese nese commander an opportunity were pounded Incessantly and to surrender June 11. The offer every campaign was waged to se was Ignored. A week later, the U. S. general was killed by a shell cure new fields from which American bombers could pound MONGOLIA- I pARATuro PociftC 0cccn fragment at a forward observa the enemy just a bit ahead.

tlon post. Enemy resistance end- ad three days later Aussirs Win Salamaua. Sulamaua, Lae and Finschhafon. In the last wild days of the campaign, the Japanese com important Japanese bases and air fields, fell in quick order. The manders committed suicide.

They had fought, and lost, a defensive campaign after possibly misjudg Australians did that job, although American paratroops were used ror the first time in the Pacific in the Markham vallev i ing where the Americans wouia land. The single major counter attack May 3 and 4 co-ordinated Lae. with a heavy air raid and an at Arthur branched out. He tempt to land behind the Ameri now needed to secure his rifht can lines was repulsed. flank.

Arawe on New Britain was taken in a feint which diverted the Japanese attention from the more important base of Cine Bvoassed Garrison Gloucester on New Britain's west liilijiV' f-T JTtV of Japan iiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! i wfnMriiiii.avaM km mwiii jut lllpljl ri 't llllllY KUME Wg' Sfiormosa K.r Ilttll Jap Prison Camp I -x yCTillJ J'XJ Starved on Wake ern tip. The First marine division sliced in between two strongly de- -Jv v- -y Formosa: mfrm Tj. it iP- j-yr- bonih islands Vaki 'A hong v1' jr China It ienaea points and secured the flank. A shinload of starved Japanese, Takes Saidor Quickly. MacArthur then grabbed off Intercepted on Independence day, 1945.

was stark testimony to the effectiveness of America's stiff Saidor near Finschhafen in a quick thrust almost without on- sea-air blockade around the by position and then sent the First passed Japanese held islands in the Pacific. An empty Wake island bound enemy hospital ship was halted by cavalry division to take Manus in the Admiralty islands, one of the best sea and air bases in the Pa the American destroyer Murray and then, in the first such inci imgopor. CAROLINE IS. 1 i fl DUTCH EAST INDIES -C" WT pO- if dent of the war, allowed to con tinue its mission of mercy. Head ing homeward, the vessel, the Takasago Maru, again was stopped and searched by a boarding party cific.

But the Japanese high command still felt secure in New Guinea. Wewak on the east coast 100 miles below the line between New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea was one of the most powerful bases in the Pacific. Thousands of Japanese troops were there and they had all the supplies they needed. Just to make the base secure, they pulled thousands of fighting A E. PtrcWal J.

M. Wainwrighl from the Murray. Most of the 974 patients aboard were found to be suffering from MAI ABOVE ithows the location of the largest Jap prison ramps where Allied rapthon were held, arrording to a Korean RiiMieutenant. forred into tlie Japnnese army, who dt'srrtfd and escaped to hungking. He said Lt.

On. Jonathan M. Walnwriglit, hero of liataan and Corregidtir, is at Zentsuji and British Gen. A. E.

Tercival, who surrendered at Singapore, is at Chemulpo. A IH)HN STKIS If ward TeKjo ul.lrl. Allied n.icl.t rry lirelild Japan are Irarrd on the mr Mrp Nu. 1. ll.c iniaMm of Cin.l i1rn, ur.

7. 191 was followed, one by one. by the others, whuh drew a nMe arvund the JaPmit home Klands. malnutrition an easy gauge of tha true plight of the isolated Japanese bases. 1.