The Patrol Zone

This article contains official CINCPOA and CINCPAC press releases issued during March 1945.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 740, March 8, 1945

VICE ADMIRAL SMITH ASSUMES COMMAND OF PACIFIC FLEET SERVICE FORCE

Vice Admiral William Ward Smith, USN, has assumed command of the Service Force, United States Pacific Fleet, relieving Vice Admiral William L. Calhoun, USN, who saw this auxiliary fleet grow ten-fold in the little more than four years he commanded it.

Vice Admiral Smith, recently promoted from the rank of Rear Admiral, was Director of Naval Transportation Service in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations prior to assuming his new command.

This is his second Pacific assignment in this war. He was Chief of Staff to Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, USN, until shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. He was then promoted to Rear Admiral and placed in command of a cruiser task group that participated in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. For his outstanding service in these engagements he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

He later was assigned to a task force command and his ships were the first naval unit to bombard Kiska Island in the Aleutians August 7, 1942.

While Vice Admiral Smith was Director of Naval Transportation Service, the number of merchant-type vessels commissioned by and allocated to the Navy increased from 150 to 500.

CINCPOA Press Release No. 34, March 15, 1945

Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, Mar. 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 Fleet Admiral 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 Colonel D. A. Stafford, of Spokane, Wash., Fifth 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 antiaircraft 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: Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, USN, Commander, Amphibious Forces, Pacific; Rear Admiral Harry Hill, USN, of Oakland, Cal., deputy commander of the attack force; Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith, Commanding General of the Fleet Marine Force of the Pacific; Major General Harry F. Schmidt, Fifth Amphibious Corps Commander; Major General Graves B. Erskine, of La Jolla, Cal., Third Marine Division commander, and his chief of staff, Colonel Robert E. Hogaboom, of Vicksburg, Miss.; Major General Clifton B. Cates, Fourth Marine Division Commander, and his chief of stag, Colonel M. J. Batchelder; and Major General Keller Rockey, Fifth Marine Division Commander, and his chief of staff, Colonel Ray A. Robinson. The Army was represented at the ceremony by Major General James E. Chaney.

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

The bugler and the color detail were chosen from the Fifth Amphibious Corps Military Police Company. Their commanding officer, First Lieutenant Nathan R. Smith, of Whitehaven, Pa., 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 when she was sunk by the Japs September 15, 1943.

The proclamation was the first issued by Fleet Admiral 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.

CINCPOA Press Release No. 39, 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 strong points; 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.

Included in the total of 123 planes lost by our forces are aircraft which were able to return to the vicinity of our forces or bases, and even were landed aboard our aircraft carriers, but which were so badly damaged they were junked. The enemy total of 2472 includes only those aircraft confirmed to have been seen crashing, or to have been abandoned by pilot and crew.

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 front line units at 1700 on 16 March.

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.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 743, March 18, 1945

LIEUT. GEN. HOLLAND M. SMITH, USMC, RETURNS FROM IWO

Reiterating that the battle for Iwo Jima was “the toughest and hardest fight in Marine Corps history,” Lieutenant General 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, General Smith said.

CINCPOA Press Release No. 45, March 24 1945

The Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet, regrets to announce the loss of the escort aircraft carrier, USS Bismarck Sea, due to enemy action. The commanding officer and most of the ship’s company are survivors. Next of kin of those who lost their lives have been notified.

While supporting the assault on Iwo Island, the Bismarck Sea was damaged by enemy air attacks on the evening of 21 February (East Longitude Date) and fires were started aboard her. Subsequently the fires spread throughout the ship and, having made every effort to save her, the ship’s company was ordered to abandon her. She sank a short time later.

The Bismarck Sea, of the Casablanca Class, was built by the Kaiser Shipyards at Vancouver, Washington, and was commissioned in 1944. After a period of escort duty, she was assigned to the Seventh Fleet and supported the invasion of Lingayen, Luzon. She then joined the forces which participated in the Iwo operation.

Captain John Lockwood Pratt, USN, was commanding officer.

Published information on the Casablanca Class:

Displacement - About 4,000 tons.
Length - About 500 feet.
Speed - About 19 knots.
Aircraft - About 20.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 745, March 24, 1945

NEW COMMANDING GENERAL OF MARINE AIRCRAFT

Major General James T. Moore, USMC, has been named Commanding General, Aircraft, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific. He succeeds Major General Francis P. Mulcahy, USMC, who will shortly receive a new assignment.

General Moore, who has served 24 years with Marine Corps aviation, is a veteran of 27 months of the Pacific air war. He recently returned from the combat areas where he was, at the same time, Commanding General of the Second Marine Air Wing during the Peleliu operation and Commander, Garrison Air Force, Western Carolines.

When war was declared General Moore was serving as Chief of the U. S. Air Mission to Peru and Commanding General of the Peruvian Air Force. In December, 1942, he was named Commanding General of the Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing which then had its headquarters in the Hawaiian Islands. In May 1943, he began a 17-month tour of duty in the South Pacific as Chief of Staff of the First Marine Aircraft Wing.

After the occupation of Munda airfield on New Georgia in August 1943, General Moore became Commander, Aircraft, New Georgia, and took command of all Allied air activity in the fight for aerial supremacy over the Central and Northern Solomon Islands.

In the fall of 1943 he became Commanding General, First Marine Aircraft, Wing. He later served as Commander, Aircraft, Emirau Island, during the invasion and consolidation of that element of the St. Mathias group. While there, General Moore also was Island Commander.

He then was named Commander, Aircraft, Solomon Islands, and after a brief period at this post took command of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 746, March 29, 1945

VICE ADMIRAL NEWTON BECOMES INSPECTOR GENERAL

Vice Admiral John H. Newton, USN, has assumed the duties of Inspector General, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas.

As Inspector General he inspects, investigates and reports on all matters affecting the efficiency and economy of the Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas.

Admiral Newton succeeds Rear Admiral John F. Shafroth, USN, who served as Inspector General from 20 March 1944 until recently. Admiral Shafroth has been assigned to other duty afloat.

Admiral Newton until assuming his new duty was Commander, South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force. Other assignments have been: Deputy Commander, South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force, Deputy Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, Sub Chief of Naval Operations, and Commander Cruisers, Scouting Force.