Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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PART V OKINAWA GUXTO Okinawa was next in our plan. As we lunged forward to Japan. It was a long and bloody campaign, O ' er rough and well defended terrain, But when the firing did finally subside. Victory, again, ivas on our side. Wednesday, 21 March 1945: 04-08 Anchored as before. 0639 Underway from Berth 27-28, Ulithi Atoll, on various courses and speeds conforming to the channel. That night, the Old Man pulled THAT CHAIR up to the fireside, broke out his mike, and told us all about the coming operation. He told us that this particular operation was to be more of a campaign than a battle, because it would last a long time, and would involve the occupying of several smaller Jimas, .Shimas and Rettos before and after the actual invasion of Okinawa Shima, our major objective in the battle of Okinawa Gunto. He told us by name the many large naval vessels that would be in- volved in the operation, and it sounded like a roll call of every capital ship in the Fleet. It seemed, also, that there was to be a tremendous number of destroyers, destroyer escorts, mine- sweepers, transports and supply ships. In fact, it sounded like the entire Pacific Fleet was being thrown into the operation to guarantee its success. The Captain went on to say, also. Some of the Jap hulks that littered the Okinawa beaches on •Love ' — 3, as pre-invasion strikes took toll of enemy shipping. 89

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Landing crafi irbi(ini, ' Iransporls otF Okinawa on L l a ' . that it would be the longest operation of its kind in Naval history. Having gotten the word from the Claptain, we crawled in our bunks that night, knowing full well that we would in all probability ha e some tough going ahead of us. The Captain had already told us that L •Day (Love Day — the Okinawa invasion day) was to be i April, Easter .Sunday, and. as usual, the carrier and battle forces arrived ofi Oki- nawa Gunto .several days ahead. We immedi- ately began our softening up attack on Oki- nawa .Shima. Kcrama Retto and other islands scheduled for invasion. Kcrama Retto is a small group of islands just southwest of Okinawa .Shima, and our forces took the Retto a couple of days before L Day, without too much opposition. .Since Easter .Sunday marked the invasion of Okinawa .Shima, we would be occupied with our attack, and would, therefore, be unable to have our usual Easter Divine .Services. Con- sequently, the Captain had the Chaplain read the Easter .Story and say appropriate prayers over die general announcing system on Easter Eve. The next day, however, we did Wel- come Happy Morning in our own hearts, be- cause, after all, we were giving everything we had toward trying to make this a better world in which to live; a world which would truly be governed by the Golden Rule. The in asion on Easter Morn was a com- bined Army and Marine operation, and our forces went ashore without too much opposi- tion and with small casualties. They were destined, howex er, to mo ' e slowly, because the Japs had dug in, and were defending this sixty mile long island of Okinawa .Shima from ;ncs, large concrelc pill boxes, block Ixiiises and burial aulls. and otherwise availing them- selves ( the natural to|)ogra[)hy of the island, which lent itself well lo defensive ofx-rations. Apparently, th - Japs had long since realized that th -y could nrjt present our forces from landing on their islands, and they had adopted the strategy of lighting a delaying action, ir ing to make our conciuest as costly as possible after (he landings had been made, Ix-cause here, as at Iwo Jima, they seemed determined to fight to the last man. Our forces moved ahead according to plan, however, and had complete- ly occupied the main air strip, ' S ' on Tan, a couple of days after L Day, and, within a week, our Army, a ' y and Marine pilots were using the air strip. The island was virtually ours after the tenth day of operations; however, as in all similar invasions, despite tremendous losses intlicted on the enemy, it developed into a .systematic extermination of the fiendish fanatics otherwise known as Japanese. Another Jap Fl.jig For Our Sqi adron On Love Day, our .Squadron contributed another Jap flag to the decoration of our bridge when Ensign Houk and Lt. (jg) Couch jointly splashed a Jap Tony over Okinawa Shima Landing craft ering off Okinawa beaches on ' Love ' Day ' C 85 fighter overhead.