Menifee (APA 202) - Naval Cruise Book

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'J' HE lNVA5l0N OF QKJNAWA One General Quarters after another, continual noise, incredibly detailed planning, fatigue, and each man's pri- vate reactions-these perhaps are out- standing recollections of the invasion' of Okinawa by the men who served aboard the Menifee last March and Hpril. The Menifee was part of a transport squadron Ctwelvel carrying the 6th Ma- rine Division, and stood off the beaches of western Okinawa frorn l to 5 Plpril. F or the most part, the crew of the Meni- fee were spectators of the fireworks and active participants in the backbreaking work that is the biggest part of warfare. The Okinawa campaign was the big- gest of the Pacific war. Ships involved staged from the West Coast and all over the Pacific. The Menifee, as part of the Northern Httack Force carrying two Ma- rine divisions, loaded cargo and em- barked troops in Guadalcanal the first part of March. For rehearsal, her boats landed troops ashore, following the ac- tual plan of invasion. Gun crews were -drilled daily at tracking, and a small amount of cargo wap handled. On 1-5 March this force was underway for Ulithi, the final jumping off place. Hll hands were told the objective. Ten- sion. Ulithi lagoon held an armada of ships. Menifee sailors making a liberty on Mog-Mog saw hundreds of ships wait- ing for the word to sail. They saw too the battered carrier Franklin, almost sunk off Kyushu, on her way home. Hpproach to Okinawa was unevent- ful, In the early hours of Easter Sunday, Iapanese planes attempted a raid in the Menifee's vicinity. G. O. was sound- ed, and from then until the Menifee left for Saipan her crew rarely rested. Pre-H-hour bombardrnents and anti- aircraft fire was rumbling continually as our transport group entered its assigned area. Shore batteries put a few rounds into the area with -io hits. Qt 0900 our Marine troops started debarking. Word from the beach was that opposition was nil. Weather was ideal and the enorm- ous amount of planning done was pay- ing off in smooth operation. When Transport Squadron l2 got un- derway for night retirement, Menifee sailors looked back at a day's work that Z4 f ,,, 'tv.,1Kn,4'-rf,-W fr. .f f4 f X 7,7 '7.Xf,.lxm .-f,,,,. , -. J f T .1.,t,-igffw A ' ff W .,.t , Tr' QTWQ 'M f-MTM , kg: .T -w--,, ,....-1 V, 1- T- 4- mf if-1 .gms mf ff Adv . ' V Qi' ' K X-,... H ' 42 had gone as smoothly as any drill. That night General Quarters was sounded five times, with all hands constantly underway from sacks to battle stations and back. The first and last hostile shots of the war from Menifee guns were fired next morning. No hits were scored, but the plane under fire went down shortly afterwards. Hnd so for three more days and nights the work of getting ashore l5OO troops and tons of cargo continued. Highlight of the operation for the mighty M came the morning of 3 Qpril when during Dawn Hlert a Hamp, lap fighter plane, roared in on the port beam, did a wing- over, and scored a clean miss on the bridge, going into the sea off our star- board quarter. The role of the Menifee Boat Group in the operation is described by one of its officers, Lt. Brunner: F or the men and officers of the Boat Group the invasion of Okinawa was the climax to months of training and wait- ing. This was the day we hit the beach, L-Day, Easter Sunday, l945. Pill hands were thoroughly briefed for the ship-to-shore evolution. The shoreline characteristics of Green Beach 2 were explained to every man. Essen- tial to the success of the whole operation was the ability of boat coxswains to find a way over a dangerous coral reef to the designated beachhead with their loads of precious troops and cargo. -4 Y ., A.