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By the fall of 1944, the U.S. military’s pathway to Japan had been pretty well laid out. General MacArthur’s Army forces would attempt to retake the Philippine Islands, and the U.S. Navy, led by Admiral Nimitz, would head towards Okinawa via Iwo Jima.
By the fall of 1944, the Japanese military was collapsing under the immense pressure of U.S forces. It didn’t take too much expertise to look at the map of U.S. advances in the Pacific and have a pretty good idea of where the next blows would fall. As a result, the Japanese had quickly, and skillfully, built up their defenses wherever time (and the marauding U.S. Navy) would allow. Okinawa was one such place.
In the space of only a year, this largest island in the Ryukyus (just 400 miles from mainland Japan) went from a small garrison to a massively fortified island, one that would be extremely difficult to conquer. So the Navy needed to start preparing for invasion well ahead of schedule.
Early in the morning of October 10, 1944, U.S. Navy fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes made their first visit, attacking targets on Okinawa. And throughout the day, more than 1,000 aircraft would visit the Japanese stronghold, bombing, strafing, and destroying anything of military value. The attacks were very successful as numerous transports, merchant ships, anti-aircraft floats, and even a couple midget submarines were hit and sunk, along with dozens of smaller craft.
Since armies move on their stomachs, the Navy was fortunate to hit a warehouse containing a month’s supply of rice. Also important were the munitions stores they hit, since armies kill with their weapons. Millions of rounds of ammunition, including mortars and artillery shells, went up in spectacular fashion.
But because the Navy had little in the way of accurate maps, of even greater value to the Navy were the scores of reconnaissance photos that were taken by the airmen. These allowed intelligence services to create detailed maps that would be crucial to the troops landing on the beaches…nearly 6 months later.
Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Battle
