Battle of Okinawa 1 Battle of Okinawa Battle of Okinawa Part of World War II, the Pacific War A U.S. Marine from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines on Wana Ridge provides covering fire with his Thompson submachine gun, 18 May 1945. Date 1 April – 22 June 1945 Location Okinawa, Japan [1] [1] 26°30′N 128°00′E Coordinates: 26°30′N 128°00′E Result Allied victory, Okinawa occupied by U.S. until 1972 Belligerents United States Empire of Japan United Kingdom Canada Australia New Zealand Commanders and leaders Simon B. Buckner, Jr. † Mitsuru Ushijima † Roy Geiger Isamu Chō † Joseph Stilwell Minoru Ota † Chester W. Nimitz Keizō Komura Raymond A. Spruance Sir Bernard Rawlings Philip Vian Bruce Fraser Strength 183,000 (initial assault force only) ~120,000, including 40,000 impressed Okinawans Casualties and losses More than 12,000 killed More than 110,000 killed More than 38,000 wounded More than 7,000 captured 40,000–150,000 civilians killed The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned Battle of Okinawa 2 invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces. The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese.[2] The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources,[3] mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000-150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local populaion. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting at Okinawa. Order of battle Allied Overall Allied command authority for battle was Fifth Fleet (under Admiral Raymond A. Spruance). Fifth Fleet was divided into several task forces and groups: • Fast Carrier Force (TF 58) under Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher with 88 ships (including 11 fleet carriers, 6 light carriers, 7 battleships and 18 cruisers); • British Carrier Force (TF 57) under Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings with 4 carriers, 2 battleships, 5 cruisers, 14 destroyers and fleet train; A map of U.S. operations at Okinawa. • Gunfire and Covering Support Group (TF 54) under Rear Admiral Morton L. Deyo with 10 old battleships, 11 cruisers and 30 destroyers. • Task Force 51 (TF 51; also Joint Expeditionary Force) under Vice Admiral Richmond K. Turner (who was holding position of Commander, Amphibious Forces, Pacific): • Amphibious Support Force (TF 52) under Rear Admiral William H. P. Blandy The last picture of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Simon • TG 52.1: 18 escort carriers with 450 aircraft; Bolivar Buckner, Jr. (right), taken on 18 June • Sl Escort Carrier Group: 4 escort carriers with Marine Aircraft 1945, the day before he was killed by Japanese Group 31 and 33; artillery. • Mine Flotilla (TG 52.2) • Underwater Demolition Flotilla (TG 52.11): ten 100-men UDT aboard destroyer escorts • 170 fire support landing craft • Western Islands Attack Group (TG 51.1) under Rear Admiral Ingolf N. Kiland with 77th Infantry Division, 17 attack and attack cargo transporters, 56 LSTs and support vessels; • Northern Attack Force (TF 53) under Rear Admiral Lawrence F. Reifsnider, Commander Amphibious Group 4, aboard USS Panamint (AGC-13) with III Amphibious Corps (Major General Roy Geiger) on 40+ attack and attack cargo transporters, 67 LSTs and support vessels; Battle of Okinawa 3 • Southern Attack Force (TF 55) under Rear Admiral John L. Hall with XXIV Corps (Major General John R. Hodge); • Demonstration Group (TF 51.2) with 2nd Marine Division; • Expeditionary Troops (TF 56) under Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. with Tenth Army. TF 56 was the largest force within TF 50 and was built around the 10th Army. The army had two corps under its command, III Amphibious Corps, consisting of 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, and XXIV Corps, consisting of the 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions. The 2nd Marine Division was an afloat reserve, and Tenth Army also controlled the 27th Infantry Division, earmarked as a garrison, and 77th Infantry Divisions. In all, the Army had over 102,000 Army (of these 38,000+ were non-divisional artillery, combat support and HQ troops, with another 9,000 service troops), over 88,000 Marines and 18,000 Navy personnel (mostly Seabees and medical personnel). At the start of Battle of Okinawa 10th Army had 182,821 men under its command. Although Allied land forces were entirely composed of U.S. units, the British Pacific Fleet (BPF; known to the U.S. Navy as Task Force 57) provided about ¼ of Allied naval air power (450 planes). It comprised a force which included 50 warships of which 17 were aircraft carriers, but while the British armored flight decks meant that fewer planes could be carried in a single aircraft carrier, they were more resistant to kamikaze strikes. Although all the aircraft carriers were provided by Britain, the carrier group was a combined British Commonwealth fleet with British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian ships and personnel.[citation needed] Their mission was to neutralize Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Islands and provide air cover against Japanese kamikaze attacks. Most of the air-to-air fighters and the small dive bombers and strike aircraft were U.S. Navy carrier-based airplanes. The U.S. Navy sustained greater casualties in this operation than in any other battle of the war.[citation needed] Japanese The Japanese land campaign (mainly defensive) was conducted by the 67,000-strong (77,000 according to some sources) regular 32nd Army and some 9,000 Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) troops at Oroku naval base (only a few hundred of whom had been trained and equipped for ground combat), supported by 39,000 drafted local Ryukyuan people (including 24,000 hastily drafted rear militia called Boeitai and 15,000 non-uniformed laborers). In addition, 1,500 middle school senior boys organized into front-line-service "Iron and Blood Volunteer Units", Japanese commanders of Okinawa (including while 600 Himeyuri Students were organized into a nursing unit.[4] The Admiral Minoru Ota, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, Japanese had used kamikaze tactics since the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but Lt. Gen. Isamu Cho, and Col. Hiromichi Yahara) in February 1945. for the first time, they became a major part of the defense. Between the American landing on 1 April and 25 May, seven major kamikaze attacks were attempted, involving more than 1,500 planes. The 32nd Army initially consisted of the 9th, 24th, and 62nd Divisions, and the 44th Independent Mixed Brigade. The 9th Division was moved to Taiwan prior to the invasion, resulting in shuffling of Japanese defensive plans. Primary resistance was to be led in the south by Lt. General Mitsuru Ushijima, his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Isamu Chō and his chief of operations, Colonel Hiromichi Yahara. Yahara advocated a defensive strategy, whilst Chō advocated an offensive one. In the north, Colonel Takehido Udo was in command. The IJN troops were led by Rear Admiral Minoru Ota. They expected the Americans to land 6–10 divisions against the Japanese garrison of two and a half divisions; the staff calculated that superior quality and numbers of weapons gave each U.S. division five or six times the firepower of a Japanese division; to this would be added the Americans' abundant naval and air firepower. Battle of Okinawa 4 Naval battle There was a hypnotic fascination to the sight so alien to our Western philosophy. We watched each plunging kamikaze with the detached horror of one witnessing a terrible spectacle rather than as the intended victim. We forgot self for the moment as we groped hopelessly for the thought of that other man up there. [5] Vice Admiral C.R. Brown, U.S. Navy The United States Navy's Task Force 58, deployed to the east of Okinawa with a picket group of from 6 to 8 destroyers, kept 13 carriers (7 CV and 6 CVL) on duty from 23 March to 27 April and a smaller number thereafter. Until 27 April, from 14 to 18 converted carriers (CVE's) were in the area at all times, and until 20 April British Task Force 57, with 4 large and 6 escort carriers, remained off the Sakishima Islands to protect the southern flank. The protracted length of the campaign under stressful conditions forced Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to take the unprecedented step of relieving the principal naval American aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill burns commanders to rest and recuperate. Following the practice of changing after being hit by two kamikaze planes within 30 seconds.