Arkansas (BB 33) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 21 text:

FIVE INCH GUNS BLAST BEACH Smoke and flame roll skyward as the secondary battery works over pin-point targets to demolish Jap guns and demoralize enemy troops. Transports in the background are ready to send Marines ashore when the bombardment is completed.

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ARKY BATTERIES DESTROY GUN EMPLACEMENTS The crew of the Arky had a grandstand seat when we moved in to within 1700 yards of the western beach of Iwo Jima. White bursts, similar to the one seen in the foreground, were a familiar sight. The minesweeper at the right was one of many which cleared the water for landing forces.

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KAMIKAZES!! Jap suicide planes, the Kamikazes, the Divine Wind boys were the most dangerous weapons the Japs had during the last months of the war. The Arky ' s real taste of their power came on April 12, 1945, the heaviest Jap air raid of the war, when hundreds of Jap suicide planes came in to break up the naval assault forces that were battering Okinawa defenses from the sea. M i THE SKIES DARKEN WITH SMOKE FROM AA FIRE, AS THE KAMIKAZE (CIRCLE) GLIDES INTO THE SEA