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Contact Info
Last Address Annapolis, MD
Date of Passing Jul 19, 1971
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
In September 1943, Admiral Hill became Commander Amphibious Group Two, Fifth Amphibious Force, and in that capacity participated in the capture of Tarawa, and later in operations against the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
He relieved the Commander Fifth Amphibious Force at Okinawa in April 1945, and commanded the amphibious and support operations of that force until that island was secured at the end of June.
At the close of the war in August 1945, he commanded the Amphibious Force, which landed the Sixth Army in Southwestern Japan for occupation duty. On 1 November 1945, he assumed duty as Commandant of the Army-Navy Staff College, and in June 1946, Vice Admiral Hill established and served as Commandant of the National War College, the highest-level educational institution of the Armed Forces and the State Department.
In September 1949, he reported as Chairman of the General Board, Navy Department, and on 28 April 1950 became Superintendent of the Naval Academy and Commandant, Severn River Naval Command. He continued to serve as such after his retirement on 1 May 1952, until August 1952.
Independence Day dawned, foggy, windless and cold. The temperature was now three degrees below zero, and still the convoy had farther north to go. On the American merchant ships, the tattered Stars and Stripes were hauled down and clean new Ensigns were run up in their place. From the bridge of the British cruiser Norfolk, the daylight signaling lantern was flashing a Fourth of July greeting across the American cruiser Wichita: “Many happy returns of the day. The United States is the only country with a known birthday.”
Captain H. W. Hill, USN, made the reply, “Thank you. I think England should celebrate Mother’s Day.”
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Iwo Jima Operation
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945
Description The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields (including South Field and Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.
After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet base. However, Navy SEABEES rebuilt the landing strips, which were used as emergency landing strips for USAAF B-29s.
The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels. The Americans on the ground were supported by extensive naval artillery and complete air supremacy over Iwo Jima from the beginning of the battle by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators.
Iwo Jima was the only battle by the U.S. Marine Corps in which the Japanese combat deaths were thrice those of the Americans throughout the battle. Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled. The majority of the remainder were killed in action, although it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards, eventually succumbing to their injuries or surrendering weeks later.
Despite the bloody fighting and severe casualties on both sides, the Japanese defeat was assured from the start. Overwhelming American superiority in arms and numbers as well as complete control of air power — coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement — permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Americans could have lost the battle.
The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 m (545 ft) Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy battlefield Hospital Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, both of which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. Rosenthal's photograph promptly became an indelible icon — of that battle, of that war in the Pacific, and of the Marine Corps itself — and has been widely reproduced.
