The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-27

! aHsH AAA' kahaN AANAa RA hAAA NAHa-
 nOse Islands on an cver-increaSing
 scale. Chief targets were aircraft
 plants. Docks and small manu-
 featuring plants received their
 share Of the punishment.
 On 10 February the V Marine
 Corps supported by Admiral R. A.
 Spruances Filth Fleet landed
 along the south coast of Two Jima, 775 miles from the main Japanese
 Island of Honshu. The fighting
 was exceptionally heavy and 1t
 vas a month before organized re-
 Sistance terminated. The Japan
 csc defense grew more desperate
 as our advance moved toward the
 shores of their homeland.
 Two Jima was of vital import
 ancc to the air assault on Japan
 Japanese interceptors which came | up to meet the B-29 strike on
 Tokyo on 2 April l945 found a strong Mustang escort with our
 bombers The Two fields saved hundreds of battle-damaged B. 29s unable to make the full re-
 turn flight to their bases in tine MarianaS, 800 miles further to the south.
 Meanwhile Philippine-based air craft were establishing command over Formosa and the China Coast and our naval carrier planes as well as the Superforts delivered strikes at the very heart Of Japan. It was now possible to drive forward into the Ryukyus along the main Japanese archi- pelago bordering the East China Sea.
 Tine offensive on the RykuyEs was launched on 26 March when the 77th Division of It. Gen. Si- mon B. Buckner'S Tenth Army landed on Kerama Retto west of Okinawa. In three days the force mad secured all islands in the Kerama chain and had emplaced artillery within range of the key island, Okinawa.
 Okinawa
 Under cover of an intense naval bombardement, the XXIV Army Corps and the III Marine Corps established beachheadS on the west coast of long narrow Oki- naWa on 1 April. Aided by realistic feint towards the thickly populated southern tip of the is- land, our forces met little resist ance in the landing and in con- solidating position ashore. After driving across the island, the Ma rines swung northward against | light to moderate opposition; the Army corps turned south toward | Naha, principal city of the island, where it was confronted by the main Japanese force elaborate.y | 
 By the end of the first week, four United States divisions were ashore and Marine fighters were from the Yontan air field. The III Marine Corps had driven 20 miles northward.
 General Hodge, commander of ,ne XXIV Army Corps wrote:
 Tt is going to be really tough There are 65.000 to 10000 fighting laps holed up in the south end of ,i1e island, and I see no way to get them out except blast them out iard by yard. Our attack is set to 70 soon and I think we are ready.
 "The Japs have tremendous of artillery and have lsed 1t far more intelligently than
 have ever seen them use it to late. With best estimate, it hows around 500 or more indi- 'idual weapons of 75-mm or bet CT, including some 16Q-175 of aliber 1O5 or better The most powerful weapon of long-range we lave encountered to date is the 50 rifle with range of 27,000 ards which fires occasionally Ipon the two airfields from the lcinity of Shuri. They are using uite a few of the Spigot mortars 320-mm). 250 nm mortars, and erial bombs up to 250 kilograms ,sing large sized rockets some ,here in the B., G. to 8-inch class.
 "The terrain is decidedly rug cd and cut up with many cliffs, atural and man-made, limestone nd coral caves, and organized yer long periods of time, and 
 After mopping up all of the or vhern part of the island. the Iarines took over sector in the )uth to throw their weight into ie drive for Mana. Progress con- nued slow against the bitterest 2rt of opposition but by the mid le of June, our troops had broken trough the heavily fortified Ma a and Shuri defense lines and ad compressed the Japanese Into yo pockets on southern Okinawa.
 KamikaZe Attacks
 The ferocity of the ground fight lg was matched by frequent Jap nese air assaults on our shipping l the Okinawa area. By the mid- e of June, B U. s. ships had zen sunk and 45 damaged prin- pally by aerial attacks. In the campaign U. s. forces rst met the full fury of the kami- ,ze or suicide attacks, but at kinawa the Japanese procedure as better organized and involved rger numbers of planes; also the aka plane appeared, something lite new and deadly. The mall, lort range, rocket-acclerattd rcraft, carried more than a n of explosives in its war head.
 was designed to be carried to e atatck, slung beneath a medi- n bomber, then directed in a dive to the target
 it's suicide pilot. It was in feet, a piloted version of the erlnan V-1.
 By mid-June, the Japanese had st twenty per cent of their total mbat aircraft strength in the tile for Okinawa; in all, 3,4OO