4. OKINAWA
Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, was Love-Day for the Okinawa operation. With the bright clear dawn came enemy planes but the invading armada—over 1400 ships—drove off or destroyed the attacking planes. From the transports the troops could only see small portions of the island; the preliminary bombardment from the naval task force and the bombs from our planes, diving through the clouds, raised a haze of smoke and dust that covered most of the area behind the landing beaches.
Forming into long waves, the Fourth and Twenty Second Marines, loaded in amphibious tractors, churned toward the beaches, over the coral reef, and landed at 0837. Every man went in with the expectation that this beachhead, like Tarawa, Saipan, and Iwo, would be a bloody one; they were surprised but not entirely relieved to find virtually no enemy opposition to the landing. Rapidly, units organized and moved inland and up across the terraced fields that led to Yontan Airfield. By noon the Fourth Marines had seized Yontan and the Twenty Second Marines were advancing as rapidly on the left. By late afternoon the two regiments had reached a line tentatively set to be reached on the second day and as yet had not found the enemy. To the left of the Twenty Second Marines lay a little peninsula jutting out to the northwest, named Zampa Misaki. It seemed likely that an enemy force might be there; General Shepherd requestedIIIAmphibious Corps to release from its reserve one battalion of the Twenty Ninth Marines. The First Battalion was released to division and placed to protect the division’s left flank. Troops dug in for the night with mixed emotions. Everyone was extremely grateful that the landing had not been a bloody one; still there was a certain apprehension felt: Where was the enemy? When would he attack?
Love-Day had been successful beyond the wildest hopes; the division was ashore safely, in a good position, and had already secured its first objective. Yontan Airfield was firmly in our hands and had not been badly damaged. The enemy defensive positions constructed to guard the field were strangely empty. Casualties were negligible; the landing had been easy.
Now the Sixth Marine Division moved rapidly to cut the island in two. In conjunction with the First Marine Division which was making the main effort, the Fourth and Twenty Second Marines drove quickly to the east and, despite some opposition from small isolated enemy pockets, reached the east coast on 4 April. Turning to thenorth, the division began to seize the Ishikawa Isthmus. Averaging nearly 7000 yards each day the troops pushed up the isthmus and by 7 April had reached Nago at the base of Motobu Peninsula.