Evening star., 1946-01-10
Inquiry Into Bottle :
. OfOkinuwo Proposed
Writer Cites Dispatch Putting
Total Casualties at 79,507
BY Dapid Laurence

BY Dapid Laurence
The story Of what happened at Oki-
nawa, where the most decisive battle
OF the Pacific war was fought, comes
out piece by piece. After = long silence
and a peculiar bit of suppression by
ofiicialdom, the New York Times an.
nounces in Washington dispatch that
our total casualties at Okinawa were
79,507 instead Of 1923. Is reported st
Guam when organized resistance was
declared broken on June ii last.
"Front-line correspondents" says the
Times dispatch, reporting the battle
OF Okinawa were aware Of the large
number Of nonbattle casualties suf-
fered in the lighting for that island,
but their efforts to report them to the
public when the island was in the news
were prevented by Admiral Nimitizs
censors. Navy-controlled censorship
limited reporters to the total casualties
reported In the sdmirals communicates.
Although the nonbattle casualty figures
were made available to reporters by
10th Army headquarters on . day-to-
day basis, the fact that they were
officially supplied Army figures was not
sufficient to bring about clearance for
publication by the Nays censors.
THE new total includes 81 ,342 Army
1888 Marine and s,721 Navy battle
casualties. Nonbattle casualties were
2l ,5s2 for the Army and 10,Ss1 for the
Marine Corps.
"Costliest Single Engagement"
"On the basis of these figures 1t nov
Is clear that the battle for Okinaws
was the toughest, costliest single en-
gagement of our offensive in the
Pacific"
The Navy has announced that 1t lost
more ships, both sunk and damaged,
of Okinawa than in any other naval
engagement in American history. Like
wise the naval air commanders reveal
that they were using airplanes from
aircraft carriers to cover the ground
troops for several weeks-a task unex-
pectedly devolving on the Navy.
1t Gen. Roy s. Geiger, who was in
command of Marine divisions on Oki-
nawa under the late Gen. Buckner OF
the Army, made a significant revela-
tion the other day before the Senate
Military Affairs Committee which un-
doubtedly had reference to Okinawa.
He said:
"A good example Of the results Of this
lack Of perception to which I refer
and in field in which feel qualified
to speak is that Of the matter of close
air support. The Army Air Force and
Marine Corps aviation developed this
along parallel lines for several years
after the last war, until the Air Force
suddenly abolished its attack aviation
on the theory that air power could be
better applied against overall objec-
tives than to be frittered away helping
the man on the ground. The result
OF that decision was that the Army
soldier. at least in the Pacific, got little
effective close support from the Army
Air Force-a fact Of deep concern to
Army ground commanders, whose point
OF view Is clearly expressed In the re-
port of an Army Air Force evaluation
board, headed by a general oficer and
dated about year ago."
Unity Nonexistent In Some Cases.
Then Gen. Geiger discloses that the
n1uch-talked-of unity OF command
didn't exist In the Pacific in some TN
portant matters. He says:
THE 2oth Strategic Air Force, which
operated from the Marianas. never
came under the Pacific Command on
which it was entirely dependent for It's
bases and for its supply. 1t was oper-
ated by remote control from here In
Washington"
Along with this has developed an
interesting question as to why the
troops at Okinawa did not have more
support from the Army Air Forces and
why certain suicide bases were not at
tackled and why the Strategic Air
Forces protested against diversion from
overall targets in Japan to assist in the
battle OF Okinawa. All these questions
go to the root of the so-called unity
of command controversy, but they also
are related to the fact that the casual
ties In Okinawa were so large. The
whole Okinawa campaign ought to be
studied by an impartial board selected
from all armed services and, II it is,
more will be learned about how to in
tegrate and unity the armed services
in theater Of war than could possibly
be derived from theoretical discussions
OF paper set-up in Washington.