Okinawa

[Subdeacon Joe]

Nasty business.

 

 

#OTD in 1945, Operation Iceberg, the land invasion of the Battle of Okinawa, begins. This would be the largest amphibious landing of the war in the Pacific and involve three Marine divisions, four Army divisions, and the U.S. Navy. After 82 days of fighting – on land, sea, and in the air – the battle ended and Marine LtGen Roy S. Geiger declared the island secure.

The Battle of Okinawa, considered one of the bloodiest battles of the war in the Pacific, was also a model for succeeding generations of military professionals of inter-service cooperation.

To learn more, visit the World War II Gallery at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

#USMC #Museum #History #USMCMuseum #Marines #SemperFi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-battle-of-okinawa

 

https://the-past.com/feature/the-fighting-forces-of-okinawa/

 

 

 

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

OohRah! 

[Blackwater 53393]

My uncle Billy was killed at Okinawa on April 6th, 1945!

 

WT3 USN

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

My first assignment after graduating for Officers' Training was with the 30 Artillery Brigade Missile Support Company at Machinato, Okinawa.  Our facility was on the north eastern rim of what was known as Item Pocket.  It was a crater-like hole straight down into the top of a cliff some 100 feet high and three hundred yards across, and the inner side of the crater was opened with hundreds of caves.....all interlocked and cross firing to the upper rim from every imaginable angle.  A very hard won target.

 

Lots of live ammo and other "souvenires" (sp?) that caused us a lot of concern and grief well into 1966 - 1968.

[watab kid]

every island we took in the pacific campaign was hard fought , we hear mostly of the european campaign in general , at least when i was growing up - but my father fought in the pacific so i heard more of that , the strategy was far more clear to those looking from the outside and in hindsight , it was a path to japan , we needed bases that would support the new aircraft and we needed to eliminate the threats to those bases , mitchell showed what could be done - we just needed to do it efficiently with full force ..............and we did , by both bringing the forces to take the islands then the force to carve out the airstrip s , then the aircraft that could deliver and protect , 

 

as well as a plan B , that prevented us needing to invade on the ground like we did in europe , we saved a lot of american lives and japanese lives , 

 

to bring this to present day , i guess that proves we dont need to worry of "tipping the island over" as that senator suggested when we thought to expand our military base presence on the island a while back , 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

10 hours ago, watab kid said:

every island we took in the pacific campaign was hard fought , we hear mostly of the european campaign in general , at least when i was growing up - but my father fought in the pacific so i heard more of that , the strategy was far more clear to those looking from the outside and in hindsight , it was a path to japan , we needed bases that would support the new aircraft and we needed to eliminate the threats to those bases , mitchell showed what could be done - we just needed to do it efficiently with full force ..............and we did , by both bringing the forces to take the islands then the force to carve out the airstrip s , then the aircraft that could deliver and protect , 

 

as well as a plan B , that prevented us needing to invade on the ground like we did in europe , we saved a lot of american lives and japanese lives , 

 

to bring this to present day , i guess that proves we dont need to worry of "tipping the island over" as that senator suggested when we thought to expand our military base presence on the island a while back , 

I thought it was Guam that were were going to tip over.  How do these idiots get elected in the first place?  Sure are a lot of them.

[Bailey Creek,5759]

Spent a tear there. USMC.

[Texas Lizard]

1 hour ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I thought it was Guam that were were going to tip over.  How do these idiots get elected in the first place?  Sure are a lot of them.

To many.....

 

Texas Lizard

[watab kid]

10 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I thought it was Guam that were were going to tip over.  How do these idiots get elected in the first place?  Sure are a lot of them.

you may be right - ive been wrong so many times i cant remember them all , but yes , the idea that an elected official would be so stupid as to say such a thing out loud on national media - and stay elected , but yes , there are a lot of them , once elected apparently protected ? 

[Buckshot Bear]

They learnt from Okinawa that landing on Japan proper was going to be bloodbath, thankfully the 'Bomb' was developed that precluded a Japanese homeland invasion. 

[watab kid]

i agree , my father was on saipan when the bombs left tinnian , he always said that was the date that took the inversion off the agenda , it stopped the worst nightmare america might have ever lived - not because we wouldn't have won , but the cost of lives doing it on both sides , 

 

today i reflect on his service , then growing up having an adopted japanese aunt that took care of me as a child , because one of his friends brought home a "war bride" after occupation , now being married to a woman that was a navy brat raised in japan till high school , things might have been so very much different had we not dropped those bombs 

 

came back to add -  it also opened the eyes of the world as to what this actually was and meant , i think its why we have not seen another in anger so far , today that all might change tho , i have fear that we shall see it again before im gone