Rodent Exterminators

Three weeks of battle as bitter as any the world has known had raged on Iwo Jima, drenching its black ash beaches, ravines and cliffs in blood. The Japanese garrison was being squeezed into an ever smaller band around the northern shore, but it was fighting with D-day savagery. Its commander, Lieut. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, was still in radio contact with Tokyo. Most of the defenders had ample food and water (although some isolated positions had been short of water in the first days of the campaign). They had only a few mortars and cannon left, but they used them often and well, and they had plenty of small arms. They survived day after day of air attack and ship bombardment.

There seemed to be no end to the caves into which the Japanese had scurried, and each of the larger caves had many openings, interconnected underground.

The 5th and 3rd Marine Divisions, on the left and center respectively, made fair progress. The 4th, under Major General Clifton B. Gates, had tough going on the right flank. Near the end of the third week, the Japs on Cates's front decided to press for a decision. In the middle of the night they staged an infiltration attack--not a senseless banzai charge, but a well-executed, coordinated drive. The marines stood their ground, and in the morning 564 corpses were counted in front of their positions.

Through to the Shore. After that, the Japanese on the 4th Division's front were so weakened that the stalemate was broken The 4th got into gear with the 3rd and 5th. The drive for the north shore was speeded from a slow crawl to a slow march. On the 19th day of the battle for Iwo, a 28-man patrol from Company A of the 21st Regiment (part of Major General Graves B. Erskine's 3rd Division) broke through to the northeast coast and slid down the cliffs to the beach. To General Schmidt, they sent back a canteen of sea water, marked "for approval--not for consumption." To the aid stations they carried back their wounded, caught in Jap mortar fire on the beach. Next day, the 4th made a second breakthrough, cutting the Japs into three pockets, one of which was soon eliminated. As this week began, it was time for formal announcement that the Pacific's nastiest exterminating job was done.

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