Implacable Foes by Waldo Heinrichs & Marc Gallicchio

Author:Waldo Heinrichs & Marc Gallicchio [Heinrichs, Waldo & Gallicchio, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780190616779
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

9

Okinawa, April–June 1945

Battling for Iwo Jima initiated the campaign to establish American forces within striking distance of Japan itself, and for that, despite its size, it had been perceived as critically important. But Okinawa was seen as the centerpiece of the campaign northward. It was, as noted, a far larger island than Iwo Jima, a long and raggedly thin island, sixty-five miles by two to ten miles across, stretching from northeast to southwest, with several peninsulas projecting farther. Okinawa stood at the very middle of the Ryukyu Islands, an arc stretching from Japan itself to Formosa, defining the East China Sea.

The importance of Okinawa seemed self-evident to the American military command. It was exactly what they wanted. It was 340 miles from the Japanese home island of Kyushu and about the same distance on the other side from Formosa and the China coast. Possession would open the way for tightening the blockade of Japanese shipping from the south and provide bases for air support of the invasion of Kyushu. Two bays sheltered by islands on the eastern side of Okinawa could provide anchorage. Fifteen miles west of Okinawa, a cluster of islands, the Kerama Retto, formed an excellent roadstead, with anchorage for transferring cargo and temporary ship repair. Okinawa itself, large enough for staging troops, already had five airfields and airstrips, and nearby in the north the small island of Ie Shima also boasted an airstrip.

By the middle of March most of the American Navy, from the Atlantic, the West Coast, Alaska, the South Pacific, the Marianas, and the Philippines was headed toward or moving into the northwest Pacific, in the area known as the Philippine Sea. Ulithi lagoon, four days sailing southeast from Okinawa, was harboring as many as 600 ships. Vice Admiral Mitscher’s battle array now consisted of eleven fast carriers, all of which, except the Enterprise, were finished after 1941, and eight fast battleships, all also completed after 1941. Furthermore, three heavy cruisers and two of the new “large cruisers”—as Samuel Eliot Morison noted—“large as battleships and lean as cruisers,” had joined the attack force. At last the prewar battleships, ten of them, featuring smaller guns than the newer ships, were able to gather in one place for gunfire duty in the land battle, joined by nine heavy cruisers. Supplementing these American forces would be a new British Pacific Fleet, consisting of two battleships, four aircraft carriers, cruiser squadron, destroyer screen, and fleet train, based on the harbor at Manus in the Admiralties. Servicing the whole armada were oilers, ammunition ships, mine-craft, dry food provision ships, refrigerated (reefer) ships, and many other needs. The Philippine Sea, thus far Japanese waters, was now dotted with ships—from twos and threes to fleets—crisscrossing it between Okinawa, Leyte, Ulithi, Guam, and (now) Iwo Jima. The fast carrier force was a bit faster than it had been: when it withdrew east of Okinawa to refuel, each ship could take on its ammunition supply while waiting its turn for oil.

The first landing in

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