1945 WW II headline newspaper BATTLE OF IWO JIMA + US Troops 1st cross the RHINE RIVER to enter NAZI GERMANY - inv # 8H-425

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SEE PHOTO(s) - COMPLETE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER, the Los Angeles Daily News EXTRA (CA) dated March 8, 1945. This original newspaper contains a prominent front page banner headline: "IWO YANKS NEAR GOAL" with news of the BATTLE of IWO JIMA during the lat months of WW II. This also contains a banner headline: "U. S. TROOPS CROSS RHINE (River)", moving into Nazi Germany to mark the "beginning of the end" for WW II in Europe.

The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the purpose of capturing the island with its two airfields: South Field and Central Field.

The Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 11 mi of tunnels. The American ground forces were supported by extensive naval artillery and had complete air supremacy provided by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators throughout the battle. The five-week battle saw some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the Pacific War.

The Japanese combat deaths numbered three times the number of American deaths, but uniquely among Pacific War Marine battles, the American total casualties (dead and wounded) exceeded those of the Japanese. Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured only because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled. Most of the remainder were killed in action, but it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards until they eventually succumbed to their injuries or surrendered weeks later. Despite the fighting and severe casualties on both sides, the American victory was assured from the start. Overwhelming American superiority in numbers and arms, air supremacy, the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement, and sparse food and supplies for the Japanese, permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Japanese could have won the battle.

The action was controversial, with retired Chief of Naval Operations William V. Pratt stating that the island was useless to the Army as a staging base, and useless to the Navy as a fleet base. The Japanese continued to have early-warning radar from Rota island, which was never invaded, and Iwo Jima's captured air field was barely used. Experiences with previous Pacific island battles suggested that the island would be well-defended and thus casualties would be significant. Joe Rosenthal's Associated Press photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag at the top of the 554 ft Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one Navy corpsman became a famous image of the battle and the American war effort in the Pacific.

The spectacular capture of the Ludendorff Bridge spanning the Rhine River at Remagen in early March 1945 was pivotal in the conquest of Germany. However, the Allies had planned other Rhine crossings weeks earlier and carried them out as part of their strategy to encircle and capture the Ruhr, the industrial center of western Germany.

The US Third Army carried out four river assaults in late March. The 5th Infantry Division undertook the first on March 22, 1945, crossing the Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Mainz. They crossed without the usual artillery preparation, a maneuver that caught German troops by surprise. Within 48 hours, four US divisions had crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim and positioned themselves to advance into Germany. Third Army troops soon also successfully assaulted the Rhine at three other locations: Boppard, St. Goar, and south of the city of Mainz. Two divisions of the US Seventh Army crossed the Rhine near the city of Worms on March 26, 1945. All of these operations were vital in facilitating the encirclement of the Ruhr and the conquest of Germany.

The planned Rhine crossing near Wesel, on the northern part of the Rhine, was the largest amphibious and airborne operation mounted since D-Day. Late on March 23, two British and two US divisions (from the US Ninth Army) began to cross the river near Wesel. Two airborne divisions, one British and one American, landed on the east bank of the Rhine on the following day to buttress the river assault.

By the end of March, all four US armies fighting in western Europe were east of the Rhine. While the First and Ninth Armies followed through to encircle the Ruhr, the Third and Seventh Armies moved east into central and southern Germany. Both operations would end with the surrender of Germany on May 7, 1945.

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