God bless my Father's generation...
As we goof around on April Fool's Day, we should keep in our prayers and memories the many Americans (mostly young men and teens) who fought and sacrificed during this same time 77 years ago today in the Battle of Okinawa. It was the bloodiest battle and the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet under Admiral Raymond Spruance attacked the Japanese-held island. They were joined by a British, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian naval task force and more than 180,000 Army soldiers and Marines. This was the final push toward invading mainland Japan and putting an end to the war.
Military planners considered the capture of Okinawa and its airfields to be a crucial and necessary precondition for the invasion of the Japanese mainland.
Were the U.S. to invade Japan, estimates of potential American casualties were upward of 1.7 to 4 million, with between 400,000 and 800,000 deaths. The Battle of Okinawa only served to raise those estimates, as had the recent brutal battle for Iwo Jima, where U.S. casualties numbered 26,000 over five weeks of fighting. Only a few hundred Japanese had been captured out of the 21,000 troops who fought to the death.
God Bless my Father's Generation and all who've served.
Thanks, Uncle Jack. USMC, survived the invasions of Peleliu and Okinawa, went on to have a long career with IBM.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad was at Leyte...
DeleteMy dad was killed while fighting with Patton on 11/27/44. I was born 77 years ago on 4/18/45.
ReplyDeleteKinda sad you never got to meet him...
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