Buckner was killed by a Japanese shell on June 18, 1945. Some dove their planes into ships at 500 miles per hour causing catastrophic damage. Although the Japanese commanders counted 155,000 defenders, of whom 100,000 were soldiers of Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima’s Thirty-second Army, the rest were of widely mixed abilities, and there were not nearly enough troops to cover the ground the way 23,000 troops had covered Iwo Jima. Under the overall leadership of theatre commander Adm. Chester Nimitz, Fifth Fleet commander Adm. Raymond Spruance would oversee the landings and U.S. ground troops would be commanded by Lieut. Divisional and IIIAC artillery battalions landed routinely, and many batteries were providing fire by 1530 hours. Operation Iceberg was to be, in every way, vast when compared to any other operation undertaken by Allied forces in the Pacific War under U.S. Navy command. The Americans were using Okinawa’s airfields within days of their capture to support operations on the island. The island lay within 350 miles — easy flight distance — from the Japanese homeland and was, by American design, to be the base from which the southernmost Home Island, Kyushu, would be pummeled to dust ahead of the expected follow-on invasion. A corps attack on April 19 supported by 27 artillery battalions and 375 aircraft made negligible progress, then halted as the unperturbed Japanese troops moved back to their positions from underground shelters. By April 3, the Marine divisions were on ground slated to fall on L-plus-15. Japanese losses were even greater—about 110,000 Japanese soldiers lost their lives. The Army divisions advanced only after the Japanese withdrew from the advance defensive line on the night of April 23-24 to a more integrated line to the rear. The troops quickly secured both Kadena and Yontan airfields. USHistory.org. On June 19, he dissolved his staff and ordered all available troops to go over to guerrilla operations. The first major Japanese counterattack came on April 6–7 in the form of suicidal raids by more than 350 kamikaze planes and the battleship Yamato. American sailors tried desperately to shoot the kamikaze planes down but were often sitting ducks against enemy pilots with nothing to lose. It turned to scouring land already in its hands and building up its logistical base. The most hard-pressed Marine units were engineers, then supply troops. While by no means a romp, the days that followed on L-day were nearly bloodless. Despite the casualties, preparations were quickly underway for the long-anticipated invasion of Japan. These so-called guerrillas had to be painstakingly tracked by Marine units far more suited for intense modern conflict. The military force also included an unknown number of conscripted civilians and unarmed Home Guards known as Boeitai. In addition, at least 100,000 civilians were either killed in combat or were ordered to commit suicide by the Japanese military. Battle of Okinawa, (April 1–June 21, 1945), World War II battle fought between U.S. and Japanese forces on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. Lieutenant General Isamu Cho was Ushijima’s chief of staff and committed suicide with his commander. The island, which is about 60 miles (roughly 100 km) long and no more than 20 miles (32 km) across at its widest point, had been thoroughly fortified by a Japanese garrison of some 100,000 men under the command of Lieut. By April 1945, Marine air was at the leading edge of technique and technology in support of modern combat operations across all three battle dimensions — land, sea and air. During this period, U.S. forces suffered perhaps their highest profile casualty of the battle when journalist Ernie Pyle was killed in combat. On April 24, IIIAC was ordered to place one of its divisions in the Tenth Army reserve, and the 1st Marine Division was thus ordered to prepare to return to battle. To defend the escarpment, Japanese troops hunkered down in a network of caves and dugouts. Summary: The battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, took place in April-June 1945. Japan didn’t give in immediately, so Truman ordered the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9. It’s estimated between 40,000 and 150,000 Okinawa citizens were also killed. Gen. Ushijima Mitsuru. The 1st Marine Division mounted its final attacks of the campaign, also on June 21, and reported by nightfall that all its objectives had been secured. Elements of the 10th Army drove cautiously to the north and had pacified the entire northern two-thirds of the island by April 22. Surrounded by enemy soldiers, he went alone into the battle fray and rescued 75 of his wounded comrades. Not apparent at the outset, but increasingly obvious with each passing day, the hard defenses could not and would not be carried by merely two Army divisions supported by organic and corps artillery, even after the artillery was bolstered on April 7 by IIIAC’s three 155mm gun battalions and three 155mm howitzer battalions — not to mention Marine air based at Yontan and whatever carrier air the fleet had on hand for ground support. It thus fell to General Geiger to declare Okinawa secure following a bloody 82-day battle. Though the campaign was proving ...read more, The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy that played out six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thus, from the Japanese view Okinawa was and could be no more than a delaying battle of attrition on a grand scale. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. For more great articles subscribe to World War II magazine today! The few Japanese who knew that their country’s war effort was in extremis were content to fight on Okinawa simply for reasons of honor, for all military logic pointed to the same dismal conclusion: Japan was vanquished in all but name as soon as the first Boeing B-29s left the ground in the Marianas, as soon as American carrier aircraft hit targets in Japan at will, as soon as even twin-engine bombers could strike Japanese ports from Iwo Jima, as soon as Japan dared not move a warship or cargo vessel from a port in any part of the shrinking empire for fear it would be sunk by an Allied submarine.