One ship's first day at Okinawa

Easter morning April 1, 1945.  The USS Pickens, APA 190, was second in line behiind the USS Hinsdale, APA 120, in a column of transports carrying the 2nd Marine Division, one of 2,000 vessels approaching Okinawa. General Quarters had been called at 5 a.m. as had been done daily  since leaving Saipan a few days earlier. The Japanese liked to launch suicide attacks  out of the sun at dawn. In the radar room we were watching the screens intently as a plane detected 20 miles away would arrive in 200 seconds.

Sudden;ly, hell was unleashed. Kamikaze  planes attacked like flies on jam. At around 5:50 a plane hit the Hinsdale near the water line, exploding and creating several holes.  Another plane headed for us but failed to clear the mast of an LST, fell to the deck and set off several explosions of ammunition.

The Pickens put boats in the water and rescued survivors of the Hinsdale and LST's 724 and 884.

That Easter Sunday was  the beginning of one of the largest sea-land battles in history.  Casualties were very high, 72,000 for the Allies, more than 100,000  for the Japanese, and tens of thousands of natives.  The proven effectiveness of suicide plane attacks influenced President Truman to launch the atom bomb.