4th Marines: Col Alan Shapley*
1/4: Maj Bernard W. Green
2/4: LtCol Reynolds H. Hayden
3/4: LtCol Bruno A. Hochmuth*
22nd Marines: Col Merlin F. Schneider
1/22: Major Thomas J. Myers
2/22: LtCol Horatio C. Woodhouse, Jr.
3/22: LtCol Malcolm O. Donohoo
29th Marines: Col Victor F. Bleasdale
1/29: LtCol Jean W. Moreau
2/29: LtCol William G. Robb*
3/29: LtCol Erma A. Wright
Note: The 8th Marines entered combat on Okinawa in June attached to the
1st MarDiv.
[Illustration:
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 123072
]
]
[Sidebar (page 10): The Japanese Forces
Marines and Army infantry faced strong opposition from more than
100,000 troops of Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima’s _Thirty-second
Army_, although American intelligence initially estimated Ushijima’s
strength at only 60,000 to 70,000. Most of the _Thirty-second Army’s_
reinforcing organizations had traveled to Okinawa from previous posts
in China, Manchuria, and Japan.
The first to arrive was the _9th Infantry Division_, a crack veteran
unit destined to be the backbone of Ushijima’s defense forces. The
next reinforcement was the _44th Independent Mixed Brigade_ which
lost part of its strength when one of the ships carrying the brigade
to Okinawa was torpedoed. Next, the _15th Independent Mixed Regiment_
was flown directly to Okinawa and was added to the remnants of the
44th. The next large unit to reach Okinawa was the _24th Infantry
Division_, which came from Manchuria. Well equipped and trained, it
had not yet been blooded in battle. Lieutenant General Takeo Fujioka’s
_62d Infantry Division_ was the final major infantry unit assigned to
the _Thirty-second Army_. It was a brigaded division, consisting of
two brigades of four independent infantry battalions each. Two more
of these battalions arrived on Okinawa in September 1944 and one was
allocated to each brigade.
Because _Imperial General Headquarters_ (_IGHQ_), the joint Army and
Navy command in Tokyo, foresaw the battle of Okinawa as one of fixed
defenses, Ushijima was not assigned any appreciably strong armored
force other than the _27th Tank Regiment_. In view of the hopeless
situation in the Philippines and the inability to deliver supplies
and reinforcements, _IGHQ_ diverted large weapons shipments, if not
troops, to Okinawa. The _Thirty-second Army_ thus possessed a heavier
concentration of artillery under a single command than had been
available to any other Japanese organization in the Pacific at any one
time. The total enemy artillery strength, less the _42d Field Artillery
Regiment_, which was organic to the _24th Division_, was grouped within
the _5th Artillery Command_. In addition to the comparatively weak
_7th Heavy Artillery Regiment_, Major General Kosuke Wada’s command
consisted of two independent artillery regiments, and the artillery
elements of the _44th Brigade_ and the _27th Tank Regiment_. In
addition, he had the _1st_ and _2d Medium Artillery Regiments_ with 36
howitzers and the _100th Heavy Artillery Battalion_ with eight 150mm
guns. Wada also had in his command the _1st Independent Heavy Mortar
Regiment_, which fired the 320mm spigot mortar earlier encountered
by Marines on Iwo Jima. Although the _1st_ and _2d Light Mortar
Battalions_ were nominally part of Wada’s organization, their 96 81mm
mortars were assigned in close support of the infantry and controlled
by the defense sector commanders.
The reserve of potential infantry replacements varied from good, in the
_23d_ and _26th Shipping Engineer Regiments_, to poor, at best, in the
assorted rear area service units. The largest number of replacements,
7,000 men, was provided by the _10th Air Sector Command_, which was
comprised of airfield maintenance and construction units at the
Yontan, Kadena, and Ie Shima air strips. Another source of infantry
replacements were the seven sea raiding squadrons, three of which were
based at Kerama Retto and the remainder at Unten-Ko in the north of
Okinawa. Each of those squadrons had a hundred picked men, whose sole
assignment was to destroy American amphibious invasion shipping during
the course of landing operations by crashing explosives-laden suicide
craft into the sides of attack transports and cargo vessels.
Ushijima’s naval component consisted of the _Okinawa Naval Base
Force_, the _4th Surface Escort Unit_, and various naval aviation
activities all under the command of Rear Admiral Minoru Ota. In this
combined command were approximately 10,000 men, of whom only 35 percent
were regular naval personnel. The remainder were civilian employees
belonging to the different sub-units of the _Naval Base Force_. Part
of Ota’s command consisted of torpedo boat, suicide boat, and midget
submarine squadrons at the Unten-Ko base on Motobu Peninsula.
Rounding out the _Thirty-second Army_ was a native Okinawan home guard,
whose members were called _Boeitai_. These men were trained by the army
and were to be integrated into army units once the battle for Okinawa
was joined. The _Boeitai_ provided Ushijima with 17,000-20,000 extra
men. Added to this group were 1,700 male Okinawan children, 14 years of
age and older, who were organized into volunteer youth groups called
“Blood and Iron for the Emperor Duty Units,” or _Tekketsu_--Benis M.
Frank
]
_L-Day and Movement to Contact_
Operation Iceberg got off to a roaring start. The few Japanese still in
the vicinity of the main assault at first light on L-Day, 1 April 1945,
could immediately sense the wisdom of General Ushijima in conceding the
landing to the Americans. The enormous armada, assembled from ports
all over the Pacific Ocean, had concentrated on schedule off Okinawa’s
southwest coast and stood coiled to project its 182,000-man landing
force over the beach. This would be the ultimate forcible entry, the
epitome of all the amphibious lessons learned so painstakingly from the
crude beginnings at Guadalcanal and North Africa.
Admiral Turner made his final review of weather conditions in the
amphibious objective area. As at Iwo Jima, the amphibians would be
blessed with good weather on the critical first day of the landing.
Skies would be cloudy to clear, winds moderate east to northeast,
surf moderate, temperature 75 degrees. At 0406 Turner announced “Land
the Landing Force,” the familiar phrase which marked the sequential
countdown to the first assault waves hitting the beaches at H-Hour.
Combat troops already manning the rails of their transports then
witnessed an unforgettable display of naval power--the sustained
bombardment by shells and rockets from hundreds of ships, alternating
with formations of attack aircraft streaking low over the beaches,
bombing and strafing at will. Enemy return fire seemed scattered and
ineffectual, even against such a mass of lucrative targets assembled
offshore. Turner confirmed H-Hour at 0830.
[Illustration: