6. Okinawa, the Pacific, April – June, 1945
The battle of Okinawa was an eighty-two day bloodbath in which the United States captured the island, intending to use it as a staging area for the invasion of Japan. Both the United States and the Japanese lost ships, aircraft, and troops in the battle, and Okinawan civilians suffered heavy casualties as well. The invasion fleet was the largest of any of the many which supported amphibious landings during the Pacific war. The United States Tenth Army was created out of Army and Marine units as a single command, and controlled its own air force, supported by US Navy carrier operations throughout the battle. Supporting ships faced the fanatical suicide attacks of the kamikazes, which did heavy damage to several American vessels. The Americans were supported by the British Pacific Fleet, which the Americans designated as Task Force 57.
The battle for Okinawa was the bloodiest of the Pacific War, with official reports listing more than 12,500 Americans killed, though many wounded died later and are not included in that figure (for example, of infection from burns suffered by many sailors in the kamikaze attacks). Among the casualties was the highest-ranking officer killed by enemy fire during the war, Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. Ernie Pyle was killed during the fighting to secure Okinawa, hit by stray machine gun fire. American casualties also included mental disorders, caused by the ferocity of the fighting and a Japanese tactic revealed on the island, when civilians were used by Japanese soldiers as human shields. During the fighting on the island the American troops, sailors, and airmen, heard the news of the death of Adolf Hitler and the unconditional surrender of Germany.