Okinawa ground order of battle
Order of battle for World War II battle / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American invasion of the island of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, took place 1 April 1945. The Japanese military was determined to inflict a casualty rate so high that the U.S. government would choose not to invade the Japanese home islands. To this end, the southern portion of the island had been covered with the most extensive system of fortifications and fields of fire yet encountered in the Pacific War.
The island was not declared secure until 22 June, a period of 82 days. Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., was struck by coral fragments created by the explosion of a Japanese artillery shell on 18 June and later died of his wounds. Buckner became the highest ranking U.S. military officer to be killed in action in the Second World War.