Word: okinawa
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...plan had been simple. The Japanese admirals proposed to launch the heaviest air blow they could muster against the U.S. ships off Okinawa, perhaps sink a few. The next day the blow would be repeated, in hopes that the jittery fleet would scatter. Into the melee the fastest, heaviest ships Japan possessed would be sent to smash more vessels, then run for home again. It was a good enough plan, but it did not work...
...noon on Friday, heavy U.S. ships were pounding Japanese-held sections of Okinawa's shore when the red-balled planes flashed in to attack. From a small landing boat TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod watched a twin-engined Jap bomber sneak over a hillside and head into the fleet, apparently picking out a transport near Sherrod's craft as its intended victim. Sherrod radioed...
...Down. Some of the Jap flyers managed to get down to their targets; three U.S. destroyers were hit and sunk. But the Japs had sent upward of 500 planes into action; of these, 245 were intercepted and destroyed on their way to Okinawa, and 116 were shot down at Okinawa...
...ruddy-faced, white-thatched, driving apostle of the vigorous life sent the new U.S. Tenth Army driving deeper into Okinawa last week. Commands flowed from him in his normal conversational tones-roars, shouts and bellows. His celebrated laugh rolled out. Said one who had heard it: "It starts with a little chuckle in his throat and then he really lets go and shakes the walls...
Initial Gains. Buckner's first target turned out to be Okinawa, central and largest island in the Ryukyu chain stretching from Japan to Formosa. There Admiral Nimitz mounted an amphibious operation, surpassed only by those of Sicily and Normandy, to hurl the troops ashore. And by week's end Buckner knew that his Tenth had caught the Japanese by surprise and had scored a smashing initial success...