96th Infantry Division
Beginning in Febuary of 1945, U.S. ships and planes pounded Okinawa with intense naval and air bombardment. In March our forces began to invade smaller outlying islands to obtain a protected anchorage for refueling and resupplyling ships.
On April 1, American forces made an amphibious landing on Okinawa. There were 548,000 men involved in this invasion. Anticipating this invasion the Japanese had heavily fortified the island. This little island is sixty miles long and anywhere from 2 to 18 miles wide.
Our troops fought their way across the island but most of the Japanese were concentrated on the South end of the island. They were dug in along the Shuri Line, which was an elaborate defensive system. After much fighting the Japanese secretly withdrew to another fortified position. American forces began to assemble for another attack. Before they could attack, the Japanese launched a counter offensive. Our forces were able to fight off the Japs, but at a cost of 700 U.S. casualities.
The Japanses counter offensive delayed the planned American offensive, but our troops were able to regroup and launch the offensive on May 11.
In May 12, 1945, on Mothers Day, Uncle Arlie's unit was doing a frontal assalt on a place called Zebra Hill. Uncle Arlie was climbing up the face of the hill getting close enough to throw a satchel charge into a cave. As he threw his charge he remembers a hand coming out and tossing a grenade, which landed at his feet. As he turned, the grenade went off. Shrapnel hit him in the back, left arm and legs. As he got up to continue struggling down the hill he was hit in the legs by machine gun fire. The next thing he rembers he was being carried on a stretcher behind the front lines.
This brief summary does not do justice to the actual scale of the events of this battle. If you would like to read more, then follow some of the links below.