On 15 June the III Amphibious Corps instructed the Sixth Marine Division
to be prepared to pass through the right of the First Marine Division on
Mezado Ridge on 17 June. The mission assigned the Sixth Marine Division
was to seize Kuwanga Ridge, part of Ibaru Ridge, and the Kiyamu Gusuku
hill mass. Although their plight was hopeless, the enemy still held out
in the southernmost part of Okinawa, evidently intent upon exacting as
stiff a price, in terms of lives, as possible before being destroyed.
Like a trapped animal, the Japanese were resisting bitterly and from
their positions on the hills and ridges, were delaying the attackers as
long as possible.
With its zone of action limited in width, the Sixth Division committed
the Twenty Second Marines at 0300, 17 June. To reach Mezado Ridge, the
regiment had to advance past Kunishi through open ground swept by enemy
fire. During the hours of daylight, the First Division, fighting on
Kunishi and Mezado Ridge, was forced to use tanks to supply the front
lines and evacuate the wounded. By moving before daylight the Twenty
Second Marines had little difficulty in reaching positions from which to
launch an attack to secure Mezado Ridge. After an intense preliminary
artillery, naval gunfire, and aerial bombardment on Mezado Ridge, Hill
69 and Kuwanga Ridge, the First and Third Battalions attacked at 0730.
The advance was slow and difficult due to increasing enemy resistance.
With every weapon at his command the enemy brought fire to bear on the
assault battalions. By late afternoon the attack had moved up on the
western part of Mezado Ridge; the Third Battalion had captured the key
high ground around Hill 69, and could see Kuwanga Ridge to the south.
Next morning, 18 June, the Twenty Second Marines continued the attack,
passing the Second Battalion through the Third, which was left to mop up
in its immediate area. Against heavy resistance the Second Battalion
advanced to Kuwanga Ridge and by late afternoon had a firm hold on the
ridge. While moving through the Mezado Area to inspect his regiment’s
attack, Colonel H. C. Roberts, USMC, the Commanding Officer of the
Twenty Second Marines, was shot through the heart by a sniper.
Although the Second Battalion had a foothold on Kuwanga Ridge, it could
not hold the entire length of the ridge, some 1800 yards, and General
Shepherd decided to move up a battalion of the Fourth Marines on the
left in order to hold the ridge through the night. On the next day he
could continue the attack to the south with a fresh regiment.
Early in the morning of 19 June, the Fourth Marines with the First and
Third Battalions abreast, assaulted Ibaru Ridge and, after a brisk
fight, had seized the ridge by noon. After a hasty reorganization on the
ridge, the regiment attacked again, this time to capture the
Kiyamu-Gusuku hill mass. Immediately upon leaving Ibaru the Fourth
Marines ran into heavy enemy fire from mortars emplaced behind the hill
mass and machine guns firing from concealed positions on it. Just before
dark the regiment succeeded in gaining a small foot hold on the high
plateau of the hill mass. During the afternoon the little island just
offshore from Nagasuku was seized by a quickly assembled task force
consisting of three amphibious tractors, two 37-mm. platoons and a War
Dog platoon. In the brief action 20 Japanese soldiers were killed and 8
taken prisoner.
On 19 June the Sixth Marine Division committed two battalions of the
Twenty Ninth Marines on the right of the Fourth Marines in preparation
for a final assault to seize the 5000 square yards of ground remaining.
Next day at 0700 both regiments attacked, the Twenty Ninth to drive to
the coast, and the Fourth to complete the seizure of the Kiyamu-Gusuku
Ridge. Against light opposition, the Twenty Ninth Marines advanced
rapidly and reached the southern coast. Harassing long range fire from
the regiment’s left caused few casualties. The enemy in this sector
began to surrender. An LCI, equipped with a loud-speaker, moved along
the coast calling to the remaining Japanese to give themselves up. Over
700 Japanese officers and men surrendered during the day.
[Illustration: Map 13. Battle for Ara-Saki Peninsula.]
Meanwhile over on the division’s left, the Fourth Marines were engaged
in a bloody fight to secure Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge. From their positions in
the hill mass the Japanese resisted desperately with intense mortar and
small arms fire. After a day of bitter fighting the Second Battalion
captured Hill 80, the peak of the hill mass, but the remainder of the
ground was still held by the enemy.
Resuming its attack on 21 June the Fourth Marines turned from frontal
assaults and flanking attacks to a double envelopment from the rear.
Early in the morning the two flank battalions sent companies around
either extremity of the ridge and at 0800 struck the enemy’s rear in a
coordinated attack. For two hours the enemy fought back bitterly but
could not halt the assaulting Marines. With the fall of the
Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge all organized resistance in the Sixth Marine
Division’s zone of action ceased.
During all but thirteen of the eighty two days that the Okinawa Campaign
lasted, the Sixth Marine Division was committed and actively engaged.
Credited to the division were 23,000 Japanese killed and over 3,500
captured. The division had captured over two thirds of Okinawa and had
repeatedly fought the enemy on his own terms, and his own ground. During
this operation the Sixth Marine Division had taken heavy losses; 400
officers and 7,822 enlisted men were either killed or wounded. In the
drive from the Asa River to the Kokuba, the division had lost the
equivalent of a regiment of men. Not included in the above figures are
men lost due to non-battle casualties, sickness, or combat fatigue.
After reaching the southern coast the Sixth Division turned to retrace
its steps back to the Kokuba, mopping up enemy remnants at it went.
The first week in July found the Sixth Marine Division busy with
preparations for the trip to the new base camp on Guam. On 4 July there
was an impressive ceremony held to dedicate the division cemetery.
Although the division was preparing to leave Okinawa, it paused briefly
to pay its respects to those of its members who would have to remain
forever behind. In the last paragraph of the special order of
dedication, General Shepherd admonished his men as follows:
“As this cemetery is dedicated to the dead and to the past that they
made glorious by their heroic sacrifices, let there be in the minds of
the members of this division the resolve to dedicate their future
efforts to speeding the impending final defeat of the enemy to the end
that there will no longer be occasion for the sacrifice that the honored
dead of our division were called upon to make on this island.”