OKINAWA BATTLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 5

OKINAWA BATTLE

END NOT YET IN SIGHT PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES BITTER AND COSTLY ACTIONS (Rec. 0.50 a.m.) NEW YORK, May 20. The battle for Okinawa is seven weeks old, and the end is not yet in sight, says the New York Times correspondent on Okinawa. We have been able to over-run the greater part of the island, but we have been unable to smash the enemy’s resistance. He has been able to hang on to the two key ports, Naha and Yonabaru, which we need to speed the development of the island. The stakes are high, and both sides know it. The enemy garrison has been steadily cut down, but there are no signs that he has become so weak that we can score a decisive break-through. The marines, after' the seventh attempt, captured the sanguinary Sugar Loaf Hill and firmly control the crest. They are moving slowly down the reverse slope. Our tanks have slaughtered hundreds of Japanese fleeing from the tombs and caves midway down the slope. Sugar Loaf will be recorded as one of the most desperate and most costly actions in the Pacific war. While this is one of the greatest stands the Japanese have made in the Pacific war, with the Tenth Army measuring gains in yards and sometimes fighting over the same hilltops for days, there are indications that the enemy may have stayed too long in his present defences. Apparently realising that the defences around Shuri are about to fall, he is now moving heavy artillery back for a last desperate stand. The fall of Sugar Loaf Hill, with Conical and Chocolate Drop Hills, leaves Shuri vulnerable to a pincer movement which began a week ago and is slowly closing in. * Marines deep inside Naha are meeting fanatical resistance and are pinned to many positions by the fierce enemy fire, says the United Press Guam correspondent. When the marines first entered Naha proper they met little opposition. One patrol was Inside the city for five hours without seeing a living person, but when the troops were inside the city in force the Japanese poured out from underground hideouts and began making a fight of it.

The Associated Press correspondent says that the fighting for Sugar Loaf Hill is particularly vicious. Sixth Marine Division troops made nine attacks in seven days before they were able to hold the height on Thursday. As- long as the Japanese retain their positions in the tunnels and caves on the slopes of Sugar Loaf Hill, however, they can make Naha untenable for the Americans. The New York Times Guam correspondent says that one American company holding a position on Conical Hill let the attacking Japanese come within grenade-throwing distances and then let go with their grenades, but the Japanese had smaller and lighter grenades than ours and heaved them back. This deadly version of a stonethrowing fight, with 12oz to lib of explosives in each missile, lasted an hour before the Japanese retreated. The United Press correspondent says an American airstrip hacked from Okinawa’s coral is operating within 325 miles of Japan proper. An army aviation engineers' battalion finished the construction in 15 days after they landed on Okinawa,, _ continuing the work while fighting was still raging nearby. With the Kadena and Yontan airfields in Central Okinawa now operating, the Americans have three strips for developing attacks against Japan. The captured Machinato and Yonabaru airstrips are still covered by Japanese artillery, and cannot yet be used. The large Naha airfield is still held by the enemy. Admiral Nimitz’s communique says: “ Tenth Army troops maintained heavy pressure on the enemy along the whole southern front on Okinawa yesterday, meeting strong resistance at all points bn the front. The lines of the Sixth Marine Division were withdrawn from Sugar Loaf Hill after nightfall on Thursday, but we occupied the summit for the fifth time, after heavy fighting, on Friday morning. The enemy has sacrificed large numbers of troops in defence of this key position before Naha.

“To Thursday last the enemy lost 48.103 killed on Okinawa,” says Admiral Nimitz’s communique. “The Unite'S States casualties comprise: Army and marines killed and missing, 4332: wounded, 18,258. Navy: Killed and missing, 2978; wounded, 3978.”