"It Was Sickening to Watch ..."

On Iwo Jima last week at least 40,000 Marines fought to the death with 20,000 entrenched Japanese in an area so constricted that the troops engaged averaged twelve men to an acre. Ashore with the marines, TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod radioed his account of the battle:

At the end of six days of bitter fighting, the men of the 3rd Marine Division (Major General Graves B. Erskine), the 4th (Major General Clifton B. Cates) and the 5th (Major General Keller E. Rockey) hold approximately 40% of Iwo Jima, including half of Airfield No. 2, the fighter field. This is almost in the exact geographical center of the island and is perhaps the key to the entire defense. Built on a high plateau, it is defended by hundreds of interlaced pillboxes and concrete casemated caves, apparently connected by labyrinthine tunnels which wind in & out of the cliffsides.

Naval gunfire and air support have been far superior to those anywhere else in the Pacific. A battalion commander, Lieut. Colonel Alexander A. ("Archie") Vandegrift Jr. (son of the Marine Corps commandant), said yesterday: "I used to fight with these naval aviators over air support, but I've no argument with them any longer. They've been superb." So has the artillery ashore. "As long as they don't drop any shells in our own lines, the men have confidence in it," said Vandegrift.

Some Marines Wept. The 28th Regiment (part of the sth Division) of tall, gaunt Colonel Harry ("The Horse") Liver-sedge, ex-Raider, took Suribachi Volcano on D-plus-four. When the U.S. flag was raised over this highest point on the island, some marines wept openly.

A typical Jap blockhouse below Suribachi was more cunningly contrived than anything on Tarawa. Its outer walls were of reinforced concrete, 40 inches thick. The vent did not open toward the sea, but slantwise toward the upper beaches: the 120-mm. gun inside could fire on the beaches and some of our ships, but could not be hit except from a particular angle. There was no sign that it had been touched by anything but a flamethrower. Beside it lay the bodies of eight marines--the apparent cost of taking what was only one of several hundreds similar positions, nearly all of which have to be. knocked out by men on foot with explosive charges or flamethrowers.

Jap mortars and rockets still fire heavily from the recesses of the northern plateau. Even on the night of D-plus-four we caught hundreds of rounds. There is still no point on the island which the Japs cannot bring under fire easily, though their chances of accuracy diminish as we slowly edge forward up the high ground. Soon they will no longer be looking down our throats.

Lives for Yards. The Japs will lose Iwo Jima to the men of Major General Harry Schmidt's V Amphibious Corps, and we will have airfields within 750 miles of Tokyo. One reason for this is sheer power, including naval and air supremacy, but the ultimate factor in the fall of Iwo Jima will be the character and courage of the U.S. Marine Corps. There comes a time when defenses will no longer yield before fire power, however heavy. That is the time when men on foot must pay for yardage with their lives. That is when the marines are at their greatest. This, said the Fleet Marine Force commander, Lieut. General Holland M. ("Howlin' Mad") Smith, is their toughest fight in 168 years.

Two hours after the original landings on Dday, we had a toe hold and it looked like a good one. But all hell broke loose before noon. From the north and from the south the hidden Japs poured artillery and 6-in. mortars into the marines on the beachhead. Nearly all our tanks were clustered near the black-ash beaches like so many black beetles struggling to move on tar paper. A few other chuffing monsters waddled up the steep incline toward the airfield, spouting flames now and then into the .pillboxes which were blended into the sandy approaches.

Grenades or Flame. Viewing the scene later, I could only marvel that any men got past those pillboxes. Their openings were mostly to the north and south--naval gunfire might have destroyed them had their vents been exposed to the sea. But somehow these incredible marines had swept past the pillboxes, tossing grenades into them or shooting flame into them as they inched uphill towards the airfield.

It was sickening to watch the Jap mortar shells crash into the men as they climbed. These huge explosive charges--"floating ash cans," we called them--would crash among the thin lines of marines, or among the boats bringing reinforcements to the beach, throwing sand, water and even pieces of human flesh 100 feet into the air. Supporting naval gunfire and planes with bombs managed to knock out some of the mortars, but the Japs continued throwing their deadly missiles all afternoon. By noon the assault battalions reported 20 to 25% fatalities.

Some units crossed the island in mid-afternoon and overran the southern extremity of the No. 1 Airfield (the bomber base), but others were thrown back. Five tanks actually got on the airfield; three of them were quickly knocked out and the other two had to return. Our trouble was that the Japs had us covered from both ends of the island. Our men could only advance and die, paving with their bodies a way for the others.

The Hardest 10%. One wonderful factor was in our favor that first day. The weather was fine. A smooth sea enabled us to get more troops ashore and to emplace some artillery. With the rough seas of the second and third days, we might never have accomplished our initial landing. Not all the small boats made the beach that first afternoon, but enough made it to enable us to keep our foothold. By late afternoon we held perhaps 10% of the island--the most dangerous 10%.

The first night on Iwo Jima can only be described as a nightmare in hell. It was partly the weather--Iwo is as cold as Ohio at this season. The front line now has moved out of the tropics into a region of high winds and long periods without sunshine. Soon, U.S. fighting men will long for the dear old steaming jungles and sun-baked atolls. All through this bitter night the Japs rained heavy mortars and rockets and artillery on the entire area between the beach and the airfield. Twice they hit casualty stations on the beach. Many men who had been only wounded were killed. The command post of one of the assault battalions got a direct hit which killed several officers. An artillery battalion based near the beach had twelve men killed. One group of medical corpsmen was reduced from 28 to 11; the corpsmen were taking it, as usual.

Violent Death. Along the beach in the morning lay many dead. About them, whether American or Jap, there was one thing in common. They died with the greatest possible violence. Nowhere in the Pacific war have I seen such badly mangled bodies. Many were cut squarely in half. Legs and arms lay 50 ft. away from any body. Only the legs were easy to identify--Japanese if wrapped in khaki puttees, American if covered by canvas leggings. In one spot on the sand, far from the nearest clusters of dead men, I saw a string of guts 15 ft. long.

On the beach this morning I saw at least 50 men still fighting despite their wounds. Captain William Ketcham, commanding Company I in Vandegrift's battalion, was nicked in the arm and leg by snipers' bullets, but was merely contemptuous of the Japs' aim: "Shot at me twelve times and barely broke the skin with two bullets," said he. This battalion, in its brief periods in the front line, has had more than 100 casualties (mostly wounded). As it prepared to attack again today, Vandegrift cautioned his men: "Sniper fire gets very hot around here--better keep down." He was standing.

Jap casualties (counted dead) have now reached the total of 3,568. Nine Jap prisoners were taken. Our casualties in the first three days were 644 killed, 4,168 wounded.

My strictly unofficial estimate is that the conquest of Iwo Jima will take 13 days, and that casualties will be slightly less than on Saipan [3,417 killed and missing, 13,054 wounded].

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