The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-28
Yonks Invade keromo Isles
(NEA Telephoto)
(Continued from Page D


 A delayed dispatch from United Press War Correspondent Lloyd Tupling aboard Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitschers flagship off Ikinawa said battleships, cruisers and de- stroyers pounded the main Island of the Ryukus group with more than 1000 tons of explosives Sat- urday.
 Surface forces attached to Mitsch- CTS famed carriers paraded for four hours along 10-mile stretch of the southeastern coast of Okinawa, Tup- ling siad
 The big guns of the battleships, cruisers and destroyers blasted at Japanese gun supplements, pill- boxes and other shore installations.
 Headquarters also announced that Navy search planes, presumably based on Two, damaged three small cargo ships around Hachijo Island, 150 miles south of Tokyo, Monday. It was the deepest penetration of Japanese waters yet by land- based planes other than Superfortresses.
 Radio Tokyo said 60 to 70 Super fortresses followed up yesterdays daylight raid on Kyushu. southern most Of the Japanese home islands, with second attack lasting from l0:30 p. m. to last midnight.
 Residential sections around Ko- kura and Moji, important industrial towns on the northern tip of Kyu- shu, were damaged, Tokyo said but important war plants and other fa- cilities were unharmed. Miyazaki, on the southeast coast, and Kuma- moto, on the west coast, also were said to have been hit.
 The Tokyo home radio said Amer ican achievements landed on Aka. i'll the Kerama group p miles west of southwest Okinawa, Monday morning-some 24 hours after the original force of 1000 American troops went ashore on that and neighboring islands.
 The broadcast said American units which landed on Tokashika, three miles east of Aka, had been "suc- ceSsfully repulsed," but did not claim that their bridgehead had been wiped out.
 Savage battles are raging at the present time in the Kerama group" Tokyo said.
 The Tokyo Domei Agency, in a dispatch directed to occupied Asia, sought to paint a brighter picture and said 'only a few units of Americans had landed with active fighting" still not under way.
 Japanese broadcasts did not specify on what other islands the Americans had landed, but listed six more islands as part of the Kerama group.
 The enemy said the number of American ships in the waters of the Tryuku chain, stretches from south- ern Japan to Formosa, was in- creasing gradually.
 'These ships are formed into four or five groups" Tokyo said. "They are cruising about, centering about the Kerama Islands, while at the same time giving support with naval gun barrages.
 lt appears that the enemy Is definitely intent upon effecting land ing on the main island of Okinawa. !"
 Landing operations in the Ryuk- yus also represent prelude to a serious enemy attempt at direct in- vasion of the Japanese mainland.' Tokyo said.
 Another Japanese broadcast re- ported that some units of the Ameri- can task force bombarded Kume Island, 20 miles west of the Ker- amas. and Minami Daito Island, 200 miles east of Okinawa, yesterday.
 Tokyo claimed that q American warshdpS had been sunk or dam- aged in the Ryukyus in addition to the 10 reported hit in Japanese communique yesterday.