Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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and thus sent another Son of Nippon on his wav to visit his ancestors. This was just a part of the outstanding work of our Squadron as they supported the slow, but steady advance of our forces on the island. Ker.am.a Retto Monday, 2 April 1945: 08- 1 2 Steaming as before. 0803 on various courses and speeds conforming to channel into Kerama Retto anchorage. 0810 Anchored in Berth K-gg in 2g fathoms of water with 75 fathoms of chain out to the port anchor. 0815 Set Condition Baker. 0833 Unidentified air- craft reported bearing i62°T, distance 15 miles. 0837 Set Condition of Readiness III. 0840 Two enemy aircraft reported south of anchorage. Ship went to General Quarters. 0856 One Japanese aircraft, type ' Tony, ' shot down by this ship; crashed 1250 yards astern on port side of LST 735. ogi2 Secured from General Quarters. Set Condition of Readi- ness III, Material Condition Baker. og2 7 Went to General Quarters. Unidentified air- craft reported bearing ooo°T, distance 8 miles. 1028 Secured from General Quarters except for AA Batteries. Set Condition of Readiness III, Material Condition Baker. Another J. p Fl.ag Our greatest excitement of the Okinawa Gunto operations, and our most trying day, was on Easter Monday, 2 April. Early that morning we anchored in Kerama Retto an- chorage, which, just a few days previous, had been occupied by vessels of the Imperial Japan- ese Fleet, or, rather, what was left of their Fleet. We had just turned to on the business of our visit, and were riding peacefully at an- chor, when that gong began to ring, and we went quickly to General Quarters. At 0852 Jap plane crashes 50 ft. from LST 735, 1,250 yards astern of us, after being shot down by our A. batteries at Ke

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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.

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iwo |a|j planes were si litcd llyinj liit(li (jvr-r- li a(i. l)arcly within sii lu, and, as we wal( li -d, one of them Ijcgan a steep dive at us from about - )oo feet, Init his aim was ptjor. He passed overhead through the lire of our guns and pulled up al about 1800 feet, evidently realizing he was going to miss us. He turned from port to starboard, gaining altitude all the while. When he returned to our starlxjard side he presented a better target for our guns, and, as he apparently Ix-gan a dive on the U..S.S. Saginaiv Bay (CIV ' E 82), anchored on our starboard quarter, we hit him fatally and he crashed, out of control, alxjut jo feet from the L.ST 735, which was anclujred i2-,o yards astern of us. We can only imagine how the ( n-u of that L.ST felt after their narrow escape. Where the other Jap went, we don ' t know, but we do know that there was another Jap (lag painted on our bridge that morning. Bogies were reported around all during the day. Con.sequcntly, wc remained at Gen- eral Quarters, insofar as the anti-aircraft bat- teries were concerned, for the remainder of our stay at Kerama Retto. While no more Ban- dits came at us during the rest of our stay, the