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re: The largest combined land, sea, and air battle began on this day 80 years ago...
Posted on 4/1/25 at 4:41 pm to GetmorewithLes
Posted on 4/1/25 at 4:41 pm to GetmorewithLes
quote:
My father was a Pharmacist Mate on the hospital ship USS Comfort at Okinawa. His ship was kamikazed at night off the coast despite running full illumination and hospital insignia per the Geneva Convention. My dad escaped unharmed but the operating rooms were full and took major damage.
I believe this was taken from the USS Kidd just before the kamikaze hit her. Barely visible on the horizon is, I believe, the USS Black, also a Fletcher class DD that the Japanese aircraft overflew before hitting the Kidd.
Same photo but darker with a bit more contrast.
0
Posted on 4/1/25 at 8:29 pm to RollTide1987
I had a great uncle KIA in the last two weeks of fighting at Okinawa on June 5 1945, born Aug 24, 1922:
PFC Lesley Ford Malone
Company A
1st Battalion
29th Marine Regiment
6th Marine Division
FMF
I posted this a few years back on the OT and it bears repeating:
LINK
PFC Lesley Ford Malone
Company A
1st Battalion
29th Marine Regiment
6th Marine Division
FMF
I posted this a few years back on the OT and it bears repeating:
quote:
Harry Bertram lived to tell about it—although for a long time he didn’t talk to his wife, Dolores, and their six children about the horrors he endured. He was 18—really still just a boy—when, as a U.S. Marine, he landed on the Japanese coral island. It was Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945.
“April Fools Day,” Bertram, now 88, said during an interview at his Port Orange home.
Bertram was an automatic rifleman with the 6th Marine Division, 29th Infantry regiment, I Company. The regiment began the Okinawa campaign with 3,512 Marines; when the battle of Okinawa ended 82 days later, 2,812 members of the regiment had been killed or wounded. Bertram remembers being soaked by cold monsoon rains. He often went hungry, partly because the stench of decaying bodies so permeated the air that he couldn’t eat. The noise of battle was constant. He lost normal human feelings.
“You just became numb,” he said.
LINK
Posted on 4/1/25 at 8:36 pm to No Colors
quote:
It was an insane number. I think by that point we were building an aircraft carrier every month.
This reminds me of a story I heard about the unfathomable might of American industry. German spies reported back to the Reich the estimated industrial capacity of America and the leadership thought they were lying as leadership thought there was no way the American industry could produce anywhere close to the numbers presented by the spies (something like 3-4x more than any other country).
The spies were indeed wrong about our capacity, just the wrong way. Apparently American industrial capacity was nearly twice what these spies reported.
This post was edited on 4/1/25 at 8:39 pm
Posted on 4/1/25 at 8:38 pm to Fun Bunch
quote:
Its definitely been mentioned as a factor on the thinking...at least officially. The ferocity of a dug in enemy that despite horrific conditions just refuses to surrender made them think of the casualties they would have invading Honshu (the main island of Japan), and they said frick that
Wasn’t there a rumor that we started manufacturing Purple Hearts ahead of the potential invasion and we didn’t have to produce new ones until the 2nd gulf war?
Posted on 4/1/25 at 9:08 pm to Oilfieldbiology
quote:
Apparently American industrial capacity was nearly twice what these spies reported.
It was something crazy like we produced 9000 ships during ww2. Over 100 aircraft carriers.
From the standpoint of tonnage alone we produced 3x more than the rest of the world -- on both sides of the war -- put together.
And we could do it again if we needed to. Do not frick with the Peaky Blinders.
Posted on 4/1/25 at 9:26 pm to No Colors
B24 production was unreal. 18K total and the Willow Run plant in Detroit peak production was 650/month.
Posted on 4/1/25 at 9:54 pm to RollTide1987
The bloodbath on Okinawa weighed heavily on Truman when he was deciding on dropping the bomb. And it’s a good thing it did because had he decided to not drop it, the death toll in Japan (not to mention in China and SE Asia) would have been astronomically higher.
Posted on 4/1/25 at 9:57 pm to bigjoe1
quote:
B24 production was unreal. 18K total and the Willow Run plant in Detroit peak production was 650/month.
I’ve read before that at one point they had one B-24 rolling off the assembly line roughly every hour.
Posted on 4/1/25 at 10:08 pm to Darth_Vader
I think Ok was after Iwo Jima. My uncle fought in both. Lifelong Marine.
Posted on 4/1/25 at 10:10 pm to Reubaltaich
quote:my grandfather said the same about Iwo. To put it in his words, “everything smelled like death”
He often went hungry, partly because the stench of decaying bodies so permeated the air that he couldn’t eat.
Posted on 4/2/25 at 12:08 am to GetmorewithLes
My dad was D-day, Germany and can't remember all the places and stories he told me. Seldom really talked in detail until I said I'm thinking of joining the army as a HS senior. He said no way you wanna join, but you'll never dodge the draft bc I'll bring you there myself. Described hearing people say God is not real but when shelling started they all prayed like crazy and promised everything to God. He knew they were just playing games. The stories of facing the enemy within hand to hand combat made me seem like a sissy. That was the greatest generation for sure. I wish there's a way to find out where his platoon went through out the war. Any one have an idea?
Posted on 4/2/25 at 8:57 am to RollTide1987
Not really an Okinawa story, but years ago I was at the Garden of Memories on Memorial Day.
They had booths for each war, that had pictures and weapons and such. If there were still veterans alive, they would be at the booth telling stories.
I was talking to some navy vets at the WWII booth, and they were showing me pictures and telling me stories.
One of the guys asks "You wanna see some of the pictures they don't allow us to show to the public?"
"Sure" I said.
He pulls out a photo album and starts leafing through it. "Look at this picture and tell me what you see."
It was a black and white photo of some sailors leaning against the gunwale of ship. I could see land in the background. One of the sailors was holding a Japanese flag. Another was brandishing a samurai sword.
"Cool" I said.
"Look closer on the railing."
I look, and I realize there's a severed Japanese head sitting on the rail.
"Holy shite!"
The guy chuckles and says "Yeah, that's the reaction I normally get."
They had booths for each war, that had pictures and weapons and such. If there were still veterans alive, they would be at the booth telling stories.
I was talking to some navy vets at the WWII booth, and they were showing me pictures and telling me stories.
One of the guys asks "You wanna see some of the pictures they don't allow us to show to the public?"
"Sure" I said.
He pulls out a photo album and starts leafing through it. "Look at this picture and tell me what you see."
It was a black and white photo of some sailors leaning against the gunwale of ship. I could see land in the background. One of the sailors was holding a Japanese flag. Another was brandishing a samurai sword.
"Cool" I said.
"Look closer on the railing."
I look, and I realize there's a severed Japanese head sitting on the rail.
"Holy shite!"
The guy chuckles and says "Yeah, that's the reaction I normally get."
Posted on 4/2/25 at 9:18 am to jeffsdad
quote:
I think Ok was after Iwo Jima. My uncle fought in both. Lifelong Marine.
That’s correct. The Marines landed on Iwo Jima in Feb 1945 and the battle lasted a little over a month. V Amphibious Corps, comprising 4th & 5th Marine Divisions was the assault force with 3rd Marine Div in reserve; which the 3rd Marine Div would be committed to battle two days after the initial landings.
The invasion of Okinawa started about a week after Iwo Jima was declared cleared. As for Marine units that fought there, 1st and 6th Marine Divisions of III Amphibious Corps were the assault force of 10th Army’s (yes, the Marines were under US Army command in this battle) northern assault force. After they cleared the northern portion of Okinawa, which was only lightly defended, the Marines were put in the line in the Southern Sector, where the main Japanese defenses were located, to fight alongside the US Army’s XXIV Corps.
Posted on 4/2/25 at 10:07 am to 6R12
quote:
wish there's a way to find out where his platoon went through out the war. Any one have an idea?
See if his battalion /division has a website and/or FB group.
Stared with some things my Dad told me and I found both the 454th bombgroups website and FB page and then the 15th Army Airforce FB page.
The 454th has a lot of search features .
Mybe your Dad's unit has something like that.
Posted on 4/2/25 at 10:28 am to Adajax
There never has been and never will be a bigger bada$$ than a WW2 marine.
It's them at #1, every other WW2 serviceman #2 and they are so far ahead the rest of the list doesn't matter.
Undoubtedly the greatest generation - fortunate and proud to have them as grandparents.
It's them at #1, every other WW2 serviceman #2 and they are so far ahead the rest of the list doesn't matter.
Undoubtedly the greatest generation - fortunate and proud to have them as grandparents.
Posted on 4/3/25 at 9:11 am to bigjoe1
Thx bigjoe1
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