As we celebrate Easter Sunday and the Jewish Passover, we should keep in our prayers and remembrances the many Americans who fought and sacrificed during that same time 73 years ago in the Battle of Okinawa.
The event was Operation Iceberg. It was the bloodiest battle and the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet under Admiral Raymond Spruance attacked the Japanese-held island. They were joined by a British, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian naval task force and more than 180,000 Army soldiers and Marines. This was the final push toward invading mainland Japan and putting an end to the war.
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The photo is very familiar to me. It is of Marines from C company, 1st Battalion, Fourth Marines, Sixth Marine Division. My father (*Roger Lowe, Sr) was a corpsman in that unit. From his notes, he identified those Marines, from left to right as Brewington (nicknamed "Skull”), Burkhalter, Ashley Large, Fitzgerald, Charlie Kuhn.
ReplyDeleteEaster Sunday, April 1, made me wonder if anyone would bring up the Okinawa campaign anniversary date. Thanks for doing that. That image was used by the US Postal Service for a stamp back when the first class rate was 32 cents. Thanks for remembering. - Roger Lowe
*Hit by a Japanese mortar round June 19, 1945 on Okinawa, but survived with severe wounds. He passed away a couple of years ago but he left me some notes and photos.
I truly wish there was some way I could salute your father for the service he paid to our country.
ReplyDeleteIt's the only reason we have what little remains of this once great country.
It's the only reason we have what little remains of this once great country.
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