The Pittsburgh Press (April 12, 1945)
Jap artillery slows Yanks on Okinawa
Drenching rains also handicap campaign
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.