                      The Battle of Okinawa

   The Island:

   Okinawa is an island which is now under United Nations Trusteeship
and is located in the Southwest Pacific Ocean.  It is the largest of
the chain of islands called the Ryukyus and is 330 miles south of the
Japanese island of Kyushu.  The chief industries are agriculture, 
fishing, lumbering, food processing, and the manufacture of textiles,
Panama hats and pottery.  Okinawa extends generally northeast to 
southwest, and is 60 miles long and 9 miles wide.  The entire coast
is fringed with coral reefs.  The northern two thirds of Okinawa is
mountainous and forested with the highest point reaching 1650 feet 
above sea level, while the southern third is hilly, rolling country
and contains most of the island's population.  Naha, the largest and 
most important city is the major port of Okinawa is also the capital
of the Ryukyu Islands.

   The Invasion:

   In 1879, Japan annexed Okinawa.  The Japanese fortified the island
and built large airfields in the southern third, mostly around Naha.
On April 1, 1945, during World War II, the United States Tenth Army
landed on the west coast of Okinawa in the final step before the
invasion of Japan itself.  The Allied Forces had to destroy the 
Japanese inner line bases in the Ryukyus.  More than half a million
men, 318 combat vessels and 1139 auxiliary craft were used in the
assault.  They were met by 120,000 Japanese soldiers.  The assault
began with a feint at landing on April 1, 1945 in the southern part
of the island where most of the Japanese inhabitants were, but the
actual landing took place in the middle section of the western 
peninsula.
   The battle for Okinawa was the costliest single operation of the
Pacific War at that time.  Almost all of the defending Japanese
forces were casualties, whie the American and British forces suffered
about 47,000 casualties, including dead and wounded.  The Japanese
lost over 3400 planes and the Americans lost 1000.  Two hundred and
fifty Allied ships were hit by air attacks, mostly by Japanese
suicidal kamikaze planes, and thirty-four Allied destroyers and smaller
ships were sunk.  On June 21, after eighty-two days of battle, the
Allies gained control of Okinawa.  The United States Army quickly
reconstructed the airfields and the United States Air Force used them
to launch bombing raids on the main Japanese islands beginning in
late June.  After completing the task of gaining control of the island
and rebuilding the airfields, the way was clear for the atomic bomb
attacks of Hiroshima on Honshu and Nagasaki on Kyushu in Japan.

   Actual Account of the battle:

   The date is April 5, 1945.  The place is the Pacific Ocean off the
coast of a Japanese held island called Okinawa.  Stationed in the battle
zone for a week on our ship, the U.S.S. Nevada, we have bombarded the 
coast.  All in preparation for the arrival of our Army and Marine troops.
   The day began much like any other for the past week or so.  I got up
at about 0600 hours and got dressed into the uniform of the day, which
consisted of dungaree pants, a shirt, a white saylor hat, and black shoes.
Nothing fancy, but then you don't need to dress up to fight a war. 
I went with some of my friends to the mess hall to eat breakfast after
running our laps around the deck.  Powdered eggs and potatoes, coffee
and dried milk was not an unusual morning feast.
   After breakfast, we had to report to our assigned stations.  I was
a maintenance man, classified as a metalsmith.  So far this has been a
routine day.
   At about 1200 hours, the troop ships began arriving in preparation
for the invasion of Okinawa.  After having eaten lunch, the troops were
loaded onto the landing barges and L.S.T.s, then transfered to the 
island.  Thousands of troops as they landed began the advance on the 
beaches.  When the first wave of the landing craft started for the island,
a general quarters alarm rang out.  I rushed to my station and jumped
to my responsibility, which was carrying tin boxes of ammunition from a
small elevator across a room to another elevator which took them to the
turret where they were fired by the gunners.
   After being informed by our spotter plane of the location of an enemy
battery, the captain's voice came over the loudspeaker saying "Advance
toward shore and use the 40 millimeter artillery to knock out enemy 
position at 27 degrees north of Naha."
   As the ship approached the shore, the enemy shore battery was quiet
and calm, but only until we got into their range.
   Then it happened.  The enemy opened up on us with everything they had.
We fought back the best we could, but we were trapped.  As the captain
shouted hurried orders to turn the ship around and get out of enemy range,
we were hit five times by the enemy artillery and by one kamikaze plane.
   The time was approximately 1900 hours when I was hit.  While at my 
battle station awaiting further orders, a six inch shell crashed through
the outside bulkhead and then into the room where I stood, ricocheting
off the deck and passing through the ceiling, exploding in the galley
killing three men instantly.
   When it penetrated the bulkhead and entered my station, the shell
sprayed chunks of shrapnel with incredible force, some of which lodged
in my right leg.  I instantly grabbed onto an electrical cable to keep
from being knocked to the floor.  I looked down to find my pants shredded
and my right leg badly injured just below the knee.  The pain was
unbearable.  I could see long, stringy fibers and red and white clumps of
flesh hanging from the wound as blood pumped onto the floor.
   When I realized what had happened, I lowered myself to the deck.  I saw
many dead and badly wounded men strewn about the room and I realized that
the medics could not possibly get to all of us and that I had to help 
myself.
   I tied my two handkerchiefs together to make a tourniquet and I dragged
myself over to the nearest hatch.  I grabbed the dog-bar from the hatch and
used it to tighten my make-shift tourniquet and slow the loss of blood.
   I tried to lower myself down through the hatch to get to the hospital
room, but I was growing weak from excessive blood loss.  Luckily, a medic
spotted me struggling and assisted me to the emergency first aid area.
There, I was put to sleep and my leg operated on.
   I awoke at about 0300 hours to the sound of a general quarters alarm.
I nearly leaped to my feet out of habit to rush to my station, but got a
painful reminder of the events of only a few hours before.
   My healing process to quite a while and I was moved several times.
First, I was transported from the U.S.S. Nevada to a hospital boat which
took me to Sipan.  From there, I was taken by plane to a military hospital
in Hawaii where I stayed for a couple of months.  It was there that I was
presented with my Purple Heart.
   I was then transfered to Oakland Naval Hospital in California by plane,
then by train to San Diego.  From there, I was transported by plane to 
Quonsett Point, Rhode Island, then finally by ambulance to St. Albens
Naval Hospital, Long Island where I was cared for until my discharge which
was two days less than one year after we had been hit.
   About thirty years later, despite the great losses from both sides,
control of the island of Okinawa was restored to the Japanese.


  This account of the battle of Okinawa is as told by my father,
  Anthonio M. Ruggerio in 1979.  My father died of cancer on 
  January 15, 1980, but this is how I'll always remember him.
  My heart goes out to all Vets who served to protect this great country.
                             
                             I miss you Dad.      
                             LeRoy Anthony Ruggerio
