Battle of Okinawa (1945)

40

The Pittsburgh Press (April 9, 1945)

Wedge driven into Jap line on Okinawa

U.S. invaders seize third of island

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Gaining on Okinawa, U.S. forces held more than a third of the Jap island. On the southern sector, U.S. Army troops drove a wedge into the Jap defense line above Naha. On the north, U.S. Marines drove to cut off the Motobu Peninsula.

GUAM (UP) – U.S. Tenth Army troops have wedged into the enemy’s first major defense line before Naha, capital of Okinawa, in fighting approaching the fury of the bloody Iwo campaign, front reports said today.

Casualties on both sides were mounting, but the Americans were killing three to 18 Japs for every American killed, United Press writer Mac R. Johnson reported from the invasion flagship.

Soldiers of the XXIV Corps penetrated the first Jap defense line in slugging advances of 200 to 400 yards yesterday after capturing Uchitomari, four miles north of Naha, and Kaniku, 4½ miles northeast, Saturday.

Hold third of island

The advances, coupled with an almost unopposed Marine push in Central Okinawa, brought one-third or more of the island under American control as the invasion entered its second week.

As on Iwo, the Jap defenders of Naha were fighting from caves, interlocking pillboxes and other strongpoints on heights from which they could sweep the advancing Americans with crossfire.

Frequent hand-to-hand combats were developing as the Americans hit deeper into defenses manned by upwards of 60,000 Japs. One knoll alone was found to have as many as 15 entrances to its underground tunnels and caverns, where large quantities of supplies and ammunition were found.

At night, the Japs were attempting their favorite tactics of infiltration. Some American troops were killing Japs within two or three of their foxholes in the night blackness.

Japanese batteries opened fire on American guns emplaced on Keise Island, some eight miles west of Naha, and a violent artillery battle followed. U.S. battleships silenced the enemy guns.

Use captured airfields

Despite the fury of the fighting, Col. Brainard Prescott of East Aurora, New York, a Tenth Army staff officer, said casualties on Okinawa were much less than originally estimated.

Marines of the III Amphibious Corps drove another 3,000 to 4,000 yards north along the Motobu Peninsula in Central Okinawa against almost nonexistent resistance.

The advance was rapidly cutting off the peninsula and threatening to engulf 17 villages. Its pace indicated the Marines soon would have all Northern Okinawa in their hands, enabling them to turn back south to reinforce the drive on Naha, a city of 65,000.

Marine fighters were already using the two captured airfields in Central Okinawa.

Thirteen enemy planes were shot down by U.S. aircraft and anti-aircraft guns Saturday and Sunday in the Okinawa area.

By Saturday night, a communiqué said, 30,000 Okinawa civilians were being cared for by the U.S. Military Government on the island.

41

Okinawa victims arrive at Guam

GUAM (UP) – Wounded Marines and soldiers from Okinawa Island arrived here simultaneously today aboard a hospital ship and the first Navy evacuation plane to land in the Ryukyus.

The wounded on the hospital ship were men who had been hit early in the campaign but the big four-engined R5D – Navy’s version of the Army’s flying ambulance – carried 23 patients wounded Saturday and one who had been hit this morning.

Aboard the plane was Ens. Jane Kendeigh of Henrietta, Ohio, who was the first nurse to land at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The hospital ship brought 431 patients. Nine men died en route.

42

Jap pilots get ‘morale’ wine

OKINAWA – This label was bound on a bottle of sake – a white Jap wine – confiscated by our advancing troops.

Aviation grape sake. Army provisions depot. Description: A special strong, refined mixture is added to this delicious grape sake to overcome exhaustion and to restore good spirits quickly. NOTICE: Use to restore spirits after landing. Do not use to excess before flying. (Signed) Okuro Grape Sake Co., Inc.

43

Civilians cause little trouble on Okinawa

30,000 surrender in first week
By William McGaffin

WITH THE U.S. TENTH ARMY ON OKINAWA – Okinawan civilians, surrendering by the thousands, are giving so little trouble that we are already turning them loose in the fields to harvest their crops and allowing them to live in their own villages instead of in camps.

By the end of our first week on Okinawa, 30,000 civilians had given themselves up. Mostly these natives are farmers and fishermen. The former live in villages and work little patches of sweet potatoes – their subsistence.

It is too early yet to make much of a generalization, of course, said Lt. Col. Donald T. Winder of Oak Park, Illinois, military government officer for the Marine III Amphibious Corps, but, from experience to date, the civilian problem looks as if it will be much easier than many people had expected.

Met them at Saipan

As for the colonel himself, he says he is not much surprised for he learned the caliber of these civilians when he first met them at Saipan.

The situation, Col. Winder said, is much better here than at Saipan in some respects. There has not been a single suicide here as far as he has heard. But, of course, he adds, only a relatively small percentage of the island’s 500,000 people has been heard from so far.

Many of these people seem to have ties with America and to be eager to demonstrate their sympathy with us.

Col. Winder said that we are having no trouble getting civilians to surrender – in fact they are coming in faster than we can take care of them.

“You let two persons go back to get clothes and coffee pots and they return with 50 others.”

Observe curfew

Civilians are well disciplined, observe the curfew well and give us little trouble. They have tried no sabotage to Col. Winder’s knowledge.

There are comparatively few wounded as most of hem took refuge in homemade shelters or fled to caves and valleys. The injured are being treated now in civilian hospitals that we have set up.

Try to share food

They are so grateful for medical assistance that they try to share their food with us. At first, we gave them K rations. Now they are getting brown, native rice from the large stocks we have found in caves and abandoned stores.

The Marines are doing their share to keep the kids happy. The children stand grinning along the dusty roads yelling “Chow, chow” – it didn’t take long for them to pick up the Marine word for food. And it always brings a shower of candy bars from passing Marines.

Villages to which Okinawans have returned are pretty well demolished by our pre-invasion bombing and shelling. But the natives seem to bear us no ill will, at least outwardly.

44

Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 10, 1945)

Japaner versenken weitere 17 Kriegsschiffe

Feindliche Flottenverbände ziehen sich zurück

Tokio, 9. April – Die Amerikaner haben seit Beginn ihrer Landungen auf Okinawa-Honto bis zum 7. April rund 600 Mann und über 100 Tanks verloren, während sich die Verluste der Japaner auf etwa 400 Mann belaufen.

Auch die Schiffsverluste des Gegners sind in den letzten Tagen noch erheblich gestiegen. Außer den bereits bekanntgegebenen Versenkungen verloren die Amerikaner noch ein großes Kriegsschiff unbekannter Klasse, drei Kreuzer, zehn Zerstörer, drei Minensucher und dreizehn Schiffe unbekannten Typs. Beschädigt wurden vier Kreuzer, vier Zerstörer, zwei Minensucher und acht Schiffe unbekannter Klasse.

Letzte Berichte vom Kriegsschauplatz in den Gewässern der Ryukyu-Inseln deuten darauf hin, dass sich die feindlichen Flottenverbände nach dem schweren Angriff japanischer Luft- und Flotteneinheiten mit erheblichen Verlusten in südlicher und östlicher Richtung zurückziehen.

45

U.S. Navy Department (April 10, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 328

After beating off two small counterattacks on Motobu Peninsula on the evening of April 9 (East Longitude Date), Marines of the III Amphibious Corps on Okinawa continued their advance on April 10, moving their lines generally about 2,500 yards westward to the Manna River on the south and Unten Bay on the north. Enemy submarine pens at Unten Bay and other installations were captured. On Ishikawa Isthmus, Marines moved northward to the vicinity of Tsuwa Village.

The XXIV Army Corps in the southern sector of the Okinawa battle continued to meet stubborn enemy resistance along its entire front. At 1800 on April 10 there were no substantial changes in the lines. Backed by heavy artillery fire, the enemy made several unsuccessful counterattacks against our positions. Army troops were supported by intense Marine and Army artillery fire by carrier aircraft and by naval gunfire from major units of the Pacific Fleet.

Elements of the XXIV Army Corps landed on Tsugen Island about ten miles off the east coast of Okinawa on the morning of April 10 encountering some enemy resistance.

At the end of April 8, our forces on Okinawa had killed 5,009 of the enemy and had taken 222 prisoners of war. At that time, 43,378 civilians were under care of the U.S. Military Government.

Search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing One bombed hangars and barracks on Tanega Island in the northern Ryukyus on April 10.

Army Black Widow night-fighters strafed and bombed installations in the Bonins on the night of April 9-10. VII Fighter Command Mustangs bombed docks and shipping at Chichi Jima on April 10 scoring a hit on a small cargo ship.

Targets in the Palaus were struck by Hellcat and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing on April 10.

46

The Pittsburgh Press (April 10, 1945)

Yanks invade key island off Okinawa

Biggest artillery battle of Pacific war rages

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New Pacific landing by U.S. troops on Tsukata Island, eight miles off the southeast coast of Okinawa, was reported by the Japs. U.S. forces on Okinawa reached Onaha on the southeast coast. Marines in the north sealed off Motobu Peninsula and occupied half of it.

GUAM (UP) – Tokyo said today that U.S. troops have landed on Tsukata Island controlling the entrance to nearly-conquered Nakagusuku Bay naval anchorage in Southeast Okinawa.

Other troops spearing along the shore of the bay on Okinawa advanced more than a mile and a half to Onaha, on the edge of Yonabaru Airfield and a mile and a half north of the port of Yonabaru itself, a Tokyo Domei Agency broadcast said.

Bud Foster of NBC, in a pooled broadcast from Okinawa today, said U.S. infantrymen were “attacking with heavy mortar fire pouring on them from deep, thick defense lines.” He said ambulances “virtually unused before yesterday,” were moving in long lines over narrow, muddy roads carrying wounded to the beach.

U.S. destroyers and other warcraft have already entered Nakagusuku Bay, the broadcast said.

Landing reported Sunday

U.S. sources were unable to confirm the reported east coast developments, but said the greatest artillery battle of the Pacific war was underway in the southwest coast sector as the U.S. XXIV Army Corps stormed deeper into defenses shielding the capital city of Naha.

Gen. O. P. Smith, deputy chief of staff for the Tenth Army, said more battalions of artillery were supporting the ground forces than ever before in the Pacific. The concentration of guns per yard nearly equals the maximum known in warfare, he said.

Domei said U.S. troops landed on Tsukata Island some eight miles off the southeast coast of Okinawa Sunday afternoon. The dispatch made no claim that the forces had been repulsed and it was possible the Americans quickly overran the tiny island.

During the landing operations, Tokyo said, Jap forces – presumably with artillery – sank one large American destroyer and a small craft.

More than two-thirds of the Okinawa coast of the bay has already been cleared by XXIV Army Corps troops. Yonabaru, its principal port, lies at the southwest corner.

Once Nakagusuku Bay has been cleared, the American command will have an excellent naval anchorage within easy striking range of the Jap homeland and the China coast.

Battle for caves

On the west coast and in the interior, U.S. soldiers were fighting from cave to cave and pillbox and pillbox, in a battle as vicious and as savage as ever fought in the Pacific, front dispatches said.

Gains were limited to enlarge the Americans fought to enlarge their wedge in the enemy’s major defense line two miles above Machinato Airfield and four miles north of Naha.

United Press writer Edward Thomas reported from the front:

The troops are doing a lot of traveling on their bellies in slow advances. One general described “White Hill” as the strongest prepared position he ever had seen and said steel and concrete reinforcements made it similar to spots in the Siegfried Line.

The 184th Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division captured a triangular Jap point of resistance centered on a burial vault in fierce fighting, but lost it to a Jap counterattack. Reorganizing, the Americans attacked from two sides and recaptured the point, this time holding it.

Jap broadcasts estimated that more than 100 U.S. warships, including eight battleships, were shelling Okinawa.

Naha itself, the largest and most modern city in the Ryukyu Island chain, was gradually being flattened by the unprecedented bombardment.

Jap guns were also laying down a heavy barrage.

In northern Okinawa, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps sealed off Motobu Peninsula and occupied half of it in advances of 3,000 to 4,000 yards against scattered and ineffective enemy resistance yesterday.

Blast 7 Jap planes

The thrust to the north completed the occupation of 160 of Okinawa’s 485 square miles.

Ten Jap planes attacked the Okinawa area during last evening and seven were destroyed. Two U.S. planes were lost in a collision over the Jap-held portion of the island. Their pilot parachuted, but the Japs fired on them as they floated toward the ground and little hope was held for either.

The Japs attempted several suicide boat attacks on American shipping off Okinawa. One suicide boat blew up too soon and the two Jap crewmen were killed as they attempted to swim to shore. The others were driven off before they could do any damage.

47

Japs threaten big attacks

GUAM (UP) – Radio Tokyo said today that Japan was determined to send its “whole fleet and whole air force” into action to halt the American offensive in the Ryukyus.

What the broadcast failed to say, however, was that U.S. warships and planes have already destroyed or damaged more than 25 Jap warships and 2,000 aircraft sent against them in the past month.

48

Flier who bombed Yamato sees ship burn from sea

Lieutenant rescued after spending four hours on raft in midst of Jap task force
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer

ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP, Okinawa – A young Navy pilot parachuted from his burning plane into the middle of the doomed Jap task force off Kyushu Saturday. He watched from the water for four hours while the Japs tried futilely to save their 40,000-ton battleship Yamato.

The pilot, Lt. (j.g.) William Ernest Delaney of Detroit was rescued under the cover of smoke from the burning Yamato by a twin-engined Navy patrol bomber piloted by Lt. James R. Young of Central City, Kentucky, while a second bomber circled the area to divert any enemy fire.

Four hits on Yamato

Lt. Delaney told newsmen today that he scored four direct hits on the super-battleship with 500-pound bombs from 1,400 feet, but the resulting explosions set his dive bomber afire.

He said:

There was a loud explosion under the fuselage. Then the cockpit filled with smoke and fumes. One wing was on fire.

I was afraid the plane would explode and ordered my crew (runner and radioman) to jump. They bailed out five miles southwest of the Jap task force. I watched their parachutes open. Then I jumped.

Warships circle him

Lt. Delaney said he landed in the water in the middle of the enemy task force and inflated his life raft. Enemy warships circled him wildly. He stayed out of the raft most of the time so it would be more difficult for the Japanese to detect him.

Once a Jap destroyer approached within 400 yards of the raft, but pulled away when the crew apparently decided the raft was empty.

“At first, I was so cold and tired when the Jap ‘can’ approached, I thought of giving myself up,” Lt. Delaney said. “But I decided they might only shoot me, so I stayed behind the raft.”

Yamato dead in water

Lt. Delaney said the Yamato was dead in the water and never did change its position in relation to him, indicating that both he and the battleship were drifting in the same direction at the same time.

He said:

I saw planes of our second main wave attack the enemy force about 2 p.m. At least one more bomb hit was scored on the Yamato, because I saw a huge pillar of black smoke go up from her.

Over on the horizon, there was a terrific flash and explosion. I guess that was a Jap destroyer blowing up.

Lt. Delaney saw another destroyer approach close enough to throw a line to the Yamato, but it pulled away when the second wave of planes appeared.

Plane spots raft

One of the planes spotted Lt. Delaney’s raft and dropped dye to mark the position. Lt. Young and Lt. Richard L. Simms of Atlanta, Georgia, piloting another patrol plane, spotted the marker.

Lt. Simms said:

The Yamato was enveloped in clouds of black smoke. We flew over the area at 100 feet and saw hundreds of Jap survivors from the sunken ships clinging to bits of wreckage. They didn’t have boats or rafts.

Young went down to pick up Delaney while I circled the remaining Jap ships to keep their attention.

Lts. Simms and Young both returned to their base. The patrol planes sent out to relieve them could find no trace of the Yamato, which had sunk in the meantime. Two cruisers and three destroyers were also sunk in the air-naval battle and two more left burning.

It was Lts. Young and Simms who spotted the enemy task force early Saturday. Their radio message brought swarms of carrier planes.

49

U.S. Navy Department (April 11, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 329

No substantial changes were made in the lines on Okinawa on April 11 (East Longitude Date). In the south the enemy continued to resist attacks of the XXIV Army Corps with artillery, mortar and small arms fire. In the north, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps met some organized resistance on Motobu Peninsula but continued to advance northward on Ishikawa Isthmus.

Army troops of the XXIV Corps reduced enemy points of resistance on Tsugen Island off the east coast of Okinawa and occupied the island on April 11.

Direct support was provided for our forces by carrier aircraft, naval gunfire and Marine and Army artillery. Our forces in the Okinawa area were attacked sporadically by enemy aircraft, four of which were destroyed.

U.S. forces on Okinawa had lost 432 killed at the end of April 9. Our wounded for the same period were 2,103. A total of 180 were missing.

On the night of April 10, Army Black Widow night-fighters strafed and bombed targets on Haha Jima and Chichi Jima in the Bonins. On the same date, a Marine Mitchell of the Strategic Air Force attacked a large cargo ship north of the Bonins scoring rocket hits on it and leaving it dead in the water.

Planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked buildings and other installations on islands in the Palaus and on Yap in the Western Carolines on April 11.

50

The Pittsburgh Press (April 11, 1945)

Jap sub base seized on Okinawa

Yanks stalled in drive on island’s capital

GUAM (UP) – Bitter Jap resistance stalled the U.S. XXIV Army Corps’ push toward Naha in Southern Okinawa today.

But Marines in the north seized a submarine base in a mile-and-a-half advance.

Other Army troops unlocked the entrance to Nakagusuku Bay, one of the finest naval anchorages south of Japan, with an amphibious landing Tuesday on tiny Tsukata Island, about 10 miles off the southeast coast of Okinawa.

Capture sub pens

The invasion troops stormed quickly inland against only slight opposition. Moderate resistance in the form of small arms and mortar fire developed later, but officers expected the entire mile-long island would soon be in American hands.

Marines captured Jap submarine pens and other naval installations at Unten By on the north coast of Motobu Peninsula, which juts out of the west coast of Northern Okinawa, yesterday after beating off two small counterattacks the previous night.

Battle hard in south

Torpedoes and mines were seized at Unten Bay, but the enemy had evacuated all submarines and other craft. The base was known to have been a lair for midget submarines, though larger types may have also used it.

The Marines advanced their lines to Unten Bay in he northwest and the Manna River in the southeast. Tsuwa village was captured.

While resistance continued almost nonexistent in the north, troops of the XXIV Army Corps in the south were fighting a battle almost as bloody as Iwo in an effort to crack through the last four miles to Naha, capital of Okinawa.

Marine artillery was moved south to supplement Army guns in the heaviest artillery bombardment of the Pacific war. Naval guns ranging up to the 16-inch rifles of battleships offshore were also pounding away at the enemy defenses.

Japs hold ridges

The Japs were answering almost shot for shot and had the advantage of emplacements on two ridges from which they can observe every American move. In the face of this murderous crossfire, no American advances at all were reported in the past 24 hours.

The Japs were fighting from caves and underground pillboxes and blockhouses.

Several Jap counterattacks were thrown back yesterday.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced in a communiqué that Jap casualties for the first eight days of the invasion were 5,009 killed and 22 captured. By last Sunday, he said, 43,478 Jap civilians were being cared for by the Military Government.

51

The Pittsburgh Press (April 12, 1945)

Jap artillery slows Yanks on Okinawa

Drenching rains also handicap campaign

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In the Far Pacific today:
(1) Some 400 Superfortresses and escorting fighters pounded Tokyo and Koriyama. A German dispatch said carrier planes raided Formosa.\

(2) U.S. forces moving towards Naha, capital of Okinawa, were checked by Jap artillery and mortars.

(3) U.S. Marines made small gains on Ishikawa Peninsula of Okinawa.

GUAM (UP) – The stalemated battle on southern Okinawa went into the fourth day today with heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire still checking the American drive on the capital city of Naha.

A Domei dispatch reported that about 80 U.S. carrier planes raided northern Formosa for two hours today. Formosa lies off the southwestern tip of the Ryukyus, of which Okinawa is the principal island.

Front reports from Okinawa said the American drive was also hampered by drenching rains, which stalled motorized equipment and bogged down foot troops of the XXIV Army Corps.

Marines gain in north

Marines made some advances on Ishikawa Peninsula in the north.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, meanwhile, disclosed that Army troops completed the occupation yesterday of Tsugen Island, off the east coast of Okinawa and dominating Okinawa’s Nakagusuku Bay.

Yanks lose 432 killed

Adm. Nimitz also revealed that U.S. casualties in the first nine days of the campaign totaled 2,695, of which 432 were killed, 2,103 wounded and 160 missing. The count of Jap dead on Okinawa totaled 5,009 through Sunday.

U.S. carrier planes, naval gunfire and Marine and Army artillery were steadily supporting the ground forces on Okinawa, where front reports described the battle as approaching the level of the bloody Iwo campaign. U.S. troops were encountering heavily-mined roads and fields and hundreds of deep caves in ridges, which have to be cleared out one by one. Some of the caves are two stories deep.

52

U.S. Navy Department (April 12, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 330

The 6th Marine Division on Okinawa moved forward against sporadic resistance by the enemy on Motobu Peninsula on April 12 (East Longitude Date). On Ishikawa Isthmus, our troops continued to press northward over rugged terrain and extremely poor roads. The 1st Marine Division continued mopping up in its zone of action.

There was virtually no change in the lines in the Southern sector of Okinawa where the XXIV Army Corps, including elements of the 27th and 96th Divisions, continued to meet strong enemy resistance on April 12.

On April 12, large numbers of enemy aircraft made desperate suicidal attacks on our forces in the Okinawa Area. Early in the morning, seven enemy aircraft were shot down in the vicinity of the Hagushi beaches. During the afternoon, ships’ guns, carrier aircraft and shore-based anti-aircraft shot down 111 of the attackers. One of our destroyers was sunk during these attacks and several other surface units were damaged but remained in operation.

Installations on Chichi Jima and Haha Jima in the Bonins were bombed and strafed on the night of April 11-12 by Army Black Widow night-fighters.

Warehouse and other installations in the Palaus and facilities on the airfield on Yap in the Western Carolines were bombed by Hellcat and Corsair fighters and Avenger torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing on April 12.

Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force bombed installations on Truk in the Carolines on April 11.

Search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Four and Mitchells and Liberators of the 11th AAF on April 11, made rocket machine gun and bombing attacks on installations on Shumushu, Paramushiru, and the Torishima Group in the Northern Kurils. On April 11, further attacks were carried out by 11th AAF aircraft on the Kataoka Naval Base on Shumushu where Army planes damaged one of several enemy fighters which attacked them. FlAirWing Four Search planes made rocket and strafing attacks on installations at the mouth of the Hayake River on Paramushiru on April 11. Minami Cape on Shumushu and Masu Town on Paramushiru were bombed by Army Mitchells on the same date. All our aircraft returned safely.

53

U.S. Navy Department (April 13, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 331

During the early morning of April 13, the enemy in the southern sector of Okinawa counterattacked in battalion strength but was beaten back with numerous losses by the XXIV Army Corps, supported by naval gunfire and artillery. No substantial change was made in the lines in the South during the day.

On Motobu Peninsula in the North, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to engage groups of the enemy in sporadic fighting. III Corps troops on Ishikawa Isthmus continued to press northward against ineffective resistance.

Aircraft from fast carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet shot down over 100 enemy planes in the area of the Ryukyus on April 11-12, in addition to those reported destroyed in Communiqué No. 330. At Tokuno and Kikai Islands, eight more planes were destroyed on the ground and fuel dumps and warehouses were damaged or set afire.

On April 12, Shinchiku and Kiirun airfields on Formosa were attacked by Seafire and Hellcat fighters of the British Pacific Fleet. Sixteen enemy planes were shot out of the air, one was destroyed on the ground, and five were damaged.

On the following day, U.S. carrier aircraft shot one plane down and destroyed 12 others on the ground in the Northern Ryukyus. Attacking shipping end ground installations in and around the Ryukyus our planes destroyed 23 Barges and small craft, damaged airfields and set buildings afire.

During the period March 18 to April 12, inclusive, U.S. Fast Carrier Task Forces under command of VADM Marc A. Mitscher, USN, hot down 841 enemy planes in combat, destroyed 73 by gunfire and destroyed 363 on the ground.

Navy search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing One destroyed a large radio station on Gaja Island in the Northern Ryukyus and sank a picket ship and set second vessel afire north of the Bonins on April 13.

Army Black Widow night-fighters bombed and strafed harbor installations at Chichi Jima and Haha Jima in the Bonins on the night of April 12-13.

On April 12, a single Navy Search Privateer of FlAirWing Two combed installations on Wake Island.

Marine Corsairs and Hellcats of the 4th Aircraft Wing bombed warehouses and buildings in the Palaus and on Yap in the Western Carolines on April 13.

Marine fighters and bombers continued neutralizing raids on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls on April 12.

54

CINCPOA Press Release No. 72

For Immediate Release
April 13, 1945

The Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, has authorized the following statement:

For some months the Japanese have been employing aircraft on a gradually increasing scale in suicidal attacks upon our forces in the Western Pacific. These aircraft were initially piloted by a group of pilots who were known as the “Kamikaze Corps” by the Japanese. The enemy has made much in his propaganda of this “sure death-sure hit” suicide technique which is simply an attempt to crash planes on the decks of our ships.

The enemy has expended a large number of planes and personnel on missions of this nature with negligible effect on the continuing success of our operations. Some major units of the fleet have been damaged, but no battleship, fast carrier or cruiser has been sunk. Some smaller ships have been sunk, but in the great majority of cases they have remained in operation after being struck by one of these suicide planes. This reflects considerable credit on our officers and men and also on the designers and builders of our ships.

Effective methods of meeting and destroying suicidal attacks have been developed and will continue to be employed to increase the toll of Japanese aircraft shot down by our aircraft and by our anti-aircraft guns.

The “suicide attack” and the so‑called “Kamikaze Corps” are the products of an enemy trapped in an increasingly desperate situation. Pushed back upon their own inner defenses, the Japanese have resorted to fanatical methods which, from a purely military viewpoint, are of doubtful value.

The “Kamikaze Corps” is apparently being used not only to attempt to damage our ships but also to stir the lagging spirits of the Japanese people. Although these “sure death-sure hit” pilots are reported to be volunteers, many have very willingly become survivors of “suicide” missions and are now prisoners of war.

The enemy claims for the accomplishments of “suicide swimmers, human torpedoes and suicide speedboats” hardly need comment. In the majority of such attacks up to this date these personnel have failed completely in their missions but have been successful in committing suicide.

The “suicide” technique is continuing at the present time. Although it is always considered and prepared for as a factor in estimating the enemy’s capabilities it cannot prevent our continuing success in the war in the Pacific.

55

The Pittsburgh Press (April 13, 1945)

Very heavy raid made on Tokyo

BULLETIN

WASHINGTON (UP) – A fleet of Superfortresses “in very great strength” dropped incendiary bombs upon military and industrial targets in Tokyo today, the War Department announced.

GUAM (UP) – The Japs were revealed today to have Jost 118 planes in two desperate suicidal attacks against U.S. forces in the Okinawa area yesterday.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed that one U.S. destroyer was sunk in the action and several other ships damaged, although the latter continued in operation.

A Tokyo broadcast admitted the loss of only two Jap planes and claimed that the suicide forces had sunk or damaged 11 American vessels in the raids yesterday.

Tokyo said the attacks were directed against eight separate groups of U.S. warships stretched 100 miles off the eastern coast of Okinawa. The enemy report claimed the entire American naval force included at least eight aircraft carriers and seven battleships.

On Okinawa, the stalemated ground campaign north of the capital of Naha went into its fifth day today. Adm. Nimitz disclosed the identity of four more divisions fighting on Okinawa, making a total of five known to be taking part in the campaign. They were the 27th and 96th Infantry Divisions and the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions.

56

U.S. Navy Department (April 14, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 332

Elements of the Marine III Amphibious Corps on Okinawa Island on April 14 advanced northward to the vicinity of Momubaru Town on the west coast and Arakawa Town on the east coast. Resistance was negligible. The Marines on Motobu Peninsula are now in possession of most of that area and are attacking small concentrations of enemy troops which continue to resist.

In the southern sector during the early morning hours of April 14, the enemy mounted a small counterattack which was immediately beaten off by troops of the 96th Infantry Division. Enemy positions were brought under fire of field artillery, ships’ guns, and carrier and land-based aircraft.

A few enemy aircraft appeared in the area off Okinawa during the day and nine were shot down by our combat air patrols.

Aircraft from carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet bombed airfields on Ishigaki and Miyako Islands in the Sakishima group on April 14, destroying seven aircraft on the ground and damaging twenty-five more.

Without opposition, carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet struck airfields and installations at Matsuyama and Shinchiku on Formosa on April 13. A number of aircraft were damaged on the ground and hangars, barracks, buildings, a railway bridge, a train and other targets were heavily hit. Several small groups of enemy planes attempted to attack surface units of the British force and three of these were shot down. The task force suffered no damage.

Fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed enemy islands in the Palaus on April 14.

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The Pittsburgh Press (April 14, 1945)

Jap counterattack fails on Okinawa

U.S. troops resume slow advance

GUAM (UP) – Troops of three Army divisions battled slowly through Southern Okinawa today after turning back a strong Jap counterattack along the Naha defense lines.

The attack was made by between 500 and 750 Japs and a large proportion of them were killed in the futile attempt to check the American drive.

Although ground artillery and heavy naval guns continued an intense pounding of the enemy positions, the troops were unable to make any substantial gains and their advances were measured in yards.

Marines gain

Marines in Northern Okinawa, however, were moving ahead on Motobu Peninsula and Ishikawa Isthmus against ineffective resistance.

A Jap communiqué claimed that suicide planes were still attacking U.S. warships around Okinawa and that an additional 12 vessels were sunk or damaged.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed that Vice Adm. Marc A. Mitscher’s fast carrier force had destroyed 1,200 Jap planes in less than four weeks.

In the last three days alone, more than 228 planes were destroyed throughout the Ryukyu chain, of which Okinawa is the principal island.

Blast Formosa

Disclosure of these results indicated that some 2,000 Jap planes had been destroyed or damaged since March 18. The others were accounted for by British carriers, land-based Army, Navy and Marine planes and Superfortresses.

The British task force destroyed 17 enemy planes and damaged five in an attack on airdromes on Formosa Thursday. Tokyo reported that about 70 carrier planes raided Formosa again yesterday for the second straight day.

U.S. carrier planes destroyed 13 other Jap aircraft in the Northern Ryukyus yesterday and in addition sank 23 barges and small craft.

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Misleading sign leads to rumor Dempsey dead

NEW YORK (UP) – A sign in the Broadway restaurant bearing his name apparently led to the circulation of rumors late yesterday that Lt. Cmdr. Jack Dempsey of the Coast Guard had been killed on Okinawa.

The sign said: “Closed on account of the death of our beloved President. – Jack Dempsey.”

Some persons apparently took that to mean that Dempsey had died.

Dempsey, former heavyweight boxing champion, recently left his Coast Guard base here for a tour of the Pacific and was last reported at Okinawa, where he witnessed the invasion of that island off Japan.

A couple dozen telephone calls were received at The Press yesterday asking about the “death” of Dempsey, so the rumor apparently spread throughout the country in a short time.

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U.S. Navy Department (April 15, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 333

Three enemy counterattacks in the southern sector of Okinawa were broken up by Marine and Army artillery on the night of April 14-15 (East Longitude Date). At noon on April 15, the XXIV Army Corps lines were unchanged.

In the north, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to mop up small units of the enemy. In the Western area of Motobu Peninsula one isolated group of the enemy was offering stiff resistance.

Ground forces continued to receive effective support from naval guns, carrier and land-based aircraft, and field artillery.

Keufu Island in the Kerama Group was occupied by our troops on April 14.

Privateers of Fleet Air Wing One damaged a small cargo ship near Tanega Island in the northern Ryukyus and bombed and strafed buildings and radio towers on the Island on April 15.

A Marine Mitchell scored rocket hits on a small ship in the area of the Bonins on the night of April 14-15. On the same date, Army night fighters attacked targets on Haha Jima, Chichi Jima and Muko Jima in the Bonins.

Corsair and Hellcat fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing damaged bridge and pier installations in the Palaus on April 15.