America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

1053

U.S. Navy Department (April 3, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 320

The Marine III Amphibious Corps and the XXIV Army Corps made rapid gains in all sectors of the lines on Okinawa Island on April 3 (East Longitude Date). In the north, the Marines advanced generally from 4,000 to 6,000 yards reaching the East Coast near Katchin Peninsula and cutting it off. Units of the 7th Infantry Division which had reached the eastern shore of Okinawa the previous day moved southward along the shore of Katsurin Bay on the east coast from a point near the town of Takaesu to Kuba Town. Our front lines in the southern sector at nightfall of April 3, approximated a line from Kuba Town in the east to Chiyunna in the west. Resistance throughout the day was negligible. The advancing troops were supported by gunfire from heavy units of the Fleet. Ships’ guns and carrier aircraft shot down 11 enemy planes during the day. Unloading of supplies continues satisfactorily.

Fast carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked targets in the Sakishima Group on April 3.

On March 30-31, Corsair and Hellcat fighters, Helldiver bombers, and Avenger torpedo planes from carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet supporting the Okinawa operation inflicted the following damage on enemy forces in the Ryukyus:

Aircraft:

  • Seventeen shot out of the air.
  • Five destroyed on the ground.
  • Nineteen damaged in the air and on the ground.

Shipping:

SUNK:

  • Three motor torpedo boats.
  • Two small cargo ships.
  • Nine small craft.

PROBABLY SUNK:

  • One small cargo ship.
  • Four small craft.

DAMAGED:

  • One motor torpedo boat.
  • Four small cargo ships.
  • One lugger.
  • Fourteen small craft.

INSTALLATIONS:

  • Six submarine pens at Unten Bay, Okinawa, destroyed and another heavily damaged.

  • Mills, barracks, bridges, radio stations, pillboxes, buildings, docks, gun positions and covered revetments destroyed or damaged on Okinawa.

Other installations on Tokuno, Amami, Kikai and Minami, Daito Islands, heavily hit.

Installations on Marcus Island were bombed on April 2 by Army Liberators of the Strategic Air Force.

Planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked buildings, vehicles and barges in and around the Palau Islands on April 3.

During the week ending March 31, 69 Japanese were killed and 13 taken prisoner by U.S. patrols on Saipan, Tinian and Guam in the Marianas.

Navy Search Aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two made neutralizing attacks on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls on April 2.

1054

The Pittsburgh Press (April 3, 1945)

Allies capture Muenster – Tanks near Weser River

Patton’s Third Army smashes into Gotha, 150 miles from Berlin

…

1055

Japs digging in on Okinawa

Yanks split island, move within 6 miles of its capital city

map.040345.up
The Yanks on Okinawa today sliced the Jap island in two, widened their hold on Nakagusuku Bay, secured Zampa Cape and moved within six miles of the capital, Naha. Allied observation planes were already using Yontan and Kadena airfields, and early use of the fields by fighters and bombers was forecast.

GUAM (UP) – Army invasion troops who sliced Okinawa in two with a six-mile dash to the east coast widened their hold on the vital Nakagusuku Bay anchorage to at least three miles today and still were advancing.

Other units of Maj. Gen. John R. Hodges’ XXIV Army Corps advanced south along the west coast to within a little more than six miles of Naha, capital of Okinawa, in the first hard fighting of the three-day-old invasion.

Indications grew that the Japs were preparing to defend a line across the narrow isthmus just above Naha. The Japs were reported “digging in.”

Marines at the northern end of the Tenth Army’s front broadened the west coast beachhead to at least 10 miles with an advance of more than a mile.

The Marines cleaned out and secured Zampa Cape and sent an armored spearhead along the coastal highway to the north.

Casualties continued astonishingly light on both sides.

The XXIV Corps’ push to the east coast gave the Americans a wide corridor from which to attack either north or south. It also secured a foothold on all vital north-south communications.

United Press reporter Edward L. Thomas said the first doughboys reached the beaches of Awasi Harbor near Tobaru Village at 3 a.m. yesterday. They had achieved in 36 hours what the original invasion schedule said might take more than five days. Awasi Harbor lies at the northern end of Nakgusuku Bay and today the troops were probing forward out of the peninsula.

Mr. Thomas said the troops sliced through meager Jap resistance “like a hot knife through butter” in their dash to the east coast.

It was indicated that the troops had seized control of the northern face of the Awasi hill mass dominating the Bisha Gawa Valley and territory to the north. The victory firmly anchored the American beachhead 362 miles southwest of Japan proper.

Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger’s III Marine Amphibious Corps extended the west coast beachhead another 3,000 yards to the north by pushing across the base of Zampa Cape to the approaches of 770-foot Yontan Zan peak.

Observation planes were operating from Yontan and Kadena airfields captured in the first hours of the invasion. Engineers were rushing repairs to the fields to permit their use by fighters and bombers.

Reinforcements pour in

The 1,400-ship invasion fleet continued to pour reinforcements of men, tanks, guns and supplies across the invasion beaches unmolested while 1,500 carrier planes shuttled protectively overhead.

Warships in the armada joined carrier planes in supporting the ground forces, hurling everything from 16-inch shells to flaming rockets into already-burning Naha and other enemy strongpoints.

Jap planes made a feeble attack on the invasion armada Sunday night and five were shot down. A Jap communiqué claimed that 13 more U.S. warships had been sunk and 17 damaged.

A CBS correspondent broadcasting from the fleet and Tokyo claims that 150 ships had been sunk since the start of the invasion operations were just about 99.44 percent wrong.

Though the Jap communiqué obviously was exaggerated, there was no inclination at Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s Pacific Fleet headquarters here to write off Okinawa as already won. On the contrary, hard fighting was anticipated as the invaders come to grips with the enemy garrison totaling 60,000 to 80,000 troops.

The Jap commander was expected to fight desperately to gain time while Japan itself rushes construction of anti-invasion defenses. Next on the American invasion schedule may be Japan itself.

Big fight ahead, Navy warns

WASHINGTON (UP) – A Navy spokesman voiced surprise today at the “amazingly light” U.S. casualties on Okinawa. But he warned that when the Japs come out of hiding, they will fight as fanatically as on Saipan and Iwo Jima.

The official said the bulk of the Jap defenders probably would be encountered as U.S. forces drove southward.

1056

Finished as a nation –
Bombs, shells ruin Germany for decades

‘Supermen’ are sick mentally, physically
By Jack Fleischer, United Press staff writer

…

1057

Germans trigger-happy –
U.S. general shot as he surrenders

Aide tells of death of hero Maurice Rose

…

1058

Much friendlier than expected –
Okinawa civilians prove docile, most respectful to Americans

By William McGaffin

WITH THE U.S. TENTH ARMY ON OKINAWA (April 2, delayed) – The civilians of Okinawa are friendly.

That has been our experience to date with the hundreds who are coming into our lines, bowing respectfully, with grave faces that break into smiles when we smile at them.

It is my guess that the docile attitude of the 1,200 or more whom I saw this afternoon will be typical of the entire civilian population here. There are approximately 450,000 of them.

Through an interpreter I talked with a group of civilians. They were Yakusho Imi Yakusho – farmers – from villages we have overrun in our sensational two-day advance. Among them were a 35-year-old man with his wife, three children and 81-year-old father.

The husband, barefoot and dressed in a blue kimono and American style snap-brim felt hat, said Okinawa was “overjoyed” because the Americans had come, although they were very frightened at first of “bakugeki imi bakugeki” – which was their words for “bombing by planes.”

Few had been injured, however. They had taken refuge in caves, heeding our pamphlet warning three days before the landing.

Three and a half million pamphlets were dropped, instructing the natives in Japanese to clear out of the towns and stay away from the airfields because we were going to bomb and shell them. On the reverse side was conveyed in picture language – a huge fleet of U.S. planes and ships of all types converging on Okinawa.

Many civilians came in with pamphlets clutched in their hands. Their eyes still were wide with astonishment. They said they never had seen so many ships and planes before.

Provost Marshal Lt. Col. Floyd Stephenson of Washington, D.C., said:

They are coming in much faster than we expected. We thought they’d be hostile or at least critical and distrustful of us. After all their only word about us has come from the Japanese.

The colonel said:

But they are not real Japanese. They have a heavy Chinese strain. The Jap overlords made them very conscious of their “inferior” position. All they have known has been years of oppression. It is possible they resent this more than we expected.

The Jap military went off leaving these people without food or water. They said until we came, they had had none for 10 days.

Fed by Americans

I watched a long line of them getting some of the K-rations that our troops are eating. Most of them were barefoot and in kimonos. Invariably each one, whether a two-year-old, or a gray-bearded elder, would bow politely to the Marine as the package of K-ration was doled out.

And each time the Marine solemnly bowed back.

The Marines say that “they are very simple and amiable and always think of the old folks first.”

Many civilians are still hiding fearfully in caves, but they come out without making trouble when our men go up to the entrances and talk to them. There have been no acts of sabotage.

1059

3-vote peace plan dropped by Roosevelt

But U.S. is likely to back Reds’ plea

…

1060

Kiel Naval Base bombed heavily

…

1061

Hitler plan to die in battle reported

…

1062

I DARE SAY —
Pictures in the news

By Florence Fisher Parry

…

1063

Civilians face more food cuts

…

1064

Perkins: CIO opposes super priority for veterans

Murray cites peril in island of security
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

…

1065

Jap in a cave

WITH XXIV CORPS, Okinawa Island – One American patrol found their first Okinawa civilian today – behind a cedar chest in a cave. The civilian was not over four feet tall, barefooted and dressed only in a dark blue kimono.

1066

Under threat of death –
SS man forces cripples to fight Yanks

Fanatical Hitlerite then flees city
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

…

1067

92 Jap planes destroyed in raid

Surprise attack hits Shanghai airdrome

…

Father to receive son’s Medal of Honor

…

1068

New landing closes trap on Luzon Japs

Port of Legaspi, airfield overrun

…

1069

Allied in Italy near Comacchio

Half of sand pit seized through ruse

…

1070

Editorial: Okinawa shortens the war

Almost every time there is a battle, the public is told it is the most important yet. So, the public by this time is beginning to discount such reports as something it has heard too often before. Hence the rather take-it-for-granted attitude toward the Okinawa landing.

Actually, this island with the strange name is the key to our entire offensive against Japan. the Marianas and the Philippines are essential waystations, but they are too far away from Japan to serve as advance bases. Iwo is important, though too small for major air, naval and supply bases. But Okinawa is the works.

All the experts agree on this - including the Japs. According to Tokyo, “The entire strategy of the Pacific hangs on this island… The loss of Okinawa would mean the collapse of the vanguards of Japan proper, and then there could be no hope of turning the course of the war.” Our Army commander there, Lt. Gen. Simon Buckner, says:

It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of this operation, from the standpoint of our offensive, this is the most valuable island yet invaded.

Okinawa is large enough for adequate bases. It can provide harbors for surface fleets, submarines, supply and troopships. It has several airfields and facilities for more.

It is the most perfect location for our offensive purposes. It dominates the East China Sea and is within striking distance of all four of our eventual objectives – Formosa, the China coast, Korea and Japan proper. The China coast is only 400 miles away, Formosa 350, and the Jap home island of Kyushu 325.

From this position our Navy will be able to cut the main enemy supply lines across the East China Sea, and its submarines can roam the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, hitherto private Jap waterways. That will further reduce enemy shipping. It will seriously interfere with the two-way war traffic of raw materials and food to Japan and of military supplies from Japan to troops in China.

And Okinawa is close enough to launch our invasions of China and Japan. Our Easter landings in great force and with infinitesimal loss have shortened the war.

1071

Editorial: ‘Go to school, that’s all’

…

1072

Edson: Japanese get earful from Radio Saipan

By Peter Edson

…